In 1982, John Mitchell was struggling to get a crazy idea off the ground: he wanted to brew his own beer and serve it in his pub, something no one else in Canada was doing. With the help of fellow British expat Frank Appleton, he managed to scrape together money for some brewing equipment (adapted from a dairy) and a brewing space. Appleton had the skills to create a recipe and make the beer. Mitchell managed to get the necessary permissions to open his Horseshoe Bay Brewery. But one magical ingredient was missing: yeast.

Mitchell’s appeals to various large breweries to use some of their yeast had gone unanswered or were rejected. No one was interested. No one, that is, until Mitchell reached out to one of the top breweries in his native England: Fuller’s Brewery, home of the famous ale London Pride. Under Appleton’s expert hand and using the yeast shipped over from Fuller’s, Horseshoe Bay Brewery produced a London Pride-style beer that they christened Bay Ale, the first keg of which they tapped in the summer of 1982. In his memoir, Appleton recalls the nervousness they both felt that first night, especially when the initial pour was cloudy. However, nerves proved to be wrong. Bay Ale was so popular that they soon found themselves selling out, and Horseshoe Bay Brewery became both a destination and an inspiration for other craft beer fans out there, including the people who would soon establish Granville Island Brewing, Shaftebury Brewing, and more.

Bay Ale was the first collaboration in the history of Canadian craft beer, and the spirit of that partnership is now being replicated in a new beer – The Transatlantic Collaboration IPA, a beer produced in collaboration with Spinnakers Brewpub in Victoria and Fuller’s Brewery in England. This is the first John Mitchell Signature Collaboration, with more planned for the future. The proceeds of this beer and future Signature Collaboration beers will go to the KPU John Mitchell Legacy Endowed Scholarship. After much anticipation, the Transatlantic IPA was released this week at special events held at Spinnakers Brewpub in Victoria and the Barley Merchant in Langley. To say that craft beer fans in BC were excited to try it is an understatement.

But why Spinnakers? Since Horseshoe Bay Brewery has long been closed, Spinnakers was the natural choice. Spinnakers’ history extends back to 1984, when John Mitchell helped architect Paul Hadfield realize his dream of opening a brewpub. As one of the few breweries in BC serving beer on cask and producing traditional English ales, it seemed only right that it was the site and the partner for this new Fuller’s collab.

John Mitchell’s longtime friend John Ohler spearheaded the collaboration, and planning began over a year ago. When Ohler first reached out to Fuller’s head brewer Guy Stewart, Stewart was initially taken aback: “Who’s this mad Canadian?” he recalls asking himself. However, as soon as he heard the history, he was on board. He contacted their yeast labs immediately and asked them to ship some to Paul Hadfield’s brewing team at Spinnakers. Along with the yeast, Stewart sent the recipe for Fuller’s famous Extra Special Bitter (ESB).

With the ESB recipe, Fuller’s yeast, and Hadfield’s vision for producing an old-world style IPA, the Spinnakers brewers got to work. After a couple of test batches, they arrived at that perfect balance of rich malt and earthy, slightly floral hops. The Transatlantic Collaboration IPA was born. A beautiful, clear, bright copper, it’s somewhere between an English IPA and an ESB, with a healthy dose of nutty malt richness balancing the moderate hop bite. It’s not your usual West Coast-style IPA; it is more subtle and points to its origins in the English ale tradition. It’s a beautiful beer, and fairly sessionable at 5.2% ABV.

The events at Spinnakers in Victoria and The Barley Merchant in Langley were crowded with brewers, brewery owners, and other supporters of the BC craft beer industry. Longtime industry advocates like Ken Beattie and Lundy Dale were there, and Guy Stewart himself flew over from England for the celebrations. This collaboration marks an important moment in BC craft beer history, so it was meaningful to see such a gathering of craft beer luminaries present to honour it.

John Ohler, who has worked tirelessly to support the BC craft beer industry and memorialize Mitchell’s legacy, agrees.

“It’s an important milestone in Canada’s craft beer history. Forty-three years after Fuller’s in England sent yeast to John Mitchell to open Canada’s first craft brewery, we’re doing it again!” he says. “And this is at a time when Canada’s craft beer industry is struggling. We need to recognize the importance of collaboration in craft beer – it’s what characterizes craft beer. Collaboration brings multiple people together to create an interesting product for the consumer. The industry desperately needs this.”

The Transatlantic Collaboration IPA will be available at various private liquor stores on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, including Vessel, Jaks, and Legacy. Spinnakers will be donating proceeds from the sales to the John Mitchell Scholarship at KPU’s Brewing and Brewery Operations Program.

Every Pint Tells a Story

Supporting Local. Celebrating Community.

The post New Beer from Spinnakers Replicates Canada’s First Craft Beer Collaboration appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Many beer lovers have heard the folklore surrounding the origins of the India Pale Ale – that English brewers added massive quantities of hops to their barrels of pale ale in order to prevent the beer from spoiling on its long journey to India, where it would slake the thirst of British soldiers. The hoppy bite of the IPA was thus born. 

The story isn’t quite as simple as that, though. In recent years, beer historians and writers such as Martyn Cornell and Joshua Bernstein have provided more nuanced explanations of IPA history. However, the core ideas remain: beginning in the 18th century, pale ales were increasingly hopped to survive the journey to southern climes, including India, and the style became ever more popular over the next couple of centuries. 

Intellectual understanding of the IPA is one thing, but what did these early versions actually taste like? While there are relatively few 18th and 19th-century brewing-related records, a few survive that sketch out the shape of these older beers. Brewer and scientist Nathan Vadeboncoeur, founder of Project Hop and Brasserie du Bon Temps, has dug into the beer archives to find out how to brew these original versions of the IPA. And now you can buy some to try at home!

The Beginnings: Hop Science and the Roots of Beer

Vadeboncoeur’s Project Hop was initially not a brewing project at all, but a company rooted in his training as an environmental scientist. Launched in 2017, the original Project Hop offered quality assurance services for BC’s hop growers. As he worked on assessing hop quality across the province, he became increasingly interested in hop terroir. Wine has terroir, so why not beer? 

He noted that terroir – the soil, the microbes, the surrounding vegetation – affects hop flavours, even among hops of the same variety. He realized that if brewers knew they could count on the quality and flavour of a particular hop, they would be more likely to purchase – and thus he could help boost the business of small hop farmers and encourage more experimentation in hop production. 

The Covid Pivot and Founding the Brasserie du Bon Temps

However, the COVID-19 pandemic ground everything to a halt. At that time, he pivoted from hop terroir to hop history. His company Project Hop became the current Project Hop, which is his line of historical IPAs, and from Project Hop grew his brewery label: Brasserie du Bon Temps. 

Vadeboncoeur was a homebrewer, but in 2020, after he was invited to brew some single-hop beers at R&B Brewing, he learned to scale up and refine his techniques. He began looking into old recipes, experimenting with test batches, and serving some historical styles to R&B’s taproom customers. Brasserie du Bon Temps and Project Hop were born. 

“I was able to talk to customers about how it was a recipe from 200 years ago and tell them the story,” says Vadeboncoeur. “The story really makes the beer, and to go back in time offers a different dimension to that experience. People seem to really like that.” And customers at R&B enjoyed Vadeboncoeur’s adventurous beers, which included an Old IPA, a grisette, an Abbey-style ale, and a Scandinavian beer called Råøl, or “Raw Ale.” This beer, according to Project Hop’s description, is made without boiling the wort: “This raw (unboiled) beer is flavoured by infusing hot water with juniper branches […] then pouring this over grain to extract sugars, then straight into fermentation with a heritage Norwegian yeast.” Not something you’d easily find on a craft brewery’s tap list! 

Bringing the Past to Life

Brasserie du Bon Temps brews out of other breweries, such as [the now closed] Flashback and Tinhouse Brewing, and has that same spirit of collaboration in its name. The brewery is named after the Order of Good Cheer, founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1606 to help boost morale for the settlers of New France. It became, essentially, the first gastronomic drinking club; after its founding, deaths dropped dramatically. The brewery honours beer’s history of bringing people together through flavour and experience. According to the website, “Brasserie du Bon Temps re-creates historical recipes to bring you the story of beer from accidental discovery to the world’s favourite tipple. Our beers are faithful recreations of old styles or research-based best guesses when the historical trail runs cold.”

The goal of Brasserie du Bon Temps is to recreate historical beers, including the line of hop-focused IPAs under Project Hop. But how did Vadeboncoeur find the historical information that allowed him to do this? He’s a scientist by trade rather than a historian, but he certainly has the research skills required to unearth such treasures. One open-access resource he used was Project Gutenberg, which provides digitized scans of thousands of old books. He was looking for needles in haystacks, but he found enough information about breweries and brewing practices to allow him to brew his historical IPA mix pack: the 1754, the 1823, the 1870, and the 1914. 

1754: This beer imitates the earliest beers that were brewed at Hodgson’s Bow Brewery in London and shipped to India in the mid-18th century. The original beer used basic floor-malted pale malt and plenty of East Kent Goldings hops. It would have aged into a “stock ale” – a stronger beer, something closer to a barleywine – on its journey to India. The movement of the ship would have agitated the brewers yeast left in the beer, but would also have enlivened the Brettanomyces yeast living in the wood of the barrel. The Brett would eat all the long-chain sugars that regular yeast couldn’t, and would impart that aged ale flavour as well. 

