Langley’s Camp Beer Co. wins 5 awards en route to being named 2025 Brewery of the Year!
The 2025 BC Beer Awards were announced on October 17 in New Westminster, BC. Taking top honours were Camp Beer Co. (Brewery of the Year) and Smithers Brewing (Best in Show).
Since opening in 2019 just before the pandemic, Camp Beer Co. has developed a fantastic reputation and a devoted following in the local community. Well known for its creative range of beers and its popular tasting room, Camp was awarded the BC Ale Trail’s Best Brewery Experience Award in 2022.
Camp won five BC Beer Awards, including one gold and four silvers:
- Gold: Barrel Aged Flannel Pyjamas 2025 (American Porter and Stout)
- Silver: Camp Light (American Light Lager)
- Silver: S’mores Milk Stout (Amber and Dark British Beer)
- Silver: Merchants of Barley (Strong American Ale)
- Silver: Tequila Sunrise (Alternative Fermentables Beer)
Best in Show went to Smithers Brewing for its Smithersbräu Festbier.
This follows Smithers Brewing winning Brewery of the Year at the Canadian Brewing Awards earlier this year. In other words, Smithers is on quite a run right now!
Overall, Smithers Brewing won three awards:
- Gold: Smithersbräu Festbier (Pale Malty European Lager)
- Gold: Hipster Fuel IPA (American IPA)
- Bronze: Let’s Get Ready to Crumble (Specialty and Historical Beer)
Checkerhead Brewing was named Rookie Brewery of the Year.
Checkerhead Brewing in Shirley, west of Sooke on the southern end of Vancouver Island, got the attention of the judges and the BC Craft Brewers Guild. The founder of Checkerhead Brewing, which is a solo operation, showcased passion, enthusiasm, and great patience to get the brewery open during difficult economic times. It probably helped that he is a professional comedic juggler so he knows how to manage multiple challenges simultaneously!
Spinnakers’ Paul Hadfield wins Legend Award
As the original architect, co-founder and longtime publican of Spinnakers Brewpub in Victoria, Paul Hadfield has played a huge role in the ongoing growth and development of the craft beer industry in British Columbia. Hadfield worked with craft beer pioneer John Mitchell, who opened the first microbrewery in Canada in 1982, Horseshoe Bay Brewery, to get Spinnakers started in 1984.
During the 1990s, he guided Spinnakers to be an early founder of the Slow Food movement in Canada, working with local farmers and producers to supply ingredients for Spinnakers’ kitchen, which remains one of Victoria’s leading restaurants today. He also successfully fought unfair laws that didn’t allow brewpubs to package and sell their own beer through the government liquor store system.
Over the past 40+ years, Paul Hadfield has always worked hard to promote beer tourism in BC and is a big part of why Victoria is the recognized “craft beer capital” of Canada. And throughout numerous challenges, including multiple fires at Spinnakers, he has rallied and shifted strategies to keep Spinnakers successful while also paying its staff a living wage.
Paul Hadfield is truly a Legend in BC’s craft beer community.
Multiple Award Winners
The awards were well distributed among 61 different breweries from all over the province. All in all, 90 awards were given in 30 different categories. In addition to Camp Beer Co. and Smithers Brewing, several other breweries won multiple awards. Most notable are Penticton’s Tin Whistle Brewing, which won 5 awards, and Burnaby’s Dageraad Brewing, which took home 4.
Tin Whistle Brewing won two golds, one silver and two bronze awards:
- Gold – Black Widow
- Gold – Cherry Blossom Japanese Lager
- Silver – Glorious Hazelnut Coffee Milk Stout
- Bronze – Coyote Lager
- Bronze – Real Good Light Beer
Dageraad Brewing won four awards, including two golds:
- Gold – Field Theory
- Gold – Blonde
- Silver – Dart Lager
- Bronze – Antigoon
Victoria’s Phillips Brewing + Malting won three awards:
- Gold – Dinosour Dragonfruit Lychee
- Bronze – Crooked Tooth Nitro
- Bronze – Dinosour Dragonfruit Lychee
Mountainview Brewing in Hope won two golds for two different versions of the same beer — so it must be exceptional!
- Gold – Serpent’s Back Caribbean Stout
- Gold – Barrel-Aged Serpent’s Back
For the full list of awards, visit the BC Beer Awards website.
This annual event celebrates excellence in British Columbia’s craft beer industry, serving as the premier awards ceremony and festival for BC’s craft brewers. As part of the BC Craft Brewers Conference and BC Craft Beer Month, the BC Beer Awards shine a spotlight on the province’s top craft breweries and brewing talent. At its core, the BC Beer Awards is a province-wide competition spanning a wide range of beer styles, judged by certified beer experts.
