Category Archives: Winnipeg

Winnipeg, Winnipeg Beer Festival

Winnipeg Beer Festival

Leave a comment

Winnipeg Craft Beer Festival

Hey Folks. I had hoped to be able to post this earlier but, I had a Ph.D course begin immediately after the festival,  and, we had some family matters that required our attention.

While this in but an excuse, it did truly prevent me from spending the time I wanted to be able to write about the beer festival.

I had the opportunity to attend the second annual Winnipeg Beer Festival at Fort Gibraltar last weekend. This festival highlights the local craft beer scene by providing an opportunity to local breweries to attend and bring beers they wish to put on display. Being completely focused on local breweries, it’s an opportunity for a patron to sample beers those breweries wish to highlight.

WPG Beer Fest - Fort Gibraltor

The venue for this event, Fort Gibraltor, is a wonderful environment made more so by the presence of voyageur staff and the voyageur games. The “nail-game” is a favorite, especially as people consume more beer and become less accurate at hitting the nail. It’s rather entertaining to watch and even more entertaining to attempt. Shockingly, the blacksmith was active and giving demonstrations even though it was ~30 degrees in the shade. Kudos to that guy for being awesome.

Besides the spectacular venue, while Flatlander’s provides an opportunity for patrons to explore a significant number of beers from all over the world, the laser focus on local is really what makes the Winnipeg Beer Festival special. With so many breweries producing, there was a lot to try. It made for an excellent evening, especially given how darn hot it was.

I’ve said before how I love sours and how I wish there were more. Well, this event was a dream come true. There were a number of sours from Half-Pints, Trans Canada, Kilter, One Great City and Brazen Hall. These complemented the excellent English Bitter from Stone Angel, the Rye IPA Callahan from Torque, and a fantastic redux of Juicii from Kilter. Winnipeg Brew Werks was there showing off their Pilsner and it was my first opportunity to give it a try. It was a solid German pilsner and I look forward to trying it again in a more focused setting.

Another aspect of the Winnipeg Beer Festival that cannot be overlooked is the all you can eat poutine bar. While the fries go quick, the poutine was excellent and made even more spectacular by the toppings provided. From bacon, to blue cheese, to pulled pork, there was a fantastic array of poutine related accouterments to really help replenish the salt lost from the heat.

On the food topic, Mr. Biltong, a South African jerky producer, was present with some really fantastic jerky. What makes it different from typical jerky is that it is air-dried, more like a prosciutto, rather than being cooked until dried out. It was really tasty and if you have a chance to try some, I’d pick some up.

WPG Beer Fest - Wide Crowd

The event this year differed slightly from last years where there were tokens and a “winner” at the end of the night. This year the competition aspect was removed and it allowed for patrons to focus on the beer and the poutine. Overall, I had an excellent time at this event and I really enjoyed seeing some new beers as well as some favorites. This event is becoming a nice local balance with Flatlander’s. With the new Prost! event coming this fall from the Manitoba Brewers’ Association I am really excited about the opportunities for local breweries to highlight what they’ve got to those that might not always buy it in the store.

 

 

Beer Review, torque, Winnipeg

Torque – Czech Please

1 Comment

My most sincere apologies to all of you out there in Winnipeg Beer Land. I’ve had a crazy month and it’s still going to get crazier. Work, family, starting a Ph.D program, all things that require my attention and I’m doing my best to balance.

I love writing this blog and really want to be doing my best here, but sometimes it’s going to take a backburner as I do it for fun.

There have also been some other updates in the beer community but I’ll save those for Beer News this Friday.

On to the Pilsner.

Czech Please! – Bohemian Pilsner

Torque has become a fun brewery here in Winnipeg. From their start they’ve focused on producing a variety of beer options and have always made sure to keep their taproom stocked with some new small batches for people to try out. I’m always excited to see what they’ve got on the menu and they do not disappoint. They recently announced a potential expansion as well, so that means more awesome beer!

