Niagara College students are garnering a reputation for crafting quality beers – last month one fourth semester brewmaster student claimed the Golden Boot Award, and two brews from the Teaching Brewery took home silver medals at the 2019 Golden Tap and Ontario Brewing Awards.

Aaron Duff’s German wheat beer, called Roll the Weiss, was created for his third term Canadian Brewing Association Target Brew project.

Students were tasked with creating beers according to industry standards and submitting them for evaluation by Canadian Brewing Association judges.

“It was the first recipe I have ever written up so it was very surprising that I won. Winning this award was a good confidence boost,” Duff said in a Niagara College media release.

He will receive a $2,598 cash award as part of Taps Media’s Golden Boot Scholarship for Niagara College students. This is the sixth annual award Taps has presented to a Niagara College brewmaster student for a winning competition brew.

The Beer 101 Bitter and Beer 101 Strong were announced during the September event celebrating Ontario’s best beers.

Each beer has claimed several awards already.

The Beer 101 Bitter is an English-style bitter crafted to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812. It was named in the United States Open Beer Championships for five previous years.

The beer also gained favour at the Canadian Brewing Awards, the Ontario Brewing Awards, the Dublin Beer Cup and the World Beer Cup in previous years.

The Beer 101 Strong was brewed as a seasonal Christmas ale and has taken home prizes from the Canadian Brewing Awards, Ontario Brewing Awards and has placed at the United States Open Beer Championships as well.

“This really does showcase the consistency and quality of our brewmaster students, as different classes brewed each of these batches,” said brewmaster professor Jon Downing.