81 minute read
LIQUID FLAVOUR ADDING IT TO BEER
FLAVOUR
THE PROS & CONS OF ADDING LIQUID FLAVOUR TO BEER
AS CRAFT BREWERS EXPLORE AND EXPAND THE BOUNDARIES OF FLAVOUR IN BEER, MANY TURN TO US WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT USING LIQUID FLAVOURS FOR THEIR BRANDS. IN THIS ARTICLE, FLAVORSUM SPEAK WITH STEPHEN RICH, A BREWER, CERTIFIED CICERONE, PRUD’HOMME BEER SOMMELIER, AND BJCP CERTIFIED BEER JUDGE, TO GET HIS PERSPECTIVES.
According to Mintel, more than 100 new flavoured beers landed on North American retail and grocery shelves in 2020, representing more than 40% of total new product activity. With many breweries selling innovative new flavours directly to customers (and never hitting retail shelves), the actual number of new flavoured beers is likely much higher.
Breweries add value to their products, delight customers, and increase market share with flavoured beer offerings, but face a myriad of technical considerations when adding flavour to beer. Is it better to use raw ingredients or a liquid flavour? What sanitary and safety concerns should be addressed? When is the best time to add flavour to achieve the desired result?
To understand trends in the flavoured beer market and the nuanced pros and cons of adding liquid flavour to beer, the FlavourSum team spoke with Stephen Rich, Brewmaster, Certified Cicerone, Prud’homme Beer Sommelier, and BJCP Certified Beer Judge.
Where Are Craft Beers Headed in The Flavour Space?
Stephen Rich: Short answer? Some brewers are becoming increasingly interested in flavour, and others are not. Between 25,000 and 30,000 breweries operate globally and 12,000 in North America. And all of them, even in the craft beer market, have a wide range of values, goals, and purposes.
What might make a brewery of any size or experience choose to consider adding flavours, or any other new ingredient, process, or technology? Generally, craft breweries are driven by market strategies involving tradition, innovation, or local trends and influence.
Tradition-Centered: To my delight, more and more breweries are opening that focus on making classic beer styles—like English, German, Belgian, or otherwise. Because most of these brewers focus on traditional styles, ingredients, and techniques, they are unlikely to incorporate flavours into their beers.
Innovation-Focused: Many brewers are always interested and excited to learn about ways to create new, better, more efficient, or lower-cost beers. These brewers will see flavour as an opportunity to innovate to achieve their purpose—better, faster, safer, more efficient, etc. They are looking for new ideas and are more likely to consider flavour a way to reach their goals and build their brand. Trend-Influenced: Other brewers (both large and small enterprises) want to capture the momentum and opportunity found in current or unexpected trends. These breweries will make a strong play for flavoured beer. With the relative ease of adding a liquid flavour, brewers can rapidly trial new flavour additions to existing beers and find a solution to quickly get to market. And in some cases, using flavour helps them hit critical capacity and distribution targets.
Competitive-Response: It’s no secret that hard seltzer and the broader ready-todrink (RTD) market are roaring through the packaged beverage alcohol market and stealing plenty of volume from beer along the way. This competition is predominantly on the backs of larger industrial beers, but craft beer is feeling the pressure.
Not only are craft brewers working on creating beers that compete with the easy-drinking and simple nature of hard seltzer, but they are also making their own hard seltzer. Some of these brewers use whole ingredients such as fruit juice, honey, spices, etc., to create hard seltzers that emulate the general process and value set they apply to beer.
Other brewers use flavour to create seltzers that might look and feel like the big brands’ versions but have more interesting flavours or profiles.
The general influx of new beverages to the market is forcing many brewers to think about their products, ingredients, and processes more strategically.
FAST-GROWING TRENDS: FRUIT BEERS
Across many of the brewery strategies, the growth and relative success of fruit beers is a burgeoning trend that I think bodes well for flavour use in craft beer.
These could include wheat beers with delicate fruit, sour beers with significant fruit, or generic ales built to represent the character
of the fruit. Sales data proves that these styles continue to gain market share compared to other styles. Many consider the flavourful interest from the fruit and the generally lower bitterness and increased sweetness to be a big part of the trend’s popularity.
A similar approach is also being applied to hard-core craft beers such as Pastry Stouts. Generally above 10% ABV (alcohol by volume), these beers commonly include flavours like vanilla and chocolate, but can even include smores, latte, almond, key lime pie, raspberry sherbet, caramel flan, etc.
Which Flavour Profiles Align by Beer Style?
Stephen: Brewers can certainly have fun using flavours to reimagine the aroma and flavour possibilities in their beers. But I would not forget about flavour’s ability to boost or act as seasoning to existing flavours.
For example, adding lots of vanilla could add a real vanilla character to a chocolate stout. Another option could involve adding a small amount of vanilla which could help boost chocolate and sweet perception without necessarily making it a vanilla stout.
Let’s consider these two general purposes for the use of liquid flavour: complement and addition.
COMPLEMENT
Nearly any beer style on the planet could be considered a candidate for a complementary flavour addition. This will come down to the brewery’s values and goals for any specific beer. In this category, flavours can be used to enhance or emphasize existing flavours present in the beer. Think of it like capitalizing the alphabet. It’s all the same letters, but now they are emphasized as capitals. Let’s review a few examples.
Pilsner is the world’s most popular and most replicated beer style. Some are simple and one-dimensional, while others are elegant and delicately nuanced. Regardless of interpretation, the base of every pilsner should be bread-like malt and grassy or herbaceous hops. The beer should never be too assertive, but those underlying characters should be present. Here’s an opportunity for liquid flavour to gently touch up the malt character of a Pilsner by adding bread crust, or light toast, or even going somewhere specific like rye loaf. Or you could add a hint of fresh-cut grass, lavender fields, or hayfield to enhance the hops. These additions would not change the malt or hop sensations, instead adding Another great example would be American India Pale Ale or IPA. IPA has many variants, but the classic American IPA is light on malt character, only supporting with a bit of bready caramel, but dense with grapefruit, citrus zest, and pine. Liquid flavour could help you refine that grapefruit note to specifically become pink grapefruit. Or perhaps you’d like the citrus zest to showcase more mandarin orange zest than navel orange. Maybe the pine isn’t just piney, but it’s that sweet resinous pine that leaks from the pine trees outside your brewery. Here again, we’re not creating a new IPA, but complimenting its existing character to showcase its best traits a bit brighter.
ADDITION
Increasingly, beers feature flavours that are not traditionally found in beer. A range of options can bring in flavour such as cocoa nibs, mango, coconut, dragon fruit, rice crispy squares, brownies, or even German chocolate cake. And yes, people are putting whole German chocolate cakes in their beer - lots of them. As the consumer’s palate for more extreme flavours in craft beer evolves, liquid flavour could play a vital role in its evolution. Let’s look at two more examples.
Back to that good old American IPA, a great base style that many brewers use to build a range of variations: Mango IPA, Peach IPA, Raspberry IPA, Blueberry Vanilla Sherbet IPA, Hazelnut Lavender IPA, Clementine Marshmallow IPA, or Pineapple Upside-Down Cake IPA. You can imagine the obvious challenges that could exist trying to make some of these highly flavourful IPA styles. Liquid flavour could provide a big advantage for someone thinking about how to get pastry into their beer. Dark beers in general, specifically stouts and porters, are another great place to add new flavour to create a fun and delicious beer. Chocolate, coffee, and vanilla have been used for decades now to add delicious complimentary sensations to stouts and porters. But brewers are now exploring flavours like Salted Caramel, Peanut Butter Cup, Crème Brulee, Maple Bacon, Sour Cream Glazed Doughnut, Rocky Road, and the list goes on. The dark, roasty, and generally richer flavours of porters and stouts make them a great candidate for flavour additions. And craft beer consumers seek them out.
Where do most small-to-midsize craft brewers fall on the flavour spectrum?
Stephen Rich: I’d bet a perfect third of brewers are traditional, using only four or sometimes five ingredients to make mostly historical styles.
Another third of brewers make anything they feel like—old school, new school, adventurous, or innovative. They brew what they like and what they believe their clientele will like. Many small local brewpubs are great examples of this.
The last third of brewers focus primarily on richly flavoured beers—either traditional or innovative. They brew high ABV beers, barrel-aged beers, and many primed with all sorts of additives (which we generally term “adjuncts”).
I think the period of extreme experimentation is generally over. There may be a brewer or two making an Avocado Honey Ale, or a Lobster Stout because they have access to the local supply and it’s a fun project, but most brewers these days are experimenting with the flavours and character that fit the trends that are happening:
u Hazy IPAs and tropical fruit
u Sour beers and juicy or exotic fruits
How to Create Delicious Beer Flavours?
Stephen: Start by imagining beers and flavours that excite you, but don’t limit yourself to the beer or flavour. Excitement can come from your environment, friends, family, and visual cues. Think more about designing the beer drinking experience than designing a flavour.
Visualize the resulting drinking experience, then isolate the sensations that make that beer amazing and delicious. Think about the raw materials, process, sweetness, alcohol, body, and package—and build a parameter to define and achieve each.
Expect trial and error to be part of the process. Do your diligence to ensure all ingredients, processes, and records are executed accurately. Plan to critically evaluate the result with the intent of making improvements on the next batch. Always be honest with yourself and ask for honest feedback to ensure that you are always improving.
What are the Pros and Cons of Adding Liquid Flavours To Beer?
