By Spencer Sterritt

Nanaimo’s White Sails Brewery’s suds aren’t duds, win world awards

Aug 28, 2017 | 5:11 PM

NANAIMO — White Sails Brewing in Nanaimo went ‘ale’ out at at the World Beer Awards on a whim and came back winners.

Their dark beer Snake Island CDA was crowned Best Canadian and Best World Black IPA and their Mount Benson IPA took home the Canadian Gold Medal at the tournament in London, England in August.

White Sails brewmaster Tyler Papp said he’s still shaking with excitement from the win. It was the first time a beer from the young brewery won a world title after winning national awards last year.

“There’s just so much competition,” he told NanaimoNewsNOW. “It makes a guy feel like he’s doing the right thing and get a little validation for years of toiling in a brewery.”

The Mount Benson brew is a big seller at White Sails but it’s in a crowded field. Papp said being chosen from such a wide-ranging field of beers was an honour.

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In contrast, the Snake Island beer has never been a big seller from the brewery and was “rough around the edges” when first introduced. “For that to win is huge in itself,” Papp said.

A third beer entered, their Brickyard Beach cream ale, but didn’t achieve the same success.

Papp said in his experience, winning a World Beer Award as a younger brewery is rare, given the size and quality of the competition.

“For us being small and relatively new in the game, it’s great exposure for us and helps pump Nanaimo up as well.”

White Sails will celebrate their second anniversary this November and Papp said with the World Beer win under their belt, it’ll be the biggest and best party they’ve thrown yet.

On Sept. 10, White Sails has a chance to win another award. Their Snake Island CDA will be poured out against 10 other dark beers who won their individual categories at the World Beer Awards and whoever wins will be crowned worlds best dark beer.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit