Eighteen teams competed for the Bottomless Cup Trophy at this year’s ONHops Brewoff at the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention, February 19 in Niagara Falls. Here are the winners:

1st Place: Great Lakes Brewery (Etobicoke) & VQH Farms (Eden)

2nd Place: Steel Wheel Brewery (Brantford) & The Bickle Farm – Valley Hops (Port Hope)

3rd Place: Concession Road Brewing Co (Jarvis) & McConkey Farms Hop Company (St. George)

“It was a very successful competition again this year,” says Evan Elford, one of the three OMAFRA organizers. “ There was excellent diversity in new and returning brewers and hop growers.”

The beer style category ‘Imperial (double) IPA’ has a wide range of characteristics, he explained. The judges were very impressed with overall quality of all entries.

An improved hop rub display featured more than 54 hop samples from 13 different cultivars. Each sample was submitted by the grower/brewer teams. In addition, there was a malting barley display developed by OMAFRA cereals specialist Joanna Follings.

The hops speaker session had an excellent turnout for sensory specialist Roy Desrochers who  outlining sensory perceptions in beer and how hops impart different characteristics to beer. 

BASF is the sponsor of this annual competition.

Source: Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention