Cheers to Beers

@bhopps83 @cwmoulding #BeerRun @run_beer


Over the last few weeks, we’ve had several opportunities to raise a pint in celebration of craft beer. Yes, there are, in fact, specified days on the calendar where we honour our favorite beverage. Did you miss your chance to chug one back? It’s not like we beer drinkers need a specific reason to celebrate, but during the first week of August, not one, but two days were dedicated to beautiful beers.

Brewers and drinkers have taken to social media and the Internet in recent years to promote the industry, and have taken similar strides to promote beer “days.”

IPA Day, is one such example. It was created by two “Social Media personalities” in the United States, and was intended to bring bloggers, critics, brewers, and enthusiasts together, using social media as the venue to talk about craft beers. The intent is, according to the IPA Day website, www.IPADay.org, to make beer drinkers more aware of what’s out there. The movement is in its infancy, having been established on August 2, 2011. If you missed it this year, make sure to mark your calendar for next year right now.

While we can’t tell you why organizers chose to name the day after a pale ale, we can say the history behind the India Pale Ale (IPA) is constantly being debated amongst brewers and consumers alike because, let’s face it, it’s fun to argue about beer. Here’s what stands out when talking about the style’s origins. During England’s colonization period, brewers attempted to ship popular varieties of ale to India. Due to the distance and length of the voyage, however, the recipes often went bad. English brewers then, in an attempt to outlast the voyage, began adding more hops and alcohol content, which were believed to help the preservation process. This is why most IPAs have a strong taste and a hoppy bitterness.

Shift forward a few days to August 5, and we celebrate International Beer Day (IBD). Established in 2007 by a group of young guys in San Francisco who celebrated everything beer related at their local pub. The troupe created a small website (www.internationalbeerday.com) in the process, and as it turned out, they were soon contacted by beer drinkers in England and South Africa, who also celebrated beer at their respective watering holes.

If you comb through the IBD website, you’ll find there are three goals to a successful celebration of beer. Firstly, and probably most important, to gather and share a pint with friends. Second, to toast those in the industry who provide and serve the beverages, and Finally, to recognize the fact that beer is universal. It’s everywhere.

If we’ve been able to assist our readers in finding something new to try since starting the column nearly four months ago, we’ve done our jobs and have enjoyed the process along the way. Our vision for craft beers is every consumer be open-minded about the wealth of new brands popping up across Canada. Beer is not like Canada’s Food Guide. There are more than four groups of beer. Have fun with what you choose to drink.

You can very easily make the argument that millions of people already celebrate a good brew every day at 5pm. It’s a good excuse to use when you want to unwind after a hard day at the office. So whether you celebrate beer everyday, or celebrate it on specific days we salute you. Cheers... to beers!

A Thirsty Beaver

This award winning ale hails from Kelowna, BC

@bhopps83 @cwmoulding #BeerRun @run_beer

“I’d like a thirsty beaver.” I said to our waitress.
With face that looked puzzled she asked “A what?”
I laughed, understanding that she wouldn’t of had many requests for the oddly named beer, so I repeated my selfing adding, “it’s one of the new beers.”

Ordering a Thirsty Beaver from a waitress or waiter may come with a few puzzled looks. But it’s worth the extra time it takes to order. You may remember in our last column we mentioned the Thirsty Beaver as being one of the great beer names of our time, and wouldn’t you know, not long after we wrote about it, Thirsty Beaver is now available (among a handful of other great, new, selections) in Saskatchewan.

This award winning Amber Ale is perfect for anyone breaking into craft beers. Seasoned craft beer drinkers will enjoy it as well. Even if it’s too middle of the road for a more seasoned drinker, the Thirsty Beaver is a great introduction to the Tree Brewing company. A brewing company who declare they “brew memorable beers regardless of style.”

It’s a four-week process to brew a Thirsty Beaver, according to Tree Brewing’s Brewmaster, Stephan Buhl. “We start with darker malts, which gives the beer its hint of hopiness in the beginning, and clean finish.”

