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.