Beer column: Ever heard of Category 12? Well, you have now!

There are so many great craft breweries in British Columbia that it’s seemingly impossible to keep track of them all.

And it is basically impossible to feature them all, especially since many are small businesses that either don’t sell their products outside the brewery or limit retail sales to liquor stores in their area.

I want readers to be able to easily find the beers I write about and that’s why bigger breweries like Phillips, Parallel 49 and Backcountry often get more run time in this column.

But I still love to shine a light on BC’s smaller craft producers and that’s the case this week with Category 12 Brewing, a hidden gem in the Greater Victoria Area.

Category 12 has some great beers and I encourage you to visit the brewery if you’re in Victoria, but I’ll be focusing on two that you can find all over the province in this week’s column.

The Juicy Data Hazy IPA and Chromatic IPA are a hop lover's dream and both available at more than 60 BC Liquor Stores around BC.

Juicy Data comes in at 6.1% ABV (alcohol by volume) and is relatively low on the hop scale, at least for the type of beer it is, at 35 IBU (international bitterness unit).

The masterminds at Category 12 meticulously blended four “luscious” hop varieties to produce the perfect amount of tropical juiciness in this bad boy.

“You’ll find this naturally hazy, double dry-hopped IPA to be a delicious, aromatic, fruity kick to the taste buds that will keep you coming back for more,” the Category 12 website explains.

Chromatic is the brewery’s first foray into the world of West Coast IPAs and it utilizes Mosaic hops along with the Big C’s – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus.

Not only are the full spectrum of aromatic and bittering hops evident in this beer, the brewery locks in those aromas by "massively" dry-hopping this IPA in the fermentor.

“You can expect a gratifying sensory experience as flavour, mouth feel and delicious aromatics combine perfectly in our latest experiment,” notes the Category 12 website.

Chromatic comes in at 7% ABV with a very hoppy 60 IBU.

While these two beers can be found at a lot of BC Liquor Stores (check the website to find out where), you can also keep an eye out for them and other Category 12 creations at private liquor stores around BC.

Josh Duncan is the NowMedia news director and a craft beer lover. Reach him at [email protected]. His beer column appears every Saturday afternoon in this space.