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Best beer in the world brewed right here

With two wins at the world beer awards, the honours keep coming
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Bart Larson gave up nuclear physics to make the best beer in the world. ~ Photo Tim Collins

When a Revelstoke based brewery enters a beer modelled after a German brew in the World Beer Awards and manages to beat out German brewers for the top prize, you might suspect the Revelstoke brewers are doing something right.

When winning that award also means they’ve beaten out some 6,000 other breweries, worldwide, you know they’re at the top of their game.

“Winning that award was, for us, like an athlete winning the Olympic Gold medal,” said Darryn Shewchuk, director of sales and marketing for Mount Begbie Brewing Company.

Of course, it’s not the first awards the brewery has won. Their list of accomplishments has grown steadily over the past 20 years, when president and chief brew-master Bart Larson launched the venture in Revelstoke.

“Twenty years ago I was at a crossroads in my life.” said Larson, who, incidentally has his PhD in nuclear physics and had previously worked as a Doctoral Fellow in the field of experimental physics.

“I had been offered a job in the States, but I really wanted to get away from big cities and the pressure of that kind of work. So my wife (who also holds advanced degrees in the sciences) decided we’d turn my hobby of brewing craft beer into a career.”

That was when Larson went to Chicago to formalize his training as a brew-master at the Siebel Institute and then came to Revelstoke to pursue his dream.

At this year’s Canadian Brewing Awards, the brewery’s High Country Kolsch won the gold medal, the third time that particular brew has won the honor. The company’s Begbie Cream Ale also won gold, the second time that beer has come out on top at the awards. Those awards get added to the plethora of other awards the brewery has earned through a combination of skill and love of what they do.

“We don’t want to get much bigger than what we are now,” explained Larson, adding that their new facility was designed to allow them some economies of scale and an expansion of the amount of beer they can brew at any given time.

“We usually have six brands available year round, but then have a bit of fun with seasonal brews for fall, or summer, or for specific holiday periods. It allows us to play around with flavours and concepts and appeal to the change that’s occurred in drinking habits in the past two decades. People today are choosing their beer for the quality and the taste, not unlike the way they consume wine.”

Larson explained that there are about 400 basic styles of wine but as many as 10,000 different styles of beers.

It’s one of the reasons that the brewery’s new facility will soon boast a tasting room for true beer connoisseurs. Revelstoke city council, last week, gave its approval for an endorsement application to the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch for an area at the Oak Drive, Mount Begbie location for a tasting room and retail sales outlet, and Larson is hopeful the tasting room will be open in a few months time.

When asked what his personal favourite beer is, Larson leaned back in his chair and chuckled.

“That’s an impossible question. There are just so many great flavours out there, and we’re coming up with new ones all the time.”