Gold Medal for Sabotage ISA, Silver for Piper’s as VIB earns two more international distinctions
Victoria, BC (November 2, 2015) – The September judging sessions at the Beverage Tasting Institute in Chicago, Illinois produced two new accolades for Vancouver Island Brewery. The panel of professional judges, awarding medal ratings as part of the World Beer Championships, selected Sabotage India Session Ale as a gold medal product and Piper’s Pale Ale as a silver medal product.
“We strive to produce first-class beers,” said Master Brewer Ralf Pittroff. “We have built a culture here of brewing first-class beer.”
Pittroff, a veteran of over 34 years in the brewing industry, heaped praise on his brewing team of Gordie Kingma, Patrick Lueders and Graham Cooke for their diligence and work ethic in the brewhouse.
The newest awards add to VIB’s extensive pedigree of accomplishments in the brewing industry. VIB’s brands have been recognized at the regional, national and international level for nearly three decades. Both international gold medal wins in 2015 are for beer recipes developed by Pittroff, who has been brewing premium quality beers at VIB since 1995.
Piper’s was given a silver medal and a “highly recommended” rating. Judges noted that Piper’s was “smooth” and “engaging”, and called it “an earthy pub beer.” The rating also represented an improvement from Piper’s rating last year: two points higher than its 87-point silver medal in 2014. The award is the latest recognition for Piper’s, a beer that has been brewed for 28 years, and cements Piper’s as the Vancouver Island’s top pale ale.
The panel of judges awarded Sabotage with a 93-point “Exceptional” rating, concluding that it was “a vibrant[,] mouthwatering, very sessionable ipa.” The rating represented a four-point improvement on Sabotage’s rating from 2014, where it was awarded an 89-point silver medal.
Sabotage and Piper’s join Sea Dog Amber Ale (93 points, gold medal), Beachcomber Summer Ale (85 points, silver medal) and Black Betty Blackberry Saison (85 points, silver medal) as medallists for VIB on the international stage in 2015.
Links to Vancouver Island Brewery’s evaluations:
93 • Vancouver Island Brewery (BC) “Sabotage” India Session Ale. Gold Medal
89 • Vancouver Island Brewery (Canada) Piper’s Pale Ale. Silver Medal
About Vancouver Island Brewery
When Vancouver Island Brewery first opened its doors, there were less than a handful of craft breweries in operation in Western Canada. Today, there are more than 100 craft breweries in operation, and B.C. breweries lead the nation in variety of styles, innovation, experimentation, and quality.
VIB operates a portfolio of brands that pioneered the craft beer market. The brewery’s signature brands, Piper’s Pale Ale and Hermann’s Dark Lager, have been brewed for 28 and 29 years respectively, with Hermann’s quickly approaching its 30th anniversary. Vancouver Island Brewery has used only the finest hand-selected ingredients to create its balanced, complex and full-bodied brews.
About Tastings.com World Beer Championships
The World Beer Championships, founded in 1994, is America’s oldest international beer competition and is open to all commercially produced beers from around the world, regardless of U.S. distribution. It is a medal-based competition that awards its medals based on the proprietary blind tasting methodology developed by the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) and bands of the consumer accepted, 100-point quality rating scale.
