BEST OF THE VEST ROUNDUP, VOLUME 1
By Hailey Nelson, Creative ManagerWith our malts, brewers and distillers across North America create incredible, award-winning craft beverages, which is why we created our Filson Vest Gold Medal Program, awarding custom vests to Great Western Malting and Canada Malting Co. customers.
In the first three years of this program, we’ve handed out over 100 vests across North America. As we process this year’s vest wins, let’s look back at some of our past “Best of the Vest” winners!
GOLD MEDALS WON WITH CANADA MALTING CO. PRODUCTS
“There’s plenty of malts with excellent flavor, but I can count on Canada Rye malt to be consistently delicious and efficient every single time.” -Justin Manglitz, Master Distiller at ASW Distillery.
“CMC 2-Row gives reliable and repeatable results. More importantly, the company is easy to work with and I can trust that my orders arrive in a timely manner.” -Bryan Launier, Co-Owner at Analog Brewing.
“We love blending together American and Belgian style ales, and Obscure Monk is one of our favourites. Combining CMC 2-Row and Red Wheat gives us the perfect base to create a well-rounded American pale ale that stands up to our house farmhouse yeast, maintaining pleasant body with excellent foam.” -Kalev Nisbet, Head Brewer at Shacklands Brewing Co.
The second was for ‘Dubbel’ – a Belgian-Style Dubbel, made with Canada Malting Co. Superior Pilsen Malt and Red Wheat Malt.
“The combination of CMC Superior Pilsen and Red Wheat Malt gives us the perfect base for our Dubbel, which is highly fermentable and helps us create a beautiful beer that is not too sweet but still has a pleasant amount of character and excellent foam.” -Dave Watts, Owner at Shacklands Brewing Co.
They also won a gold medal at the 2023 Canadian Brewing Awards for ‘Sugar Shack’ – a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, made with Canada Malting Co. Superior Pale Ale Malt and Munich Malt.
“CMC Munich Malt gave a great backbone to our maple beer, adding lovely colour and light toasty caramel aromatics, which helped tie everything together beautifully.” -Eric Bennett, Sales Representative at Shacklands Brewing Co.
“CMC Pilsen Malt is a fantastic, versatile malt that can be used in many different styles of beer. Its high extract qualities are a huge value for our brewery that can produce a crisp, clean lager like the Get Lucky Lager.” -Cam Bowdren, Head of Production at Born Brewing Co.
“These malts are always consistent and predictable. The flavours are great and they’re exactly what I’m looking for in my beers.” -David Bowkett, Co-Founder and Brewmaster at Powell Street Craft Brewery.
GOLD MEDALS WON WITH GREAT WESTERN MALTING PRODUCTS
“Great Western Two Row is the backbone of all of our production beers, from Wanderlust IPA, Passionfruit Sour, What Rough Beast and more. Breakside beers wouldn’t be themselves without these malts!” -Ben Edmunds, Brewmaster at Breakside Brewery.
“The Munich Malt is the key to our Schwarzbier. Great Western Light Munich Malt has a distinct malty, bready, sweet biscuit aroma. Those carry into the flavor, but the soft caramel and light nuttiness that comes through take it to another level. The Pilsen malt reinforces those aspects and increases the depth of malt, bread, and caramel in our beer.” -Rod Murray, Head Brewer at Big Beach Brewing.
“GWM’s Two Row is a great base malt we use across many styles. It has great extract, consistent flavor and performance.” -Coren Tradd, Research and Development Brewer at Pelican Brewing Company.
“The malt is so consistent and versatile to build a recipe for almost any style around: not too much colour, not too little colour, enough flavour on its own, but also a great foundation if adding specialty malts.” -Julia Hanlon, Head Brewer and Operations Manager at Steamworks Brewing Co.
“Pure Idaho is a great base malt with good efficiency and a clean neutral flavor. It’s the main base malt we use for all our styles. I like this malt because we win BIG medals with it and the Customer Service with CMG Denver is fantastic!” -Marks Lanham, Brewmaster at Comrade Brewing Company.
“Great Western Pilsner and Pale malts work wonderfully for our Little Wing Pilsner because it’s an incredibly clean base malt combination that allows us to highlight the delicate German Tettnang hops and that crisp finish that’s so important in a style like this. Horse Thief Hollow takes pride in using USA-grown malt, and Great Western is among the best! Having Country Malt based nearby is an added benefit that allows us to have a beautiful selection of Great Western Malts available in our backyard.” -Jake Nelson, Brewmaster at Horse Thief Hollow.
“GWM Organic Two Row Malt is our base malt in all our organic brews. It tastes delicious and is sourced from right here in Oregon. That allows us to support local farms as well as minimize our carbon footprint by limiting moving grain long distances for malting and brewing.” -Ryan Pappe, Director of Brewing Operations.
COUNTRY MALT GOLD CLUB
View our “Hall of Fame” Vest Winners
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