For this Czech style Pilsner, they went all out. Not only did they stick with the traditional ingredients, they spent a great deal of time and effort trying to get the water just right. They softened it up so that they could try and match the water that makes this style.

Pilsners are one of the most popular beer styles in the word and originate in the City of Pilzen in 1295.  While Pilsners are considered to be bottom-fermented beers now, they were actually top-fermented until about the mid-1840s.  The taste and standards of this older styles varied widely and in many cases entire barrels of beer were dumped out.  In 1839 the city of Pilsen founded a city owned brewery (now Pilsner Urquell) which was to brew beers and pioneer the Bavarian style.  Brewers had already begun to brew using bottom-fermenting yeasts that were fermented and stored in colder temperatures to be drunk later. This is where the term lager comes from. Lagern is the German word for storing and comes from this process.

Using Pilzen’s soft water, local saaz hops and this Bavarian style of lagering produced a clear, crisp and refreshing beer that became the standard for the style.  With the introduction of modern refrigeration there was no need to use caves for beer storage and this enabled the brewing of bottom-fermenting beers in many new places.  There are three styles of Pilsner:

  • German-style Pilsner – More bitter and earthy in flavour
  • Bohemian (Czech) Pilsners – tend to have lighter flavour
  • Classic American Pilsners – Brewed with more corn and rice as well as native cluster hops along with the noble hops when available.

All modern pilsners are very clear, very light beers that are pale to golden yellow.  All of them have a distinct hop aroma and flavor.  There are also Dutch and Belgian pilsners (not a separate style) which can be slightly sweeter.

ABV – 5%
Appearance – Golden in colour with an effervescent head that dissipates quickly.
Smell – Light malt notes, clean and bready, with light grassy hop notes.
Taste – Light, refreshing, a crisp bite at the finish along with some subtle hop bitterness. It has a semi-sweet malt characteristic to it.
Mouth Feel – Good carbonation with a coarse mouth feel and a nice lingering finish.
Overall Thoughts – Overall it was a really nice Bohemian Pilsner. I think it hit the highlights for me and over was a nice offering.
Do I like it? – Yes, I did enjoy this beer. I really like pilsners when it comes to the “lighter” beers. I think that they offer something interesting and flavourful. This one was certainly a very nice beer and I really enjoyed it. Just in time for this warm weather.

I’ve got some more posts lined up and look forward to getting them up. Thanks for following along.

-Beer Winnipeg

Beer Review, torque, Winnipeg

Torque – Borealis Gruit

1 Comment

Well, it’s official, there are a ton of interesting beers being made locally. I am having a hard time keeping up. The amount of new stuff happening in Winnipeg is truly awesome. Today I want to take an opportunity to do a write-up of a unique local beer. Torque Brewing brewed a Gruit. This is a unique and interesting style of beer and I want to write about.

I’ve written about Torque on many occasions and feel that they are really pumping out some fun and unique beers.

Borealis – Gruit

Gruits are an ancient style of beer that finds it origins somewhere around 700 CE. The Gruit reached the height of its consumption between the 9th and 13th centuries. Like many other ancient beer recipes, it was the women from whom this ale was produced. The recipe would be passed down through the generations. As time progressed, it shifted to being a task done within monasteries. The monastic communities gained economic prowess, having the best harvests, the best fabrics, etc… and they soon moved into producing beer.

During this time the gruit was a lot different than what we find today. Being made of an often-top-secret blend of herbs and spices. During the height of its popularity, the Gruitier was held in high regard and often had body guards to help protect the recipe. Holding positions of high regard and often luxurious houses, gruitiers all proclaimed their recipe to be the best and often boasted healing or medicinal properties. The use of the herbs and spices had a more practical reason, to keep the beer from spoiling. As hops were not used, these beers needed some other means of keeping for longer periods.

