Every morning when I wake up I am hit with a little twinge of excitement to see what new brew I will find today. This calendar is really something that brings a lot of joy to this craft beer lover’s morning. This morning was a little bit more frustrating given that the particular beer had shifted and was rather stuck. After about 10 minutes of shifting, opening the top of the box (my wife did so I wouldn’t peek) and shifting things around, we managed to remove the beer from it’s precarious position.
The third beer of the craft beer advent calendar is Aspen Brewing Company’s Independence Pass Ale.
Aspen Brewing Company was founded in 2008 by Duncan Clauss. He had recently graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder and wanted to bring craft beer back to Aspen. Previously Aspen had been home to Flying Dog Brewing Co. When Flying Dog moved all of it’s production to Frederick Maryland in 2006, it left a gap in the craft beer market in Aspen. Duncan and his crew of five, including head brewer PJ Goudreault, filled this gap and has been producing beers that represent the outdoor lifestyle of Aspen for the past 7 years.
Aspen Brewing Company focuses a lot of it’s profits and beer on the local community putting philanthropy and community support as one of it’s primary tasks. They’ve supported dozens of local community ventures and take applications every year from those non-profits seeking support. Aspen is also committed to the environment being one of three breweries to sign the Clean Water Act with environment Colorado and the US Environmental protection agency. They’ve also signed onto the Brewers for climate change declaration. They also practice a number of efficiency measures to keep their carbon foot print as low as possible. Check out what they do for the environment here.
Aspen brews a number of beers divided into three “series” of beers. The first is their Silver Queen Series. The beer we have today comes from this series and it is their year round series of beers. They also have a series of Seasonal beers as well as a Temerity Series of barrel aged beers. The beer we have from them, the Independence Pass Ale, is a super-hopped IPA. The beer is named Aspen’s eastern boundary and 12,095ft high elevation pass. It comes in a 7% abv (alcohol by volume) and 62 IBUs (International Bitterness Units).
IPAs or India Pale Ale, have a storied history. The first known use of the term comes from the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser in 1829. At this time, they were also referred to as a “pale ale as prepared for India”, “East India pale ale”, and “Export India Pale Ale”. These types of IPAs were widely popular amongst the East India company and, while considered very hoppy, they were not much stronger than other beers brewed at this time. If you’re curious about IPAs check out Wikipedia or IPA Beer.
While these beers are part of the pale ale family, they are strongly hopped and often showcase the variety of flavours and complexities that can come from the simple ingredients used to brew beer. Many will say the IPAs are an acquired taste, and they are rather unique, the bitterness brought by the use of a large quantity of hops is not for everyone. Now, onto this specific beer.
Appearance – Pours hazy, medium copper colour with about an inch of white head. Smell – Passionfruit and blood orange on the nose. Very fruity nose. Taste – Very sweet for an IPA. Passionfruit comes through on the taste and is really balanced with a subtle bitterness that doesn’t denote the 62 IBUs this beer contains. Mouth feel – smooth mouthfeel that lingers slightly with sweetness. Overall – Pretty good IPA. Not over the moon about it. The balance of the sweetness and the bitterness makes it a good IPA for someone who isn’t really into bitter IPAs and might be a good launching pad for those folks.
Do I like it? – I think it is okay. I’m not going to go out and seek this particular IPA, there are so many really strong ones, but if I was at a friends and they had it I’d be happy to drink it.
Yesterday was an excellent start to this year’s advent calendar. I really enjoyed the Anderson Valley Fall Hornin’ Pumpkin Ale and I hope that it’s going to be the tone for the entire calendar. This morning I got out of bed early and went right to the calendar to grab my beer. The tabs are a little small and my hands don’t really fit, so I asked my wife to assist. Lo and Behold the second beer of the 2015 Calendar is a Lighthouse Brewing Co.’s Black Sam Licorice Stout. For full disclosure, I’m not a huge fan of black licorice. I’ll give this beer the benefit of the doubt but I may end up not liking it just because of that.
First off let me say that Lighthouse Brewing has a really fun website. I am really impressed with the design if not the content. So, I’d suggest you check it out. Also, they posted a video of one of the crew talking a bit about the beer. Check it out here.
Now, Lighthouse was founded in 1998 and is located on Devonshire Road in Victoria BC. When founded, the demand for small batch craft beer was not really where it is today. Brewing a Race Rocks Ale in the early days and delivering them to local pubs, Lighthouse quickly garnered a name for quality, local beer in a time when generic brands were king.
Lighthouse is made up of a crew of passionate people of which they don’t really provide much information. Passion is a trademark behind the brewing at Lighthouse and they have a number of really interesting beers. Besides their house series of beers, they also have an explorer series (of which the Licorice Stout is a member) as well as an uncharted series (currently just an Imperial IPA). Check out their full beer line-up here.
The beer that we have from Lighthouse today is one that has only recently been released in BC. It’s also only available are certain private beer stores. So, it’s one that I may not have a chance to try again for quite a while. I’m excited.
Stouts are a dark beer made using roasted malts or roasted barley, hops, water and yeast. Traditionally the term stout was used to describe the strongest (most alcoholic) porters, typically around 7-8%, produced by a brewery. The reason for the name ‘stout’ was because these strong porters were often sold in stouter bottles than the standard porters. This gave them the nickname ‘stout’ which eventually became the term used to describe the style of beer.
There are numerous styles of stouts ranging from Dry Stouts, to Porters, and Oyster stouts and my favorite Imperial Stouts. While they had lost popularity in the early 20th century after the First World War, they have started to have a bit of an upswing due to the growing popularity in craft beer and breweries. Stouts are very versatile allowing for a lot of creativity in adjuncts and flavouring and you can see a number of craft breweries doing stouts quite regularly. Stouts also often age well making them a wonderful cellaring beer. Without any further ado, my impression of Lighthouse’s Licorice Stout.
Appearance – Abysmal Black with no head (May just be my bottle). Smell – Smells like licorice allsorts with a hint of chocolate. Taste – Coffee and chocolate malt on the front with a sweet candy flavour finish. Mouth feel – Coats the tongue, soft mouthfeel, low carbonation, Overall – Flavourful stout with strong malt flavours and a good sweet finish. Not overly sweet. A good stout for someone who maybe doesn’t drink stouts often or is new to stouts. Not an overly heavy stout.
Do I like it? – I did like it. It was an all-around good stout that I would enjoy drinking on a cold Winnipeg winter day/evening. I’d definitely buy this, but I wasn’t blown out of the water.
As with every year, opening up that first advent calendar tab is incredibly exciting. It brings me back to when I was a kid and my mom would buy us an advent calendar with little chocolates inside. Every day was a different chocolate and every day was a little bit of excitement. Translate that to an adult version with beer instead of chocolate, I’m a happy camper. Nostalgic.
Pumpkin Ales are typically fall seasonal beers, though Anderson Valley’s is available from August-October. They are really quite varied. Some of the style use actual pumpkin, others use yams, and some still don’t use either but just use pumpkin spices. Some breweries drop hand cut pumpkins into the mash while others use pumpkin puree or flavoring at different points in the brew. However you cut it, pumpkin beers are meant to represent fall by bringing forward those delicious pumpkin pie spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and ground ginger.
Pumpkin Ales are typically mild with little to no bitterness, quite a malty backbone with the spices usually the most prominent flavor on the front. Many will also have a slightly thick mouthfeel to them. These types of beers are a trend that seems to have been quite popular here in Manitoba this past October with a huge number of pumpkin ales being available on the shelves.
The one we have today is from Anderson Valley, located in Boonvile, California. I’ve had a number of Anderson Valley’s beers and many of them are available at Barley Brothers. They make a fantastic Blood Orange Gose as well as a really nice Turkey Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout. Both of these are quite tasty, especially fresh.
Anderson Valley Brewing Company was founded on December 26th, 1987. Originally they brewed with a 10-barrel brewhouse located on the lower level of their original brewpub, the Buckhorn Saloon. At the time, they were one of only 20 craft breweries in the country and they are considered to be one of the pioneers of the craft beer industry. In 1996 they expanded to a 30-barel facility at the corner of highways 128 and 253 (Why they have a 128 series of beer). They were able to double their production to 15’000 barrels and began bottling as well. In 1998 they built a three-story Bavarian style brewhouse with beautiful copper kettles.
What is really unique about Anderson Valley is that in 2006 they installed an array of 768 solar panels on top of their brewhouse and employee parking structure. Since then, they’ve relied on the Sun to provide 40% of the energy they need to run the brewery. Along with this, they have a strong ecological commitment which they outline here.
Brew Master Fal Allen came to the brewery through a circuitous route starting in Hawaii before brewing at Red Hook and Pike Place in Seattle followed short stints at other breweries along the way including Anderson Valley twice (he left to brew in Singapore for a bit). They have quite a large team and their website has little interviews with the members. I’d suggest checking it out.
I’d also suggest you take a look at the part of their website that outlines the language “Boontling”. It’s pretty interesting. With that said, I’m going to rate the beer.
Appearance – Nut brown with very minimal head.
Smell – Caramel and malt, spices very present (nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon). Smells quite a lot like pumpkin pie. What you’d expect.
Taste – Spices come through right on the front and are quite present. This moves into a malty smooth flavor that is really quite pleasant.
Mouth feel – Good carbonation with a slightly thick mouthfeel.
Overall – Very good pumpkin ale. Well-spiced with a really solid malt backbone
Do I like it? – Yes, I do like it. I am not a fan of all the pumpkin ales that are available. There are some that I find really nice and pleasant and this happens to be one of them. I enjoyed this beer and felt that it had a lot of nice spice notes to it combined with a smooth malty backbone. Overall it was really quite nice. I’d certainly buy this if I had the opportunity to do so.
My wife gifted me the Craft Beer Advent calendar again this year. 24 different beers from North America. As I did last year, I plan to blog about these beers again. Every day. That means 24 posts, hopefully. Here is how the post will be organized:
Beer name, location, and style of beer.
Description of the style, origins and information about the brewery.
I want to make a note on the ratings. I’m not a beer judge, and even if I was, I don’t always take stock in what people rate beers at. Perhaps someone doesn’t like a particular style, or they don’t think the beer is good. It doesn’t mean I, or someone else, won’t like it. So, while I do plan on rating these beers, it is more for my own personal reasons to keep track of which ones I liked the best throughout the process. You can take my ratings as you like, either listen or don’t. Ultimately, I want people to try new beers and take chances.
There is one hitch. I will be travelling from the 22nd of December until the 7th of January. I will be doing my darndest to try these last two beers before I go, cheating slightly, but giving myself the opportunity to write the posts and have them get posted on the 23rd and 24th.
The first post will be coming later today. In the meantime, here is my round up of last year’s Craft Beer Advent Calendar.
Whenever I am talking to people about the virtues of craft beer there is invariably one question that I get asked: What is craft beer? To answer that question we really need to look at what a craft brewery is.