To replicate this process, Vadeboncoeur adjusted his water to match London’s water chemistry at the time and estimated the alpha acid levels of older varieties of East Kent Goldings in order to calculate an equivalent amount in the hop’s modern version. He then added a specific strain of Brett to the wort and left it in oak barrels over the hot summer months to reproduce the conditions of the voyage to India.

1823: This beer replicates the Burton Brewery’s imitation of the Bow Brewery’s IPA (Project Hop’s 1754). When Hodgson decided he didn’t want to use the East India Company to ship the Bow’s beer anymore, the EIC looked for another brewer who could make the same product. They found Samuel Allsopp and his brewery at Burton-on-Trent. According to legend, Allsopp brought this beer to his brewer and asked if he could make it. The brewer spat it out in disgust: “Yes, I can make this. But who would want to drink it?” Many people, it turns out. The Burton version of Hodgson’s IPA uses the same recipe, with the exception of the water chemistry, which is unique to Burton-on-Trent. The Burton water is much harder, and there’s 4 times the mineral content in this beer, which helps the yeast eat more sugar and thus makes the beer a bit drier. Meanwhile, the sulfates enhance the hop flavour. 

1870: This beer is the same as the 1823, but with no barrel-aging and no Brettanomyces added. It uses East Kent Goldings hops but adds another hop variety to the mix: Strisselspault, a French hop. 

1914: This final historical IPA owes its lower ABV and lighter flavour to the popularity of lager combined with anti-German sentiment at the onset of World War I. English drinkers didn’t want a German product, so they adjusted their English beer to align with the current lager trend. This beer includes corn in the mash because there wasn’t enough barley available, and uses only East Kent Goldings hops, nothing from the continent. There’s no barrel-aging or wild yeast. It’s light and very drinkable – the patriotic option for those who didn’t want to drink German lagers.  

In addition to the historical IPA mix-pack, Vadeboncoeur also brews and sells other historical styles, such as the King Gambrinus Adambier, a velvety 10% ABV dark beer which replicates a 500-year-old German beer known for its lightly smoky taste and dark fruit character, and Biere St. Bertin, a medieval gruit ale (an unhopped beer flavoured with herbs). He currently brews out of Tinhouse Brewing Co. in Port Coquitlam, where he recently had a beer release. Customers who stopped by Tinhouse that day could taste a flight of historical IPAs while listening to Vadeboncoeur’s explanation of their origins. Phil Smith, brewer and co-owner of Tinhouse, says his brewery has welcomed small contract brewers for several years. “We were alerted to the fact that Nathan was looking for a home to brew some fun and experimental beers. It’s been a long work in progress, but we are so happy to have helped, and excited to have these beers hitting the market now,” says Smith. “It’s been an interesting process working with Nathan and watching him craft these IPAs that are true to the era in which they originated.”

You can sign up for the Brasserie du Bon Temps Beer Club to receive all the information about beer releases from both the Brasserie and Project Hop. The five-dollar monthly membership fee includes perks like member-only articles and videos, a live monthly presentation and Q&A on beer history and brewing, 10% discount on all Brasserie and Project Hop products, and the option to purchase quarterly micro-batch, member-only beers. Vadeboncoeur hopes to have regular production of his core historic beers, with seasonal releases that reflect when they would have been available in their original forms. Customers can also buy these beers directly – no membership required – from the Project Hop website.

If you’re looking for more opportunities to sample Brasserie du Bon Temps and Project Hop’s historical IPAS, you might be in luck if you also picked up tickets to the upcoming (sold out) North Island Craft Beer Festival on March 15,  2025. Vadeboncoeur will be there to pour these unique brews for Island beer lovers!

The post Raising a Glass to the Past appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Bomber’s back, baby!

Well…it never really left. But let me tell the whole story.

Beginnings

When Don Farion agreed to jump in as a spare for his friend Blair Calibaba’s local hockey team one night in the early 2010s, he didn’t realize that that decision would take his life in a new direction. The guys were cracking bottles of homebrew in the parking lot after the game, and Blair’s pilsner blew Don away. Inspired by his love of Pilsner Urquell, Blair had created a homebrew version that had the perfect balance of hoppy bite and malty backbone. Within a year and a half, Blair was the head brewer for Don’s new craft brewery and that pilsner was one of their flagship beers. Oh, and the men’s rec team they played for? The Bombers. 

This was the beginning of Bomber Brewing. However, it wasn’t the beginning of Don’s love of beer. While a young man in Montreal, Don came to love that city’s Belgian-style craft breweries. Upon moving to Vancouver in 1992, food and drink were on his mind. He opened Incendio Pizzeria in Gastown in 1996, but eventually turned back to beer. He and his longtime business partner, Dean Mallel, founded BierCraft, an iconic Vancouver restaurant. Like many, I had my first true Belgian beer experiences during excursions to BierCraft, where the staff were able to explain to me – a beer newbie back then – the difference between a tripel and a dubbel, and what the “lees” was. BierCraft converted people not only to Belgian beer but eventually to craft beer.

But the success of BierCraft wasn’t enough. As a homebrewer and a Certified Cicerone (it’s like a beer sommelier), the possibility of his own brewery kept tugging at Don’s mind. He didn’t want to be the brewer – “I don’t have delusions of grandeur!” he laughs – but he wanted a brewery whose story and space he could create.

“Breweries are all about stories,” he tells me. “That’s what draws people in.”

The story of Bomber was seeded in that first evening of hockey and homebrew: friends (new and old), sports, community, sharing a drink in a parking lot. Upon opening in 2014, Bomber Brewing quickly established itself as a beloved fixture in East Vancouver.

A Fork in the Road

By 2018, the craft beer industry in Vancouver was booming – to the point of saturation, some thought. Bomber was profiting and at high production levels, brewing 7800 hectolitres of their 10,000 Hl capacity. However, this was a difficult pace to maintain, so when the Donnelly Group (now the Freehouse Collective as of spring 2024), owner of multiple Vancouver restaurants and pubs, offered to buy Bomber, it was appealing. Dean had been battling cancer since 2011, and Don didn’t feel positive about the industry at the time, despite Bomber’s popularity: “We saw the changes in the market. We were one of the first to sell.” Their value was high and it seemed to make sense, given their personal circumstances. However, co-owner Cam Andrews, in a 2019 interview with Vancouver is Awesome, admitted that the sale caught him by surprise. It caught the public by surprise as well. 

Response to the sale was mostly negative. Craft beer fans liked the Bomber they knew – the Bomber owned by local folks and not a large corporation. Donnelly’s rebranding of the brewery, done without input from the founders and without clear communication, was also received badly. Gone were the old labels – skylines of different cities, the vintage-style font – and in their place was the black dive-bombing seagull and a modern, all-caps logo. Comments on Reddit (r/VancouverCraftBeer) disparaged this new version of Bomber.

But despite the backlash, in reality, Bomber didn’t change all that much. Aside from the rebranding, Donnelly Group was almost entirely hands-off; they kept Don on as General Manager, and he ran the brewery and tasting room just as he had before. Decisions about the beer were in his hands. In fact, Don is very positive about the Donnelly Group and their management: “I want to give kudos to Donnelly – they were amazing in the time they’ve run it [Bomber]. They don’t get enough credit for what they’ve done for craft beer in the province.” And as Chair of the BC Craft Brewers Guild, Don knows what he’s talking about. Craft beer fans often dislike corporate brewery ownership, but some of those corporations have given craft beer much-needed exposure.

After the Donnelly purchase, the pressure on Bomber to be profitable rose, not simply because of the new ownership structure but because the local craft beer market itself was becoming more crowded. The pandemic added a new layer of economic stress. By 2023, Donnelly was in financial trouble. Long story short, Bomber was on the market again that year. In early 2024, Don was battling throat cancer and business matters were the last thing on his mind. However, by summer 2024 he was with his family at his cabin in the Cariboo, celebrating his recent cancer-free diagnosis. The day after he learned that good news, he got a call from Jeff Donnelly, who reminded him that Bomber was still for sale and encouraged him to put in an offer. 

Rebirth and Return

On receiving that call, Don felt the same pull as when he first tasted Blair’s homebrew pilsner out in the parking lot. Was this a possibility? He didn’t want Bomber to disappear, and he didn’t want his employees to lose their jobs. Bomber had a place in the East Van community. So he recruited several friends and together, the five of them made an offer. With the support of Jeff Donnelly and Reid Ogdon of the Donnelly Group, it all fell into place. By October 2024, Don Farion was again the owner of Bomber Brewing. 

Don is entering this new era with a different outlook. “I remember making beer when it was fun,” he says, looking back to the first days of Bomber. “Brewing has always been fun but now the business has changed.” That rat-race he remembered from the years following 2018 – chasing volume, constantly having to calculate ROI over love of the job and the beer – is no longer one he wants to run. “Our new thought is being happy at 4500 hl. That’s comfortable for us.” Their core business will be scaled down in order to rekindle their joy in making and selling beer. 