Stephen Rich: Any time I’m thinking about adding a new raw material, ingredient, process, or technology to the brewing process, I review the pros and cons with my team and with suppliers. Specifically, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages in the context of our values, what we do, and why we do it. We also examine the benefits and risks through the lenses of quality, safety, and flavour perception.
u Pro: Accuracy & Consistency of Dosing A big benefit of adding flavour is the accuracy and consistency of dosing capability compared to the corresponding raw material. As you know, a pound of raspberries may present a different amount of character this year than it does next year, or even this week than it does next week. The accuracy and consistency of using a flavour, which in turn affects the accuracy and consistency of the perceived taste, is among the most significant advantages of liquid flavour.
u Pro: Range of Customizable Flavours Another plus of using a flavour is the broad range of options and ready availability of supply throughout the entire year. When sourcing raw materials, you have seasonality, location, and availability considerations that can create challenges for brewing flavoured beer.
u Pro: Ease & Flexibility of Adding Flavours Depending on the ingredient and the quantity, adding raw materials could present logistical and safety concerns. For example, how feasible is it to add 500 pounds of raspberries to your batch? Is it a safety concern to physically lift those raspberries into the tank? What about later in the process when you must get them out?
How easy will it be to clean any mess that is created? Adding a liquid flavour or extract could be significantly easier and offers process flexibility. You can add liquid flavours to the tank, in-line between processes, during fermentation, during maturation, in the bright beer tank, pre-filtration, or post-filtration. Every brewer will need to define the addition stage that is best suited for their desired result.
u Pro: Reduced Safety Concerns Using a flavour also carries fewer safety concerns, especially if the corresponding raw material is heavy and requires lifting into the tank. Of course, it will depend on the size of your production and your capabilities. Some brewers have systems in place for precisely those situations. In those cases, adding sizable amounts of raw material will be less of a concern.
u Pro: Reduced Risk of Hygienic Contamination Another benefit of adding flavours is the reduced risk of hygienic contamination compared to the corresponding raw material. Any time brewers add anything, whether it’s a filtering medium, fruit, spice, or flavour, the risk of contamination should be a real concern. Ingredients like cocoa nibs or vanilla beans are relatively easy to sterilize, but how would you ensure 500 pounds of raspberries, with a much more complex surface, are safe to add? Pasteurization isn’t ideal because it will affect the fundamental characteristics of the raspberry. Or let’s say you’re a small brewer who got the raspberries from a local farm down the road. You might not even have the opportunity to pasteurize them. So from my perspective, depending on the raw material, a flavour addition may have the advantage of reduced contamination risk since liquid flavour is available in a sterile format.
u Pro: Improved Sustainability & Reduced Beer Losses Adding a flavour usually results in reduced beer loss compared to adding the corresponding raw material.
Let’s say you’re making 1000 liters of beer and decide to add 500 pounds of raspberries. Initially, you’ll be increasing your total volume, but the fruit will inevitably absorb some of the beer. After processing and separating the beer from the fruit, you’re going to end up with less than 1000 liters of raspberry beer. It will be richly flavoured, but typically, you’ll have less product to package.
So from a sustainability or conservation perspective, using a liquid flavour will allow you to reduce your losses in processing and reduce the amount of
water it takes to make a liter of beer. Historically, the water-to-beer ratio hasn’t been much of a concern, but more breweries are starting to reexamine this issue. The environmental impact from shipping in raw ingredients is also something to consider. Getting local fruit from down the road is straightforward. But if you’re getting dragon fruit shipped from across the world, the carbon footprint can add up. If your brewery values sustainable production and seeks to reduce the ecological impact, then you’ll need to ask yourself if shipping fruit from across the world matches your values.
u Con: The Potential for Negative Market Perceptions Now for the cons. The biggest downside of liquid flavour is nontechnical. Unfortunately, the perception (or optics) of adding a flavour isn’t always as favorable as the corresponding raw material. In some markets, this won’t be much of a concern.
But for small and medium-sized craft brewers, this negative perception around flavours could impact potential marketing opportunities.
Some breweries have developed a very strategic approach to flavoured beers. Essentially, they pick three to five beers and use these as a base to create new variants by adding flavour. So instead of creating a new beer every quarter, they roll out a unique flavour for their imperial stout base, for example. They now have a system to make hundreds of variants quickly and strategically.
u Con: Challenges with Delivering the
Desired Perceived Flavour, Color, And
Body It may sound counterintuitive but achieving the desired perceived flavour may be easier with the raw material. While adding 500 pounds of whole raspberries can include some challenges, fruit generally delivers a more robust, more nuanced flavour.
Delivering the same depth of taste with a liquid flavour may not be as simple. Finding a flavour with the right combination of notes requires technical expertise, including understanding usage rates. With flavour, adding more rarely produces good results. You risk incorporating non-desirable characteristics along with the flavour, like a medicinal or metallic taste.
The fruit also contains characteristics that the liquid flavour can’t always replicate, like a specific color, sweetness, or body. What Are ‘Watch-Outs’ Or Technical Considerations with Flavours?
Stephen: I’ve found the best place to add a liquid flavour is the last possible process, i.e., in the bright beer tank, after filtration or centrifugation, and before packaging. With this approach, the flavour goes through a minimum number of processes. My goal as the brewer is to deliver the best experience with the final perceived flavour and aroma of a beer, whether canned, bottled, or on tap.
OTHER TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS WEIGHING PROS & CONS
Overall, the pros and cons of adding flavour are subjective and affected by your brewery’s purpose. The weights you assign to the advantages and disadvantages will align with your values and your market. For some brewers, the pros will significantly outweigh the cons. For others, the one or two cons associated with liquid flavours will drive them to use raw material.
For any brewery, large or small, many of the pros as opportunities are worth examining to add value to their operation and brand.
u Always be aware of dissolved oxygen and minimize its presence in your process to extend shelf life and improved taste.
u Always follow strict sanitary processes.
u Although adding flavour to the bright beer tank produces excellent results, you can explore the point at which you add the flavour. Will the outcome be different if added in the brewhouse, during fermentation, in maturation, or in the bright tank?
u During any experimentation, consider how downstream processes may alter the flavour impact of the beer or the flavour added, such as filtration, centrifugation, or pasteurization.
u Before adding flavour, assess whether it will react to any chemistry in the beer that may change its profile. Is there anything in the beer that may affect how the flavour is perceived, like lactose, acids, or bitter notes? ABOUT STEPHEN RICH
Stephen is a Brewer, Certified Cicerone, Prud’homme Beer Sommelier, and BJCP Certified Beer Judge. Starting in 2004 as an eager homebrewer, he now has over 10 years of professional brewing experience working with a range of brewhouses, cellar equipment and packaging operations. Stephen managed one of Ontario’s most ambitious Brewery builds and rebuilt one of Ontario’s first Craft Brewpubs.
ABOUT FLAVOURSUM
FlavourSum provides the flavour solutions, expertise, responsiveness, and infrastructure that growing food and beverage companies need to accelerate success. Part of our mission is making flavour sourcing more efficient, effective, and enjoyable. <10-day lead times and hundreds of floor stock products makes us one of the most responsive North American flavour companies. Work with us to create delicious new products while keeping your next launch on schedule!
FOCUS WATER
A RESPONSIBLE APPROACH TO WATER MANAGEMENT
AS PART OF ITS SUSTAINABILITY DRIVE, COLORADO’S NEW BELGIUM INSTALLED AN ON-SITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM FROM EVOQUA THAT WOULD GENERATE AN EFFLUENT THAT FAR EXCEED THE CITY’S DISCHARGE REQUIREMENTS.
Since 1991, the New Belgium Brewing Company has been brewing craft beer at its brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
New Belgium Brewing is the fourth-largest craft brewer in the United States and the eighth-largest brewery in the nation, producing popular brands including Fat Tire Belgian Ale, Voodoo Ranger IPA, and Citradelic IPA.
CHALLENGE
To keep pace with consumer demand, New Belgium Brewing expanded its operations by building a second brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. The new facility is sized to produce upwards of 500,000 barrels of beer per year. New Belgium Brewing’s core values include producing world-class beers and preserving environmental stewardship.
As part of its sustainability efforts, New Belgium Brewing wanted a more responsible approach to managing its water.
This included installing an on-site wastewater treatment system that would generate an effluent that far exceed the city’s discharge requirements.
Due to the limited amount of space available on-site and the fact that the facility is located near a residential area, the system needed to have a compact footprint and mitigate any odors associated with the wastewater treatment.
SOLUTION
Evoqua’s ADI Systems was selected to design and build a customized on-site wastewater treatment solution for the Asheville brewery.
The ADI® anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) system was chosen as the best treatment solution for the brewery based on the design raw wastewater characteristics (a combination of process wastewater, spent yeast and hops), treatment requirements, limited space available, and the proximity of the wastewater treatment plant to a neighboring residential community.
The AnMBR system consists of a 330,000 gallon continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) paired with an 86,000 gallon membrane tank.
The system was designed to treat up to 142,000 gpd of wastewater and generate a final effluent with biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations of less than 230 mg/l.
RESULTS
The new treatment system that Evoqua’s ADI Systems designed for New Belgium Brewing is generating a consistent high-quality final effluent that exceeds the discharge limits of the local publicly owned treatment works.
The compact system is also meeting noise and odour limits, preventing any disruption to the surrounding neighbourhood.
CROSSING CONTINENTS: BELGIUM
MAKING THEIR MARK: THE STORY OF BREWERY D’OUDE MAALDERIJ
THE D’OUDE MAALDERIJ BREWERY WAS FOUNDED IN 2011 IN KOOLSKAMP AND IT HAS ACHIEVED A GREAT DEAL IN THE YEARS SINCE. HERE, PAUL DAVIES, THE FOUNDER OF ALEHUNTERS BREWERY TOURS, CHARTS THE STORY OF ITS FOUNDER JEF PIRENS.
Brouwer met een bizar kantje, brouwer ‘met een hoek af’. Brewer with a bizarre side, a brewer ‘on the edge’. So said an article in De Zytholoog magazine about D’Oude Maalderij in Izegem recently.
The article in question recognises the achievement of brewer Jef ‘Hiq’ Pirens being made a knight of the mashing paddle at last year’s Belgian Beer Weekend, the feast of Gambrinus and Sint-Arnoldus.
What is amazing is that this accolade was awarded a mere eight years after releasing his first beer Qantelaar in September 2012.