This is a question that seems very difficult to answer right now. While there are craft beer associations popping up across Canada (Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia) they do not necessarily represent all of the local breweries in their area nor do they seem to offer a clear definition of what craft beer might be.
Provincial governments, who regulate liquor sales in their respective provinces, have no clear definition of craft beer in their legal frameworks. Instead, what does exist are terms like “small brewery, microbrewery, macrobrewery and nanobrewery” in which sizes in hectolitres are used to determine the classification mostly for taxation purposes. Even these definitions vary widely. In Saskatchewan to be considered a small brewery you need to produce less than 5,000 HL, while in New Brunswick it is 1.5 Million HL. The British Columbia craft beer association represents breweries that produce less than 160,000 HL each year (Source) while Ontario Crafter Brewers set their limit at 400,000 HL. (Source)
Yet none of this actually defines what craft beer actually is. The Ontario Craft Brewers association gives a definition, similar to that of the US brewers’ association, to define what craft beer means to their members saying:
Ontario Craft Brewers (OCB) are local and defined as:
SMALL – Most Ontario Craft Brewers are small and many are family-owned. The current maximum size of an Ontario Craft Brewer is 400,000 hectolitres of annual worldwide beer production.
INDEPENDENT – Locally-owned and is not significantly controlled by a beer company who does not qualify as an Ontario Craft Brewer.
TRADITIONAL – Pledge to brew traditional and innovative beers according to the
Ontario Craft Brewers’ Brewing Philosophy. The original Philosophy was signed on
April 12, 2006 and was updated in September 2013. It is set out below.
Ontario Craft Brewers must locate and run their primary breweries in Ontario, close to the markets and the communities they serve. The breweries are open to the public, other brewers and beer enthusiasts.
Small – Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to the rules of alternating proprietorships.
Independent – Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.
Traditional – A brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation. Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) are not considered beers.
The following are some concepts related to craft beer and craft brewers:
Craft brewers are small brewers.
The hallmark of craft beer and craft brewers is innovation. Craft brewers interpret historic styles with unique twists and develop new styles that have no precedent.
Craft beer is generally made with traditional ingredients like malted barley; interesting and sometimes non-traditional ingredients are often added for distinctiveness.
Craft brewers tend to be very involved in their communities through philanthropy, product donations, volunteerism and sponsorship of events.
Craft brewers have distinctive, individualistic approaches to connecting with their customers.
Craft brewers maintain integrity by what they brew and their general independence, free from a substantial interest by a non-craft brewer.
The majority of Americans live within 10 miles of a craft brewer.
This definition uses more than just the size of the brewery as a means of defining what craft beer actually is. The US based brewers’ association lays out some concepts surrounding craft beer as well, which expand and start to develop a definition of craft beer – something I’d like to see replicated in Canada. Craft Brewers must meet these criteria in order to qualify to use the associations’ logo on their beer.
When we think of craft beer though, size isn’t what necessarily comes to mind. Take Sierra Nevada for example in the United States. Many would consider them to be a craft brewery, yet, they produce over 900,000 HL and so would not fall into the some of the size restrictions here in Canada. What is important in respect to size limitation is that it be consistent.
With Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABinBev) buying SABMiller to become the largest beer company in the world, I think it is important that craft beer be defined in a way that is consistent and recognizable and national. Even more so, if we want this definition to mean something more and to protect what craft beer means and is, then this definition needs to be put into law.
This is where the conversation comes in. There is no clear definition of craft beer that can be used Canada wide, yet, there is a great deal of opinion and anyone you ask will likely have their own way of defining craft beer. www.hoptahouse.ca wrote an article similar to this one and cited a book from 1986 saying:
The term appears to have been coined by Vince Cottone, author of Good Beer Guide: Breweries and Pubs of the Pacific Northwest (Homestead Book Co., Seattle, 1986). Cottone had a very narrow definition in mind, saying that craft beers are produced by “a small brewery using traditional methods and ingredients to produce a handcrafted, uncompromised beer that is marketed locally.” Cottone’s definition was so strict that that he excluded pasteurized beers, as well as brewers that use malt extracts.
While this provides a good starting point for what craft beer is, it is incomplete, so I’d like to offer a definition of my own. I want to stress that this is my opinion and I know there will be others that disagree or have a different definition. Part of the problem I suppose, but here we go.
For me, craft beer is a locally owned brewery that produces handcrafted beers. They are breweries who are making beer for the love of the craft, who are creative, experimental, and willing to try out of the box ideas. A brewery that is not afraid to make a beer not everyone will like but will make beer that they want to drink.
This is an important conversation to have. With Manitobans buying 76.2 Million Litres of beer between May 2014 and May 2015, this is not a small market. And yet, 81.5% of this market is dominated by the Macro-breweries represented mostly by ABinBev. The market for Craft Beer has room to grow.
Yet we have seen craft breweries in Canada and elsewhere purchased by ABinBev as they try to get their foot into the craft beer market in an attempt to halt market share loss. Canadian micro-breweries now have 4.2% of beer sales but have also grown by 19% in dollars and 12% in litres over the past year (Source). The problem is, does this include Goose Island (owned by ABinBev) and Mill Street (recently bought by ABinBev) and does that even matter? Is non-craft beer “bad” beer? Does being craft beer automatically make you good? We also need to ask those questions when defining craft beer.
