Alberta Beer Awards: Behind the Scenes

Last weekend, the YYCTOURS team had the pleasure of acting as stewards at the 2025 Alberta Beer Awards judging event, held upstairs at the beautifully designed Campio Brewing Ritchie location in Edmonton.

Most beer fans only see the excitement of medals being awarded, but behind the scenes, a highly coordinated effort ensures that every entry is evaluated fairly, blindly, and is presented at its very best.

Cheers to craft beer! Polyrhythm Brewing owners Chelsea and Taylor join judges in a toast after a day of evaluation

Organizing the Competition

The Alberta Small Brewers Association spends months preparing for this weekend. Everything from booking the venue and coordinating beer shipments to bringing in dozens of judges, including Grand Masters and National judges from across North America, must be meticulously planned.

The ASBA then takes each entry (can of beer) submitted to the competition and labels it in advance of the event with a unique numerical and QR code ensuring that only this inner team truly knows which beers have been entered. These people then play no part in the judging itself. This allows beers to be entered into the Beer Awards Platform (a website used by beer competitions) anonymously, meaning no judge can possibly know which beer belongs to which Alberta brewery. Every beer must move through the judging process completely blind, preserving the integrity of the competition.

This year’s Alberta Beer Awards saw over 425 entries across multiple categories. Each entry consisted of at least a four-pack, which means the organizers also had to meticulously label more than 1,700 cans or bottles of beer in advance of this event. This stresses the importance of why breweries must meet cut-off deadlines for entering beers.

The event lasted three full days, with dozens of volunteers, organizers, judges, and stewards working side by side. Many local Edmonton breweries stepped in to keep everyone fueled: Campio, Odd Company, and Longroof each provided lunches and dinners for judges, stewards, and organizers. A truly generous contribution that reflected the spirit of Alberta’s beer community.

Judges Who Have Earned Their Stripes

All judging at the Alberta Beer Awards follows BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) standards. Becoming a BJCP judge isn’t a weekend hobby; it’s a long process of study and sensory training. Judges must pass both a written exam and a sensory tasting exam to demonstrate style knowledge, descriptive ability, and calibrated scoring. Most judges spend years honing their craft, judging at local, national, and international competitions to refine their palate and maintain certification.

In addition to BJCP-certified judges, the Alberta Beer Awards also invites industry professionals such as brewers and beer writers to serve on panels. However, these professionals are not allowed to judge in any category where they have entered a beer or where there may be a conflict, maintaining fairness and avoiding any biases. These people are also always paired with high-ranking judges.

A typical judging panel consists of two judges, while larger categories may have three judges to handle the higher volume of entries. This allows each beer to be evaluated carefully and consistently. During a morning session (i.e. 9 a.m.–12 p.m.), there may be 22 judges, 4 of them evaluating 25 pale ale entries, 10 of them judging 50 hazy entries, 6 doing 30 seltzers, and 2 doing 11 stout entries. Since there were 29 categories this year, the event needs to run like clockwork to avoid going over schedule.

We should also note that samples are usually around 4 or 5 oz., so judges are not sitting there guzzling 6 full cans of beer before lunch but still have enough to evaluate properly.

Behind the scenes at the Alberta Beer Awards, where organizers meticulously label over 1,700 cans and bottles with unique codes to ensure a completely blind judging process."

Stewards: The Unsung Heroes of the Competition

While judges focus on tasting and scoring, stewards handle the logistical ballet in the background.

Each steward is assigned a category (for example, “Stouts”) and begins that part of the day by going into the large cooler where all entries for that category are stored. Because categories can have dozens of entries, breweries must provide multiple cans, usually a four-pack. The first can of stout is for the initial judging round. The second can of stout is for beers advancing to the top of their category where they are re-evaluated against the other top stout contenders. The third can will be opened for the Best of Show round, which is judged on the last day and includes all the top winners from each category, and occasionally a fourth can is opened if judges request a re-taste of an earlier beer. If they had the first stout at 9 a.m. and then around 11 a.m. after tasting 10 other stouts, asked to taste the first one again, you wouldn’t want them tasting from a can that sat open for 2 hours. Having this many cans is essential as freshness is very important when judging all aspects of the beer.