So the rise of this wonderful craft brewery has been rapid indeed but its beginnings go back even further to 2001 when a young Jef Pirens, 18 years young, brewed a beer at KIHO College in Gent for his end of school project.
Displaying his ‘edgy’ credentials, his Geslacht beer was financed by selling it through his local youth club, Andere Geslacht – of which he was also President!
Born in Hasselt, young Jef grew up in and around Brugge. His dedication to fine beer owes itself in parts to discovering new beers at Daisy Claeys’ Brugs Beertje with friends. From there his interest in beer became much more serious, a passion in fact.
Following a period of home brewing, Jef finally released his first batch of Qantelaar (based on Kantelen, the word for tilting, how one gets after a couple of drinks) beer in 2012 and took on the name D’Oude Maalderij (D.O.M. Brouwerij) from the former old millhouse in Koolskamp where the home brewed beer was produced.
An unfiltered 8% bier bruin with wheat malt and candi sugar for a sturdy body, the beer remains a top seller for the brewery.
Jef continued to brew further batches of the beer at Brouwerij Maenhout in Meulebeke and was rewarded with 8th place in the consumer trophy at Zythos Bier Festival.
Now, the nickname ‘Hiq’. No, it doesn’t relate to an insatiable thirst for dark beer, although this isn’t too far from the truth.
Apparently this is an old nickname given when he was younger and has its foundations in Pinball and the Transformers comic series. D.O.M. Brewery continued to develop slowly but steadily and ‘Hiq’ hosted numerous beer tasting evenings, pushing the reputation of his beer. A former flower shop became available in Izegem and Jef worked day and night from August of that year to install water and waste supplies and open his taproom.
He also developed a slogan for his beer ‘Leer Proeven, Durf Genieten or Learn to Taste, Dare to Enjoy’.
Possibly a swipe at the Jupiler generation perhaps? The English version is ‘Dare to Taste, Learn to Enjoy’, an unintentional volte-face but one that works as the interplay can be switched around. Opening just before his 34th birthday, the taproom was furnished like those cafes from a bygone era with plenty of memorabilia, both beer-related and otherwise from Jef’s collection of antique curiosities.
Both D.O.M. beers and guests were offered alongside Jef’s collection of approximately 2.800 different vintage beers. With a new brewery began a period of experimentation. The Homo Beerectus project with Brecht Kindt aimed to launch a new beer every 10 weeks, with 30 new beers produced over 6 years. However, the project came to a sudden end with the untimely passing of Brecht in April 2019.
D.O.M. Brewery were also participating in beer festivals, Zythos, Poperinge, Koekelare but the first big festival featured a stand at the 2013 edition of BAB in Brugge due to a last minute cancellation by Domis Ignis.
Around this time, two further beers were launched – Redenaar at the 7th Brugs Bierfestival, a 6.5% bier blond and Hop The Brewer, another 6.5% beer but this one being an IPA.
Beers were being produced by Jef at friends’ breweries, namely ‘t Gaverhopke, Gulden Spoor, Alvinne, De Leite and he also undertook a short brewing course at Glenn Alvinne’s brewery.
The next development would be the trio of dark beers, Deo a 4.8% porter, Optimo an 8% smoked stout and Maximo an 11.5% imperial stout.
Borne out by Jef’s love for dark beers, the message was to educate drinkers that not all dark beers taste like Guinness (a Hiq guilty pleasure). This trio of beers, whose initials spelled out the D.O.M. Brewery, were sold in unique triangle packs so that all 3 could be tasted, compared and appreciated. It was 2015 and D.O.M. Brewery was gaining momentum.
Local snacks were showcased alongside Thai food from Kai Fa and a new beer, Farang (stranger) was produced in collaboration with them – an 8% Belgian Tripel made with galanga.
The bar is a delight with plenty of beer-related heritage including old signs, religious artifacts, antique furniture while outside old dodgem cars and bikes compete with a (very) old campervan. The next project was to remove the old greenhouses and build a new building to house the new D.O.M. brewery, pieced together by Jef from many different parts of brewing kit – a true Frankenstein creation and inspiring the brewhouse name ‘Frankie’. The only new piece of kit was the malt mill.
Four of the lager tanks and the bottling plant are from Alvinne, the pump from Van Honsebrouck, the yeast tanks are old farmers’ milk tanks and the labelling machine is from Fort Lapin.
The fermenters are horizontal which is preferred due to the larger surface area and lower pressure. All bottles are filled under Jef’s expert eye and the brewhouse conditions are perfect for bottle conditioning with no added sugar required.
The brewhouse launched in September 2016, a year after the bier café opened, continuing a long-standing brewing heritage in Izegem.
Local fresh tapwater is used for all the beers, Belgian hops and sometimes herbs are added when necessary. On average D.O.M. Brewery produces 40 brews a year.
The beers were very popular and Eager Eagle became a regular beer, renamed Stoffoasje Tripel, 8% abv.
Jef had decided that he needed a Tripel in his range and this sturdy beer has become his second best seller.
In May of the same year saw the opening of The Mash eetcafe on the site with Jef’s girlfriend Liesbet Schoonvliet.
Focussing on tasty Belgian homecooking, you can create your own meal from choosing a Stoemp and a meat dish or go for a Mini Mash or Monster Mash, depending on how hungry you are.
It’s little wonder that Ratebeer has voted the café Belgian’s best brewpub for 3 consecutive years! I can personally vouch for Liesbet’s cookies made with spent grain – hot from the oven and delicious.
Another new direction brought a barrel-aged series of beers with an oak aged Qantelaar with Makers Mark and Wild Turkey bourbon barrels.
Putting the same focus on quality as with his other beers, Jef treats the addition of oak as a 5th ingredient in these beers.
At the end of the year sees the annual release of Dominator’s Potion with Martinique rum and Blair Athol whisky flavouring a 12% Maximo over a year.
However, Jef regards his Sea Monster series of beers as his showpiece. Inspired over games of Magic, The Gathering, these beers take their time to develop and are only released into bottle when they are ready.
At 14% abv Leviathan, Kraken, Chtulhu, Scylla, Lorelei and Charybdis are beers to be both respected and appreciated on special occasions.
Which brings us to the present. Being knighted is an honour not lost on ‘Hiq’ Pirens. Nominated as deserving brewers who make an important contribution to Belgian beer. Its a reward for him being creative and progressive with his beers, and not being afraid to experiment.
He feels that there is ‘no greater honour in the brewing world’ and you can see his medallion and framed charter on the wall in The Mash. This honour has opened new doors. D.O.M. Brewery was selected as one of eight brewers for the Barrel Boutique of Brouwerij Het Anker in Mechelen and launched at the Molenberg Fest. Fortunately 5 further barrels of beer remain at the brewery for an additional year’s ageing.
D.O.M. beers were also entered into their first international beer competition and picked up an impressive nine silver and bronze medals at the London Beer Competition.
In typical Hiq style a lockdown beer, ‘Antibirus’, was also launched this year plus a butternut squash Hallow’een beer. Further projects include a low alcohol tafelbier though an even more exciting development is underway.
Part of Jef’s Brewmance series of collaborations, the Mash of the Titans promises to be one of the most exciting project yet.
A series of six barley wines will be produced in collaboration with six equally creative Belgium brewers.
These breweries are Brasserie Minne in Wallonie, Brouwerij ‘t Verzet in Anzegem, ‘t Hofbrouwerijke in Beerzel, Brouwerij Alvinne in Zwevegem, Brouwerij Totem in Evergem and Brasserie Atrium, also in Wallonie.
Many of the beers have already been brewed and they are expected to be ready for sale by the end of March.
Apart from being such a creative exercise, Jef feels that it is important that everyone has fun making the beers and has the opportunity to learn from one another.
Equally important is that the beers are financially successful as this has been a very hard year for local breweries.
The project is also a statement to advertise the fact that these producers are Half of these beers will be available as a 1,000 only limited edition 6 pack. To whet the appetite even further, the remainder of the beer will be barrel aged and available at a later date.
On another note the old campervan has gone – sold – but Jef has added some classic cars to adorn the outside of the brewery as you can see below.
Finally – a date for the diary. On the 9th October 2021 D’Oude Maalderij will turn 10 years old and to celebrate The Mash will be hosting a party with a new D.O.M. beer launched every hour.
This promises to be a major event with many guests on hand to assist in hosting the beers with stories, etc. Liesbet will be on hand to supply tasty beer food throughout the party of course – just in case.
ALEHUNTERS BREWERY TOURS
As a footnote Jef feels that his story has been one of steady momentum, not rushing ahead too quickly but making steady progress from small, local festivals up to the bigger ones and on to international events, spreading the name of this unique part of West Flanders.
To get a taste for what is happening in Izegem go and take a look for yourself and have a chat with Jef, sample his beers and enjoy Liesbet’s cooking. You won’t be disappointed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Davies is the founder of AleHunters and hosts beer tours and events in London and Belgium. During the pandemic he has moved his beer tasting events online:
www.alehunters.co.uk
BREWERY TOUR SHILLOW BEER CO.
ARMED WITH A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE IN HOSPITALITY, SHILLOW BEER FOUNDERS BEN AND JAMIE SHILLOW KNOW ALL ABOUT MAKING AN IMPRESSION. AND FOLLOWING SEVEN YEARS OPERATING AS A CONTRACT BREWING OPERATION, THE DUO NOW HAVE A HOME IN OTTAWA TO CALL THEIR OWN.
A PLACE CALLED HOME
“It’s a bit of everything. It can be fun, scary and exhausting,” says Jamie Shillow.
“I would say it’s almost unsettling when we’re super busy, but we much prefer it that way!” adds co-founder and husband Ben. “We’re in an interesting period where, after all of this anticipation, we’re searching for that rhythm. But I tell you what, it’s a wonderful feeling.”
Shillow Beer is the latest addition to Ottawa’s brewing landscape. And although they opened their doors in June 2021, the Shillow Beer story is one that’s seven years in the making.
