WATCH: Silver looks good on this Kelowna brewed brown ale

Keith Bennett is disciplined.

He lost over 80 lbs. with intermittent fasting, dieting, and 4 a.m. jogs. Yet he still allows himself the odd cheat meal - his own beer.

As the brewmaster at Freddy’s Brewpub, he tastes his own creations to inspect the quality, which is now award winning.

At the Canadian Brewing Awards in Calgary, one of Freddy’s signature beers, the Sandbagger Brown Ale, got national recognition in its category.

“This is the first time we’ve gone into this event. And, of course, competing against all of Canada, you have no idea what you’re going to get so that was really remarkable to actually get an award, and the silver to boot,” Bennett told Kelowna10.

The glass trophy is on display behind the bar. Staff routinely polish the fingerprints of admiring patrons off it.

Freddy’s has been in operation since 2000, and was Kelowna’s first craft brewery.

The pub has been ‘crazy busy’, according to Bennett, with customers wanting to try the award-winning ale for themselves.

“It’s flying off the shelf so I had to make more because I don’t know if I actually might run out at a certain point because we didn’t expect this,” he said.

Kelowna10 caught up with the brew master while he was creating the next batch of Sandbagger.

Brewing is a meticulous and precise process. While do it, Bennett had an open notepad at the ready. In it, he jotted down times and temperature at different stages of the process.

From milling the grains, to hand stirring the hundreds of pounds of ingredients, and disinfecting the next tank, brewing requires a full day of work.

Once complete, it takes 11 days for the yeast to ferment the sugars into alcohol. Bennett likes to age the mixture for another three weeks, but may shorten that slightly because of demand.

Compared to a lager, the brown ale requires more malt to make more sugars. This gives it a sweeter and more robust flavour.

Ingredients like chocolate and caramel malts, plus German yeast, contribute to the rich, full body taste that’s not ‘too offensive,' as he puts it.

Bennett admitted the pub wasn't expecting such a promising result from their first appearance at the awards, so they didn’t submit many beers.

But taking home a trophy is enough motivation to send more brews next year and see if the Sandbagger can defend its title, or maybe, take home gold .

Despite the national recognition, Bennett ‘s not changing anything on his end.

“I have my systems; I try and stay very organized. I just keep going the same way because it seems to be working,” he said.

“I like it the way it is. Maybe I mop the floors a bit more with people coming in with cameras but otherwise I keep it the same.”