Today, a Gruit is a top-fermented ale that will still use blends of herbs, spices, or citrus. Most gruits produced today do use some level of hops but do so in a way that it imparts no hop flavour on the beer itself. Rather, these beers focus on being clean and imparting flavours from the use herbs, spices and botanicals. The Borealis gruit from Torque that we are trying today uses spruce tips (I love spruce tips), bog myrtle, yarrow, and juniper.

ABV – 6.5%
Appearance – Pours an amber with a slight haze, with a small bit of white foam that dissipates quickly.
Smell – Easily identifiable notes of spruce tips. Juniper is present on the nose as well. I am not familiar with the aroma of Yarrow or Bog Myrtle.
Taste – Malt sweetness on the front of this beer with a nice taste of those spruce tips and some juniper. The beer is clean and finishes nicely.
Mouth Feel – Good carbonation with nice bubbles and a dry salt finish.
Overall Thoughts – I’ve had the opportunity to try several gruits due to the availability of many this international gruit day. I found this one to be right up there and brought a lot of nice flavours to this unique style. When using botanicals over hops in a beer you rely on them to bring the balance, and this certainly was nice.
Do I like it? – Yes, I did enjoy this beer. I found the use of spruce tips and juniper to be really pleasant. I feel a need to get more familiar with yarrow and bog myrtle after drinking this and am overall impressed.

This beer is available at liquor marts, the Quality Inn Craft Beer Store, and at the brewery itself. Get out there and pick it up (along with a few others to try out). I hope that this write-up was informative. I encourage you to get out and try as many new beers as you can. Broaden your horizons and your palate.

-Beer Winnipeg

 

Interview, Stone Angel, Winnipeg

Stone Angel – Follow-Up

1 Comment

Stone Angel Logo

Stone Angel (1875 Pembina Avenue) is a new Winnipeg brewery that is opening up their taproom this Friday (September 22nd, 2017). Patrons will be able to enjoy two of their finely crafted beers starting at 3:30 pm. Their first seasonal – Nocturne, an English Dark Mild and Red-Handed an Irish Red will be available. Following this opening, Stone Angel will then be open from Thursday-Sunday. Be sure to check their website for hours.

With the taproom opening, the focus shifts towards producing beer. While they have two ready to go, they hope to get their other two core beers, an IPA and a stout, ready to go. Luther’s Folly, their Kolschist Blond will also be returning.

They are also diving right into seasonal beers and planning to get a unique seasonal style ready for Halloween. Their Samhain (pronounced “sowen”) is a smokey porter with dried fruit. From what I’ve been told it is inspired by the Halloween traditions in Ireland.

When it comes to beer production, they will currently be reliant on what they can sell at the taproom until they get their canning line in place which they hope will be in the new year.

As for the taproom, the space is beautifully done. Currently taprooms are restricted to 50 people despite the size. Stone Angel boasts a large space and five bathrooms and could easily accommodate twice that. With such a large area, they hope that they might be able to do some renovations in the future and expand the seating. There is some hope from them, and others in the Manitoba Brewers Association, that some changes in how occupancy is determined can be made.

Paul Clerkin from Stone Angel is also hoping to get the website updated. As a web-developer he is quite skilled at putting together websites and wants the Stone Angel website to help people find where they can get their beer and drink it. The idea is to have the website be intuitively designed for use on smartphones so that one can easily find where to get Stone Angel’s beer and get directions.

I’m looking forward to visiting Stone Angel once they open and getting to taste more of their beer. It’s always an exciting time when a new brewery opens. The culmination of an incredible amount of hard work, time, and dedication. These events should be celebrated so I hope everyone will head down to Stone Angel at 1875 Pembina Avenue this Friday (September 22nd, 2017) after 3:30 pm for a pint.

-Beer Winnipeg

Beer Review, Winnipeg, Winnipeg Beer Festival

Winnipeg Beer Festival

2 Comments

Winnipeg Craft Beer Festival

The first annual Winnipeg Beer Festival was held at Fort Gibraltor this past weekend. A combination of beer, food, and spirits together on the grounds of the beautiful Fort. The evening was beautiful and the company was fantastic. Overall, the event was well attended and a heck of a lot of fun.