Other planned changes are more like returns. “We’re going back to the way Bomber was,” Don puts it. “We’re going to be talking about the beer again – not the branding. And we don’t focus on the technical stuff, IBUs and all that. It’s really about balance. We want to make balanced beer. Our IPA is only 6.3% because that’s where it tastes best. We did a 4.8% Pilsner when no one was making lagers.” Their upcoming branding, while not yet unveiled, will return Bomber to something similar to their original model, but with a focus on duality and balance. They will also be expanding their core beer list. Their original flagships will remain (Skyline Lager, Avant Garde Pilsner, Outspoken IPA, Georgie’s Best ESB), but a second string of cores will be added: Reverie Hazy Pale, Furio Italian Pilsner, and Miramar West Coast IPA. 

Bomber will also be renewing its grassroots marketing and community connections. They’ve continued their tradition of brewing a special beer for the East Van Panto at the York Theatre. Since this year’s panto is Robin Hood, Bomber’s beer for the event is Maid Marionberry Ale – with a very charming label! 

Ultimately, the new Bomber Brewing under Don’s leadership will be very similar to the old Bomber Brewing, but with a renewed sense of priorities. Having looked his own mortality in the face through his battle with cancer, Don isn’t interested in chasing profit or volume. He wants to make good beer for his neighbourhood, host hockey nights at the taproom, and keep his colleagues employed. He wants brewing to be fun again. Bomber’s back!

The post Ups, Downs, and Turnarounds: Bomber Brewing’s Renaissance appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

I’ll try not to bore you with too many details and, if you’re impatient, you can just skip to the end and find out about the best Oktoberfest celebrations in BC. But I must warn you, if you do that, you may be robbing yourself of some important Oktoberfest knowledge that could come in handy over the next couple of weeks. You wouldn’t want to get caught with your lederhosen down when your friends at the Wiesn yell “Oans, zwoa, drei, g’suffa!”*

While we in North America often think of Oktoberfest as a two-week-long bender in the streets of Germany filled with people in silly costumes, the reality is a bit more nuanced. 

It all started way back in 1810 when Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen had a Bavarian royal wedding. It was the first royal wedding held in Munich in almost a century, making it a particularly special occasion. But it was also a chance for the newly formed Kingdom of Bavaria (est. 1806) to demonstrate its National pride.

As with any good wedding, when the ceremony is over you need to celebrate with… a horse race? Okay, remember, this is 1810. They did things a little differently. They also celebrated with music, a free opera, a play, and, of course, beer. This folk festival was held in the meadow outside the city gates in an area that was renamed Theresienwiese (Theresa’s Fields) to honour the princess. That name still stands today but has been abbreviated by locals to Wiesn, which is what they also use to refer to modern-day Oktoberfest.

I told you you’d learn some great facts!

Of course, when a great party is thrown there needs to be a sequel, so, in subsequent years the horse races and folk festival continued, commemorating the Royal wedding, but they also added other activities like tree climbing, bowling and carnival booths through the early 1800’s. 

While beer has always been a central part of Oktoberfest, the iconic beer tents didn’t appear until the late 19th century. The oldest and longest-running beer tent, Schottenhamel Festhalle, opened its festival doors in 1867 with a modest 50-seat venue but in 1886, they expanded by adding a canvas tent on the Theresienwiese.

Schottenhamel also holds a special significance beyond its longevity. Since 1950, it has been the official starting point for Oktoberfest. Each year, at noon on opening day, a 12-gun salute echoes through the air as the Mayor of Munich taps the first keg and proclaims “Ozapft is” (“it is tapped“) to the cheering crowd. The mayor then presents the first maßkrug (1-litre stein) of beer to the Minister-President of the State of Bavaria and Oktoberfest is officially underway.

But why is Oktoberfest partially in September and why do the dates change every year? 

For a country known for its precision and accuracy, they’re pretty laissez-faire when it comes to setting dates for the world’s biggest beer celebration. Well, it’s actually pretty simple, Oktoberfest always ends on the first Sunday in October and begins on the preceding Saturday, two weeks prior. The only exception occurs when Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day), which is on October 3, falls on the Monday following Oktoberfest’s conclusion. In this case, they extend the festival one day to coincide with the National holiday.

This still doesn’t answer why Oktoberfest is primarily celebrated in September though! 

That’s an easy answer as well….weather. Bavaria is cold in October. The original festival ran from October 12 to 17, but as it grew and the dates were extended, organizers decided to move it to the current dating system to allow for longer, warmer nights that are experienced in September.

But What About The Beer?

Traditionally, and for about a century, the official beer of the festivities had been a Märzen, an amber-coloured malt-rich pale lager with an aroma and flavour resembling toasted bread or biscuits. However, this designation has become a little more ambiguous in recent years. Some people argue that it’s now a festbier, a lighter and less toasty version of a Märzen. Others maintain that the Märzen remains the standard, while still others contend that there is no official style at all. Regardless of the specific style, one thing remains constant: all Oktoberfest beers must adhere to Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law. 

Reinheitsgebot, say it with me…”rine-hites-kuh-bowt”, mandates that brewers use only water, malted barley, hops, and yeast in their beer. Sorry, marshmallow fruited sours, you’re a no-go in Deutschland. In fact, if you’re a brewery in Germany and you don’t follow Reinheitsgebot you legally cannot call your product “bier”.

To add another layer of complexity, the beer served at Oktoberfest in Munich must not only adhere to Reinheitsgebot but also be brewed within the city limits. Only six breweries currently meet these stringent requirements: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschor, Hofbräuhaus, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Spaten.

Although I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Munich and sampling brews at some of the famous beer halls, I’ve unfortunately yet to experience the full spectacle of an authentic Oktoberfest. It’s definitely on my beer-ket list though, as I’m sure it is for most ale aficionados. Fortunately for us beer nerds in BC, we have a plethora of great Oktoberfest events to partake in. With that beautiful segue, here’s a list of all the remaining Oktoberfest celebrations over the next couple of weeks. See you there! PROST!

*”one, two, three, drink!”

Oktoberfest Events Around BC

Oktoberfest Features at Black Kettle Brewing (North Vancouver) • September 12 – October 6

Featuring authentic Munich beer: an Oktoberfest Marzen from Hacker Pschorr, as well as house-brewed German beers and a German-inspired food menu.

Oktoberfest Feature Menu at BREWHALL (Vancouver) • September 12 – October 2

The Feature menu includes returning favourites, a new Bratwurst board, and limited release beer.

Oktoberfest at Parallel 49 Brewing Company (Vancouver) • September 20 – October 5

Featuring: A tented biergarten; live music Thursdays – Saturdays; German-style food, beer and music; prizes for best dressed.

Oktoberfest Feature Menu at Howe Sound Brewing (Squamish, New Westminster and East Vancouver) • September 21 – October 6

Feature menu includes:  fresh baked pretzels with mustard and bratwurst, and two beer specials.

Oktoberfest Feature Menu at Main St Brewing (Vancouver) • September 21 – October 6

Feature menu by Rosie’s BBQ and Smokehouse includes their take on Bavarian classics like pretzels and beer cheese sauce, bratwurst, schnitzel and currywurst with a special ham hock dinner available only on the weekends. On the beer side, look for special Oktoberfest brew releases.

Oktoberfest at Two Peaks Brewing (Kitimat) • September 25 – 28

Featuring: A full Oktoberfest-inspired menu – Oktoberfest attire highly encouraged!

Oktoberfest at Trading Post Brewing (Langley) September 27 and October 4

Featuring: German beer fest flights, German food, a live oom-pah-pah band, costume contest and more. Food and reserved seating are limited – walk-ins are welcome, but to ensure a table for your group book tickets at the link above to reserve a table and German Platter(s).

Oktoberfest at BNA Brewing (Kelowna) • September 27 & 28

Featuring: Traditional Bavarian music, a special Oktoberfest menu from BNA Burger, an exclusive Festbier and more

Oktoberfest at Beva Brewing & Blending (North Vancouver) • September 28

Featuring: Oktoberfest-themed food specials, pretzels, a new Festbier and two more beer releases. The brewhouse will be open for extra seating.

Oktoberfest at Five Roads Brewing (Langley) • September 28

Featuring: A German-inspired food menu, music, beers and good times. Call to make a reservation: 604-539-6754

Oktoberfest at Kelowna Beer Institute (Kelowna) • September 28

Featuring: A German-inspired menu, beer, steins, and, yes, giant pretzels. Oh, and Felix will be back for another year.

Oktoberfest at Lakesider Brewing (Kelowna) • September 28 and 29

Featuring: New beer release, German food, games and prizes, live music on Saturday. Wear your lederhosen and bring your stein!

Oktobeer Feast at Mayne Island Brewing • September 28 and 29

Feature menu for the weekend includes artisan Bavarian eats from Das Nest Restaurant, paired with six German-inspired beers.

Oktoberfest at Old Yale Brewing Abbotsford • September 28

Featuring: Live music, best dress competition, stien holding competition, an exclusive Festbier and Oktoberfest-inspired food features

Oktoberfest at Railside Brewing (Kelowna) • September 28

Featuring: Special release Fest Das Bier, BBQ Bratwurst and music

Steel & Oaktoberfest at Steel & Oak Brewing (New Westminster) • September 28

Featuring: 8 German beers, both flagship favourites and limited releases, with great deals on German beer flights and glasses; German-insipired food from Between 2 Buns; a pretzel bar; extra banquet hall seating; Bavarian decorations; a costume contest, and beer stein holding competition.

