New Brunswick taps into success at this year's national beer awards

Distinguished awards keptpouring in for New Brunswick craft brewersat the Canadian Brewing Awards in Halifax over the weekend.

The breweries took home a total ofeight awards, including two gold awardsat the 16th annual awards ceremony.

Grimross Brewing ofFredericton and Les Brasseurs du Petit-Sault in Edmundstonwon the two gold awards.

Meanwhile, Foghorn Brewing of Rothesay and Pumphouse Brewery of Moncton, along with Grimross, picked up six other awards.

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"It's fantastic," saidStephen Dixon, co-founder ofGrimross.

The national competition selects 55 of the best beers across the country, which are sampled by judges while blindfolded.

2nd win in a year

The Aprs Lager that helpedGrimross wingold, has only been in production for about 10 months. This is the second major award the beerhas won this year.

"When you get gold two times in a row, it's fairly good validation that you're doing some things right,"said Dixon.

His partner Dawn Vincent-Dixon said the win was made sweeter by the people who were there to celebrate in all the hype.

"The great thing about it was that we were also there to share with the other New Brunswick breweries" she said.

That sentiment is also shared byAndrLegr, co-founder of Petit-Sault.

He feels craft brewers in New Brunswick have good reason to stick together.

"Collaboration has always been very important for us," he said.

More work needs to be done

But he saidmore still needs to be done to grow the industry in New Brunswick.

Legr, whois alsobeer director with the New Brunswick Craft Alcohol Association, saidsmall brewers in the province have been working hard to make up their 4 per centmarket share.

But he said much more work is needed to reach the levels seen in Nova Scotia, who hasan 8 per centmarket share. Meanwhile, Quebec's market share is triple that of New Brunswick's.

"We have a lot of work to do and we have to work together to create that market share," he said.

ButLegrsaid the awards are a good sign that they're on the right track.

"We don't brew beer to win awards," he said "However it's sort of a validation from peers that we're doing something right."