While there is great work being done by brewery associations in their respective provinces, and while a definition for craft beer is starting to become clearer in some provinces, without a nationwide definition and laws to support it, it’s hard to know what craft beer really is and whether what you are buying is what you think it is. At least with the Ontario Craft Brewers and the American Brewers’ Association beers which meet their criteria and are members are identified right on the bottle. Seeing something like this Canada wide that helps beer drinkers recognize beers as “craft beers” would be great, we just need to make sure the reason we are doing it is sound.
To conclude, I sent out a tweet asking for people to define what craft beer is to them. I didn’t get back many responses but I did get a few. If you’d like to share how you view craft beer I’d be happy to add. Still, I’d like to finish by sharing the definitions I did receive with you:
@ThousandThought – Going with: Locally owned and operated, committed to quality ingredients and practices, prioritizing craft before profit.
@colinkoop – Craft beer is brewed by an independently-owned brewery using natural high-quality ingredients. It is an artisanal product that can both adhere to style guidelines and bend them. Craft beer feeds back into its local economy and culture. It focuses on quality over quantity and profit. Craft brewers grow craft beer culture by respecting other craft breweries and embracing a collaborative/cooperative marketplace.
J.M. – Meticulously crafted, small batch beer. Often with particular flavours and themes not found in your typical macrobrewery.
M.S – A passion to explore the flavour and strength of different ingredients and different brewing methods.
@beerideas – Beer Ideas responded on his own blog. Check out his essay about craft beer here.
This is a really exciting time for craft beer in Winnipeg. With changes to the liquor laws making it more appealing for breweries to open, making brew pubs possible, and expansion of the growler bars, craft beer drinkers have a lot to be revved up about.
I spoke with Nicole Barry from Peg Beer Co. last week and this week I had the opportunity to sit down with Tyler Birch and Brian Westcott, the small but mighty team behind the new Winnipeg brewery Barn Hammer.
Tyler and Brian are an excellent team, bringing two important strengths to the brewery – business and craftsmanship. Tyler owns and operates a fencing company with his father Ted. TnT Fenceworks has been successfully operating for the past 10 years successful. While working there, Tyler became interested in home brewing and spotted the low number of breweries in Manitoba compared to other provinces. With his sincere love of beer and interest in brewing, Tyler wanted to do something to fill that gap and began working through the process to create Barn Hammer Brewin Co.
When the laws began to change, it made it more appealing and helped Tyler get his plan off the ground.
By chance, Brian Westcott, former production manager for Alley Kat Brewing Company in Edmonton, was looking to move to Manitoba. Brian started brewing in university with about 6 or 7 carboys on the go at any given time. His first degree was in Biochemistry and when he got a job in Fort St. John he found himself with a lot of time to read about brewing and decided to become a professional brewer. He was hired by Alley Kat Brewing, but after about 18 months on the job, he wanted to learn more. So, Brian headed back to school and as a graduate of Scotland’s M.Sc. program in brewery science worked for another 7 years at Alley Kat but was always hoping to move back to Manitoba. (His wife is a native of northern Manitoba.)
The timing on their move couldn’t have been better. After meeting with Tyler to discuss the vision of the brewery, Barn Hammer officially had a head brewer and a partner to round out Tyler’s home brewing knowledge.
While Tyler has not been involved in the brewing industry at all, he has a strong business sense from running TnT for the past 10 years. This combined with Brian’s extensive experience working in all aspects of brewing make for a dynamite combination. Add the fact Tyler’s wife Sable is an accomplished graphic artist and this three person team has a lot of the bases covered for getting a brewery up and running.
Tyler started planning about a year ago- again, mostly due to the fact Winnipeg is so far behind the rest of the country in the local craft market. Now he gets to work with Brian to create beer “I want to drink” while using his already honed business skills to get that beer into the hands of Manitobans.
One of the biggest challenges Tyler and Brian faced was finding a good location. They wanted an industrial site that wouldn’t be so far away people would be hesitant to visit. They also needed a landlord who was willing to lease. Plus there was an extra self-imposed condition: it had to be close enough Tyler could bike to work.
Luckily they found this location at 595 Wall Street and have begun renovations for their planned opening in December.
When it comes to the actual beers they will be producing, the team at Barn Hammer has some ideas, names and concepts but are really only in the test brewing stage. With Sable on board, they have a unified label design in mind but still have to finalize their beers. When they open in December the goal is to have two beers canned with a seasonal on tap at their brewery. Brian told me he was just getting a Winter Ale test batch underway – a little weird being summer, but something they hope to have ready when they open. At the brewery opening they plan to give the public an opportunity to try some of their beers on tap – an activity they want to continue as they try new things out and experiment.
Barn Hammer will be running a 15 barrel system and plan to be producing a little over 1000 HLs in the first year with the goal of moving up to 5000 H/L in a few years. Both Tyler and Brian want to grow to a comfortable size where they can produce beer they like while still experimenting and staying truly small and local. With their plan of having a couple of mainstays and constant experimentation, I think Winnipeggers and Manitobans will welcome this newcomer and be excited for the new brews as they become available.
As I said before, Tyler and Brian hope to have two beers in cans to start with the rest in the tap room and growler area. Their focus for the opening will be the brewery itself, but they told me with 100% certainty they’ll have a growler fill area when they open, so we’ll be able to head in and try things out right from the get go. I was really excited when Brian told me they would be keeping things experimental and “interesting” -Tyler and Brian don’t’ want to get complacent, they want to stay small and focus on the craft of brewing beer.
I am always interested in how those involved in brewing view beer. It’s something that has come up in a number of my interviews and the answer, I find, is very telling. Brian reiterated what I’ve heard from those passionate about beer when he told me beer is a “beautiful meld of science and art. Beer is one of those things where you can be as scientific as you like, but at the end of the day there is some art to it”. Tyler said beer is a “gathering place. Everyone has different tastes but the debate and discussion unifies beer drinkers.”
