Niagara College wins big at the U.S. Open College Beer Championship

Niagara College’s Teaching Brewery won big at this year’s U.S. Open College Beer Championship with every beer entered earning a medal.

The college says that final term students from the two-year Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management diploma program were behind the five beers that earned two golds, two silvers and one bronze respectively.

The group of 10 students won gold for “Echoes in the Taproom”, a Belgian Dubbel beer made by a collective effort between the final year students. Each school was invited to submit a beer for the specific category of Belgian Dubbel, with Niagara taking the top spot against all competing schools.

Four medals were additionally won by individual students who submitted beers crafted for their Target Brew class project, which had students brew a classic beer to style in order to master the fundamentals of brewing.

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Student Gian Raina Armas won gold and tied for Best of Show for his historical rye-beer named “Hulk Roggan”.

Armas, who is originally from Cuba, said of the competition, “All the winning beers would have not gotten medals if it were not to the effort and assistance from the class as we all gave 200% of effort not just to make our individual beers, but also make each other’s beers the best representation of what that product should be.”

Success at the Championship follows two medal wins at the 2023 U.S. Open Beer Championship early this month.

Products from the NC Teaching Brewery are available for purchase alongside student-created products from the NC Teaching Winery and Teaching Distillery (while supplies last) at NC’s Wine and Visitor Education Centre at the Daniel J. Patterson Campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake or online.

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