Best New Brewer honors for Manantler - Rate Beer

I know. I rave about Manantler, my local brewery.

What can I say? They make great beer, they're great guys and while I'd hear whispers that I was not alone in believing this, I now have it confirmed.

Rate Beer, the world's largest beer rating forum, just released its annual Best Of list and right at the top in the Top New Brewer category for Ontario is the name Manantler.

I didn't see that coming at all, but damn! Congratulations!

My surprise at this honour wasn't based on the quality of their beer versus their competition - on the contrary, only Rainhard Brewing of Toronto - last year's Best New Brewer winner at the Golden Taps Awards - was producing the same level of excellence as Manantler, in my humble opinion.

With Blood Brothers, Muddy York and Whitby's Brock Street Brewing (among others) also debuting in 2015, there was some stiff competition for the Rate Beer Award and I assumed the Toronto brewers would get the volume of ratings that would make it difficult for Manantler to come out on top.

You need ten reviews for a beer to get an official rating from Rate Beer and not one of Manantler's current offerings have hit that mark, with three - Liquid Swords (IPA), Seismic Narwhal (IIPA) and The Dark Prince (Black IPA) - on the verge with nine ratings each.

James (left) and Chris at the 2015 Ontario Brewing Awards
(Second place in the Black IPA category for The Dark Prince)

(Nine ratings produces a 'pending' score only visible if you click once or twice and don't make the wrong turn at Albuquerque. Seismic Narwhal's pending score of 91 out of 100 is the highest of the three.)

As it turns out, the other new brewers weren't putting up big numbers either. Rainhard had a half dozen beers rated more than ten times each with a high water mark of 13, while others had a handful or less.

So there you go.

Of course, I instantly congratulated Manantler on Facebook and Twitter. Got a little full of myself too, as I knew I was frequent contributor to Rate Beer on the brewery's behalf. "You're welcome," I said on Facebook, while maintaining a more professional presence (as professional as I can get, anyway) on Twitter.

Chris, classy as always, simply thanked me.

But I decided  I should take some pride in my personal contributions to the Rate Beer award. Chris is a great guy and Brewmaster James is a  righteous dude (do they still say 'righteous' these days?) and both are friends. Cellarman Trevor, who is just biding his time in Bowmanville until Sam Calagione quits at legendary Delaware brewery Dogfish Head, is also a pal. So anything I can do to help these dudes brew even more fantastic beer is a good thing, I say.

Anyway, I checked out the Rate Beer stats just to see how wonderful I really was, and I discovered I rated 18 different Manantler beers last year.

Not bad, but only good enough for second place. There were a few others with a half-dozen or more ratings (Sammy, Bendrixian, Mabel, Jercraigs, take a bow), but one rater from Peterborough stood out above us all.

Seismic Narwhal IIPA, one of many
great beers created by Manantler Brewing last year.

He calls himself The Jester and he has reviewed more than 2,300 beers for Rate Beer, making me and my 200 ratings look like a rookie. The Jester has scored 32 beers for Manantler (if my math is good and it often isn't) and deserves some major props for his contributions towards this award.

But we just rated the beer. You know, put the beer in front of us and we speak the truth. James (who celebrated a birthday yesterday), Chris, Trevor and everyone else at Manantler (occasional beer slinger and full-time amazing Sarah, that's you too) are the real stars here.

I may have drank 18 different Manantler beers last year but I enjoyed many, MANY more and I loved all of them, which isn't always the case with breweries - even great breweries. I do have some favourites, however.

Seismic Narwhal is their first strong offering in the Double IPA class and the boys brewed a couple of IPAs that were exceptional - Liquid Swords (their everyday IPA) and Time Damage, a beer that was brewed for iconic punk band The Diodes and was one of just two Manantler brews I enjoyed that The Jester  didn't. (You missed a good one sir.)

3 Legged Dog, a really nice Belgian Strong Ale, The Dark Prince (their award-winning Black IPA), and a bunch of single hop pale ales - Amarillo Lollihop and Falconer's Flight in particular - also stood out.

Well deserved honours, folks. Well deserved.

Bellwoods, Nickel Brook also earn
All-Ontario honours from Rate Beer

Ontario's Beer of the Year in 2015, according to Rate Beer, is Nickel Brook's Kentucky Bastard Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout, a beer that clocks in an intimidating 12 per cent ABV.

I have had many Nickel Brook beers (not as many as my pal Don, who, I'm told, has a private tasting drinking room in the brewery) but I have yet to enjoy this one. Which is why I went down to the LCBO this afternoon and bought the last one on the shelf.

I smell bourbon and lots of it. Also dark chocolate, black coffee and a bit of vanilla. Coffee and bourbon are the strongest flavours of the beer and there’s some dark fruit in here as well, along with smoky malts. Impressive beer and the bourbon-boozy finish is a reminder of the 12 per cent alcohol. Tread carefully.

That is beer rating number 201.

Brewery of the Year for Ontario went to Bellwoods, one of my favourite breweries and a regular stop whenever I can afford to make a Toronto beer run.

Bellwoods produces a ton of world class beers and while I have none of them in my fridge at the moment, I know there are bottles of the world class Witchshark IIPA available down at Buster Rhino's in downtown Oshawa.

This could be a really good weekend.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Cheers!