Oktoberfest at The Beer Farmers (Pemberton) • September 28

Featuring: New beer release: Country Gold Märzen; bratwurst, sauerkraut, gingerbread soft serve, and a live 3-piece Oktoberfest band from 4-6 PM

Oktoberfest at Sidekick Brewing (Chilliwack) • September 29

Featuring: limited edition steins available for purchase, live music, games, challenges and prizes, a special beer release and feature Oktoberfest menu. Costumes highly encouraged!

Note: this is a ticketed event – get yours at the link above. 

‘r’Oktobeerfest at Shore Line Brewing (Kelowna) • October 4 – 6

Featuring: A non-traditional Oktoberfest with live music all weekend, new beer release, Bavarian food specials, and more.

Oktoberfest at Salt Spring Brewery (Salt Spring Island) • October 5

Featuring: A special menu from South End Sausage, a specially brewed cask, music, and more. Dressing up is encouraged, but not mandatory.

Oktoberfest at Sooke Brewing Company (Sooke) • October 5

Featuring: Randy’s Rod Dogs will be on site serving up Bratwurst alongside tasty brews and and pretzels.

Oktoberfest at Another Beer Co (New Westminster) • October 6

Details to come!

Oktoberfest at Abandoned Rail Brewing Co (Penticton) • October 12

Featuring: Live music, food trucks, traditional beer hall tables and a dance floor – all under an Oktoberfest festzelt (tent) in the barley fields. Tickets include your beer, shuttles to and from the Lakeside Resort, and an exclusive stein.
NOTE: this is a ticketed event, with two seatings available. Tickets available at the link above.

The post From Tradition to Celebration: The History of Oktoberfest and Local Events to Toast the Season appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

As Vancouver City Archivist Major James S. Matthews insisted in the mid twentieth century, the spirit of Brewery Creek is still alive and well today.

Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood is currently home to some of the city’s most successful craft breweries. Those in search of a pint can easily walk from Red Truck Beer Co. to Brassneck Brewery and Main St Brewing, then across to 33 Acres Brewing, Electric Bicycle Brewing, Faculty Brewing, and R&B Brewing. It’s one of the best walkable brewery crawl routes around. 

However, many craft beer fans may not be aware that under the pavement still runs Brewery Creek, whose waters initially supplied or ran alongside the earliest breweries in the city — Vancouver Brewery (and its successors), Mainland Brewery, San Francisco Brewery, Red Star, Lansdowne, Stadler, and perhaps more. As salmon-filled fresh water coursed down from Tea Swamp, eventually emptying into the original False Creek (where Red Truck is now), it was collected to brew beer and to power breweries’ grain mills. 

Charles Doering and Vancouver Brewery

The first brewery in Vancouver actually wasn’t near Brewery Creek, but it inspired one that was. City Brewery on wealthy Seaton Street (currently the area of Hastings west of Burrard) was a small steam-beer brewery opened by J. Rekab in 1887, just one year after the City of Vancouver’s incorporation. 

We know almost nothing about Rekab, but we do know that City Brewery caught the eye of Charles Doering, a German immigrant who had recently moved to Vancouver from Victoria, where he had been running a saloon and working in the Phoenix Brewery. In Victoria, Doering was proud to sell locally brewed Empire beer for 5 cents a glass at his King’s Head Beer Hall – and this was at a time when many publicans were still relying on beer imported from the US and Europe, despite Victoria’s burgeoning brewing industry. Doering knew that his newest venture in Vancouver, the Stag & Pheasant Hotel on Water Street, would need a beer supply, and he wanted to expand beyond imports. However, there was only the one local brewery in Vancouver: the City Brewery. Doering saw a gap in the market and an exciting business opportunity. 

In 1888, shortly after marrying Sarah Jane Helgesen of Victoria and celebrating with a honeymoon in San Francisco, Charles Doering purchased a property on Scotia and 7^th and transformed it into Vancouver Brewery. He dammed Brewery Creek and used it to power the brewery’s mill.

Eventually, most of the block became brewery property, including Doering’s family home, the stables, and the brewery warehouse. Doering’s horses (which were used to pull the brewery wagons to deliver kegs) and beloved dogs populated the lot, along with brewery workers and carriages. It was an exciting and busy time in Mount Pleasant.

This first Vancouver Brewery looked nothing like the current structure that sits on the same lot — the building that now houses Main Street Brewing. That facility, a beautiful yellow and white heritage building today, was built around 1920 and became the garage for Vancouver Breweries (the later version of Vancouver Brewery) in the ‘20s and ‘30s. The original Vancouver Brewery was constructed in 1888 and opened with a 1500-gallon-per-day brewing capacity. This three-storey building was made of wood, brick, and fieldstone.

Changes, Competition, and Consolidations

Doering’s efforts met with success, so much so that by 1892 he was able to hire a brewmaster from Denmark — Otto Marstrand — to join him as a partner. The brewery was renamed Doering & Marstrand Brewery (or D&M Brewery) that year, and a celebration was hosted at the brewery for its inaugural lager. Lager was the drink of choice in Vancouver — a contrast to Victoria, where English-style ales were still in fashion.

Doering’s biggest brewing competitor was there at the D&M party: John Williams, an Englishman who bought out Rekab’s City Brewery and renamed it Red Cross Brewery. One ad in the Daily News Advertiser explained the Red Cross brand identity:

“The red cross stands on the battlefield for help; in Vancouver it stands for pure beer [. . .] unadulterated with any of the foreign abominations that are injurious to health.” 

Like D&M, Red Cross began advertising their authentic German lager (made by their German brewmaster, Henry Traeger) in the early 1890s. However, it soon became clear that D&M and Red Cross were more friends than enemies. They attempted price-fixing in 1893, and by the mid-1890s they had a monopoly in the Vancouver beer market. By 1902, they announced their amalgamation. Red Cross shut down its facility on Seaton Street and Henry Traeger joined the brewing team at the newly-named Vancouver Breweries on Scotia and 7^th. John Williams was the secretary and Charles Doering was president. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” was the name of the brewing competition game in early Vancouver. 

A popular city-wide contest to name Vancouver Breweries’ flagship beer soon got the word out about the amalgamation. For a chance at a $50 prize, thousands of citizens sent in their name suggestions, from “Kitsalano” to “Acme.” The winner, however, was Cascade. Cascade beer would end up being one of the best-selling beers for decades. It was advertised in local papers as “beer that is as pure and healthful as the rippling waters of a mountain brook … contain[ing] only the purest and most healthful of ingredients … [It] is a drink fit for the most delicate lady.”

Charles Doering’s life became more busy and more complicated while his brewing career boomed. In 1893, he and his wife Sarah, who already had a four-year-old daughter, lost their ten-day-old baby. In 1906, Sarah died due to complications resulting from a tuberculosis treatment in Germany. Their daughter Beatrice, who was travelling with them at the time, wrote home to let family know the sad news, expressing both sorrow and relief that her mother’s long suffering was over. 

Business boomed in the years after Sarah’s death, but Doering began to spend increasingly more time at his ranch properties, especially Hat Creek Ranch near Ashcroft. He had plans to transform the Vancouver brewing scene by creating a holding company that would unite BC’s breweries. With the help of beer baron Henry Reifel of Nanaimo, whose San Francisco Brewery on the shores of Brewery Creek was short-lived, Doering did just that. Vancouver Breweries joined Reifel’s new Vancouver brewery, Canadian Brewing and Malting, along with his Union Brewery of Nanaimo and Pilsener Brewing of Cumberland under the umbrella of B.C. Breweries Ltd. Doering’s old brewing facilities at Scotia and 7^th were turned into office space and all brewing was moved to Reifel’s impressive new facility near Yew and 11^th (which would become the Carling brewery decades later). Classic Vancouver beers like Heidelberg, BC Export, and Cascade were made there for years. 

Doering and Reifel had a falling out shortly after the founding of B.C. Breweries and the company fell into financial trouble. After some legal wrestling, an agreement was reached and Reifel was left with a resurrected version of B.C. Breweries while Doering turned to other business interests and exited the brewing scene. Over the decades, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, BC Breweries would eventually be acquired by Carling O’Keefe, which in turn was acquired by Molson-Coors. Doering, once he left brewing, found health and happiness with a new marriage and grandchildren. He spent much of his time hunting and fishing at Hat Creek Ranch, accompanied by friends — this included Red Cross and Vancouver Breweries brewmaster Henry Traeger and his family, with whom Doering had become very close. The horses who had pulled the brewery’s wagons for years received restful retirements on the ranchlands. According to Doering’s great-great-grandson Dennis Mutter, he had a soft spot in his heart for animals. 

Mainland Brewing

Vancouver Brewery (a.k.a D&M Brewery, a.k.a. Vancouver Breweries) wasn’t the only start-up near Brewery Creek. There was also Mainland Brewing, which opened just a couple of blocks south of where 33 Acres is now. In 1888, German immigrant Robert Reisterer moved from New Westminster, where his City Brewery had burned down, and opened a new brewery “quite in the bush,” according to papers. That side of Main Street was, in the 1880s and 1890s, mostly a cluster of trees, bushes, and creeks. Reisterer made a special funding application to City Council to build a road off Quebec Street so people could actually get to his brewery. However, despite all that effort he didn’t seem to have much interest in staying in Vancouver. The brewery had only a third of the brewing capacity of Doering’s Vancouver Brewery and there are almost no advertisements for it in contemporary newspapers. Reisterer wanted out of Vancouver: he repeatedly spoke of his dream to open a brewery in the Kootenays. The brewery was up for sale in the early 1890s and Reisterer and his wife Clara moved to Kaslo shortly thereafter, following a raucous goodbye party that included plenty of Red Cross beer and a performance of the local German men’s choir. An attempt to open a brewery in Kaslo wasn’t successful, but he had more luck in Nelson, where he established the first Nelson Brewing Company.  (For more on that story check out this blog.)