I wrote about the event leading up to it and I wanted to write a follow-up for those who couldn’t make it.

The Winnipeg Beer Festival is an event that was put on in support of the KIDS initiative. Supporting youth in Kenya and providing a fun opportunity for folks to enjoy local beer, food, and some games and prizes. As I said, this is the first year for this event and I must say that it was overall a successful endeavor.

Many local brewers were in attendance. I’m disappointed that more couldn’t make it, but those who did attend were well received. The beers presented were standard fare for the breweries which was a bit disappointing. Often festivals like this are a chance to present new beers or offer up something unique. Being the first festival, breweries brought what they had available. I think in the future should this event continue, and I hope it does, breweries will see it as an opportunity to present fall/winter offerings and build some hype for beers to come.

The event was also a bit of a competition between the breweries. Patrons could vote, using bottle caps, for a beer that they felt was the best. While this provided an opportunity to narrow it down to a specific beer, it also disadvantaged breweries with fewer beers. While not commenting on what is better/worse, the styles were so varied it was apples to oranges to pears, having less beer available meant the vote for you wasn’t split quite as much. In the future voting on the beers at a brewery might be a better way to go rather then a specific beer.

PEG won gold for their GT Gose
Little Brown Jug won Silver for their 1919
Torque won bronze for Witty Belgian

Taking home the first every Gold for this event was PEG with their GT Gose. Little Brown Jug took silver for 1919 and Torque took bronze for Witty Belgian.

As this was the first year for this event, tickets were handed to limit beer consumed by patrons. Each patron was given 20 tickets for beer and 4 for liquor. While at first this might feel like it’s not enough, for many it proved to be too many. I think that given the event is four hours, 6-10pm, having it be in the same vein as Flatlanders would provide people an opportunity to enjoy beverages without feeling as if they must use all 20. Even though I don’t go to these events trying to drink as much as possible, I left feeling like I had wasted some tickets. I do think if this route is taken, limiting hard liquor would still be valuable.

WPG Beer Fest 10.JPG

Overall the evening was incredibly enjoyable. The community of beer drinkers is easy to chat with and while waiting in the lengthy lines it was nice to chat to pass the time. As more breweries open up locally, this event will grow and bring more options and more competition. I for one am excited about a completely local beer event and I really can’t wait to see what it’s like next year.

Thanks for following this blog and please subscribe and follow me on twitter. I am going to keep working at following the craft beer scene here in Manitoba and I might even expand it a bit to cover what’s happening with local spirits as well. With some of the new breweries on the cusp of opening, Surly bringing more beer to Manitoba, and lots of brewers to interview, it’s gonna be a good year.

-Beer Winnipeg

 

Trans Canada Brewing, Winnipeg

Quick Update – Trans Canada Brewing

Leave a comment

TCB

I had the great pleasure of being invited to a pizza tasting, yes, a pizza tasting, at Trans Canada Brewing last week. They had invited friends and family and a few other folks to come and taste 13 different pizzas made by head pizzaiolo Thomas Schneider. I took the opportunity while I was there to get a quick update and some pictures of the almost fully complete brewery.

Let me start by saying the pizzas were awesome. I love pizza, but I tend to be traditional in the pizzas I order. Sure, I like to try new things, but you don’t always have the opportunity when catering to a large group or going for the classic that you love. Thomas starts his pizzas with a fantastic crust that is used across the board and then tops with various sauces ranging from a black bean sauce, to garlic butter, to a cream sauce. While I didn’t find all the pizzas to be something I’d consistently order, they were all delicious. My favorite of the night was the Lambza which is almost like a lamb gyro turned into a pizza. Coming in a close second was the pesto pizza which was very simplistic but the pesto was out of this world. If the beers are anything like the pizzas, I’m going to really enjoy Trans Canada.

