GoodLot Farmstead Brewing takes home third place in the annual ONHops BrewOff

By Rob Paul

Some people enjoy beer, some people love beer, and some people live beer.

Jason Deveau and Evan Elford live beer and since 2013 they've been the key cogs in running the ONHops BrewOff.

The ONHops BrewOff was conceived a year after the launch of the Ontario Hop Growers' Association as a way to help promote and connect Ontario hop-growers and brewers.

The mandate of the Ontario Hop Growers' Association is to act as a central voice and advocacy group for the industry by promoting hop-growing fundamentals through education, research, promotion, and marketing; and setting up a database of relevant growing and management information specifically for Ontario.

“Evan and I, together, created this event and I can't imagine either of us thought it would go on this strongly or this long,” said Deveau.

On Thursday night, the ninth annual ONHops BrewOff took place virtually over Zoom. The rules are simple: those who enter must brew a beer using only Ontario-grown hops and ingredients and each year a specific style of beer must be brewed. 

To be eligible, hop growers must have more than 400 plants or half-an-acre in production with the intent to sell for use in commercially available beer and brewers must represent a brewery that sells the beer it produces or be enrolled in their graduating year of an accredited Ontario Brewmaster course.

“Hop-growers are passionate about keeping things local and we always thought it was important to highlight,” said Deveau. “When hops began its resurgence in Ontario, the primary use of that product was, of course, Ontario's breweries, and we wanted to create an opportunity for those two organizations to come together and we thought what better way to do that then to encourage both sides of the equation than to brew Ontario brewed beer strictly with Ontario-grown hops, which can be quite challenging because some of the beer-styles we've selected over the years don't necessarily lend themselves to some of the hop varieties that we grow in Ontario. It was a real challenge for both sides and everyone rose to that challenge. Our goal was three-fold: to create this incredible venue for hop-growers and brewers to work together and to encourage commerce, to introduce the next generation of Ontario brewers, and of course, to promote the use of Ontario-grown hops.”

Each year the entries are tasted and reviewed by a panel of judges (Michael Ligas, Laura Takata, Chris Goddard, Deveau, Louise Aguis, Luisa Muhleisen, Rick Tanton, Scott Hodgins, James Ferrier) and supported by a group of stewards (David Lauzon, Madé Quay, and Cora Loucks) with first place taking home “the Bottomless Trophy” and the top three finishes being awarded plaques for each member of the team.

“This competition wouldn't run without the enthusiastic support of the industry,” said Elford. “The judges and stewards' knowledge and time has been greatly appreciated. We typically run it in Niagara Falls at the OFVC (Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention) in February, the Convention provides the awards and provide space at the Scotia Bank Convention Centre to run the competition in years that we can meet in person. It's important we highlight the Ontario hop-growers and our brewers and the importance of supporting locally made craft beer with local ingredients.”

Last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ONHops BrewOff couldn't happen but Elford and Deveau devised a plan to ensure that no matter the circumstances it would happen this year.

“We didn't want to skip this year like we did last, and we kind of hand a manilla envelope with plan Z in it,” said Deveau. “That plan was for Evan to blindly sort the beer into boxes for each judge and we drove all over Ontario delivering the beer for the competition and with Michael (the lead judge) leading the training and the judging online. I'm so impressed with the professionalism our volunteers brought to this; it was just as solid as if we were there in the room together.”

This year, Caledon's own GoodLot Farmstead Brewing and GoodLot Farm (located in Alton) took home third place in the competition—second place went to Elora Brewing and CanAussie Farms and taking home the Bottomless Trophy was Quayle's Brewery and Cahiague Farms.

Using fresh, hyper-local farm-raised beer ingredients, Phil and Gail Winters of GoodLot were able to wow the judges. 

“On this one, the aroma definitely had an upfront hop aroma,” said Ligas. “It's fresh, it's tropical/pineapple with a bit of citrus and lemon and pine in it. The malt is definitely secondary, but it's there and it's fresh. It's got a biscuity cracker component to it and that provides the balance aromatically, which helps the style. Some of the unique comments on it (in terms of flavour) were papaya, melon, and floral. One of our judges picked up a bit of onion. Also, a bit of a faint fruity ester, I had a bit of a Strawberry fruity ester on it. Appearance, it's nice and clear with a golden colour and moderate to good head retention. Mouth feel, good carbonation with a bit of a stickiness, and that was good. Overall comments, it was well brewed and an excellent beer with scores of 36, 36, 40, and 40 (out of 50).” 

Elford commented on how exciting it was to see GoodLot Farm finish in the top three because of Phil and Gail Winters' commitment to the competition—they've entered every year since the beginning of the ONHops BrewOff.

“We love Evan and the team that's supported us from the get-go,” said Phil. “It's (the Ontario Hop Growers' Association) been the cornerstone of building the industry in Ontario and this is the cherry on top where we get to have a competition that actually highlights Ontario hops. We've never placed before, since the dawn of the completion despite the fact that we may be the only brewery in Ontario that exclusively used Ontario hops.”

“You have no idea how happy we are,” said Gail. “We'd like to thank Mike Brooks (a member of the GoodLot team).”

For more information about rules and registration for the annual ONHops BrewOff, visit www.ofvc.ca/ONHOPS_about.html. To learn more about GoodLot Farmstead Brewing, visit www.goodlot.beer/.