A quick sniff, and the scent of the Thirsty Beaver does offer a hint of caramel that would suggest a sweetness, but it also provides a much more sour smell underneath. New craft beer drinkers would be wise to avoid sniffing the bottle, or glass as the scent of the Thirsty Beaver is very misleading. Seasoned craft beer drinkers will also be mislead by this first step because much of what is present in the smell is missing in the taste.

A bottle of Thirsty Beaver will first offer a lovely sweet taste to the tongue, but it won’t linger long on the tongue or in the mouth after swallowed. This lack of an aftertaste is created from the beer’s lower levels of carbonation. With less carbonation the beer has a bit more water in its base, cleansing palate quicker than usual. For those who smelled their beer before taking a sip, you’ll notice the absence of the sourness the scent suggests. For new craft beer drinker this mildness makes the thirsty Beaver easier to consume. Seasoned hop heads will, I feel, be a little let down.

The colour of the beer is also misleading. It’s a darker shade of Amber, which would suggest a heavier finish, however, true to form on how the company defines itself, the beer has taken what know from an Amber Ale, and added something to it. This beer tries to be different.

The Thirsty Beaver was a Silver medalist in the 2012 edition of the Canadian Brewing Awards (under the category of “North American Style - Amber/Red Style Ale”). Although the critics agreed it was a stand-out entrant, they probably had a hard time placing it into the Amber Style category. It wouldn’t come as a huge surprise if Tree Brewing were hesitant to call it an Amber Ale either. If “misleading,” “different, and “not as it seems” are terms we’ve used to describe it, imagine what the professionals think.

“The Thirsty Beaver has always been our most popular beer,” said Buhl, from company headquarters. “It was our full intention to create a beer everyone likes. We don’t want to offend anyone from our brand by introducing a flavour or texture that’s over the top.”

If you’re passing time in Regina, Beer Bros. occasionally serves Tree Brewing’s Hop Head on tap, bringing it in the Summer Months as a seasonal. Locally, Al’s Place is serving the Thirsty Beaver, as well as the MadCap Belgian White Ale in bottles.

Beer Discrimination

@bhopps83 #BeerRun @run_beer

When Rolling Rock first arrived in Saskatchewan, I couldn’t have been more excited. This “Extra Pale” lager has been one of my favorite American brands of beer for a long time, and to see it stocked in the shelves of my local pub was, for me,a sign that things were changing around here. The stereotypical prairie beer drinker was finally starting open up to a wider variety.

I thought that way, until I actually started talking to people about Rolling Rock. Here’s an example of how one of my conversations went:

Joe Prairie Six-Pack: “Rolling Rock? Never heard of it, is it any good?”

Me: “It’s one of my favs, you should try it!”

Joe Prarie Six-Pack: “What’s it taste like?”

Me: “It’s kind of like an American version of Steam Whistle.”

Joe Prairie Six-Pack: “AMERICAN?! Pbffff pass...”

This might come as a surprise, but there are some pretty good brewery’s and beers coming out of the states. Although The Latrobe Brewing Company’s Rolling Rock brand was sold to mega-beer company, Anheuser-Busch in ‘06, it still happens to be very good.

First brewed in Latrobe Pennsylvania in the late 1930’s, Rolling Rock stayed out of the big guys hands for nearly 70 years, and was probably one of the more recognisable micro-brewed brands. Once Anheuser-Busch got a hold of the recipe, they brewed Rolling Rock out of their Newark plant, and the rest is as we know it today.

I have to laugh when someone sneers at an American brew because chances are they’re missing out. Rolling Rock in Particular because it’s very light and crisp, perfect for a hot summer day.

Dismissing a perfectly good beer, based entirely on where it comes from is descrimination in it’s highest form. Without trying to get extremely preachy here, there are laws in place that ensures you don’t do the same to your fellow neighbour. Shame on you folks who dismiss the beer for where it comes from.

Now, taking my arguement back to liquid form, unfortunately, I think alot of beer drinkers in this province are the same people who subscribe to the Tim Horton’s rule for coffee, in thinking there is only one type of coffee.