The Little Guys

There were a few more breweries in early Vancouver that started up and sank without much of a trace. I already mentioned San Francisco Brewing, which was opened by Henry Reifel and his brother the same year Doering started his Vancouver Brewery. They closed within a year and auctioned off their equipment. Red Star Brewery opened in the same location immediately afterwards but closed a year or two later. In a similar pattern, Lion Brewing and Stadler Brewing both occupied the same property on 2^nd (where Red Truck is now) in quick succession, neither lasting longer than two years. One possible reason could be location: the San Francisco site was close to the tannery and the Lion Brewery at the mouth of Brewery Creek was near the slaughterhouses (see the map below). Brewing near these industries was probably not ideal!

The thriving of Vancouver’s Brewery Creek neighbourhood so quickly after the city’s incorporation showed not only the ingenuity of these early brewers and business people, but the eagerness of Vancouver citizens for locally-produced beer. These early breweries also helped to rehabilitate the alcohol industry, which had been tainted by the increasingly debauched nature of saloons at the time. Breweries were making a product marketed as family-friendly (“families supplied!” often appeared in ads) and suitable for not just working men, but for women, “invalids”, and children. Non- or low-alcohol beers, like Vancouver Brewery’s Vancouver Ale, were widely advertised, and women increasingly featured in marketing materials. While the pattern of brewery consolidations, beginning with D&M and Red Cross, and then BC Breweries, at first appeared to be a mark of economic health for the industry, we can see in hindsight that it actually spelled the death of Vancouver’s independent brewing — at least for a while. Fortunately, independent brewing has now been revived in the city and Brewery Creek is quenching the thirst of Vancouver’s beer fans once again.

Learn more about Vancouver brewing history by reading this blog by the same author.

Plan your visit with the Brewery Creek Vancouver Ale Trail.

And be sure to pick up a copy of Noëlle Phillips’ new book about Vancouver’s beer history coming out this fall!

The post Brewery Creek: The Birthplace of Brewing in Vancouver appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Originally founded in 1997 by Barry Benson and Rick Dellow, R&B Brewing was a pioneer production brewery that helped lead the trend of cask-conditioned beers in the 2000s, which engaged many of the city’s restaurants and pubs into hosting popular cask nights where craft beer lovers gathered. Once the tasting room model was established, however, R&B’s approach became less trendy, and in 2015, the brewery was bought by Squamish-based Howe Sound Brewing. Rick moved on but Barry stayed on as a sales rep. The new owners kept the name but updated the brewery into the R&B Pizza and Ale House, which continues to be a popular destination today. Check out our blog about R&B winning the Best Brewery Experience Award for more background information.

Past & Present

On the first full day of summer, several past and present R&B brewers re-united to brew a collab beer in North Vancouver at Beva Brewing & Blending. Attending brewers were Allan Cukier (Ucluelet Brewing), Carly Hase (Strange Fellows Brewing), Elijah Stone (Wildeye Brewing), Octavio Ray Pauley (Beva Brewing & Blending), and the current R&B brewers, Justine Ellis and Aaron Kaputin.  

Joining this group of master brewers were special guests Rick Dellow and Barry Benson, the “OG” R&B team. The “A” Team (Elijah, Allan, Carly and Octavio) worked with Howe Sound Brewing and brewer Patrick Moore to revitalize R&B Brewing back in 2015. This involved creating the new core recipes and opening the Ale and Pizza House. For all of the team members, this was their first brewery experience — and it would lead them to where they are today as head brewers elsewhere.

Allan (Ucluelet Brewing ) remembers those early days of removing original brew tanks and putting in new fermenters and equipment. Rick and Barry helped with the transition and got the new team on their feet.

Carly (Strange Fellows Brewing) remembers her first days working in the brewery:

“They really put me through the wringer. I remember sitting on the curb after work, after wrestling those grain bins in the alley — it really humbled me and made me the brewer I am today! I made some amazing friends along the way. I can say I have worked with some great teams — this was the dream team.”

Elijah (Wildeye Brewing) started by cleaning kegs and filling 650ml bottles with the original equipment at R&B. He says he learned to fix things that don’t normally need fixing.

Octavio (Beva, the host brewery) adds, “R&B was my first brewing job. Probably the best first brewing job you could have. I learned so much and it prepared me for what was to come in the industry. We had a lot of really passionate people at that time — it was really awesome! We all worked super hard.”

Allan adds: “Octavio was an annoyingly good brewer! The first time he submitted two beers — there was a pilsner and a Brett Saison. We thought, ‘Those are big beers for a brewer.’ We tried them and they were perfect representations of the styles. We went, OK, this guy is hired for sure! Now you have your own brewery!”

Rick Dellow (the “R” in R&B) recalls the very early beginnings:

“Barry and I were carpooling from Vancouver to Abbotsford [where they worked at Newlands Systems, a brewing equipment manufacturer] and on the days when the Canucks were playing, it would take us three hours to commute back home to East Vancouver. We realized that we each wanted to start a brewery. Barry and I had been setting up breweries for the past five years ourselves, so we figured we could do it.”

Barry (“B” in R&B) adds:

“It makes me feel really good to see that the community still interacts with each other — to see something like this happen — and it happens with other breweries also. How far the brewers from the initial transition have come! We should all look forward to engaging with each other in the future.”

Here are the details of the collab beer:

Goombah – Italian Soda IPA
ABV: 6.9%

Tasting Notes: Citrus, Fruity, Creamy

Description: This Italian soda-inspired IPA is the result of an epic collaboration between a group of former co-workers who all got their start in the brewing industry together. Conditioning on whole Madagascar vanilla beans and the addition of lactose lend a smooth, indulgent mouthfeel that perfectly complements the bright fruity hop profile.

What about Endings?

Rick Dellow announced that after moving to Kamloops to be Head Brewing and Operations Manager at a regional brewery, he has decided to retire and enjoy lake fishing whenever he wants. Not to be outdone by his original partner, Barry Benson announced that he would also retire in July. 

R&B Brewing threw Barry a special retirement party on July 15.

Congrats on a fine career, Barry!

The post R&B Brewers Reunite to Celebrate Beginnings (and Endings) appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Shirley Warne may be a self-declared bitch, but she is warm, welcoming, and clearly loved by the staff at her brewery. I’ve just driven nine hours from Vancouver to reach the tiny village of Kaslo, tucked away on the shores of Kootenay Lake and just an hour’s drive from Nelson. On Kaslo’s main drag, populated by Gold Rush-style shops and shadowed by snow-topped mountains, sits Angry Hen Brewing, opened by Shirley in December 2017. On this quiet Saturday night, as I’m relaxing after the long drive, Shirley joins me in the brewery for a pint and a chat. She puts our beers — a Fowl Play Hazy IPA for me and Straw Man Lager for her — on her tab and tosses some coins in the tip jar for the staff. The woman running the tasting room gives her a quick hug before they close up for the night.

These small details reveal that Shirley has cultivated a positive relationship with her employees. After decades of working in the beer industry and dealing with difficult bosses, she knows the value of a safe and warm working environment. From homebrewer and bottom-of-the-ladder brewery grunt to brewery owner and brewmaster in the village she loves, Shirley has seen it all — and she’s put all that knowledge to use. As one of BC’s first female craft brewers, she fearlessly trailblazed in a male-dominated industry. Even though she’s never been interested in public attention and therefore rarely makes it into beer publications (Lundy Dale’s interview with her for What’s Brewing is a notable exception), she’s had a deep influence on craft brewing here in BC.

Climbing the Brewing Ladder in Ontario

Shirley’s career began not in BC, but at Conner’s Brewing in Mississauga, Ontario. After years of homebrewing with her twin sister Pat and beer tasting across Europe, she decided to pursue brewing full-time. A friend introduced her to Paul Hoyne — eventual co-founder of Lighthouse Brewing in Victoria — who got her in the door at Conner’s, a production brewery that opened in 1985 but closed by 1990. She didn’t stay long; there was little room for creativity, but, unfortunately, plenty of room for sexism. Paul and the other brewers were wonderful mentors, but the company’s owners were crude and misogynistic to the young female brewer-in-training. She quit within a year, but shortly afterwards met Amsterdam Brewing’s Joel Manning. She made sure she tried his beer before she took a job with him (it passed the test).

“Joel was such a great guy,” Shirley recalls. Manning ended up being a valued fellow brewing colleague for several years. While brewing at Amsterdam, and its sister brewery, Rotterdam, she trained Tony Dewald and Harley Smith, brewers who would make their mark in BC brewing. “When Harley first started, he made some kind of off-colour joke and I jumped right on him,” Shirley laughs. “But we ended up being best friends.”