The name for the brewery comes from Tyler’s experience out at the lake. Their cabin has an old Barn on its land and one summer his father, Ted, decided to try and pull it down using his truck. The truck was not up to the task and as a joke Tyler started calling it the “Barn Hammer” and the name stuck.
Barn Hammer plans to open in December of this year with two beers ready to be canned with at least one seasonal on tap for growler fills. Be sure to follow them @barnhammerbeer on Twitter and add them to your list of breweries to visit once they open. I’m really excited to see what beers they have in store for us.
I was lucky enough to sit down with the wonderful Nicole Barry. Those unfamiliar with Nicole will certainly be familiar with the brewery she helped found, Half Pints, and have most likely heard that she is the force behind the up and coming brew pub, Peg Beer Company.
To give a little bit of a bio, Nicole is a mother of two whose professional background is accounting. She got into accounting not to work for an accounting firm but to “be an entrepreneur and be successful at it.” For the past year she has been working diligently to get Peg Beer Company ready to open. The opening has been officially announced for the brew pub. Nicole hopes to be open in December. The brew pub will be located on the corner of Pacific and Lily.
I wanted to sit down with Nicole and find out a little bit about what we can expect from Peg Beer Company as well as how the changes in the laws have impacted the opening of the brew pub.
Nicole describes herself as unsuspecting. She is a beer person, not a brewer, who knows her craft beer. She loves the artistic creativity of brewing and has an obvious passion for it. She became involved in the brewing industry in 2002 and has seen a significant change over the years in the number of people who actually know what craft beer is. Like me, Nicole believes that education about craft beer is a big thing. She describes it as “the art and craft”. For Nicole craft beer is about not only the way you doing things but why they are done that way and also giving back to the community.
Nicole has been wanting to open a brew pub ever since she visited her first one. She had the opportunity after leaving her previous brewery and has been working full time on getting Peg Beer Co ready to open for about a year now. Nicole says that this is about average for opening a brew pub.
When Nicole first decided to open a brewery in 2002 she called the Liquor Commission and they laughed at her on the phone. This was a time of struggles for Manitoba breweries and while she was eventually successful in getting Half Pints open in 2005/6 she says that the climate is much different now. Not only is Nicole a known commodity but the mindset in Manitoba has changed. Manitobans want breweries to open and they want them to be successful.
In respect to craft beer, Manitoba is still in its infancy. While there is a much bigger demand for craft beer and people are starting to become more educated, Nicole told me that over the years she has sat down with dozens of potential breweries that never came to be. For there to be multiple breweries announcing that they are opening is a good change.
Rather than opening a brewery, Nicole decided to open a brew pub. She was involved in helping to change the brew pub legislation and showing them why it needed to be changed by giving examples of what exists elsewhere. In revamping the laws it helped make it easier to open a brew pub while at the same time being able to produce, package and distribute from the same location. This will also let Nicole have other local breweries on tap rather than being limited to only serving the beer they produce.
Essentially, Nicole wanted to put her money where he mouth is. What’s good is that the LGA wants Peg Beer Company to be successful and it gives Nicole the chance to create the atmosphere where she would like to hang out and drink beer. With Peg Beer Company Nicole is paying homage to all of her favorite places like Pizza Port in California.
As for Beer, well Nicole is a sucker for a good IPA but also likes other styles like Sours as well. For her, beer is a form of creativity and art in a glass, not something to be pounded back to get drunk. Yet for Peg Beer the food and beer menu design is still a work in progress. Nicole has a theme in mind but wants to have the collaboration of the rest of the staff in designing the menus.
What is exciting is that Nicole also wants to get feedback from the community. She said that they will not be packaging beer for the first 3-4 months. Beer will only be available from the taps on site. This will give them time to get feedback on their recipe design, find out what people like and what they don’t and will help them refine their beers before moving to the packaging stage. This is fine by me, with the tank to tap system they will have I’m excited to have the opportunity to give feedback on the beer.
Nicole does have the brewing team in place but bit of information must be kept quiet for now. Make sure to follow @pegbeer on twitter because that’s where it will be announced it officially.
Obviously along with taps and a restaurant they will be brewing on site. The capacity of the brewery on will start at about 2000 hectalitres. They will be using a 15 barrel system and she hopes to be up to 5000 hectalitres by year 4 or 5. They will have the capacity to package in a variety of formats and sell from on site. Nicole also has some other plans up her sleeve for the brew pub for the future but she needs to keep some mystery about what’s to come.
Nicole let me have a look at the plans for the site and I have to say the location looks awesome. I for one am really excited about visiting there when it opens and I cannot wait to see what beers Nicole has in store for us.
The brewing community here in Winnipeg is very tight knit. In fact, while talking to Nicole the guys from Barn Hammer happened by. Nicole is really excited about the other breweries opening and thinks that all of them are bringing the right attitude and perspective to the table. All of them seem to really care about the industry and want to brew with integrity.
I had a fantastic time sitting down with Nicole. Not only is she an incredibly knowledgeable person with a passion for craft beer, she was willing to give me some of her time. For that, I’m very thankful. What I’ve learned from interviewing people so far is that beer folks are some of the nicest folks you’ll meet.
This week I’ll be sitting down with Barn Hammer to find out what their experience has been with opening a brewery here in Manitoba and to find out what they have in store for us in the near future.