Both Ben and Jamie have extensive experience in hospitality. And it’s in this field, the duo would meet while working at the now-closed Michelle’s Brasserie in Yorkville, Toronto.
Michelle’s Brasserie boasted around 120 different bottle listings, alongside 15 taps. For the time, an excellent selection, and one the owner would encourage staff to sample and enjoy in order to better inform and educate their patrons. “When you work around food and beverages, you start to develop an appreciation for the products you’re selling,” says Jamie. “And thankfully Michelle’s had an extensive beer list, which really opened our eyes to the diversity of styles in that world.”
And before long, the well-trodden path of homebrewing would come calling.
“We bought a few books, and I was really, really interested in it as a hobby,” says Ben. “So we started out with an extract kit and ended up with several bottles of horrible, terrible, carbonated beer.
“It was atrocious, and I realised pretty quickly that brewing was not my calling!”
But Jamie wasn’t going to be defeated quite as swiftly.
She explains: “I’d find myself reading books on the subject and thinking ‘Ok, if we’re going to let this hobby take up space in our little apartment then the least we can do is try and make a better job of it and enjoy the beer’s we’re drinking’.
“I’d make trips to the Home Depot to help me build a little system at home. As a result, I began to enjoy the creative and scientific process of making beer.”
Working in restaurants, the duo had often talked about the idea of opening their own establishment. But as they got more into beer, those discussions turned to potentially opening a brewpub. “We’ve always had this entrepreneurial drive, wanting to do our own thing,” says Jamie. “And things have just developed from that.”
To take her knowledge to the next level, Jamie would enrol in the Niagara College Brewmaster Program.
In the meantime, Ben would patiently and diligently converse with the owners at Beer Bistro, located on King Street in Toronto, about the merits of having a house beer on tap.
“I told them they should really have a house beer and Jamie, who previously worked there, should really be making it for you,” he smiles.
“They were on board, but I told them to at least let me finish my brewing program first,” laughs Jamie.
And following the conclusion of her studies, Shillow Beer was founded in 2014. A contract brewing operation, initially designed to produce and supply beer for Beer Bistro.
“Starting out on a really small scale, producing small batches of beer for one client, helped us gain experience in the fields of logistics, transport, and licensing,” says Ben. “They were steps we needed to go through, but doing so with a customer we were already familiar with helped a lot.”
That maiden beer for Beer Bistro was an American Brown Ale. “When you’re supplying a beer-centric restaurant, you need to ensure you’re producing a beer that ticks a lot of boxes,” says Ben. “They would cook a lot with beer and pair it with dishes, so we knew we wanted to brew something engaging. For me, while it’s not overly esoteric, an American Brown Ale is a step up from lots of other house beers.”
As Shillow Beer grew, one thing remained constant and that was the duo’s desire to open a bricks and mortar operation. And following years as a contract brewing business, they have seen both the pros and cons of this side of the industry.
“It helped me learn a lot about the supply chain, navigating the LCBO and building crucial relationships with people across all aspects of the brewery,” says Ben. “But the inability to truly control your rate of production means you’re always needing to pivot.”
Jamie adds: “It is a bit of an uphill battle because you’re outsourcing every single facet of the process, which means it’s not a sustainable business plan unless you’re able to really hit high volumes.”
Shillow Beer works with Junction Craft Brewery in Toronto, and says the beers produced there have never tasted better. But Ben is also keen to highlight some less desirable aspects of the contract brewing scene.
“We’ve often found that there are some people who are pretty vocal about demonising contract brewers,” he says. “There’s definitely some some gatekeeping happening where they don’t want to consider you legitimate until you’ve pur-
He adds: “Not everyone necessarily has the money to invest in their own operation straight away.
But unfortunately, there’s it’s a bit of an uphill battle with certain people who look at all contract brewers in the same way.
“Sure there are people that just want to develop a brand and make money fast. I call them the nefarious marketing projects. But to be honest, I’ve seen that type of approach play out in bricks and mortar environments, too.”
And for the Shillow’s own bricks and mortar operation, they opted to open in Ottawa.
“Toronto was getting very expensive, especially when you’re raising a family. Ottawa appealed both professionally and personally,” says Jamie.
Ben adds: “And when it came to opening our own place, we wanted somewhere we could easily commute to, and Ottawa offered that. It’s also a city that has proven itself to be somewhere that supports local business.”
The duo had settled on their new home. But one thing they couldn’t account for was the onset of a global pandemic.
“In March 2020 we were actively shopping for locations and had already refinanced our house to make that possible,” says Jamie. “We were in discussions with the bank about fundraising who were initially supportive despite the impact of the pandemic but would soon suggest we put our plans on hold.”
Ben adds: “We had been working towards this for a long time, and had finally got Jamie would rewrite much of their business plan, observing how other breweries were navigating the pandemic by selling more direct to the consumer. The duo would part ways with the existing bank and source a new funding partner.
“The main thing was that we found a solution and could get ourselves up and running,” she says.
Shillow Beer is located at 1458 Cyrville Rd in Gloucester, and Ben is complimentary about the flexible nature of their new landlord.
“We were in a tight situation and they offered every extension possible to get our ducks in a row. We really want to make this work so knew we had to take the leap, sign the lease and push on with our plans,” he says.
When it came to kitting out their new brewery, Ben and Jamie wanted to buy local, so opted for a 10bbl kit from Criveller. Shillow Beer has opened with four FVs and two brite tanks, with plans to bring canning inhouse sooner rather than later.
The first beers brewed on-site in mid May were Plain Sour Ale (4.2%), Amber Wheat Ale (5.9%), Summer IPA (5.8%), and Brown Ale (6%), while releases like Blood Orange IPA and Mango Sour followed, with plans to broaden the range in coming weeks and months.
Jamie explains: “It takes time to get to know a new system. I wanted to make sure that everything was running smoothly before I look to brew any ‘wacky’ beers.”
But regardless of the beers Jamie brews, one aspect that’s of key importance to her and the team is transparency, as evidenced by the clear and informative impactful branding of its small pack.
“I think that’s where some of our hospitality background has kicked in,” says Ben. “You want to communicate what you’re doing in a clear and and straightforward manner.
“I’ve also seen it in the wine world where there’s been a move from the geographic information on labels that aids consumer choice. We believe such detail, alongside dietary detail should be on there. If I can’t be certain of what’s in something like a beer, then I’m not buying it.”
The brewery’s beers are available via a number of channels, while the duo hope to start construction on their taproom during 2022. In doing so, they’ll be able to welcome more of the community to their new home.
Although even without the taproom, they already feel welcomed by those around them.
“During construction, local brewers would tell me to call anytime if we needed help, which was very supportive,” says Jamie. “We’ve also felt that backing from the local community, too.”
And for Ben, being part of a growing brewing scene in Ottawa can only be a positive.
“From my restaurant background, I find that it’s better to be part of a restaurant scene than be a one restaurant town, and the same thing applies to breweries,” he says. “We’re all offering something different, so visitors will have completely different experiences wherever they go.
“We’re very happy to call Ottawa home. And we’re looking forward to more people trying and enjoying the beers we make.”
SCIENCE JOCKEY BOXES
BEERFEST AND CHILL: A MASTERCLASS ON JOCKEY BOXES
FESTIVALS ARE A STAPLE OF THE BREWING INDUSTRY, AND REPRESENTING YOUR BUSINESS IN THE BEST POSSIBLE MANNER SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING. AND A CENTRAL PART OF THIS IS ENSURING THE BEER YOU’RE POURING TICKS EVERY BOX. ONE WAY OF ENSURING YOU DO JUST THAT IS INVESTING AND SPECIFYING A HIGH-QUALITY JOCKEY BOX, HERE, DAN BROADDUS, MASTER DRAUGHT BEER DISPENSE TECHNICIAN, TELLS YOU HOW.
With the Late-Start Summer we are experiencing, as well as continued restrictions on gatherings, one imagines that there will be a lot of Late-Summer beer festivals this year. I envision a mash* of Summer festival and Oktoberfest, with little to no pause betwixt them.
I imagine them blending into one strange monster: A foamy-haired, Mustachioed Beast, that reeks of Dry Hopped Sours, pomade, and Artisan sausages made from Middle-White pork, that was hand raised, and carried about on a covered, sedan chair, by gelded wolverines. This magical pig was fed only foie gras, arctic kelp, and grizzly bear milk.
Finally, the sausage was cold smoked over Caribou turds in the skull of a whale that was ethically harvested by Inuit. Yours for only $48. Bun Extra. Whatever shape the season takes, Jockey Boxes will abound. Keep in mind, many of them have been in storage since St. Patrick’s Day, 2020, or the New Year’s celebration preceding it. Some will just need a good clean. Others will need an overhaul.
The rest will need a shallow grave, and maybe an “In Memoriam“ Instagram page, or a TikTok clip of an Office-Space-Style beat down. Blood in, blood out, Homie.** Or, mayhap, you are a newcomer to the festival/event side of the business, and need guidance in the acquisition of such a device.
Hell, you might not even know what a Jockey Box is [unlikely for Brewery types] but where to begin...and how? Just in case you don’t know what a Jockey Box is, except for the visual provided by the preceding photo: A Jockey Box is a cooler, or other bin, used to flash chill beer, or other beverages, in a setting where one cannot have a refrigerator, or maybe even electricity.
Most commonly, it is a chest cooler in the 45-55 qt/L size range, with 1-4 beer faucets coming out of it. The idea is, even if your product is warm, the box can be used to make the beverage drinkable, using ice, water, and some method of heat exchange. We will cover the mechanics in a bit, but let’s start where folks usually start, with the eye candy.
As stated, a picnic/camping cooler is most commonly used to house the chilling and dispense apparatus. There are a lot of ways to go here, so first we need to ask a few basic questions.