Bootlegging and Brewpubs in Vancouver

By the early ‘90s, Shirley decided to leave the brewing scene in Toronto to join her sister Pat in Vancouver. Just as they had during university, Shirley and Pat took up homebrewing in their apartment again. “We would bootleg beer from that apartment! We had these big parties,” she recalls. “I don’t think I can get in trouble for it now though.” Their homebrew was so popular that tipsy neighbours would come knocking late at night, looking for whatever they were selling. “That was when I first brewed the Old Bitch,” Shirley says, referring to the Old Bitch Bitter she later brewed for Brassneck and Angry Hen. “It was one of our most popular beers back then.”

Finding brewing opportunities in Vancouver proved to be a challenge. “BC and Ontario were stagnant for a while,” Shirley says, referring to the 1990s beer scene. When Yaletown Brewpub opened in 1994, she applied for the job of head brewer but lost out to Iain Hill, now co-owner of Strange Fellows Brewing. However, she was soon contacted by Eli Gershkovich, a lawyer who was opening a new brewpub in Gastown. He’d visited Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies on Hastings — a haven for all Vancouver homebrewers — and asked for brewer recommendations. Dan gave him Shirley’s name. When she showed up for her interview, she brought some of her homebrew: a bitter, a brown, and a lager. They hired her that same day, and Shirley Warne became the first brewer at the new Steamworks Brewpub.

At Steamworks, Shirley had free rein over the brewing programme as well as the freedom to shut down unwelcome suggestions or interference (she didn’t fear losing her job — Eli wanted to keep her on). In her first week, she met Conrad Gmoser, a young man who was working as an assistant to the architect and moonlighting as a carpenter but swiftly developed an interest in brewing. Vern Lambourne, now of Parkside, and her old friend Harley Smith also both worked under her at Steamworks. When she left Vancouver in the late ‘90s for opportunities in the Maritimes, she trained up Conrad to take her place as brewmaster. And when she returned to Vancouver in the early 2000s, she took up homebrewing again — this time in Conrad’s garage.

Back in Vancouver after a few years away, Shirley was itching to open her own brewery.  After purchasing brewing equipment, she spent several years trying to find investors. Leads that were initially promising gradually dried up. By 2007 she was fully disheartened; she gave up her dream and sold the equipment. For close to a decade, she helped new breweries start up and did occasional brewing jobs. The Ridge Brewpub in Osoyoos, for example, would fly her out for brew days (they gave her no creative license in the brewhouse though). Shirley helped Conrad and his friend Nigel Springthorpe open Brassneck Brewing in 2012, and her Old Bitch Bitter was one of the first beers they put on tap (unlike Eli at Steamworks, they were fine with the “offensive” name). She was also behind the scenes at Bomber Brewing in Vancouver and Crannóg Ales in Sorrento.

Finding Her Passion: Angry Hen Brewing

But Shirley still wanted her own brewery. Gradually, after multiple visits and a lot of planning, she and a small group of friends purchased a storefront property in Kaslo for $165,000. The village was the home of her sister-in-law, and it was also a place that resonated with her: the close-knit community, the picturesque high street, the nearby mountains and lake.

In December 2017, with fellow Brassneck brewer Jeff Leake along for the ride, Conrad made the snowy drive out to Kaslo to help Shirley set up and get through her first few brews. After they left, she had to do her first solo brew before opening day. She was on her own — sleep-deprived and “going a bit crazy,” in her words. Things started going wrong. She was about to chill the beer into the fermenter then realized she hadn’t sanitized the tank. Everything needed to stop. The hops were left in the kettle far longer than planned while she got the fermenter clean, resulting in a beer that was more bitter than expected. She called it “Freak Out” as a homage to her state of mind at the time. “But there are people who still ask for it!” she says, smiling.

On December 17, 2017, opening day, Shirley and her staff were so pressed for time that brown paper was still on the taproom windows in the mid-afternoon. Jolayne and Brenda, a couple from the nearby village of Balfour, had planned a visit to the new brewery after their afternoon hike and were disappointed to find the windows papered and the doors locked.

Jolayne called the brewery from its own front steps: “Hey, are you guys open today?” “Yes….” “Well… when?” When Shirley realized the two women were standing right outside, she decided to open up a bit ahead of time — why not?

After the window paper came down and the doors were unlocked, Jolayne and Brenda eagerly entered to try Angry Hen’s first lineup of beers: a Christmas Ale, the East Meets West IPA, a Pale Ale, a Helles, a Kolsch, and (of course) the Freak Out. It was a memorable evening, and the couple remain good friends with Shirley and her wife Fran to this day.

The Ethos of Angry Hen and Reflections on a Life in Brewing

Angry Hen is a brewery borne of skill, diligence, passion, and personality. The name itself was generated years before, in the mid-2000s when Shirley was homebrewing in Conrad’s garage and wanted to make her own homebrew brand. A friend’s suggestion of “Old Hen or something” (in Shirley’s recollection) was close but not exactly what she wanted. She found herself inspired by Feathers McGraw, the goofy-looking yet villainous penguin in the Wallace & Gromit cartoons. She loved the way he was both silly and aggressive — so she turned Old Hen into Angry Hen. “After all, I get angry!” she laughs. Shirley asked a friend who lived in her building, graphic designer Terry Sunderland, to sketch a cute yet mean chicken for her logo. This devil-eyed hen is now the face of Shirley’s brewery; with its chubby body and comically stick-thin legs, it holds a cleaver and stares menacingly to the side.

As the logo — and my conversations with her — might suggest, Shirley doesn’t feel the need to placate jerks or ignore bad behaviour just because she’s a woman. Fortunately, the jerks have been limited. While some owners have been dismissive or derogatory because of her gender, her fellow brewers have always respected her.

“Those guys never treated me like I was less than or second class,” she says.

Her willingness throughout her career to help other brewers, accept help in return, and maintain confidence in her own decisions, has solidified her reputation in the industry.

When she needs to defend her choices, however, she has no problem doing so. Shirley recalls one customer entering Angry Hen feeling, well, angry. “I’m really offended by that name! It’s very sexist!” the woman said to Shirley, pointing to the Old Bitch Bitter on the tap list. Shirley’s response was frank: “Well, I’m the brewer. It’s my beer — and I’m an old bitch! I’ll call my beer what I want.” It may be a bit shocking, perhaps offensive, but I personally find the beer’s name — and her attitude — refreshing. She’s transformed a traditionally derogatory term into an empowering one. Sometimes we’re angry. Sometimes we’re bitchy. Shirley gives herself (and other women) permission to acknowledge that.

Angry Hen has brought new life to Kaslo over the past six years. It draws tourists into the village, of course, but it’s also a hub for the locals. “Kaslo’s living room” is its affectionate nickname. In having her own brewery, Shirley now has full creative freedom in what she makes and how she markets it — something that she longed for decades ago in Vancouver. It’s not just the creativity of brewing she loves, though; it’s also the physicality.

“I like moving around. I can’t sit still,” she says. “I like everything analog when it comes to brewing — I don’t want to brew with buttons.”

Moving and touching and feeling are the things she loves about making beer. Most breweries’ mash tuns have a mechanized stirring arm, but Shirley still stirs the mash herself with a large paddle. “I can feel the thickness of it, the viscosity,” she says when I ask her why she mashes by hand. “I can tell if there’s any balling. I can control the flow of the grist. I know what’s happening with it at every stage.”

This “hands-on” instinct seems to characterize much about Shirley. She is deeply involved in all aspects of her brewery, from front-of-house to brewhouse. She cares about it — and about the people. She extended her care and generosity to me, inviting me to share a meal at her home where she cooked up some amazing burgers, introduced me to her sister, her pets, and her friends, and even tried my homebrew (my skills are woefully inadequate compared to hers, but she was gracious in her feedback).

If you want some good beer, you’ll certainly find it at Angry Hen — but you’ll also find a deep sense of community and connection. Kaslo’s little brewery truly is home to a hidden legend of BC craft brewing and an inspiration to women in craft brewing everywhere. Are you ready for your next road trip?

Along with many breweries in BC, Angry Hen is faced with imminent repayment deadlines of the federal CEBA loan that kept them afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to assist this small BC business, a GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up by a friend of the brewery.

The post Angry Hen Brewing and the Legacy of Shirley Warne appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

John Mitchell was well known in BC beer circles for not only his generosity and his passion for good beer, but also for being the first to introduce craft beer to Canada. A British ex-pat, John forced the slow wheels of government bureaucracy to turn so he could open Horseshoe Bay Brewery in West Vancouver back in 1982. His Bay Ale soon drew customers to the Troller Pub overlooking Sewell’s Marina, just a three-minute walk from the brewery itself at 6695 Nelson Avenue. The pub was the only place he could legally sell it — he didn’t have a microbrewery license that allowed distribution. When the relationship between himself and his business partners, Dave Patrick and Don Wilson, soured, he sold off his share in the business and moved to Victoria to help establish Spinnakers Brewpub. Dave and Don got rid of the brewery, and that’s often seen as the end of the story.

However, there’s a whole second part that many people have forgotten, despite one or two brief mentions over the years in BC’s beer periodicals, like What’s Brewing Magazine. In 1982, while John was brewing his first batches of beer and his partners were serving customers in the Troller, a 19-year-old kid named David Bruce-Thomas was clearing plates and cleaning ashtrays in the pub and occasionally helping with odd jobs in the brewery. Little did he know that he’d eventually become the brewmaster and owner. While John Mitchell and Frank Appleton were making their first batch of Bay Ale, David was in the background, observing. More than 40 years later, I was able to ask him about his experiences when we sat down for a beer together at the Hawthorne in Cloverdale. 