So, yesterday I decided to do something a little bit different. Rather than interviewing a brew master or someone trying to open a new brewery here in Manitoba (though that is coming), I decided to sit down and chat with Colin Enquist of 49th Parallel Group.
For those of you who do not know Colin, he is a 30 year old graduate of the creative communications program at Red River College who aspires to someday be a screenwriter. For now, he has the very interesting job of being the territory manager for 49th Parallel group here in Manitoba.
49th Parallel group is an agency that specializes in the marketing, selling and promoting of craft beer in Western Canada. Representing 20 breweries across North America, the goal of the group is to help spread the wealth of craft beer into various marketplaces and dealing with all the red tape that comes along with it.
Colin, like most of us, started off not really liking beer. It wasn’t until he moved to Edmonton where he really got into beer. He was out one night and wanted to have a drink, so he grabbed a beer, “It was a Kilkenny Irish cream, not a great beer but it was new to me”. From that point Colin says that he was hooked on trying new beers. When he moved back to Manitoba he started meeting people who were into craft beer and growing his interest. He met his good friend Adrian Trimble, with whom he hosts the great podcast “Pubchat”, and eventually had the opportunity to work for 49th Parallel group representing craft breweries here in Manitoba.
Colin started off doing this gig part-time while he went through the creative communications program. When he graduated he was offered the job full-time and has been working there ever since. For about 2 ½ years Colin has been working hard to try and get craft beer onto the shelves of the Manitoba Liquor Marts. This mostly entails making sales calls to the LCs, being the contact if there are problems or questions, doing tastings and training and most of all “trying to educate people about craft beer”. It also involves writing beer themed recipes and doing a “beer and book” pairing from time to time as well. You’ll have to follow him on twitter @49thparallelmb to get the beer and book pairings.
I asked Colin about the biggest difference he notices between provinces. Colin told me that it’s what sells. Here in Manitoba we are mostly a “can market”. Beers in tall-boy cans seem to sell better here than in other markets. “This may have to do with the cabin lifestyle” Colin told me. This is different in other provinces “In Alberta it’s mostly 6 packs and the 650ml bottles do really well”.
We also talked a lot about craft beer, obviously. Since Colin is someone who has the opportunity to drink so many beers I wanted to know his favorites. He told me that Stouts are his favorite style of beer and that right now his favorite beer is probably Ten Fidy Russian Imperial Stout made by Oskar Blues. When it comes to breweries he’d have to list Flying Monkey’s, “I love pretty much everything they do”, and Oskar Blues out of Denver.
Colin and I also talked about the red tape and all the challenges in place to getting the beer on the shelves in the province of Manitoba. When you compare our craft beer market to that across Canada we are really quite far behind. When you look at a city like Vancouver with over 1000 breweries compared to Winnipeg where we have two, (three if you count the Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute), you can see the vast difference in growth. While there is progress being made, it’s slow but Colin did say that he noticed a huge difference in the knowledge of attendees at this year’s Flatlander’s beer festival compared to the last two years.
We are also seeing for the first time an upswing in potential breweries opening. With Peg Beer Co, and Barn Hammer Brewing Company announcing their plans to open, we are seeing progress here in Manitoba.
Since I was sitting down with the Territory Manager I figured I should ask what we might be seeing coming in the near future. Colin told me that we should be seeing:
Rogue Double IPA and Kolsch
Phillips Barn Stormer Saison IPA and the Phillips Anniversary Beer
Parallel 49 Cornhop IPA
So, keep your eyes peeled for those as well as the rest of the awesome stuff they bring to the shelves.
I have to say, it was really great to sit down with Colin and chat with him about beer. His knowledge about beer is just phenomenal. As someone who is passionate about beer and brewing it’s also nice to sit down with someone who has that same, if not higher, level of passion. It’s great to know that there are people like Colin and the 49th Parallel group working hard to get craft beer into Liquor Marts and to help these breweries thrive.
So, be sure to check out the beers at your local liquor mart, check their website for the new products arriving and be sure to follow Colin on twitter @49thparallelmb to get the latest news from the source. You should probably also follow me on twitter @beerwinnipeg if you haven’t already.
Next for me is I’ll be sitting down with Nicole Barry of Peg Beer Co to chat with her about opening a new brewery here in Manitoba. I also hope to be able to sit down with the folks at Barn Hammer, and of course, I’ll be posting about the progress of my homebrew and reviews of beers I try.
Alright folks, so I picked up the Brews Brothers 12 beer collaboration pack. 12 beers from 12 breweries. I’m going to do my best to try and write up a review on all of them. I can’t promise it will be daily, my day job is keeping me nice and busy these days, but I will do my darnedest.
So, what is this Brews Brothers Collaboration pack anyway? Well, Parallel 49 Brewing out of Vancouver has brought together 12 BC breweries to create a boxed set of 12 blues inspired collaborative beers. Bringing together 12 breweries from BC’s booming craft beer industry was likely a hard challenge. Deciding who to collaborate with and what beers each would make. The breweries participating in this Blues themed mixer pack are: Townsite, Steel & Oak, Firehall, Bomber, Persephone, Storm, Rossland, Dageraad, Moon Under Water, Brassneck, Yellow Dog and Powell Street
Parallel 49 is a brewery that spawned out of three friends love for good beer. Mike, Nick and Anthony all grew up about 10 minutes away from where the brewery now stands. Having been avid home brewers and lovers of good craft beer, these three friends quit their day jobs in 2008 and opened a restaurant which quickly became known as a mecca for good craft beer in Vancouver. Wanting to put their money where their mouth was and stop talking and start brewing, they partnered with Graham With, a respected Home Brewer, and Michael Tod, a friend who had the business savvy and experience in the Vancouver craft beer industry, the Parallel 49 brewing team was born.