What level of fancy do you require, for the look of the device? Do you want it to be branded? Some units can be printed or decaled. Others can be wrapped in vinyl. You can permanently brand the lid, and then put a chalkboard, whiteboard, or magnet-sign set up on the customer side.
Some folks don’t bother, and count on the tap handles for the visual. I recommend some sort of generic quality branding, noting the brewery/business, if for no other reason than making it less likely to go home with another brewery, rental agency, or event company. Every other company has the same, plain red, blue or stainless steel cooler. It’s hard to prove It’s yours, once It’s in someone else’s van.
Some people go with retro coolers, or the big, roll around, stand-up, ice tubs. I’ve seen horse troughs, or the insulated poly bins they use in commercial, and industrial food production. I’ve seen people use plain, uninsulated storage tubs.
If the cooler or bin can fit a coil or plate, and hold some ice, it can flash chill. But all are not created equal. “Marine Grade” coolers store ice the best, but remember that most of the melt-heat will come from the product, Itself. Regardless, if the event is exceptionally warm, sunny, remote, or long in duration, marine grade can help you stretch your ice.
They also tend to be the most durable….and expensive. Regular, trusted brands of cool-
ers that are designed for picnics and camping, such as Coleman, Igloo, Rubbermaid and Playmate, or equivalent, are usually sufficient for dispense.
Just be wary of knock-offs that are significantly less expensive, as these often have very poor insulation, are prone to sweat a lot, and often fall apart after only one season of use. Buy a brand and name you trust, but keep in mind there will be no warranty, the second you put a hole in it, unless offered by the person who builds the box out, for you. Don’t pay for any warranty you don’t have to, and if you can get your cooler gently used, or scratch and dent, all the better.
Another thing to consider is buying a durable, but attractive cooler for dispense, and spend the big money on a large marine grade cooler to store your extra ice. If the event doesn’t offer ice service, and you are the one that will be hauling ice in from wherever, buy the cooler rated for marine or extreme use.
Something in the 80-120 QT range, and with wheels, will be your best friend. These high-end coolers cost a lot, but if you buy them on clearance, at the end of the season, you can save a few bucks. Unlike a regular picnic cooler, they can keep ice frozen for 5-10 days, if managed correctly.
At the end of a busy and hot season, the amount of money you save in ice, and in fuel or fees to go get more ice, and time lost promoting and selling because someone has to go for ice….a marine cooler for ice storage will likely pay for Itself halfway through your first, full season.
And you can get it branded, keep your food in it, and it makes a great bench. How many beers do we want to pour from this. What kind of volume do you expect to do? How difficult will ice supply be? Last, what is the temp differential expected to be?
There are a few factors to consider, as to # of offerings. How big a cooler do you want to have to deal with. Think of the physically weakest person in your organization, who might need to move this thing around. These units get heavy, quick. Also, make sure you have a stout platform to put it on.
Fully loaded, an average 2 faucet, 54 qt, steel belted Jockey Box will weigh between 100 and 150 pounds, roughly equivalent to a 50L keg. Make sure your table or cart is rated to support 500 pounds, because at some point, a 300 pound brewer, in wellington boots and overalls, will be leaning on this box or table.
And this doesn’t account for the weight of their beards, mustache wax, pomade, SteamPunk pandemic mask, ego, regret and self doubt…...in short, buy or build a strong stand. Personally, I would recommend a cart, with large tires, like you find on a garden wagon. You can skirt it, or put a cabinet under, that you can put kegs and CO2 Cylinders in, along with a tool kit.
Let us say that a customer called me, looking for a 4 Product Jockey Box in a standard cooler format. They expect to pour a lot of 4-6 oz samples of 2 of the beers, and half or fewer of the other two. They don’t wish to buy a massive cooler because it wont fit in a regular car, or the salesperson can only lift and carry about 50 lbs, and will work out of 20 L kegs.
For this, I would prescribe a pair of 120 ft coils, pictured upper left, and a pair of 50 ft coils, like on the right. If usage was to be moderate, to light, and fairly even between products, I might go chill plate, as seen across the bottom.
Chill plates stay cold longer, but recover more slowly. Coils warm quicker, but recover almost instantly. And as you can see, not all coils are created equally. Both coils are 304 Stainless Steel, 5/16” O.D. restricting at 0.3 lbs/ft. Both are a double-coil, but note the spacer “combs” on the 120 ft coil.
This allows ice water to flow between the coils, creating a more even temp and more surface contact between ice water and Stainless Steel. The 50 footer is built to be compact, so this spacing is sacrificed, along with some of the efficiency and overall consistency of performance. If you can manage it, groovy. It is about function.
An additional advantage of the coil-in-coil approach is a lower dry weight. Once Ice and product are removed, you shave about 15 lbs by going with coils.
I am of the school of Murphy, who states, “Given any possible chance, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” I design, load, and build, with this in mind. Festivals vary, as far as keg storage. Best case, your kegs are in a proper, 2°C/36°F fridge, and are delivered to you, on demand, at a moment’s notice.
There are also tubs of unlimited ice, or reliable power, and reach-in refrigerators at your station, allowing you to keep the beer cold for the life of the keg. Oh...and all of this is included in the reasonable vendor fee you paid several months/ weeks prior. Worst case, It’s the craft festival equivalent of the Bloodsport Kumite but held in Thunderdome.
Reality is usually something just south of halfway between. I never count on any ice or CO2 gas I don’t bring. I further assume that I will need to be able to flash chill beer that is the same temp as the outside air, whatever that is. This means I buy a Jockey Box design that can do it. This usually means 120’ coils with combs.
And a secondary marine grade cooler or 2, just for Ice. I also locate every business that sells Ice within a reasonable drive. The ones easy to find, I will call, and warn of the festival. The hidden ones, I keep to myself, and maybe make a hedge buy, on spec.
Other things to be wary of, and ask questions about, are how the box is put together, and with what materials. Here are some tips:
u All metal components, through which the product travels, should be made of 304, or 316 Stainless Steel. This includes keg coupler probe, all tailpiece fittings at coupler, shanks which pass through the walls of the cooler, and perhaps most importantly, the faucets. u Beverage soft jumper lines, from keg to box, and from shanks to cooling apparatus, should be flexible, and long enough to allow easy cleaning, and shifting of components. Quick release devices are also helpful, in this regard.
u Gas tubes should be reinforced hose, rated for at least 120 psi. The hoses used most commonly have a 60 psi rating. Remember that all of these ratings are based on a 20°c/72°f or colder, ambient temp, and no direct sunlight. These hoses have been known to do an impression of unsliced bologna, from time to time, with just a little extra heat.
u Rinse out the product lines after each day’s use, and chemically clean the lines, between events.
Cap or bag faucets and Couplers when not in use.
u Avoid coils which are welded, soldered or brazed, as it is impossible to ensure that the interior of the weld is seamless, and smooth. Most of these welds are made by flaring one of the tube ends, to overlap the other, and then heating the pipe and sealing the overlap with a filler alloy, that melts at a temperature which is high, for solder, but low, for welding. Plumbers call this technique “Sweating”.
u The issue is, the end of the interior pipe is butted to the angled, interior wall of the flared pipe end. This gap,[Green colour] is a place for gunk to build up.
This can also create a turbulent eddy, within the pipe, that results in excess foam.
u Sanitary, double flare fittings are acceptable, but the best join on a product is, no join at all. Several companies produce coils that are of a single, contiguous tube, which has spacer combs, and if long enough, is doubled on itself. u There is no reason to include points at which leaks, flow disruptions, or potential microbiological festering might occur. Keep it simple. Don’t punish yourself, because a particular manufacturer is unwilling to evolve.
u Buy the type of regulator wrench that cannot be removed while the reg is attached to the bottle. If you don’t,
Murphy will rain down his vengeance, and your Crescent Wrench or Slip
Joint Pliers will go missing….on day one of a four day event, which is 1.5 hour drive to the nearest place you can buy a new wrench. Or you can spend $3 for a Wrench that cannot walk away.
Guess what my vote is.
u Make sure the regulator has a gauge guard. Gauges are fragile, and can be broken internally, or even sheared off, should someone knock over the cylinder. Gauge guards are $10-$25.
A new regulator is $65-$100, plus lost gas, lost sales, lost time, and lost fuel/shipping.
A few other tips and tricks I have are as follows. Call them Dan B’s Laws of Festival Preparedness, as informed By Murphy.
u Whatever amount you expect to need, add 20%-25%. This is for everything: ice, product, ice, business cards, ice, flyers, ice, merch, ice, CO2, ice, food and snacks for you and your staff, ice, toilet paper, ice, sunscreen, ice, bug spray… and don’t forget… extra ice.
u All Its own category, because it is so important, you need 4L or 1 gallon of drinking water, per day, per person working the event. This water is ONLY
FOR DRINKING, to make coffee and Tea, and for brushing teeth. Washing and cooking water must be separate of this. And while true, normal guidelines are 2L a day, for an adult, you will be drinking, working 12 or more hours at a shift, physically exerting yourself, and likely out in the heat. You will need at least 3L, and the rest is buffer… for Murphy.
u Use pure CO2 for beer, unless it is, specifically, a nitro beer such as Guinness, Boddington’s, Murphy’s etc. Most of these flash chill devices require pressures of 24-36 PSI, just to overcome internal restriction values created by the plates and coils. And you are correct in thinking that such pressures of Pure CO2 would normally over-carbonate your beer. That is, you are correct, if the beer is cold.
u At these events, even if your kegs are stored cold, it is often stored at 4-6°C/40-44°F. If you try to pour a draft at these temps, Foam city. What is more, once the keg is dropped to your booth, it will begin to warm. A keg at 19°C/66°F needs a keg pressure of 30-34 PSI, Just to Maintain a carbonation level of 2.5 Volumes. And for every 1000 feet of elevation, add half a pound to that.
u Additionally, you can fit many times the amount of CO2 into a cylinder as you can nitrogen or nitro blends.