There is more than one type of coffee in the world, and, as well as  having more than one type of person on earth, fortunately there is more than one type of beer. yum. I for one say, “love thy neighbouring brews.”

Warm Beer

@run_beer @cwmoulding

Most of us have all choked down a warm beer while the rest are cooling off in the fridge. The entire time our tongue cries out in disgust. To avoid us from drinking warm beer marketers place “coldness indicators” on their cans and bottles. But is the cold indicator strip on the Coors Light can really there to tell you when your beer is cold? Can you not tell with your own hands that your beer is cold? Why now do they have two strips, one that informs you when it’s cold, and one that informs you when it’s “mountain cold”. What the hell is the difference? Why is Coors so obsessed with their beer being cold? Have you ever had a warm Coors light? Did you enjoy it?

There is little doubt that a cold beer is usually more enjoyable then a warm beer. Coors obsession with the temperature of their beer is understandable. If you’ve ever had a warm Coors Light you can understand why they need to ensure your drinking it at it’s coldest. Lets be honest Coors Light is absolute rubbish when it’s warm.

Not all beers share that same temperature characteristic. As you begin to experience more craft beers you will quickly find that some beers are actually brewed with the intention of being served at room temperature. At first this is a difficult concept to grasp. It’s made difficult by the marketing campaigns of the big guys, and all of our own experiences with a cold beer on a hot day. But craft beer is more then just drinking a beer after a hard days work; it’s more then just drinking a beer in the back yard. It’s about new beer experiences. Beer can be as sophisticated as wine, and as such be enjoyed in as many different ways.

It’s easy to identify beers that are best consumed at room temperature. You simply need to consider the color, smell, alcohol content, and type. To know if a beer would be better enjoyed at room temperatures first consider color. Beer that t is darker, brown, or red in color is usually more at home at room temperature. Smelling a beer can say a lot about the ingredients used to brew it, and more importantly, in this case, can reveal alcohol content. Alcohol gives off a very distinct smell and the stronger the smell the more alcohol the beer has.

Coincidently darker colors and higher alcohol content are characteristics found in the types of beer that are best enjoyed at room temperature. If your willing to try a beer that is suited for warmer enjoyment look for brown ales, stouts, porters, doppelbocks, and barley wines. All of these types of beers are darker, a bit heavier, and contain an above average alcohol content. Finding good craft brewed stouts, porters, and barley wines isn’t difficult to do; Canadian craft brewers have won numerous awards and accolades for their brewing skills with these types of beer.

We’ve been drinking our beers at “Mountain Cold” temperatures for so long that a room temperature beer is difficult to accept. Entering the world of craft beer is going to change more then what you demand of your beer, or what you think a beer is. It’s going to change everything about the beer experience. Put aside, just for a moment, the idea that a beer needs to be cold. Give a room temperature porter a try. It may change the way you view your favourite beverage.

Uptown Girls

@bhopps83 #BeerRun @run_beer

What’s to be made of a beer brand like Uptown Girl Beer? It’s a product from Minhas Creek breweries, and as the commercial states on the Uptown Girl website, it’s now available in Edmonton. Given the fact the brand is available in Alberta, there is a somewhat decent chance it will be available in Saskatchewan in the future.

I can see how one could perceive it as an aggressive marketing structure for a new ad campaign. Its target demographic is very specific, and it projects an image of self worth for that target. In short, Minhas knows who they’re going after. It’s that single, mid-twenties to early thirties urbanite female. Think “Sex and the City” girls, only instead of finding them sipping on cosmopolitans, they’re chugging a cold one.

Here’s the sales pitch: at 57 calories and 1.9 grams of carbs per bottle, it’s definitely cool to the last drop.

