Although they've only been open for about a year, Petrolia's Black Gold Brewery is already being recognized on a provincial level.
They captured both a gold and a silver award at the 2021 Ontario Brewing Awards, held on Thursday, December 9.
Director of Operations Robyn Brocklehurst said they were pleasantly surprised to have such early success.
"We are ecstatic, it's been a long year. We have one of the best brewers around, in Chris Shewfelt, and he's really taken this to the next level by us winning these awards. We're quite pleased and proud of him for sure. We didn't expect to be part of any awards yet but the Ontario Brewing Association called my husband to see if we'd be interested in providing any beers. He talked to our brewer and we put four beers in. Actually, the ones that won kind of put us off guard."
Black Gold won first place in the British Brown Ale category, with their beer 'What the Frack.'
Brocklehurst said it's been a very popular staple at the brewery since its launch. Although darker beers are usually more popular in the colder months, demand for the tasty brown ale continued to grow even during the summer.
"This one is kind of a multi-caramel flavour," said Brocklehurst. "We have dark beers but I find that they don't have that heaviness to them. They may be higher in alcohol content but they're really good tasting beers."
Black Gold's Berliner Weisse was awarded silver in the European Sour category. Brocklehurst said it started out as a Discovery Series beer but has gained quite a following and has rejoined the draft line-up just in time for the holidays.
"It's a traditional kettle-soured beer, but there was no flavour added to it. We wanted to make it so that the sour beer stood on its own. Everyone always adds cherry sour or some kind of flavouring to it. We were surprised about getting an award for that one."
Brocklehurst said they have a few other ideas for beers in the works, noting they want to venture into lagers in the future.
"Lagers spend a lot of time in the tank, so we need to increase the equipment in the production area to see if we can get doing some lagers. We're putting out our 'Liquid Gold' and 'Where Robert Met Fletcher' quite a bit now. We're brewing about twice a week."
The award-winning What the Frack and the Berliner Weisse, and over a dozen other craft beers are available in the taproom and in cans at 395 Fletcher Street in Petrolia or online at www.blackgold.beer.