The expansion rate of CO2 is nearly 3 times that of nitrogen, since CO2 stores as liquid, in a cylinder. A 10L cylinder of CO2 can dispense up to 3000L of beer at 28 psi. The same beer gas would do about 1660L. Plus, it often costs 2-3 times as much. This means you can haul nearly twice the amount of pure CO2 for the same amount of space, and save hundreds of dollars on the gas alone. With all that spare space and cash, you can bring more ice.
u Have more tools than you think you will need. This includes two faucet spanner wrenches, 3 adjustable wrenches/slip joint pliers, two universal screwdrivers that have #2 and #3 flat and Philips, as well as 1/4” and 5/16” hex drivers. Also make sure you have any specialty drivers you might need, like Allen, Torx or Robertson drivers. Ands have tools to repair and maintain all the other gear, like canopy, trailer, tent, etc. u Get a sturdy cart or garden wagon with balloon tires. Not all venues allow you to pull right up to the booth, and even if they do, it’s only at the beginning and end. Plus, there might be a long queue to get your car in and out, or you might have multiple vehicles to unload. You might also have a team member who is extra festive, and needs a pull to the washroom or to the First Aid Station. Trust me: you don’t want to carry them.
u Ensure you have a secure way to transport and store your CO2. If a CO2 cylinder falls over and cracks, or the valve head is broken, or sheared off, the CO2 in the cylinder is going to start to violently boil, forcing the gas out of the break at 1050 PSI. It doesn’t matter if it is steel or aluminium, it is deadly. Aluminium cylinders travel faster. Steel cylinders have more mass, so they hit harder. Either one can easily travel clean through a cinder block wall and lodge itself in another cinder block wall across a room. What do you think it might do to a human? Invest in a bungee cord, ratchet strap, or chain of some sort. It might save your life.
u If the event is likely to be extra hot, and your keg temperatures risk exceeding 30° C / 90° F, you will definitely need ice tubs for the kegs, and it wouldn’t hurt to have some rock salt along. On those rare occasions where heat is so high that jockey boxes can’t chill the beer enough, even with an iced keg, salt will increase the thermal conductivity between the water and the keg, drawing more heat out than would otherwise be possible with ice water alone.
u Make sure to use ice water, not just ice. ice has pretty poor packing efficiency, and the name of the game for heat transfer is “Surface Contact”. Even with ice that packs efficiently, your best bet on Beer line surface coverage is about 40-50%. With ice water, it is 100% and you can also use larger pieces of block ice in the more open areas of the cooler. I’m a fan of freezing baggies or balloons full of water, to make giant, solid ice balls. You can also freeze your bottled waters, and drink them once thawed.
u Have a roadside assistance plan for every vehicle, and make sure it is up to date, and covers a long tow.
u Schedule some fun. Make sure that everyone on the team has a chance to have fun for at least one hour, during the event. Schedule all of them out.
You can trade times, but everyone takes an hour. Not all of your potential networking opportunities are gonna make it to your booth. So get out there, try some beers, and hand out cards and jokes. I don’t know about you, but I think this is a pretty amazing industry, filled with awesome, interesting humans. So remember that fun is mandatory.
My biggest tip for festivals is to remember that you are surrounded by people with whom you share a lot of commonality. People who sympathize, or can empathize. People who love to help and be of service. Let them.
Asking for help to succeed is less damaging to one’s pride than failing due to stubbornness. I will trade a small embarrassment over an epic, “It was all my fault, and I could have avoided it.” failure, any day. John and Paul taught us that we get by with a little help from our friends.
If any of this is useful, you can name a beer after me. I like Wheats and Browns. Anything with layers of spice, reminiscent of Belgium, or Bavaria speaks to my very soul. The cost of licensing is 20L. Just please, no green or clear glass for packaging.
Cheers.
* mash; Pun not only intended, but lovingly crafted, to feed off of your moans, eye rolls, and retchings. Dad Power, Activate!
** Author grew up in Southern California, and Chicano Culture is a piece of his own cultural experience.
ACCESSIBILITY we’ll just lift you up the stairs” and the other, “Changing the washrooms to be accessible will create too much red tape with the Health Unit.” Guess what? I’ve never been back to either place… and I live in a very small town. In the Spring 2021 issue of Brewers Journal Canada, we dove right into having “uncomfortable conversations” about accessibility in your space by specifically looking at the washroom. My intent was to grab your attention — hopefully it did. This time around, I’d like to build on what Wayne S. Roberts (founder of Blade Creative Branding) shared about Return On Emotion (ROE) in that same issue. Of the three Rs Wayne introduced us to, relationship is where the accessibility of your product and experience comes into play — and likely more often than you expect. How much does accessibility matter in building and maintaining that relationship? How many people may have had the same “I won’t be back” attitude? Would you be surprised if I said 50% of the time*? (angusreid.org/accessibility-future-anxiety-rhf) How is that possible? Let’s break down the numbers. According to the Angus Reid report from 2019, 24% of Canadians identify as having a mobility, vision or hearing disability. That is one quarter of your potential customer base. Add to that more than a third of Canadians (36%) that have close friends or family members who will also be making ROE decisions (conscious or otherwise) based on access. I’ll use myself as an example. I have paralysis from the chest down and I use a manual wheelchair for “legs”. I have a husband, two kids, four parents, four siblings (plus their kids). If I were to go out with any of my immediate family, that would be between two and 25 people deciding where to go. And guess what? If I can’t be comfortable there — safe, independent and be shown respect and dignity — then none of us go. And that’s just my family. What about the dozens of friends or business acquaintances that I could meet up with? How about
AM I WORTH IT? “IF YOU EXPECT a lunch meeting or a drink after work? The architectural inaccessibility of your space
PEOPLE TO MAKE will directly feed into the emotional experiAN EMOTIONAL ence of your customer base 50% of the time. INVESTMENT IN And it may be even more than that. When I speak to audiences — from high school
YOUR COMPANY, students to seasoned architects — they start to see how access, even the smallest THEN YOU barriers, affect the amount of energy that life NEED TO TAKE requires when you have a disability. I know this because when I run into people on the A LONG HARD street who have heard me speak they say things like, “Every time I am in a parking lot, LOOK AT YOUR I wonder how Julie would manage here” or “I can’t be in a public washroom with-
COMMITMENT TO out wondering if the grab bars are set up ACCESSIBILITY. in a way that is most helpful.” Once access is on someone’s radar, it is there for good, FIFTY PERCENT and that means their decisions (even subconscious ones) will be affected.
OF THE POPULATION A lot of people decide whether or not to
WILL CHOOSE YOUR visit your establishment based on their (or someone close to them) ability to emotion-
BUSINESS WHEN ally invest — and they make that decision before they even leave their own front door.
YOUR DECISIONS Of the biggest concerns to those sur-
REFLECT A DESIRE TO veyed were entries, doors and steps, but
SERVE EVERYONE,” EXPLAINS
JULIE SAWCHUK,
AN ACCESSIBILITY
STRATEGIST AND THE BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF “BUILD YOUR SPACE AND BUILDING BETTER BATHROOM”.
COMMENT
A lot of people decide whether or not to visit your establishment Have you ever had a conversation where you thought you’d be able to get through to someone by sharing your own personal experience, only to based on their (or someone close to them) ability discover that nothing you said would make to emotionally a difference? invest,”I’ll start with two short examples. First, “Putting in a ramp is the job of the next owner; Julie Sawchuk 48 | SUMMER 2021 BREWERS JOURNAL CANADA
36% of respondents said that inaccessible washrooms topped their list. (See: If you can’t go pee, you can’t drink beer, Brewers Journal Canada Spring 2021)
According to the same Angus Reid poll, small/independent restaurants are avoided by almost half of the respondents. Yikes! That is a lot of customers that you will never see and who may never try your beer. If you think no one with disabilities visits your place of business, it’s not because they don’t want to, it’s because they don’t have the extra energy required and can’t emotionally invest.
At one time, early on after my injury, I would speak with the owner (hotel, restaurant, café…) and let them know that I could not stay because of the lack of access.
Often, these were real heart-to-heart conversations where I shared details of my own situation and need for access; my comments were often met with “I had no idea!” and sometimes a commitment to make change.
These days, I don’t bother (going or having the conversation) because it takes time and energy that I would rather spend having fun — as opposed to always “working.” If I know that the washroom doesn’t work for me, I won’t even attempt to cross the threshold.
Recognizing the need for change is your first step. Looking through a different lens to see where the gaps in access lie is next, along with talking to your customers.
If you expect people to make an emotional investment in your company, then you need to take a long hard look at your commitment to accessibility. Fifty percent of the population will choose your business when your decisions reflect a desire to serve everyone.
MEET THE BREWER VILLAGE BREWERY
REVIVING A CLASSIC
IN REVIVING CALGARY BEER, VILLAGE BREWERY HAS REINTRODUCED A SEMINAL PIECE OF THE CITY’S BREWING HISTORY TO BRAND NEW EYES. HERE, JEREMY MCLAUGHLIN, VILLAGE’S HEAD BREWER AND OPERATIONS MANAGER, GIVES US AN INSIGHT INTO THE PROJECT AND TELLS US THERE’S MUCH MORE TO THE BREWER BESIDES.
Much has changed since Calgary Brewing & Malting Co launched its inaugural Calgary Beer back in 1893.
The Canadian population has grown by some 32 million to one of nearly 38 million inhabitants, you can hail a taxi via the watch on your wrist and, love them or hate them, you can now imbibe a beer that blurs the line between a milkshake, smoothie and IPA.
And thanks to Calgary’s own Village Brewery, 129 years on since that seminal release, Calgary Beer is back.
Jeremy McLaughlin, Village’s head brewer and operations manager, alongside his team at the brewery have brought the legendary beer back to life and in doing so, put a modern take on Calgary Beer for a new generation of drinkers.
But first, thanks to the good people at The City of Calgary, the Official web site of The City of Calgary, let’s take a step back and look at the origin of Calgary Brewing & Malting Co. Back in 1875, the North-West Territories Act was passed. This prohibited alcohol across western Canada.