Staying with “stouts”, in a staging area completely separate and out of sight from the judges, stewards line up all the entries in the category they are working on according to their code numbers (i.e. 0001–0011). Special labels placed by the ASBA bear these numbers and QR codes, which usually cover brewery logos, so that even the stewards themselves do not know which beer is from which brewery, an important safeguard to keep everything blind. One can from each entry is placed in an “on-deck” fridge to keep it cold for the upcoming judging.

Serving the Judges

Unlike a restaurant setting, stewards do not carry cans or bottles directly to judges. Instead, they pour small tasting samples in the back room in secrecy and then use trays to quickly deliver the fresh samples to the judging tables. Each glass served to a judge has also been labelled in advance with the matching QR code and beer number from the can, so the panel knows they are evaluating, for example, beer number 0001.

When a panel is ready, the lead organizers in the back room call out, “Judging Panel 1 – Stouts is ready for a beer.” The steward working on stouts retrieves the first beer from the fridge, pours the samples, and announces “Judging Panel 1 – Beer number 0001” then delivers them on a tray. Letting the event organizer know what beer is going out to the judges allows them to go into the online platform and unlock it so judges can evaluate it and enter their scores and notes. This direct but unseen process ensures freshness, carbonation, and proper serving temperature while maintaining the blind format.

Why Keeping It Blind Matters

For breweries reading this, blind judging is everything. It’s what allows the Alberta Beer Awards to maintain credibility and fairness. By covering brewery logos, using coded labels, and pouring beers out of view of the judging tables, judges evaluate only what’s in the glass, not reputations, labels, or marketing.

This system gives small breweries the same chance at medals as large ones, and it means feedback is genuinely unbiased. For many brewers, this is the most valuable part of entering: honest, expert evaluation based purely on beer quality.

Unwinding after a long day: Alberta Beer Awards judges and stewards share a meal and a toast at Odd Company Brewing, one of the generous local hosts

Beyond the Judging Table: Learning and Mentorship

One of the great benefits of events like the Alberta Beer Awards judging weekend is the opportunity for learning outside the evaluation room. After the day’s flights are complete, judges, stewards, and organizers often gather over dinner and a pint(s). The conversations here, which unsurprisingly always centre around beer, are especially valuable for newer judges moving up the ranks.

It’s during these after-hours moments that aspiring judges can talk shop with Grand Masters like Fred Mullnar, who are always happy to share insights on style interpretation, scoring philosophy, and the art of sensory evaluation. For true beer lovers, these interactions are inspiring and often hard to find elsewhere, helping them grow their skills and confidence as beer judges.

The Power of an Award

Winning at the Alberta Beer Awards is more than a medal on a shelf; it’s a powerful marketing tool. It provides credibility and recognition and is a signal to consumers, retailers, and distributors that a beer has been evaluated by certified judges and deemed one of the best in its category.

Awards also provide a boost in sales because a medal can lead to a spike in taproom visits and off-premise sales as beer enthusiasts actively seek out award-winning brews. There are also distribution opportunities as wholesalers and liquor stores often highlight medal-winning beers, making it easier for breweries to get shelf space and reach new markets.

Employee morale and pride also come into play for brewery staff. A win validates their hard work and fuels excitement in their team. Media and publicity attract press coverage and social media buzz, boosting brand awareness.

Perhaps most importantly, an award also differentiates a brewery in a crowded marketplace. For newer or smaller operations, it can be the tipping point that elevates them from local favourite to provincial or even national recognition.

Alberta Beer Awards: Fair, Professional, Respected

The combination of trained BJCP judges, rigorous blind protocols, skilled stewards, generous local breweries, and a spirit of mentorship is what makes the Alberta Beer Awards one of the country’s premier beer competitions. For Alberta breweries, it’s an opportunity not only to showcase their craft to seasoned judges but also to win recognition that can genuinely move the needle for their business.

All in all, the 2025 Alberta Beer Awards weekend was a celebration of Alberta’s thriving beer community. For our YYCTOURS team, volunteering as stewards was as rewarding as it was educational. It was a chance to meet new people, visit new breweries in Edmonton, talk endlessly about beer, and see first-hand the care and passion that goes into making this competition run smoothly. We’re grateful to the Alberta Small Brewers Association for letting us play a small part in such an inspiring event, and we’re already looking forward to next year.

To learn more about Alberta's incredible beer scene, join Shawn on an educational brewery tour of Calgary!