Even before it opens its taproom doors to the public, Obsolete Brewing Company is receiving industry accolades.

At the recent Prairie Beer Awards in Regina, Obsolete Brewing Company earned a gold medal for its Hourglass Coffee Kolsch, as well as a silver medal for its Cavalry Soldier Imperial Maple Stout.

The competition drew microbreweries from across Manitoba and Saskatchewan and saw judges make their selections from among 270 different brews.

Company co-owner Steve Sobering said while the awards are an affirmation of all the hard work everyone has put in to get the venture to this point, the bulk of the credit has to go head brewer Marcos Bardelli.

“I feel like we have one of the best brewers in the country. And even though he was brewing on a small batch system and all the headaches that goes with that, I still had this assumption that he would come home with something. And he totally delivered. I’m very confident in him just because of the years of experience he has and he has such a deep knowledge,” Sobering said.

“When it comes to the brew zone it’s all Marcos. We would never be as confident in this venture without having him at the helm of our brewing team. “He’s a great brewer, we’ve got a couple great awards and we’re super excited because that just means we are a credible microbrewery. We can compete with anybody and still bring home some hardware.”

Sobering is hoping the public will have an opportunity to sample the award winning brews as work is progressing on getting all of the proper permits in place to open the company’s tap room, located in the former Acklands building on Second Avenue Northwest.

“We’re dealing with government regulatory requirements, and when you’re brewing beer there’s a lot of them,” Sobering said. “We have a manufacturing license, we’re looking for a retail license and we’re also registering our product with MBLL (Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries).”

He hopes all that can happen in the next few weeks.

“We’re in good shape. We want to be open, obviously. We want to get to the next phase, which is the fun part, serving good, tasty beer and building that community, working on our outdoor space and trying to start driving some activity in the up-and-coming craft district,” Sobering said.