The community at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers was as “dry as dust” but there was a de-sire for change.
This would come in 1892 when prohibition was repealed, and only three months later, The Calgary Brew-ing & Malting Company was founded. The maiden batch of the famed buffalo and horseshoe logoed beer would hit town streets in 1893. A beer that satiated drinkers a whole year before Calgary would become a city.
The Calgary Brewing & Malting Company was brainchild of A. E. Cross, who was one of Calgary’s first modern industrialists and is immortalized as one of the Stampede’s Big Four.
He was elected president and quickly assembled a team of his rancher friends to finance and establish the fledgling company, which was Alberta’s first brewery.
re-invest the company’s profits into growth and diversification, which included the acquisition of smaller breweries and hotels.
The brewery’s influence was so far reaching that the Inglewood area in which it is situated became known as “Brewery Flats.” Many of Calgary’s leading citizens were original shareholders of the company.
The flagship product was called “Calgary Export Lager”, and this was shipped as far as China and Austral-ia, however its key distribution was primarily in western Canada.
In founding the brewery, barley growing was introduced Alberta, and to encourage barley growing for malting purposes, the company would import seed barley from Ontario and distribute it amongst the farmers of Alberta, guaranteeing a return of 25% higher than regular market price.
When Prohibition was enacted in 1916, the company’s beer production was limited but they turned to producing temperance beers and soft drinks as a substitute.
The Calgary Brewing & Malting Company, as The City of Calgary explain, was responsible for many innova-tions in Calgary’s industrial and social history.
It was one of Calgary’s largest early employers and was also one of the first in the province to introduce pension plans and insurance for its employees, in addition to providing Depression-era relief work. In 1910, the brewery also became the first commercial user of natural gas in Western Canada. Come the 1930s, two significant additions were made to the site. J. B. Cross would continue his father’s legacy of community service, by building a large garden adjacent to the brewery as a make-work project for his Depression-era employees.
Started in 1932, the garden would eventually include a variety of species of flora, fish hatcheries and wa-terfalls. A small part of the lot was donated by the Cross family to the City of Calgary and became the site of Inglewood’s community swimming pool in 1963. The majority of the remaining original buildings have remained together through multiple changes in ownership.
We were clear from early on that this was a new journey and one we wanted to take in our own direction,” Jeremy McLaughlin, Village Brewery.
Between the 1910s and the 1950s, the company’s fortunes “ebbed and flowed” due to the the First and Second World Wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression.
By 1961, however, the company was hit by insurmountable challenges and was sold to Canadian Brewer-ies. It was then bought by Rothman’s in 1969, and renamed Carling O’Keefe four years later. The brewery was finally taken over by Molson Breweries in 1989 before ceasing production in 1994.
Although Molson Coors were only guardians of the brewery for a short time, their receptiveness to Vil-lage Brewery reviving Calgary Beer has helped made this new, exciting project possible.
Reimagined as a 5% lager, the beer is brewed with Ella, Sabro and Enigma hops, fermented with Krispy Kveik yeast and backed up by a malt bill of Rahr 2-row, and Acidulated Malt.
And heading up production on this initiative was the aforementioned Jeremy McLaughlin, Village’s head brewer and operations manager.
“Our ties with Calgary beer go back a long way,” explains McLaughlin. “Our original master brewer Larry Kerwin was part of the team that brewed the beer’s last big production run in 1989.
“But with this project, we were clear from early on that this was a new journey and one we wanted to take in our own direction.”
Conversations over the years between Molson and Jim Button, another one of Village’s founders, helped give the team at the brewery a platform to develop this revival. “We would go on to develop this dialogue and demonstrate to Molson that this project was a fitting way to recognise an integral part of Calgary beer history,” he says. “And thankfully they were pumped for something like this to take place.”
An early deign brief from Molson was for Village to suggest a branding idea for the beer. But Jackson Stu-art, marketing manager at Village had other ideas instead producing four distinctly different labels.
These would comprise a matte black label featuring a buffalo, the classic ‘Calgary Export Lager’ design, A red label showcasing a modernized horseshoe and wordmark and also a cream label with a more mini-malistic take on the classic logo.
“Molson were incredibly impressed with his designs and suggested we print and package each to be sold as part of a four pack. So that’s what we did!” says McLaughlin.
For the beer itself, McLaughlin outlines that the ideology behind this project was to modernise and reimagine the classic lager in a way that would appeal to craft beer drinkers.
He explains: “We wanted this beer be accessible to fans of Village, fans of the brand, and also to people who had never seen the brand before. Regardless, it had to be Calgary-centric. And the idea of a modern lager ties that all together.
“We had early discussions regarding an India Pale Lager, but if you’re following BJCP style guidelines then you’re probably looking at something that’s higher alcohol than I wanted for this beer. We wanted a summer beer that was a maximum 5% ABV.”
And once that was settled on, an “incredibly easy” ingredients selection followed, with McLaughlin ad-mitting that the beer was something he had wanted to make for some time.
“Dry-hopped lagers are super popular at present, especially in North America. It’s the type of beer that’s interesting enough for people to keep coming back to,” says McLaughlin. “So for the malt bill we primarily used Rahr 2-row with the addition of a little acidulated malt as the water is incredibly hard here.”
For McLaughlin, the beer’s hop profile featuring Ella, Enigma and Sabro was also a key way to express the idea of reimagining the classic style.
He says: “Most hops these days have gone through breeding programmes. They’ve been hybridised against historical varieties to create new flavours. The idea of modernising old hops to create new ones really fit into this project, and creates an awesome flavour profile, too.
Fermentation is taken care of thanks to Krispy Kveik from Escarpment Labs, a blend of Kveik strains that offer up a clean fermentation profile in the 20-30ºC range that McLaughlin was “delighted” with.
But while Calgary Beer has been a resounding success let’s be clear, Village Brewery is not a one-trick pony.
Far from it.
In addition to Calgary Beer, recent releases from the brewery include Hacky Sack, a Lemon Lime Pilsner brewed in collaboration with Eighty-Eight Brewing. The 5% beer is brewed with Columbus, Motueka and Hersbrucker hops with a malt bill that includes Rahr Premium Pilsner. This is accentuated by using balanced and clean fermenting Isar Lager Yeast from Es-carpment Labs.
Another recent beer is the 4.5% Afterglow Mimosa Gose, which offers up a tart finish and a slight spice to the mouthfeel.
These limited edition beers complement Village Blonde (Natural Golden Ale), Village Wit (White Wit Ale), Village Blacksmith (Alberta Black Ale), and Village Neighbour (Canadian Pale Ale).
Beers that are brewed by McLaughlin and his team at the Calgary-based brewery. An outfit, like many others, that are returning to a semblance of normality following the impact of the global pandemic. laughs. “And 2021 kind of feels like the reunion tour of 2020 that no one really wanted!”
He adds: “But to be honest, things have been ok as we have an awesome group here who have really pulled together. Naturally there was uncertainty but we had a fantastic team mentality where everyone across the business did what was needed to ensure the brewery pulled through.”
The fortuitous arrival of a new canning line in April 2020 ensured the brewery was able to focus fully on packaging, and selling its beers in can both direct and at retail stores.
“Even when things shut down, we knew people would still have an appetite for beer. And we’re no strangers to packaging in general,” he says. “And witnessing the ongoing trend towards canning in-formed our decision to upgrade the line, just at the right time.”
We knew it was important to promote experimentation and push the boundaries,” Jeremy McLaughlin, Village Brewery.
And during the pandemic, rather than reducing the brewery’s output to a few core beers, McLaughlin has encouraged his team to flex their creative muscles and place an emphasis on innovation.
“We’ve certainly tried to engage our team to produce more unique styles, each with their own branding identity,” he explains. “Our core beers have always featured a historical theme, showcasing a local Cal-garian, and often someone close to the brewery.”
McLaughlin adds: “But we knew it was important to promote experimentation and push the boundaries, both in terms of the types of beers we brew but also the brand design, too.”
For McLaughlin, self-improvement is all-important. It’s one of the reasons the Nelson, B.C. native ended up studying in Fredericton, New Brunswick before upping sticks for the 4,000km migration to Calgary, Alberta.
“Following high school I went to university and got my Bachelor’s Degree in Science with a focus on en-tomology from the University of New Brunswick. Fredericton is such a nice city, and it still has very special place in my heart,” he recalls. “My brother still lives there and I go back to visit as often as I can.”
McLaughlin’s journey in brewing would start at Fredericton’s Picaroons Brewing Company. A contract working at a local laboratory was coming to an end and conveniently, a good friend had just started at the brewery. For a whole two days, in fact.
Said friend put in a good word on his behalf, he got the job, and the would-be brewer started his profes-sional beer journey on his birthday back in 2009. “To be honest, I’ve been involved in beer forever, starting with helping my dad homebrew back when I was four years old. But working in a professional environment with a great mentor at Picaroons put me on a solid path,” he says.
But following nearly four years at the brewery, it was time for a change. A vacation to Calgary helped McLaughlin shed some preconceived ideas of what life was like in the Albertan city.
And when the opportunity to join a brewery like Village arrived I n2013, it was time to make the journey west.
“I drove all my belongings, including my cat, across the country, to be told by Larry Kerwin that I could come in for a work interview,” he laughs. “I thought, I’ve just made this long journey and all for a work interview!”
However it was just a formality. Joining in 2013, he would brew, cellar and help with packaging. And by 2015 McLaughlin was appointed head of QA. Aided by his background in microbiology, he was tasked with building up the brewery’s quality assurance programme.
By 2017, the brewer was promoted to the role of head brewer before moving to his current position of operations manager.
“The whole process has been very organic,” he says. “Each transition between roles has been incredibly soft and that’s worked for me.”
Village Brewery started out in 2011 by a group of founders that each hail from different parts of the beer world including brewing business: brewing, plant operations, finance, business management, and sales & marketing. Together boasting more than 180 years of experience in the field.
