Following on last year’s inaugural event, Vancouver Magazine presents its “International Craft Beer Awards” again in 2016.

Compared to other beer award programs, VCBA is less about technical and more about inclusion. That inclusion extends to beers that aren’t from Vancouver or BC, making for an odd sort of mix of world classics, random Cascadian entries and local product being judged together. In their own words,

…where other beer awards tend to focus on, and appeal to, the more detail-obsessed home brewer, the Vancouver Craft Beer Awards are about accessibility…and they are proudly populist in their appeal.

Last year, the awards were presented on opening day of Vancouver Craft Beer Week. No word posted yet if that is the plan again.

Read a good summary of last year’s awards posted by Jan Zeschky here,
http://blogs.theprovince.com/2015/06/05/vcbw-2015-opening-night-gala-and-vanmag-beer-awards

Entry Categories

1) Light Standard Beer
Includes standard light lagers, blonde ale and honey blonde ales.
2) Pilsner & German Style Lager
Includes pilsner, dortmunder, altbier, helles, dunkel, schwarzbier,
oktoberfest/marzen, bock.
3) Belgian & Sour
Includes witbier, saison, dubbel, lambic, fruit sours. Not strong beer.
(7.5%+ belong in Strong category, such as tripel & Belgian strongs)
4) UK Ale
Includes bitter (and classic ESB), UK style (less hoppy) pale ales, Irish red
ale, mild, Scottish ales and wee heavy, UK-style IPA (maltier, less-bitter
IPA) Not strong beer (7.5%+ belong in Strong category) Not porter, brown
or stout.
5) North American Pale Ale
Hoppier pale ales, light coloured.
6) North American Red, Amber & Brown
Hoppier reds, ambers and browns.
7) North American IPA
Note that maltier, less hoppy (“UK”) IPAs belong in UK Ale category
Session IPA (4.5% or less) belongs in Hybrid, Wheat & Session. Hybrid IPAs
(black IPA/Cascadian dark or brown, white IPA, Belgian IPA, rye IPA)
belong in Specialty.
8) Strong
7.5%+ ABV
Includes barleywine, imperial IPA, Belgian Strong’s and Tripel’s, Russian
imperial stout.
9) Porter & Brown
Traditional, balanced versions
Highly-hopped browns belong in North American Red, Amber & Brown
Imperial versions belong in Strong.
10) Stout
Imperial versions belong in Strong.
11) Spice, Herb, Fruit & Vegetable
Craft Beer within the spice, herb, fruit, and vegetable category.
12) Hybrid, Wheat & Session
Includes kolsch, cream ale, American wheat and rye, hefeweizen,
California common, session beers (easy drinking and 4.5% ABV or below)
13) Specialty
Catch-all category for beers that don’t fit elsewhere, including beers
whose main feature is barrel or smoke character, unusual ingredients or
flavours, etc. Now includes hybrid IPAs (white IPA, brown IPA/black IPA
(Cascadian Brown/Dark Ale), Rye IPA, Belgian IPA, etc.)

  Filed under: Beer In The News, Events & Festivals