Okotoks' own Hub Town Brewing won gold and silver medals for its brews at the Canada Beer Cup.
The gold medal was handed out for their UK Stout and Porter, while they picked up a silver medal for their Imperial Stout. 40 Judges from across the world tasted the brews and voted for the best in their class.
Lisa Watts, CEO and Co-Founder of Hub Town Brewing explains what separates them from other breweries.
"We are quite intentional about how we brew our beers. I have heard some places say that they let their brewers really decide what's going to happen when they make their beers, but that doesn't happen around here. My husband Mark is our brewer and I'm the brewmaster. So what that means is I create all the recipes, and I am also the CEO so, when I create a recipe it's with intended strategy. Whether it's understanding the palates of our main customers, and making sure we are building the recipes that match their palate, or it's a certain time of year and we want to give everybody something new and interesting, then that's really how it's decided," Watts said.
She added that they want to give customers something that they will enjoy every time they drink it and pique their interest with something new that they can explore flavors of.
Not only did they pick up a gold and silver medal at the Canada Beer Cup, but earlier this month they also won gold at the Alberta Beer Awards for their "Alberta Great Out S'Mores Milk Stout".
Watts and her husband weren't always in the brewing business as they opened their doors on September 1, 2019.
"Mark and I are big science nerds. Mark is a geophysicist and I'm a chemical engineer by trade. Both of us worked in oil and gas, one protecting pipelines and the other one helping clients find oil and gas," she said.
While the oil and gas job paid the bills, she explained it didn't fill her spiritual/happy bucket. So both Watts and her husband decided to jump into brewing beer.
"We had an introduction to beer way back in 2013 or 2014... I didn't even like beer but had a huge change of heart when I started to try craft beer because I didn't know that craft beer could taste so different than what I knew as traditional everyday beer that I grew up with. We had this epiphany moment where we said 'Well this is something we are really interested in," Watts mentioned.
After the epiphany moment, they started to make some brews at home while using online resources and even made their own brewing equipment. After people tried their homemade brew and asked them to have their own brewery, they followed through and now have award-winning beers since their opening a handful of years ago.
35 awards were handed out to Alberta breweries at the Canada Beer Cup which was good enough to place the province in second place and just behind B.C.