These founders, alongside their integral team across the brewery, have ensured Village has become part of the brewing fabric in Calgary during the last decade. A beer scene that continues to mature and devel-op.
And it’s that appetite for ongoing development that continues to drive McLaughlin and his colleagues into 2021 and beyond.
“The biggest thing we are going to be doing is doubling down on creativity. Be that limited edition releas-es or other creative projects around the brewery, that’s our focus,” explains McLaughlin.
He adds: “It’s all about ensuring everyone at the brewery has a voice, and has an input. Everyone should have the opportunity to contribute, that’s what we’re going to do and I can’t wait to do so.”
Reference: It happened in Calgary: How beer was born in Calgary https://newsroom.calgary.ca/how-beer-wasborn-in-calgary/
HOMEBREWING
The sector, reimagined
CONTENTS
SUMMER 2021
We are honoured to highlight some of the great people within our fermented beverage community! For this issue we have invited Tas Fraser (@girlwithaciderreview) to talk with us about the beginnings of her homebrew cider journey, how her social media accounts have grown as a result of her cider reviews, IGTV Live Series featuring many in the industry/community, her ever-important #NoAppleogies movement, and the upcoming related workshops.
Homebrewer Focus
We are very excited to introduce you to two amazing people that have been embarking on a cider journey together throughout their years of friendship. This is the first time that we have showcased homebrewers that create hard cider and what a way to start! We’ll be talking with Kristy and Nathan from Prairie North Co. coming to us from Edmonton Alberta.
Brew Sheets
Prairie North’s “Dry Crab Apple Cider” Prairie North’s “Strawberry Rhubarb Cider”
Gadget Corner:
@brew4.0 takes to the Garage-Ma-Hall and reviews the EasyDens smart beer hydrometer by Anton Paar. Find out just how easy this marvel of engineering will make your brew day… but is it worth the price tag?
From Jane’s To Joe’s To All Out Pros
Hailing from Village Brewery in Calgary, Alberta, Jeremy McLaughlin shares with us his journey from homebrewing at home with his dad as a kid to being a professional brewer with over 25,000 hours of industry experience. Find out what he and his team are cooking up over at Village Brewing!
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BREWDAY TIPS
THIS ISSUE, WE ARE STARTING SOMETHING NEW WITH THIS SECTION. WE WILL HIGHLIGHT BREWDAY TIPS (E.G. FOOD RECIPES, BREWING TIPS AND TRICKS, ETC) THAT CAN BE SHARED WITHIN THE COMMUNITY.
Recipe
Need something to do with that wet grain that is left over after your mash? How about a batch of delicious Spent Grain Granola?
Yeast starter
Every batch of beer deserves a good healthy pitch of yeast to make sure the fermentation goes off without a hitch and so knowing how to make a yeast starter is an essential skill that ought to be in every homebrewer’s arsenal! In this issue we’ll be going through my process and techniques for making one before every brew day! 67
FERMENTING SOMETHING NEW
FFor many of us, the pandemic has provided us the opportunity and time to get back to our homebrewing journey. Perhaps there was a new piece of brewing/testing equipment you finally got around to trying, or how about experimenting with different hop varieties and yeast strains? What about trying your hand in fermenting something new?
As apple season is on the way, it is a ripe opportunity for making hard ciders! Some homebrew clubs/guilds have access to an apple press and/or set up a bulk buy with local homebrew supply shops or farmers to obtain apples or that freshly pressed apple juice. With nature’s beautiful bounty we can explore the world of making homebrew hard apple cider. To get you started, we have filled this Homebrew Journal issue with inspiration in the form of recipes and interviews with some of our favourite cider makers and influencers.
Are you interested in being featured in our Homebrew Journal? Do you want a topic of interest to be covered? Don’t be shy! We would love to hear from you! We are looking for beer brewers along with people that brew cider, meads, or kombucha. If this sounds like you please reach out to Sheena @knowledge.on.tap on Instagram, or email her at knwl.on.tap@gmail. com for more details.
Let us continue to share, expand, and spark new ideas within our amazing homebrewing community this year and in the years to come!
Stay Safe and Well - Happy Brewing Everyone!
Cheers!
Your Homebrew Journal Team: Sheena Strauss Magdalena Lesiuk Paddy Finnegan
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
by Tas Fraser @girlwithaciderreview
Introduction & What I Do In Cider
My name is Tas. I am a Canadian, Ontario-based cider reviewer (@girlwithaciderreview) on Instagram and I also operate on other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok. I am also the cider representative for @ciderscene a Canadian and American blog talking about all things hard cider. Weekly I host a cider chat on IGTV live where I talk with professionals in the beverage industry across Canada, the United States, and internationally. Most of my posts include both cool photos and fun videos of me reviewing ciders in interesting places. I have been running this account for three years and I started in February 2018 when the cider scene was just expanding in Canada and when the selection was quite small! The scene has now grown as well as the amount of cider enthusiasts in the online world. One of the things I strive to do in the cider community is to create a fun place to be, that is full of laughter, and a place where everyone feels included. Some of my personal passions include advocating for mental health, discussing gender-based violence, music, mountain biking, reading, and traveling!
Beginnings Into Homebrewing (& Where Next)
In terms of brewing myself, I have made two different batches in fall 2020, and spring 2021. I began with a cider kit and then for the second batch I got some different equipment (i.e. another carboy to try my hand at secondary fermentation). I would recommend starting with a kit because it gives you a how-to and a beginner’s approach on how to get into the process of cider making - I found it really helpful before moving out on my own. The ciders I have made are called “Apple of my Eye” and “Apple of my Eye 2.0”. They’re both just a classic lightly-sparkled apple cider with a low ABV (around 2.9-3.3%). The purpose of just doing an apple cider, even though
Some of the biggest things I’ve learned is that you have to literally document everything. The first batch I did that but the second batch I had missed a calculation and then I wasn’t able to figure out how much alcohol was actually in the cider (oops). Another thing I would recommend before making cider is to definitely get educated. I did a lot of online reading on cider. Cider Scene has some great tips on their website and some other sites as well. I also joined almost every Facebook group to learn more from others who are making cider. My favourite book so far would be Gabe Cook’s “Ciderology”. It is a super fun and informative read that I definitely recommend to anyone who is getting into cider as you will learn a lot about the history of cider making and cider all around the world.
The last thing I suggest thinking about is the space that you’re going to be making the cider in. I made my first two batches in a small condo. If you’re like me and have to do that, you will have to make use of the space. Some examples would be using the bathtub to wash things or sanitize equipment and making sure your floor is full of towels because it’s going to be a mess when you are transferring cider around. My next plan is to take a stab at maybe Apple of my Eye 3.0 because, like I mentioned, I want to get to an apple cider base that I like before adding any other fruits. My dream though is to get to fruited ciders and maybe I can do something like experiment within apple cinnamon cider which would be a lovely flavor for fall!
#NoAppleogies (Intro, Why it Motivates me and why I keep going)
If you weren’t sure about the meaning behind this hashtag which you will see often on my page, I’m here to tell you about it! #NoAppleogies is the hashtag behind a movement that was created in December 2020 after a sexist and misogynistic post by a male in the UK cider community was exposed to the cider world. The post contained photos of women in the cider world, including myself, insinuating that we obtained my peers. This cider community is a place many of us use as an escape, as a passion, hobby, and as a place to network with other cider-lovers. It should be a place where everyone feels safe. After the creation of this movement it was strongly indicated that a change was needed and I wanted to continue pushing for that change, for everyone and especially those who have been treated unequally.
This is why this project is important, and change must occur. I was told once during this time that this has nothing to do with cider. However, the most important thing about cider is that cider is nothing without the people. If we want a cider community, we need to start acting like one. This means that as women, or others in oppressed communities, we should not have to continue to defend ourselves and those perpetuating the issue need to reflect upon themselves and their behaviours. It means that those staying silent when they see sexism, racism, homophobia etc. happening need to speak up. Change must be made on individual and structural levels and accountability must be taken as part of the learning process.
our following and attention due to what we wore in photos. The comment was claimed to be a joke by the individual and no real apology was given - or responsibility taken. The comment was only one of the many things that women face in the industry, and on a normal day-to-day basis. Many are not taken seriously for job roles, to have knowledge of beer or cider, while others are sexually harassed, assaulted and more. With the growing #MeToo movement in the beer world, #NoAppleogies offers support and education to those involved in cider. The goal of the movement is to create a safe, inclusive place for everyone, free from gender-based violence, sexism, misogyny, and to empower all women. It also promotes education and accountability for cider professionals and establishments. The first stage promoted awareness via photos of women using the hashtag wearing whatever they felt happiest in. It was followed by a video from the women in the industry speaking on change they’d like to see. The second piece was pledging support to the project and standing up for change by male identifying individuals in the industry. The third continuous stage will be upcoming workshops aimed at cider professionals providing education on how to create safer places in person & online.
The movement has been met with some resistance and misunderstanding but I am hopeful that with time and a more open mind things will progress. As a young woman and person of colour in this industry, I understand some of the battles faced - some in cider and some in life by
Upcoming Events
Some events to watch for are the upcoming #NoAppleogies workshops which are hopefully coming in the fall (at least the first one). If you have not registered yet, you can do so by scanning the QR code below. It is a pre-registration link so all the details of the workshop will be going to those who registered. It will be Canadian-focused, however, anyone in the cider world (especially cider companies) are encouraged to join. There are many topics that will apply to all environments: e.g. toxic masculinity, consent, and how to create safe places. There will be amazing guest speakers and interactive portions so I would keep an eye out for that! Currently, in August, I’m taking a break from cider and life just to focus on the workshops, however, there they will start up again in September so if there are any wonderful professionals in the cider industry or those in brewing, wine making, or distilling I would definitely be interested in having a chat with you… and, of course, I’m always looking for recommendations for guests that you would like to see!