One way to cut down on calories with beer is to have less of the stuff. Minhas has done exactly that by offering Uptown Girl Beer in smaller quantities. Their bottles are 207ml, compared to your standard 331ml bottle. Granted, the soda-pop companies have been doing this sort of thing to reduce sugar intake from your average Joe Pop-Can for years, but HOW DARE you do this to my precious beer bottle.I’ve always believed that with fewer calories in beer, the closer you are to drinking water, so you might as well just have a tall glass of H2O, and call it a night. Ergo, you won’t be selling me any Uptown Girl Beer with a campaign for fewer calories.

I’m getting away from the point I want to make about why Uptown Girl Beer is good for the craft brewing business.

With names like “Cherry Belgian Red” and “Strawberry Blond Ale,” Minhas is giving a definitive demographic, whom I believe wouldn’t otherwise know these types of brews are around, a peek into the world of craft brewing.

As I’ve said before in previous articles, blending fruit and beer isn’t a new concept. Quite frankly, given the right Saturday afternoon, and the Sun has to be pointing in the right direction, but a strawberry blond ale can be very refreshing. Usually, blending beer with cherries results in a sour texture, so if you’re trying these out, be forewarned.

Uptown Girl Beer is selling their product to a select crowd, I am in full recognition of that, but I also think it’s a good idea from Minhas to have gone after that crowd.

I was able to perform a quick survey at my day job, targeting all the women in the office. All of whom fall within Minhas’ target audience with Uptown Girl Beer. The question I put to them was simple, I offered a look at the Uptown Girl website, and asked, “Would you try these beers?” Every girl in the office (I make it seem like I work with hoards of women, but really there are four of them) responded with a “yes, I would try that,” or something to that effect.

They now know that cherries and strawberries can coexist with beer and not just Vodka chillers.

Saskatchewan Champagne

@bhopps83 #BeerRun @run_beer

Here's a thought for a particularly rainy, Sunday afternoon.

Why is Molson's Pilsner so popular in Saskatchewan?

It's a question I've wrestled with for some time, and I'm not entirely sure there is a concrete answer. Here's what I know from scrounging Wikipedia, and the Pils website. "Old Style Pilsner" has never been brewed in Saskatchewan. The closest it's come to this province is in its origins in Lethbridge, Alberta. In Fact, the brand has more history in Ontario, where it was launched in 1992 by Molson, and failed shortly thereafter. There's even a Manitoba connection where the beer's founder, Fritz Sick, purchased a Manitoba brewery and created "Frontier" beer in the 1930's.

Pilsner is however, a major sponsor of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, another institution in green packaging. The two brands go hand in hand, of that I'm certain. Whenever the "Green and White" are out and about, an empty box of Pils is usually resting on someone's head (that or a hollowed-out watermelon).

is that all it is? Put a sponsorship on Saskatchewan's team, and hang on for the ride? the Old Style is one of the few beers brewed by the big boys (although it was bought out) that I enjoy, so it's not like I dislike the idea of it being so popular. What I'm curious about is why... It's one of those things that the people of this province have attached themselves to, and the only reason I can think of as to why, is because someone, somewhere in the Molson Hierarchy decided to put some coin behind The Riders. Pils isn't local by any means, so I find it curious that an entire province would back it, above all other brands. It's kind of funny actually, in other provinces, the cashier behind the counter at the off-sale has to think if they even carry the stuff. Not around here!

In any case, I'm not trying to mess with your "Green Diesel."

The Namesake

@bhopps83 @run_beer #BeerRun

A Thirsty Beaver, The Backhand of God, and a bottle of Moose Drool.

Sadly, There isn’t a witty punchline to follow this list of unrelated items. Okay, I lied. These three objects do have something in common. They’re all great names for beer I’ve come across in my adventures of tasting the latest and greatest lagers and ales.

While there are no guarantees you’ll enjoy any one of them, the chances of remembering their distinctively creative names are slightly higher.

Big breweries are trying desperately to cover markets where the craft world has caught, and in some cases, surpassed them. One area the craft market does exceedingly well in is the naming of their product. I truly believe the right name for a craft beer can build an audience on its own accord. A proper moniker has to be distinct and easy to remember.

