The Alberta Beer Awards — in conjunction with the 2021 Craft Brewing Convention — wrapped up for another year in Red Deer Alberta, and there was one particular winner who couldn’t be more honoured for their winnings. Grand Prairie’s Grain Bin Brewing Co. took home a silver medal and bronze medal at the awards.

“Every beer that won an award definitely deserved it, and we’re pretty proud to be there alongside some of these other great people in Alberta doing great things,” said Dalen Landis, head brewer at Grain Bin.

The Silver medal was for the Imperial and Strong Beer category for their “Move your car out of the windrows that froze overnight into a concrete-like icy mess” beer, and the bronze medal was in the Mixed Fermentation Beer with Fruit category for their “Solera The First” beer.

The BJCP judges do blind taste tests of each beer and they score the beers appropriately. The winners from each round move onto the next round until the final medals are awarded.

“The people who are judging the beer do not know what beer they’re drinking, and that way there’s no bias,” said Landis.

“There is some hard science that is inflexible, but there’s a ton of different ways, a ton of different ingredients and processes that you can use to push the limits of what that science is,” said Landis.“You can be really creative and push the boundaries, but essentially, what we’re doing is we’re getting yeast to turn sugar into alcohol.”

Landis says the small size of Gran Bin’s operation allows them to cater closer to consumer trends and have a more creative approach with what they offer. 

“If we get an idea, we have the flexibility to implement that as fast as possible, and respond to what our customers are asking for or the way we think the market is going.”

Grain Bin has won seven Alberta Beer Awards, two Canadian International Beer Awards and three Canadian Brewing Awards.

“We still consider ourselves newcomers to the market, but to consider how things looked six years ago to now, it’s pretty exciting and I think the best is yet to come,” said Landis. 

Photo courtesy of Grain Bin Brewing Co./Instagram