Now, onto the brewery. Like I said above, the brewery and tap room look fantastic. They are near completion and there are only some minor cosmetic issues as well as some final trades work to complete. The tans are installed with trades work mostly complete. The last task to be completed is the glycol system for which they’ve constructed quite the tower. Matt also indicated that there are still some matters to deal with in respect to grain handling, especially the spent grain. They are also working on getting the kegging machine up and running which will be followed by the bottling line.

When it comes to beer, Trans Canada is is still working on setting up their core beers. They do plan to have something for everyone ranging from pales ales, to Belgians, to malt forward beers. They are working to open the taproom with their own beer followed by volume brews once the bottling line is setup.

Probably the thing I’m most excited for are the six French oak foeders that have been installed in a climate controlled room and open endless opportunities for the brewers to create unique and interesting beers. I am very excited to see what they come up with and to try the beers.

As I said, this was just a quick update, but based on the setup and the amount of work left to complete I think that Trans Canada should have beer in September. I certainly hope I’m right.

I want to end by saying that the Winnipeg Beer Festival is coming up on August 19th at Fort Gibraltar. They’ve released another set of weather dependent tickets which can be purchased here. I will be doing a write up this week on the festival itself and look forward to doing a follow-up after attending. This is a new festival and I’m excited to see what it brings.

Thanks for following and follow me on twitter @beerwinnipeg

 

Barn Hammer, Brazen Hall, Fort Garry, Half Pints Brewing, International Collaborative Women's Brew Day, Little Brown Jug, One Great City, Peg Beer Co., Stone Angel, torque, Winnipeg

Community Brewing

1 Comment

community-green-marker-word-32981846.jpg

The summer has been busy for me thus far. I’m off work and spending time with my daughter and wife. This has kept me from posting as often as I’d like, but it’s well worth it. With the number of new breweries starting to increase at a steady rate and with places like Oxus, Trans Canada, and Stone Angel just around the corner, I wanted to write about something I’m seeing increasingly. Community Brewing.

Community brewing is the term I’ve been using to describe breweries engaging in the community through social outreach, fundraising, and other charitable actions. When I wrote about “defining craft beer” a while back, one of the things that was apparent in most peoples attempts to define that term is the community aspect of the brewery. Local breweries are just that, local, and while it’s not mandatory, supporting the local community is welcome and growing.

I had contacted all the breweries and asked for a quick rundown on some of the activities they’ve done. While I am aware of many of them, I wanted to know specifically any that were coming up. I did not hear back from all the breweries and so I’ve done my best. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list, but it is meant to highlight some of the ways the local breweries have been engaging in our community. If I get more details I will certainly update this post. 

Barn Hammer has been running a monthly “Barn Raising” event where they donate all the profits from the sale of beer in the taproom that night to a specific charity. This happens every third Wednesday. The next event is on July 19th and is in support of Klinic community health centre. In a similar vein, Peg Beer has done a community tap where all profits from the sale of a specific beer go towards a charity. The last one they did was for International women’s brew day and they donated profits to the Women’s health clinic. Torque has also collaborated with Habitat for Humanity and are donating $4 of proceeds from the sale of 12 packs and $1 of proceeds for each pint of Foundation (their APA). So far, they have raised over $5000 with a goal of reaching $10,000. Torque even went as far as to help build houses for Habitat. Really putting their sweet into supporting the charity. This “community tap” concept is one that works very well and creates a direct line of donations to charities. I love the idea and I am certain that we will see more of this community tap concept from other breweries in the future.