“It can be a challenge,” says President of Paddock Wood Brewing, Steven Cavan. “Generally, we have a product created, and then we sit around collectively and brainstorm first, a catchy name people will remember, and two, a piece of imagery we can take to our graphic artist.”

Names like: “Red,” “Blonde,” “White” and “Dark” certainly give you a clear description of what kind of beer you’re drinking. Both Alexander Keith’s and Rickards have used these names for their latest beers, appealing to a selective audience. However, without a gimmick to help consumers remember one red from another, a craft brewer’s creation is in danger of being lumped into a box of empties and forgotten about. A brewmaster’s worst nightmare!

“We have the Red Hammer, and Black Cat and you have a general sense of what you’re drinking,” says Cavan, “but we tend to stay away from that way of naming in favour of the imagery. The Graphic Artist plays a bigger role than you might imagine.”

One of Paddock Wood’s Flagship beers, the 606, has a very distinctive image on its packaging.

“I went to our artist and asked him what we could do with the imagery, it’s just a number, and he responded with the concept of identifying trains by their numbers. If you ask a train geek though,” says Cavan. “They know trains don’t have 3 numbers on them, they have 4. We were actually approached by a jazz festival to come up with a concept beer. The 606 club in London is a very famous jazz club there, and that’s where the name is derived from.”

According to Cavan, this isn’t an unusual request.

“Three or four times a year we’ll get approached by organizations to create a beer for them. Sometimes they are very specific in what they want to see in a recipe or even the name, other times it’s an open-ended challenge.”

As a result, a number of the Saskatoon brewery’s creations have been aided in the naming process by different groups and agencies.

For the past few years Paddock Wood has participated in Saskatoon’s Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan by providing themed beers. Each Summer has brought a new concept to the Fesitval’s open-ended challenge, and that tradition will continue this July.

The naming process doesn’t always have to be complex, the President of Paddock Wood ponders, as he explains several rituals he’s gone through to name a creation . The story behind his Czech Mate brew is quite simple.

“I like Czech beer, and I like playing chess, simple as that,” says Cavan.

A Break From The Norm

@bhopps83 #BeerRun @run_beer

We’ve all been in this situation before: The scene is a dinner party, or a wedding social, or some non-descript event you really didn’t want to attend in the first place. Inevitably, you’ll have to venture towards the bar.

The drink situation is a lot like the people you’re trying to make small talk with: bland and boring. Your choice of brew is always the same. You’re forced to choose between two “light” beers, or a “premium” variety of the first two choices.

This, ladies and gentlemen should not be the choice we’re entitled to make when a “pick-me-up” is required to pass the time.

I bring the aforementioned social scenario to your attention because the same situation was presented to me at a wedding social for a friend I hadn’t seen in years (sound familiar?).

The evening was playing its course quickly enough,and at this point, thankfully, so was the beer. Except, one of the people I was talking with, discussing, the lame selection of alcohol (also, a friend I hadn’t seen in years), turned out to be a Beer Representative for Okanagan Springs, Creemore Springs and Granville Island Brewing Company. The friend was based out of Winnipeg, and was responsible for bringing the brand to Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

My jaw went slack for a good three seconds.

When I regained social consciousness, I confessed to being a self-educated hophead, and enjoyed discussing the finer points of beer.

We ended up trading business cards at the end of the evening, and I marvelled at my stroke of good luck in having grown up with someone who works in the industry.

Granville Island Brewing (GIB)is a west-coast brewery, situated in the public market district of the same name in Vancouver. It holds historical significance in this country as being the first Canadian microbrewery, having opened its doors in 1984.

Currently two of GIB’s flagship beers are available in Saskatchewan: Kitsilano Cream Ale, and English Bay Pale Ale. Both are enjoyable brews, but with reference to the overall point of the article, I point out these two beers for their break from the norm. They offer up variety. Both brands are immediately palatable. For those who are used to light beers, GIB’s mainstays are a great introduction into the world of craft brewing.