“I didn’t know anything,” he laughed, recalling his early days with John and Frank. “I had no interest in beer; it was a job to me. It was an interesting process, just hanging around and watching it.” His first taste of a cloudy, cask-conditioned beer — John brewed only traditional styles — was a bit of a surprise, as was the temperature. “I remember John and Frank talking about chill haze — the protein gets cold and it clouds up, and when it warms up it gets clear. But no one wants to drink warm beer! That was the battle. John didn’t want to put it in the fridge, so the first ones were served from right behind the counter.”

David’s education in traditional British ales continued after Frank Appleton left. The brewery became busy, so David stepped in to do all the keg cleaning and other small jobs. Gradually, he began to try his hand at brewing. John started small: “Hey Dave, I’m just mashing in — can you finish it while I deal with this?” Within a year, John had complete trust in his young apprentice and David was doing full brews, eventually brewing about 50% of the beer himself while still working a night job as a tow truck driver. 

After John left, David stepped in as brewer while John’s partners Don and Dave decided what to do with the brewery. They tried to find a professional brewmaster, but in the mid-1980s that was a challenging task. No one was aspiring to be a craft brewer back then. However, David already knew the brewing system and knew the recipes. “It happened by osmosis,” he said. “I picked it up, I could do it.” He ended up brewing all their beer — until, that is, the partners decided to axe the brewery portion of the business. It just wasn’t profitable, and they wanted to focus on the pub. By the fall of 1987, they had moved all the brewing equipment out of the building on Nelson Avenue and towed it to the scrapyard for destruction. To the disappointment of local fans, the Horseshoe Bay Brewery was gone.

Or was it?

Once the brewery was shuttered and he was out of a job, David picked up his severance cheque from the pub. While in the area, he stopped by Dan Sewell’s office (the Sewell of Sewell’s Marina) and casually asked whether Don and Dave had any control over the brewery building itself. They didn’t. Right on the spot, David gave Sewell his $2000 severance cheque and asked him to hold the building for six months until he could scrape together the funds to lease it. And Sewell agreed. 

After leaving Sewell’s office, David visited several local establishments to figure out whether there was a local market for beer. His contacts included Troll’s and Yaya’s Oyster Bar — both committed to buying his ale should the brewery re-open. 

The next step involved getting the brewing equipment back. With financial help from his parents, he was able to buy back the brewing equipment from the scrapyard before it was destroyed. He recalls that he paid around $6000 to rescue the equipment, and he used his own tow truck to haul it back to Nelson Street. 

A few months later, in the spring of 1988, David had secured a lease on the building, and the equipment was ready to be reinstalled. He phoned John Mitchell over in Victoria and told him all about it. 

“Are you interested in helping me put the brewery back together?” David asked his former boss. 

John enthusiastically answered in the affirmative and was soon back in West Vancouver to help out. The day he arrived, John asked David what the plan was. David responded: “We’re going to open the brewery building and sit in there by the front window and wait for Don and Dave to walk by.” Don and Dave’s office was near the old building, and David knew they passed by each day. True to form, they wandered by and, to their shock, saw David and John having a chat inside the brewery building. 

This precipitated a conflict. Lawyers were brought in because Don and Dave believed that David shouldn’t be able to lease the building or obtain a brewery license. Legally, however, David’s case held up. He then applied to West Vancouver Council, which approved his desired microbrewery license — the kind of license that would allow him to distribute like most craft brewery licenses we see today. 

Horseshoe Bay Brewery was thus resurrected under a slightly different name: Horseshoe Bay Brewing Company, with David as both owner and brewer. His first sales went to Troll’s Restaurant and Yaya’s Oyster Bar, both of which were regular customers for years. David recalls delivering 200 gallons of his special “Yaya’s Oyster Ale” to Yaya’s, where he had installed a 200-gallon tank. He’d pump a full batch of beer directly from the transport tank, which was mounted in a pickup truck-trailer, into the tank at Yaya’s, which he would clean himself each time.

At Troll’s restaurant, David could be found rolling kegs across the floor to where they’d be hooked up to draft lines. The owners of those restaurants — Alex von Kleist and Gary Troll — were always supportive of David’s aspirations to keep the brewery going. This was encouraging for a young entrepreneur, especially given the financial pressure and even an incident of vandalism: he arrived at work one morning to find diesel had been poured into the tanks and over the yeast, causing damage that slowed down production for days.  

Despite the challenges, David certainly had his successes. With his father’s help, he developed a consistent brand identity for Horseshoe Bay Brewing’s products, creating labels and selling their beer — including Bay Ale, Raspberry Ale, Pale Ale, Nut Brown Ale, and seasonal ales — to restaurants and bars across the lower mainland. His father, David Sr., did much of the advertising and graphic design work, while his mother, Josephine, worked in the brewery. John Mitchell and Frank Appleton both stopped by to visit and provide advice. David also had a mutually supportive relationship with Tim Wittig and Paul Beaton of the newly-opened Shaftebury Brewing, which is where craft beer pioneers like Iain Hill of Strange Fellows first got their start.

In addition to supplying beer to the locals, Horseshoe Bay also sold 10 pallets of beer to Japan (a deal arranged by David Sr.) and regularly sold beer to Western Family Foods, where it was used in their Caesar’s Shandy — a drink that was sold in grocery stores because it was below 0.5% ABV. The cash from these ventures helped keep the business going.

As the brewery continued pumping out the beer, David expanded his workforce, hiring brewers and delivery drivers to keep it all going. Early IPA innovator Bill Herdman brewed at Horseshoe Bay before he established his own brewery, Tall Ship Ales. According to a 2016 interview with What’s Brewing, Bill felt that he was more invested in Horseshoe Bay Brewing’s history than the owners were. However, it is clear that David also was deeply attached to the brewery’s legacy. It seemed that each man held the brewery in high regard; they simply had different approaches to running it.

The brewery and David slowly began parting ways when he acquired a partner, John Allen, in the early 1990s. He realized that the cost of running Horseshoe Bay was cutting into profits, making the business largely untenable. The sales to Japan and Western Family had kept them financially afloat for a while, but it wasn’t enough. David’s lack of involvement once Allen became the majority investor meant that he had little recollection of the brewery’s later business details, but What’s Brewing and BCBeer.ca both indicate that Horseshoe Bay stopped bottling in 1995, selling only draft beer after that. Things were going downhill. David recalls a day around 1996 when he simply left his key, locked the brewery door, and never returned. Horseshoe Bay Brewing limped along a little while longer under Allen until, according to Sneath’s book, Brewed in Canada, it was acquired by the Coquihalla and Bowen Island Brewing Company in 1999 and closed for good shortly after. 

But Horseshoe Bay Brewing still has a presence in the beer community. In 1999, Brian MacIsaac and Rebecca Kneen heard on the brewery grapevine that Horseshoe Bay was closing for good and selling off their equipment. Kneen and MacIsaac had purchased a gorgeous parcel of land in the Shuswap and were planning to start a farm brewery on a shoestring budget. Environmental and social responsibility were (and still are) their priorities, and reusing brewing equipment with such a history seemed fitting. They bought it all — the tanks, kettle, and mash tun that Mitchell and Appleton had first assembled back in 1982. With some adaptations for efficiency and safety, that same equipment is still in use to this day in their brewery, Crannóg Ales.

Kneen recalls John Mitchell coming to visit them shortly after the equipment was installed, bringing with him a gift: a malt sieve. The old wooden box stacked with different kinds of screens helps the brewer figure out what percentage of their milled malt is at each level of coarseness or fineness. Kneen still has the malt sieve and uses it regularly. She recalls Mitchell visiting several times after that to try the beer and observe the brewing process. He was, unsurprisingly, very pleased that Crannóg also uses whole hops — something about which Mitchell was passionate.

In addition, just this year, David Bruce-Thomas re-acquired the rights to the name “Horseshoe Bay Brewing Company” via the BC Business Registry. Who knows — maybe there will be a new Bay Ale in the future!

Even though Horseshoe Bay Brewery has a central place in our recollection of BC’s craft beer history, its post-Mitchell life has been largely forgotten. I’m sure there are similar lost tales from other BC breweries that have shuttered their doors over the years.

Do you know of any of these lost histories of beer and brewing? Get in touch with the BC Ale Trail and let us know! 

The post The Afterlife of the Horseshoe Bay Brewery appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Safeguarding the Revolution

If you appreciate the fact you can enjoy a vastly better array of brewed beverages today than back in the darkest days of the 20th century, you have a reason to be thankful for what ‘Thirsty Writer’ Joe Wiebe calls our Craft Beer Revolution. Without the changes that began over 40 years ago, Canada might still be more or less a suds desert. Fortunately, during these past four revolutionary decades, the epiphany that is craft beer discovery has struck the right people at the right time so as to inspire the creation of our great breweries and beer festivals.

Today’s story focuses on a trio of people with a creation that’s a bit more unusual. At separate points within the past 20 years, these three folks—each of whom currently works within the Archives and Records Management department at Simon Fraser University—would experience that craft beer epiphany. To our lasting benefit, their beer fandom has inspired them to establish a new resting place for the artifacts and stories of British Columbia’s brewing past: the SFU-based BC Beer History Archive.

