Bogside Brewery nabs major awards

MONTAGUE — Bogside Brewery of Montague, which opened its doors in early June this year, was the big winner at the recent 2019 Atlantic Canadian Brewing Awards (ACBA) in Halifax.

Bogside was named brewery of the year, beating out 44 other breweries and brewpubs from across the region.

The Montague facility was also named new brewery of the year.

“I want to extend thanks to everyone on our team and our customers,” said Bogside owner Dave McGuire of Montague. He singled out Bogside head brewer Mark Patriquin for special recognition.

“I am truly humbled to be mentioned in the same conversation with so many awesome breweries in Atlantic Canada,” said McGuire.

He also extended congratulations to all P.E.I. industry winners. “Well done all. Keep making awesome beer.”

The Halifax event spotlighted 346 beer entries from 45 breweries and brewpubs, along with 54 cider entries from 11 cider houses in Atlantic Canada. The beer and cider entries competed in 15 different categories, decided by 31 judges from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Bogside won gold and bronze with its entries in the German style specialty ale category, and another gold medal in the North American style amber/Red ale category. The other Bogside win was a silver in the experimental beer category.

Other P.E.I. breweries and cider houses also took home awards from the Halifax event.

Copper Bottom Brewing, also of Montague, earned gold in the India pale ale category and silver with its North American style specialty ale entry.

Upstreet Craft Brewing of Charlottetown won gold and an honourable mention for entries in the Belgian style specialty ale category and silver for Beer of the Year. The P.E.I. Brewing Company of Charlottetown won bronze in the pale ale category.

The New Cider House of the Year went to Red Island Cider of Charlottetown, while that company also won silver in the specialty cider and perry category.

The ACBA said that over the 16 hours of judging, some 1,750 cups of beer and cider were sniffed, swigged and sampled.

SUBMITTED Bogside Brewery owner Dave McGuire, right, celebrates with, from left, Jamie Ryan, Dalton Kemp and head brewer Mark Patriquin after the Montague brewery won major awards Saturday night in Halifax at the Atlantic Canadian Brewing Awards. Bogside was named brewery of the year and new brewery of the year.