Breweries have also engaged the community through being hubs of community activity. This is done in a variety of ways that range from using local artwork or hosting other artistic endeavours, to social outing, and charitable functions. Little Brown Jug has made community a part of its values. They’ve really taken this upon themselves to become a community space. Kevin Selch explained that “it is about our investment in the heart of the city, about partnering with other business and groups, and creating a space for the community to meet.” Little Brown Jug have hosted a huge range of activities from Yoga in the brewery, moderated community discussions, WSO performances, and even a five-course meal. Currently they are doing Hearts & Roots Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). For 16 weeks out of summer, folks can pick up their fresh fruits and vegetables that they contract with directly with the farmer. This is an cool concept and addresses the issue of the Exchange not having a full-service grocery store.

Peg Beer Co. has had theatre performances, hosting groups like Bravura Theatre and their Shakespeare in the Pub, hosting after show theatre talks on important issues, hosting charitable events and fundraisers and being a fantastic place to eat during the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Barn Hammer has used their space to help sell local artist work by having it on display and for sale as well as engaging home brewers in the community to produce test-batches. Half Pints has been a consistent and constant support for community events through donations/creations of kegs and beer or merchandise, and has hosted numerous activities at the brewery and in their new taproom.  Fort Garry has also been a good go to for support through donations of kegs and beer or merchandise for events and they will be participating in the Brew at the Zoo and at the Winnipeg Beer Festival coming up later this summer along with others.

Outside of their own breweries, there has been community engagement with various groups. Whether it be sponsoring a hole for a charitable golf tournament like Brazen Hall, Torque and Stone Angel have done, or whether it be creating a special beer for events like Half-Pints’ Queer Beer and Bikey McBikeface for Pride and Bike Week Winnipeg. I’ve also noticed an increase in keg donations to help support charitable functions. For Art City’s Annual Fundraising Ball (this past May) – Barn Hammer donated a few kegs to them and they sold the beer at the event. All proceeds they received for the beer was a direct donation to them. Barn Hammer is also involved with the Rainbow Trout Music Festival as one of the sponsors for this year. One Great City, Barn Hammer, and PEG Beer Co have all collaborated with the Lake Winnipeg Foundation to release special lake-themed beers in support of our beautiful lake.

With the growing number of craft breweries, I am seeing a growing number of charitable and community activities. The support that has flowed from these breweries, even before opening, to the community in creative partnerships is awesome. So, there are a few events coming up that I want to highlight so that, fi you are inclined, you can get out and help support them

This write-up was about taking a break from talking beer and highlighting some of the good work the breweries in Winnipeg have been doing. I am sure that there is more that I could add, and a lot of things that I’ve missed but this gives you a sample of some of the actions taken to make our community a better place.

Thanks for reading. Beer Winnipeg.

 

Flatlander's, Winnipeg

Flatlander’s Beer Festival – 2017

3 Comments

flatlanders-header

Another year and another Flatlander’s Beer Festival has come and gone. Last year I opined that it was the best festival to date. Well, this years was just a smidge better. With the advent of so many new breweries in Winnipeg, more getting close enough that they have beer, and the arrival of Surly (who just raised the bar for beer in this city) it was an awesome festival.

This year I had the opportunity to act as a Beer Geek once again. I love this role and had a fantastic time. Helping people find their way to beers, encouraging going outside of their comfort zone, running into friends and being able to help expand horizons are just some of the fun things you get to do as a beer geek.

Flatlanders Floor Plan
One of the starkest differences I found between last years’ festival and this years as a beer geek was the number of people who knew stuff about beer. While I commented about this last year, I found that many of the people at the matinee were clear on what they wanted to try, what they liked, and had a good base knowledge about beer. Into the evening, chatting with folks about what they enjoyed, I found the same thing. That’s awesome.

This year’s festival grew just slightly over last years with about 88 booths and over 250 beers and ciders from around the world. From what I’ve heard, there were ~2000 in attendance at the Friday night session, ~1500 at the Saturday afternoon matinee and ~2500 at the Saturday night sessions. This is a huge growth from last year that saw just over 4000 for the whole event. Seeing a ~2000 person increase from the previous year’s festival is huge.