Archives management is all about preserving history, and job one for this type of department at any educational institution is to safely store the school’s own records. For this, a formal space is set up with suitable safeguards against theft, fire, and document deterioration. Once this facility exists, it can be used to capture historical aspects of the community at large. In the case of SFU Archives, this includes women’s history, social activism, social justice and politics.

In recent years, the department has emphasized the acquisition of external materials and records from the public so as to chronicle some of the contemporary movements in British Columbia. Well, it came to the attention of the SFU Archives that craft beer fits the criteria quite well from a social as well as an economic/industrial point of view. With the establishment of SFU’s new archive category, BC’s craft beer community now has a go-to location to store its rich modern history.

The budding SFU collection already has a wide variety of items, ranging from breweriana to historical research papers. This is due to the work of Melanie Hardbattle, the Acquisitions and Outreach Archivist handling this project. Once the team decided to pursue the BC craft beer idea, Melanie began researching the topic online and made contact with people behind the scenes. That led her to CAMRA Victoria, and the jewel of the new archive.

Given to CAMRA in recent years was the single most important collection of works about BC beer history: those of Greg Evans, BC’s preeminent beer historian. Evans, who passed away at the end of 2018, was revered in the beer community as an academic professional who seriously studied BC’s brewing past. He was working on a book at the time of his death. CAMRA had originally hoped to digitize as much as possible of Greg’s collection, then donate it to the Royal BC Museum, where he had worked. Now, the collection, which his family had generously bestowed, has an especially appropriate home at SFU.

University Archivist Paul Hebbard, the department head, relates that relevance for researchers is one of the key criteria the team considers before founding a new collection. “We want to know: is there a demand; will people come in and use these materials,” he explains. As it happens, it hasn’t taken long for the gamble to prove worthwhile. Having the Greg Evans fonds in the Lower Mainland has already paid off for professor Noëlle Phillips, who has spent time at SFU Archives researching a beer book she’s writing.

Speaking of Evans, connecting with people in Victoria is especially critical for a project like this because that’s where the BC beer enthusiast community first formed a lasting association in the form of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale Society of British Columbia), which later expanded to several other chapters in other regions of the province. The branch’s original President, John Rowling, met with Melanie earlier this year and became a key contributor to the new SFU archives, with records including correspondence with early craft luminaries such as Michael Jackson, Charles Finkel, Ed McNally and others.

Asked about his first reaction to the SFU project, Rowling shares, “I was delighted, as I had been archiving material with the hope that the Royal BC Museum and Archives would be interested one day.” John also confesses a sense of relief that is candidly common to most of the contributors.

“About a year ago, my family had asked what I was going to do with all my beer memorabilia, saying ‘We don’t want it!’ The timing was perfect, and I was excited that it was going to a permanent repository.”

One early spinoff of CAMRA Victoria was the Great Canadian Beer Festival, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year. Rowling provided SFU with notes, business plans and operating manuals for GCBF, as well as posters, programmes, glasses, volunteer shirts and essentially his entire treasure trove. He had co-founded the event back in 1993 with longtime BC craft beer industry and community leader Gerry Hieter, who managed this pioneering festival for years. Melanie has been fortunate to also meet with Heiter and collect a large haul of materials from his priceless archives as well.

“I stashed away pretty much every single thing I came across related to craft brewing between 1986 to 2020,” Hieter relates. “I never once gave much thought as to where it might all end up. As I grew older, I just figured that most of it would end up in a landfill somewhere.” A happy Hieter enthuses, “Now, [these items] will be archived, digitized and available for anyone to see in the future. I can’t tell you how good that feels.”

Even in the age of Internet and all-pervasive social media, it’s possible for history to get lost. This is a point made by Richard Dancy, a Staff Archivist who helped spearhead the project. He notes that, outside of the Evans collection, there are very few records from BC’s brewing past.

“Most businesses don’t really think about their records as having social value,” Dancy points out, thinking of such things as materials, documents and beer recipes from the pioneering craft breweries of the recent past. “It would be a shame if that history repeated itself”.

Collecting BC Beer History

SFU Archives is interested in collecting material related to the history of BC brewing. If you think you have something that is a fit, here’s how to reach SFU:

Archives and Records Management Department
Simon Fraser University
Maggie Benston Student Services Centre (MBC) 0400
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC Canada V5A 1S6
www.sfu.ca/archives

Attn: Melanie Hardbattle
Acquisitions and Outreach Archivist
Tel: 778-782-2195
E: mhardbat@sfu.ca

Portions of this story are reprinted courtesy What’s Brewing magazine. Stay tuned to What’s Brewing for a further installment on this story featuring video interviews with the SFU Archives staff.

Samples From The Archive

In the future, it will be possible to browse the BC Beer History Archive online. In the meantime, here’s just a small preview of what is being collected at SFU.

The post SFU Steps Up to Preserve BC Beer History appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.

Barkerville Brewing is celebrating Black History Month with the launch of a new beer called Painless Jones Schwarzbier. The Quesnel-based brewery, which is named after the nearby historic town of Barkerville and is located on the Northeast BC Ale Trail, has a strong connection to BC history, with much of its branding and beer names associated with stories from our province’s past.

Painless Jones Schwarzbier is a dark German-style lager with rich, bread-like malts and a roasted, velvety character. A touch of traditional European noble hops is balanced by a slight sweetness and followed by the clean, dry finish typical of lagers.

Who Was “Painless” Jones?

William Allen Jones was born in North Carolina in 1831. His father Allen Jones reportedly bought his family’s freedom from slavery for $5,000 and moved them to Ohio. There, William and two of his brothers, John and Elias, all attended Oberlin College, one of the only U.S. colleges that were available to Black men and women at the time.

The three Jones brothers were part of a group of about 800 Black Americans who came north over a period of several months in 1858, responding to an invitation from the Colony of Vancouver Island.

In his book, Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia, Crawford Kilian writes that the invitation was delivered on April 14, 1858, at a meeting at Zion Church in San Francisco, then the largest city on the west coast of North America, by Jeremiah Nagle, a landowner in the Vancouver Island colony and the Captain of the steamship Commodore, which made regular voyages between San Francisco and Victoria:

“Standing by the pulpit with maps of Vancouver Island, Nagle answered a rapid stream of questions about the colony. He also had with him a letter from ‘a gentleman in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company of undoubted veracity,’ giving details about the colony and welcoming the Black Californians. This gentleman must have been the governor himself, James Douglas, but his letter does not appear to have survived.”

The three Jones brothers initially settled on Salt Spring Island, “but then with the lure of the Gold Rush, William and his youngest brother Elias headed to Barkerville to seek their fortunes as many people did at the time,” explained Fran Morrison, a director of the BC Black History Awareness Society. “We don’t know how successful they were, but we do know that sometime around 1864 or 1865 they both returned to the States.” Elias stayed there, but William undertook his Dental Studies and then returned to Barkerville and became its resident dentist.

When dentistry became recognized as a medical profession, William Jones was the first person to become certified as a dentist in British Columbia in 1886. He died of pneumonia in 1897. He was buried in the Williams Creek Cemetery. 

The Historic Town of Barkerville  

Barkerville was the central hub of the Cariboo Gold Rush, a true “boomtown” named after William Barker who was one of the first miners to strike gold there in 1862. The town was all but destroyed by fire in 1868 but was rebuilt and continued to thrive for a time. By the turn of the 20th century, however, it was in decline. Barkerville was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924 and a Provincial Heritage Property in 1958, which is when major restoration efforts began. Barkerville is now “the largest living-history museum in western North America.”

The reconstruction of the building that housed Dr. Jones’ dentist office was completed in 1961 with the assistance of the British Columbia Dental Association. The replica office includes a chair and a variety of dental instruments appropriate to the era, though none of them were owned or used specifically by Dr. Jones himself.

Today, Barkerville Historic Town & Park is a popular tourist site that features more than 125 heritage buildings, period displays, satellite museums, restaurants and shops. Throughout the summer season, actors reenact historic characters, bringing the town to life for visitors. There are campgrounds and cottages for overnight accommodations.

Every February is Black History Month

The BC Black History Awareness Society was formed in 1994 to raise awareness about BC Black History. During Black History Month, the Society hosts events that include exhibits, book readings, concerts and tours.

The sxʷeŋxʷəŋ təŋəxʷ James Bay Branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library is home to a permanent art installation that connects to the digital exhibition BC Black Pioneers. Developed by the BC Black History Awareness Society, this exhibit features 20 stories, nine videos, and 86 gallery items, including photos, maps, and archival documents.

Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum is an exhibit created by the BC Black History Awareness Society in partnership with the Royal BC Museum that retells the complicated history of Black British Columbians and highlights the contributions of Black leaders whose actions echo across the centuries. This exhibit is at the GVPL’s Central Branch (first and second floors) until the end of February.

Other Ways BC Breweries Support Black History Month

Kelowna’s Jackknife Brewing is making a batch of Black is Beautiful beer, with all proceeds going towards Black Lives Matter Canada as well as Access Pro Bono.

The post Barkerville’s Painless Jones Schwarzbier Celebrates Black History Month appeared first on The BC Ale Trail.