Over the past decade, tens of thousands of Calgarians have come to enjoy a pair of staple beers from Village Brewery, Village Blacksmith and Village Wit, but now they’re being recognized on an international stage.

The beers were awarded top honours at the 2024 World Beer Awards, taking home World’s Best American Style Brown Ale for Blacksmith, and World’s Best American Style Wheat Beer for Wit.

The awards were the only ones given to an Alberta brewery, and were among just a handful for Canadian breweries that were up against giants of the beer industry like centuries-old Weihenstephaner in Germany and Belgium’s Hoegaarden.

“It’s really exciting for us, for these brands, two beers that we’ve had around from almost the beginning of the brewery, to see those two win the world’s best,” said Jackson Stuart, Marketing Director for Village Brewery.

“These beers that have been around for so long, we have so many memories with them, and so many people have had an experience them. So to know that they compete at that level, and to win something like that, that it means the world to us.”

Village Blacksmith was introduced in 2011, the year the brewery produced its first beers, followed by Village Wit in 2012.

The beers follow up on a successful 2023 at the World Beer Awards, where Village took home a World’s Best Amber/Dark Kellerbier for their Best Run beer.

“Going up against some breweries that have been around for years and years and decades, to show that Village Wit, a wheat ale that has the quality to go up against those beers, I think is really reassuring and really kind of exciting to the team. Especially to show that that’s the level that they’re brewing at,” Stuart said.

Competing beers go head to head in national competitions, and the gold winners then qualify for a chance to compete against the top beers of other nations in the next year’s competition.

As for the awards themselves, Stuart said that they remain relevant for the brewery to differentiate themselves in an ever more crowded beer market.

“It reassures that the beers we have in market are really high quality and award-winning, and it’s still very much relevant. It’s exciting too, to try new things and see what else we can get in there and try to compete in the competition going forward.”

Nationally, the Canadian Craft Breweries Association represents 1,200 craft breweries across Canada.

In Alberta, according to Statistics Canada from business counts in December of 2023, there were 155 breweries.

The win by Village also continued the tradition of there being at least one Calgary brewery having a win in the world awards. Last year Banded Peak Brewing took home the World’s Best English Style IPA award.

“We were excited about the Banded guys winning last year. That was awesome. We were proud of them. We’re glad we could keep it going this year,” Stuart said.