Perhaps the greatest reason I can think of to include The English Bay Pale Ale in your introduction pack is after your initial sip, the hops in the brew aren’t all that present in the taste, but come out slowly in the seconds after you swallow, and along with it a subtle taste of caramel and honey.

The main difference between the English Bay and Kitsilano Cream Ale is the ending. Instead of caramel and honey, the Kitsilano has a kick of maple. As you can devise from your own experiences with caramel, maple and honey, both of these varieties are sweet to the taste.

GIB is constantly brewing new recipes to add to their lineup. You can visit their website at gib.ca and while only two varieties are available in Saskatchewan right now, if you can get your hands on some of their other beers, they are definately worth a second sip.

When organizing your next social function, be it a wedding social, or 40th wedding anniversary, instead of making sure the beer list includes the four major beer brands, think of the people like me. Add at least one drink that’s different; a break from the norm. You’ll have people saying, “the people were bland and boring, but at least the beer was good!”

Squeeze These Lemons

By @bhopps83 #BeerRun @run_beer

There are several things we’ve come to expect from the onset of summer: warmer weather, the start of the CFL season, blockbuster movies, skirts and backyard barbeques all wet our appetite for longer days. I know of only one sure way to quench the thirst from a hot summer day, either at the office or out on the water. It involves your favorite brew (or, two).

Of late, big name breweries have, or at least tried to add to the growing list of our favorite summer prospects. Beer with lime infused flavorings, Clamato already added, or artificial lemon juices are a few of the summer marketing gimmicks being implemented. The latest in the game is an iced-tea inspired creation from Molson-Coors.

This trend of combining our favorite additives to beer started way back in 2008 when Budweiser turned the beer-brand marketing world on itself by adding the lime for us (because you really do need the lime for a Bud Light to taste like … well, anything). Who could forget the tongue-tickling catch phrase “It’s Time for Lime.”?


If I want a lime in my beer, Mr. Overpaid-Marketing-Genius, I will put one in there, thank you.

While I do enjoy the odd slice of lemon or orange in my Half Pints Little Scrapper I.P.A. or Paddockwood 606 I.P.A. on a hot day. A beer should be consumed without masking the original intent of the flavourings. Often, a good brew master will add notes of citrus, herbs, berries or even coffee beans to his or her recipe as part of an overall vision.

There are smaller, localized breweries around that have creations with aforementioned ingredients within the bottle, but again, it was part of an overall vision, not just an afterthought. Mill Street Brewery’s Lemon-Tea Ale for example, comes to mind. It’s not available in Saskatchewan, but with its popularity growing in Ontario, and the mass-marketing push of these infused beers from big-box breweries, especially in the prairies, you might see the Tea Ale available in the west soon enough. As the name suggests, it’s a citrusy-sweet taste, very light and smooth.

Not my usual cup, but if the mood suits, it can be quite enjoyable.

Amber’s Brewing Company, out of Edmonton, makes a very nice “Summer” seasonal beer, which is great on it’s own, and conversely, very accepting of a lemon, lime, or orange slice. Their Australian Mountain Pepper Berry Blend is brewed with sundried blueberries found in Australia. Apparently the process of sun-drying the berries gives the flavour its peppery aftertaste. It’s that sensation of pepper that enhances the overall body of the beer.

Not buying in to the infusion trend, but still add your own ingredients? Good for you. A rule of thumb when looking to add ingredients of your own is to choose a lighter beer. That’s lighter in colour rather than alcohol content. The theory is that the lighter the colour of the brew suggests more subtle flavours, which are more accepting to additives. This is why before Bud Light With Lime came along, a typical pairing for lime-included beers like Moosehead, or Carona. Choosing bottles over cans can be to your advantage in this instance. You can actually distinguish colours, somewhat, through a bottle.

If you want to add that Clamato to your brew, go for it. You deserve it. It’s summer after all. You should be able to do so, however, without the gimmicks. Without the “here’s the same boring beer, but we’ve squeezed the lemons for you” mentality.

Who said it needs to be summer to add lime to a beer anyways…