Flatlanders 2017 Bowl

The highlights of the festival for me were mostly found at ice level. While there were certainly some good breweries and beers up in the concourse, all the local breweries were on the ice level along with Surly and Lake of the Woods.  Surly was my best in show brewery. I have nothing bad to say about their beers and the Todd the Axeman IPA was by far one of my favourite beers.

Flatlanders Surly Brewing
The Surly crew

My best in show beer for this festival came from Jeff Stacey who brewed a gold medal winning “Intergalactic Blonde” for the Winnipeg Brew Bombers Pro/Am competition. It was the Brew Bombers booth and was just stellar. A huge shout out to all the other local breweries. A lot of good stuff on tap and it was great to see Nonsuch there with their beer. I could take a lot of time just listing the breweries and beers I enjoyed, but with them being local I’ll just encourage you to go out and try beer.

Flatlanders Pro Am Booth

Finally, I had someone ask me what Flatlander’s gives that going to taprooms and the liquor mart doesn’t. For me, Flatlander’s is about giving people the opportunity to expand their beer horizons with the “fear” of not liking something or wasting money. It gives people the chance to try that beer they’ve seen at the Liquor Marts but have been unsure if they want to try it. They can find new beers they love, new styles they enjoy, and learn about these beers and styles.

Besides raising money for a fantastic cause, Flatlander’s Beer Festival gives beer geeks and beer novices an opportunity to learn something new about beer, and find new beers that they love. I’m going to give a big shout out to Steve Beauchesne, co-founder of Beau’s All Natural Brewing, for the awesome talk on an under represented style, the Gruit. Great talk, and great beer. Also to Aaron and Amanda from the Liquor Marts for their efforts during the night. Thanks to you both.

flatlanders-concourse.jpg

I can’t wait for next year’s festival. This summer is a great opportunity to get out and try the local beers/new beers coming to Winnipeg. So do it, and keep following along with me. I’ve got more write-ups on the way including a Welcome to Manitoba Surly post, my write-up of my chat with Oxus, and another Get to know a brewer on deck.

-Beer Winnipeg

One Great City, Winnipeg

One Great City – Soft Opening

1 Comment

OGC Logo

I had the opportunity to go to One Great City’s invitation opening last night. It was nice to people there enjoying the beer and the food. The space came together nicely and I encourage people to get out and check the place out when they open to the public this Thursday.

Having had the opportunity to visit on a few occasions and see the progress, it was really nice to be able to see the place complete and with everything together. It hasn’t been easy, like with most, to get this place to where it is today. Jon and Tim stuck with it and with the help of their investors and supporters have managed to put together a really nice looking Brew Pub.

They had four of their beers on tap (I’ll get to this in a minute) as well some beer from Half Pints, Torque and Barn Hammer. The bar is made of reclaimed wood and most the furniture in the place was made by the OGC team. While it was a bit hectic and the servers were still working on getting everything figured out, the bartender who served me was knowledgeable and interested in the products that they were selling.

The food that I ordered was the charcuterie plate. I tend to go for this as I enjoy it when I’m tasting beers. It was a plate of meats, crostini and some Dijon mustard. The presentation of the dish was beautiful. The meats were nice and the mustard was really tasty. The rest of the menu looks fantastic and I’m looking forward to trying more food the next time I visit.

(Update June 11, 2017) – I went back for a second visit to try more of the delicious sounding food from the menu. I had the Burger with beer and cheese soup for dinner and the ricotta and brown sugar beignets with maple ice cream for dessert. Everything I had was spot on and absolutely tasty.  I can’t wait to go back and try more.

I tried all four of the beers they had on tap. The flight boards are nice and the overall beer drinking atmosphere was great. The four beers they had were their Monkey Trail Pale Ale, Queen’s Best Bitter, Tipsy Cow Milk Stout and their Belgian Esprit (Wit). They have two other core beers, Falcon Blonde Ale and Mad Scientist Double Eye PA which were not currently available.

