The adage goes: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
For Greg Zeschuk, the owner of Edmonton’s Blind Enthusiasm, maybe that should be amended to: If you don’t go to Vegas, good things will happen in Vegas.
Zeschuk and Blind Enthusiasm’s head brewer, Doug Checknita, found out that their beers had won three medals at the 2024 World Beer Cup because their phones were blowing up. They entered their brews from their mixed and spontaneous fermentation brewery, The Monolith — and didn’t really expect much to happen at all. They didn’t expect to win. So, instead of being in Vegas to soak up the applause, they were at home when they found out their beers’ names were called. The gold in the Belgian-Style Sour Ale went to Blind Enthusiasm’s Homage to the Old Ones. It also took bronze in that category, with its Spontaneous Manifesto brew. The silver in Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer went to Bière des Charentes.
“You throw the beer over the fence and hope,” says Zeschuk. “We could go 10 more years and never win an award there. Maybe the good luck was not going to the event.”
The wins in Vegas come on the heels of three gold medals at the Concours de Lyon, a major international beer awards program based in France. Homage to the Old Ones, Fruitful Pursuits: Riesling and Fruitful Pursuits: Quince Sour Beer all got top marks from the judges in France. The brewery has done well at this competition in the past, winning two golds and a silver in previous years.
Zeschuk has judged beer competitions in the past, so he knows that awards really depend on the palates of a small group of people who have scoring charts in their hands. But, that doesn’t mean winning these medals isn’t a great honour. It is. And it shines an international spotlight on the city.
“It’s validation that we’re doing something right,” he says.
The Monolith
Ritchie | 9919 78 Ave NW, Edmonton | 587.525.2337 | blindenthusiasm.ca/the-monolith