This particular collaboration is done in conjunction with Bomber Brewing. This small mico-brewery opened in February of 2014 after three good friends put their love of hockey and beer into practice forming a committed crew together to make good beer. Don Farion, an award winning home brewer, brought not only that talent but 20 years in the hospitality industry together with Cam Andrews’ 20 years of design and marketing experience to create a brand that was unique and stood out from the boom of the craft breweries opening in Vancouver. The head brewer Blair Calibaba brings experience working with Ambleside Brewing as well as 11 years of experience running a brewery to the table as well as his knack to create accessible and approachable beers.
Together these two breweries have created Little Red Rooster, a Red India Session Ale. Session ales are essentially any beer that contains no higher than 5% ABV and features a balance between the hop and malt characteristics and, typically, has a clean finish. According to Beer Advocate the term session likely referred to one of two allowable drinking periods in England that were imposed on shell production workers during World War 1. The fact that they were highly drinkable allowed for these workers to consume multiples during their allotted time period. Today, sessions used to refer to beers that meet the criteria but could come from a variety of different styles.
This one, for example, is an American IPA. Different from a standard IPA and more flavourful than a British IPA it ranges in colour from pale golden to reddish amber. The hops can tend to have a big herbal flavor or citric notes with a good malty backbone. This one, as a red session, is the amber in colour and brings some nice herbal and citrus notes in the hop with a smooth balanced malt at the end which eliminates any lingering bitterness.
Onto the review!
Rating: 81/100
Appearance: Cloudy reddish amber color with a 1” head that dissipates quickly leaving a lingering foam. Smell: Citrus and some herbal smell which I can’t distinguish but is almost like spruce or pine. Taste: Good citrus on the front with a refreshing bitterness that doesn’t linger long. Fading at the finish into the malty sweetness with only a slight lingering taste of tannins making for a dry finish. Mouth feel: Light carbonation, smooth drink, dry finish. Overall: Very nice. Good balance of the hops and malt. More hops would likely showcase the style of beer more but given the accessibility and approachability that bomber goes for that wouldn’t be in their style of brewing. The lower alcohol content is offset by the good hop/malt balance making for decent, if not delicious beer. Do I like it: I do like it. It was a good beer to start with and I think that if this is a sign of things to come that this will be a very good collaboration pack. To be fair, this isn’t anything to write home about. Falling within my Good range, it was good and I’d certainly be happy drinking it again.
Thanks for continuing to follow along with my blog. I’ve got an interview with Matt Wolff at Fort Garry scheduled so looking forward to getting that up in the next couple of weeks! Keep checking back, I’ll be trying to post more about the Brews Brothers mixer pack.
I had the opportunity to visit Half Pints and speak with the president and head brewer David Rudge. I had been curious about the brewery itself, their plans for this upcoming year as well as how the growler bar and his appointment to the provincial “Craft Breweries Initiative” were going. He was kind enough to give me his time and for the entire visit I did not feel rushed or as if he had somewhere else to be – quite nice from someone who has grown such a successful brewery, not what I expected.
About the Brewery
Image of the brewing room at Half Pints. Casks are available at the Grove Pub!
I have already given a rundown of the history of Half Pints in my review of the Doc Emmett Brown Ale. I won’t go over all that again. Rather, I was able to learn about where the brewery stands today.
At present Half Pints has a brewing capacity of about 6,000 Hectalitres. They have a number of fermenting drums and numerous storage ones as well and are able to produce a variety of beers at any given time. Typically their 4 main beers on the go (Little Scrapper, Bulldog Amber, St. James Pale Ale, and Stir Stick Stout.) As well, they tend to have at least one seasonal in progress with another in the pipe to come up shortly. On top of that, their growler brews for the growler bar and any test batches that they may be working on could be bubbling away. All in all there are around 8 or 9 different beers on the go in the brewery at any given time.
This year David told me he plans to switch things up a bit. He doesn’t like doing the same thing over and over again and so this year of the 15 beers that will be produced, 9 will be new beers. He wants to bring back some of the beers they brewed in their first year (2007) as well as some new ones.
Half Pints is made up of 12 full time staff members who do a variety of tasks from brewing to filling/bottling to repairs and technical work on the equipment. David told me their bottling technician had souped up their Meenans bottler to be not only fill industry standard bottles, but also to be able to fill the 650ml bottles they use for seasonal beers.
What’s really interesting about their staffing is that in the summer, David will hire a brewing student. The only requirement is that the student be a Manitoban. It’s a move that’s really important to David and something he has been doing for a while. In fact, one of the brewers at Half Pints is a former student who was introduced to the brewery in this way. David told me that you “don’t go to school to learn what to do right, you go to school to learn what to do when everything goes wrong”. Giving people the opportunity to work alongside experienced brewers is a great way to build capacity and allow for internal creative growth. He told me the crew at Half Pints are like a family. I can see from his supportive attitude where this stems from.
Growler Bars and Creativity
One of the main reasons I wanted to sit down with David was because of the introduction of growler bars to Manitoba. I wanted to find out what sort of impact this had on his ability to be creative with the beers they brew and what overarching impact he felt it might have on brewing in Manitoba.