The Belgian was quite nice. It was smooth and has an addition of chamomile to it that results in this nice smooth beer with a subtle dry finish. Great traditional wit notes of citrus and pepper. The bitter was good and had that distinct malt sweetness. It was lacking on the bitterness component. It was a bit too malt forward. On the contrary, the Pale Ale was quite hoppy with a good lingering bitterness. The milk stout was very approachable with good lactose sweetness and that creamy characteristic you’d expect. It wasn’t done on nitro, and once it is, I think it will be elevated a bit and bring out the chocolate and roast.

I am interested to see how these beers progress as they’ve been brewed on Torque’s system. As they move over to their own system and work on the scaling I think we might seem some subtle changes in the beers. It also means they’ll get to brew their other core beers and start working on developing seasonal beers to put on tap and sell.

There are plans to do bottles and sell those from the brewery as well as howlers and growlers.

Overall, while there are certainly some opening night hiccups, the beers overall are good. While there will certainly be some modifications made, they’ve got things in a good place. I’m excited to see how things progress and to try future beers from OGC.

One Great City opens to the public for a soft opening from Thursday, June 8th-Saturday June 10th. They will also be at Flatlanders Beer Festival and at the Manitoba Brewers Association Meet a Brewer night tonight at Brazen Hall.

 

Beer News, Nonsuch, Winnipeg

Nonsuch Launch Party

1 Comment

May is a ridiculously busy month for me with work. It seems to be a series of meetings followed by other meetings and a few trips away. It’s hard doing all this with a new baby at home as I just end up missing her and my wife that much more. But, the month of May is coming to an end, and I’ve got a few things to update on.

First, the second annual get to know a brewer event is coming up on June 6th. This year it will be held at Brazen Hall. Tickets are available here. Last year I had the chance to attend the event and it was a fantastic precursor to Flatlanders. You get an opportunity for a sneak peek at what will be coming and a chance to speak one on one with the brewers and other folks from the local breweries. If you’ve never been, I highly suggest you go. It’s a fantastic event and well worth it.

Second, as I mentioned above, Flatlanders Beer Festival is fast approaching. Last years saw our first glimpse at some of the upcoming breweries. This year, we have our newly established brewery folks joining with our long-standing ones and some potential newcomers. All this along with other brewers from across Canada and around the world. This is the pinnacle of beer in Manitoba as it brings together so much from so far. If you love beer, go to this event. Come say hi, I’ll be in a Yellow Beer Geek shirt.

Finally, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the fantastic launch event that Nonsuch held this past Thursday, May 25th.

Nonsuch-Logo-on-Water

I had the good fortune of meeting the guys from Nonsuch and chatting with them about their vision a while back. While they’ve had some trouble finding a location, they are very close. This hasn’t prevented them from doing what they set out to do, brewing beer, and we should see their beers showing up in the Liquor Marts by June.

Nonsuch has been brewing in collaboration with Barn Hammer to perfect their beers and get everything where they want it to be. At the launch party, they debuted their Old Ale, Belgian Strong, Saison and Biére de Garde. I had a chance to try each one of these beers and was overall very impressed with the quality and taste. I’m quite excited to see these beers start showing up in the Liquor Marts.

What’s impressive is that they have been sticking to their original plan of brewing with spring water and selling in caged and corked 750ml bottles. The bottles look sharp and with the beer inside being darn good, I think they’ve got a product that many people in the city will enjoy.

Courtesy of beercrank.ca
Courtesy of beercrank.ca

While I don’t want to write a full review of the beers I tasted, I do want to say that each one of the four beers were top notch. Mark has a unique ability to adjust his beers on the fly and come up with a result that is tasty and enjoyable to drink.

As we approach Flatlanders and the Manitoba Brewers’ Association event, there are numerous opportunities to meet those brewing our beer and taste what they’ve got to offer. There are sure to be some special ones so be sure to get out and give them a try.

Thanks again for following, and be sure to check back for more

-Beer Winnipeg