The results are in and a big shout out from Team Broadhead goes to Emil Niec – the proud winner of our 2013 Homebrew Competition for his “Over-the-Top Fruitcaked Ale.”

If you hadn’t heard, Broadhead partnered with OntarioBeerKegs to see who could do up the best batch of homebrew. The winning beer engineer was given the chance to brew their recipe as a pro-am collaboration with Broadhead and, even better, their beer would be featured by us at the 2013 WinterBrewed Festival in Ottawa. So, if you’re planning to celebrate the winter weather with us this weekend at the festival, you’ll get to try Emil’s deliciously sweet and feisty beer first-hand.

What’s this brew all about? Well, as the name suggests, Emil goes heavy on the fruit – raisins, dates, apricots, cranberries, figs, you name it – to concoct a rich, red-coloured ale that’s deliciously sweet, high in alcohol content and full of flavour. The ingredients caught our judges off guard, but trust us when we say that this beer is absolutely exceptional.

We’d like to thank all the homebrewers who took the time to participate in the contest, as well as our partner OntarioBeerKegs. It’s amazing how many quality entries we received and how creative these people are when it comes to beer. Trust us when we say that there are some seriously good homebrewers out there and that picking a winner wasn’t easy.

With all that said, be sure to swing by WinterBrewed this weekend to give Emil’s beer a shot – we promise you won’t regret it. This festival celebrates the 200th anniversary of craft brewing in the National Capital Region and will feature the very best in local craft beer, so make sure to show up thirsty and we’ll do our best to share. Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Team Broadhead