The growler bar at Half Pints
The implementation of the growler bars has allowed for a different group of people to access the beers from Half Pints. He told me “It’s a different set of people” who seem to be coming in for the growlers. It’s giving Half Pints the opportunity to hit a different market than they would hit with their bottled beer. What David had noticed was that there are a lot of younger people coming in to buy growlers. It is likely a university and young professional crowd who are seeking to get a better bang for their craft beer buck.
The growler bars have also seemed to have had an impact on distribution. Since the opening of the growler bars, Half Pints has pulled a lot of its export back. They recently stopped shipping beer to Alberta which, according to David, was a big deal given they had been shipping beer there quite a while. What was interesting was that the decision wasn’t due to lack of popularity but more due to the fact they don’t have enough extra beer to send.
Along with this ability to reach a different customer group, the growler bars have also allowed Half Pints to venture into more creative territory. “Before, we would have to be ordering labels 6 months in advance for beers.” Now, beers do not need to be labelled if they will be sold at growler bars. Instead, Half Pints just needs to indicate the value of the ingredients to MLCC and then, using a formula, MLCC gives them the price at which they need to sell the beer. This allows for them to come up with new beer ideas on the fly and gives the opportunity to really let the creative juices flow.
I asked David whether they would be doing things like Test Batch Tuesday or experimenting with beers if the growler bars did not exist. His response was a resounding “No.” This creativity is really important to David and the Half Pints crew. He told me he doesn’t really understand why some breweries will see a beer made somewhere else and try to emulate it. He thinks that the creativity of a brewery and the ability to come up with their own ideas is really important.
So, what about Test Batch Tuesdays?
For those who don’t know, this year Half Pints has started a more regular test batch tasting opportunity. Tuesday mornings a 50L keg (about 25 growlers) will be tapped. Inside it will contain a test recipe a staff member wanted to try out. They tweet out when they tap the keg, so if this interests you make sure to follow @halfpintsbrewco and @halfpintsbrucru on twitter.
Test Batch Tuesday – Rum Soaked Oaked Stout
The idea came from just wanting to try out different things. Using 50L batches they will either use a Magic Brew System to brew something totally unique from scratch or pull some of an existing beer out during different stages of brewing so they can experiment with it. The idea behind this is not only to give some creative freedom to the brewers but also to actually test out different recipes to see if they might want to take it further to a larger batch in the future to sell at the growler bars or perhaps even bottle.
They started out doing these on Saturdays but ended up with too many people lining up for a taste and being disappointed when the batch ran out. The shift was made to Tuesday morning’s but a similar issue has arisen. I asked David if he might try alternating times and he said that in the future they might look at shifting the times to allow for different groups of people to get out and grab some of the test brew.
What was nice to hear is the test batch might not be the last chance to try the beer. It might show up in a larger batch in the future.
The amount of respect and trust David has for the crew at Half Pints is really admirable. He has really let them go with the creative aspect and opened the door to trying new things. He told me that when Half Pints opened, the expectations for beer was so low people were fine with the status quo. Since opening and pushing the creative boundaries, other breweries in the MB market are needing to step up their game and start considering some creative options. I think we can really see this in action with Fort Garry starting to expand outside their main brews.
Craft Breweries Initiative
As well as all the work that David does at Half Pints to keep the beer flowing, he has also recently been appointed to the Manitoba Governments Craft Breweries Strategy. As the only brewer on the committee he brings a really unique perspective to the table. We had a really good conversation around the recent changes to the laws here in Manitoba and how it has opened the doors for new breweries to start up. In fact, David was one of the people who fought with the MLCC to allow for growlers to be sold. He didn’t do this just so that he could benefit from them but also so the next person in Manitoba who opens up a brewery doesn’t have to be beholden to bars and contracts for selling beer.
With the laws as they stand today, a small guy could open a brewery tomorrow and not have to worry about bottling, canning, or selling his beer to bars. He can sell 100% of his beer to growler bars and still be profitable. He told me the amount of equipment and labour required to run a small brewery requires about 2 people and that given the laws today it can still be profitable.
Another shot of the brewing room at Half Pints
David hopes in the near future the laws can be further expanded to allow for taprooms to be opened in Manitoba. For those who don’t know, taprooms would allow for pints of beer to be sold in the same location as growlers. This would allow for small breweries to essentially sell 100% of their beer at the brewery and not be reliant on any other party for the sale of their beer. According to David this opportunity for growth is necessary to the survival of the local craft beer industry.
I was curious whether David was concerned about the creation of competition within the province. His response really told me a lot about his character: he doesn’t consider it competition. He doesn’t even consider Fort Garry competition. If he had the choice between getting Fort Garry’s tap at a bar or no tap at all, he’d prefer no tap. He wants to be taking Molson’s tap or Labatt’s tap and wants to see local craft beer grow and prosper. Given the growth in demand for craft beer and the government’s willingness to support and grow the industry, I can see this type of shift happening.
Will they ever go to Investor’s Group Field or the MTS centre? I asked David and he told me that it likely won’t happen in the near future. Labatt’s and Bud sign contracts with these venues and typically take a hit on cost so that they can advertise at the games. Given the fact people are willing to pay $9 a beer, he doesn’t think there will be any quick movement on behalf of these venues to swap out brews.
Overall, I’m really excited about the conversation I had with David. Not only is he a really down to earth guy who loves beer, he has some really solid ideas and a really good plan for the next year. I’m excited to see what he and the folks at Half Pints come up with this next year and I am going to do my darndest to try as much of the new brew they put out. Overall, Half Pints is a brewery that makes buying beer in Manitoba not just about the quality but also about the people who brew it. I for one am proud to support Manitoba craft beer.
Beer Winnipeg 