Tales from the Ale Trail - Not your average beer show

By Emma Cavanagh

This is not your average reality TV show. Tales from the Ale Trail combines wit and humour with beer. What’s better than that? We sat down with Tales hosts Nick Mirka, and Chris Treschak to find out more about the show, what inspired them to create it, and what hilarious undertakings have happened behind the scenes because, well, we know there’s lots.

Photo courtesy of Haskell Photography.

How did you come up with the concept for the show?

Nick: We were thinking our love for craft beer was getting out of hand. (Everyone laughs)

Chris: We’ve known each other for a long time. Nick and Mark own a video production company and we all love craft beer, so we

thought why don’t we meld those things together and do a beer TV show. And we actually did our very first production meeting two years before we ever green lit the show.

Nick: We happened to have craft beer in our hands at the time, which was a necessary step.

Chris: We sat down and fleshed out the creative thoughts of the show and Nick influenced that quite heavily. Where you would get those snooty documentary style shows, Nick really pushed being more creative than that. The initial thought that we had was a semi-scripted reality TV filmed in a documentary style: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives meets The Office. We did one episode out of pocket just as a pilot and Nick was able to find a way to get us into a pitch.”

Emma Cavanagh with Ale Trail hosts, Chris Treschak and Nick Mirka at Counterpart Brewing in Niagara Falls.

Photo courtesy of Haskell Photography.

Nick: “Paul Gardner from Bell reached out to us. He said, ‘We do community programming. We want to showcase community work.’ He introduced us to Fibe TV. They said, ‘We have funding to do a show. Do you have any ideas?’ This one was the last idea I pitched because it was the one I was most excited about. But I said, ‘I don’t know if you’re going to be interested in this idea,’ because I thought they wanted something more professional. I said, ‘What we want to do is show off these breweries and these communities in a comedic, lighthearted way. We want to do a beer show for the beer drinker, not the beer connoisseur. We want the brewers and the breweries to represent their beer well because a lot of the breweries we go to put a lot of thought and care and love into what they do’.”

Nick: “When we were first talking about the concept, one of the first things we wanted to prioritize was we wanted to make a show we would love. So we wanted to go to the breweries we love. We wanted to show off the places we love (our home) and we also wanted to have fun. Breweries are all about unwinding with the people you’re with, and also getting to know the community through the food and beverage that these people are creating for you.”

Chris: “And with these craft breweries, it’s the people behind them that make them so special. And a lot of the time they’re family run, or run by friends, which we wanted to showcase. We make light of it because the whole point is that the show should be approachable. If you are a beer snob, that’s great! We want the show to be for you too, but we also want the person who’s never tried craft beer before to watch this and go, ‘Wow! There’s beers that I might like, that might be approachable to me. Maybe I should go and try them.’ And that was the intent.”

Nick: “What else is around this area? Come to these places and experience them, how can you make a day of it? This is a travel show, a food show, but the consistent theme is beer. We want it to be more than that. There are other things that are involved in it. I like looking at each episode like a day date. A day trip idea, if you watch 6 of our episodes you have plans for your next 6 Saturdays.”

Can you give us a walk through of how you plan each episode?

Nick: “The planning process is really boring. (laughs) We’re very thorough in communicating to the breweries. We get to understand

the brewery’s brand, what their values are, what they’re all about. That’s where we usually start. We sit down with them because we don’t ever want to portray a brewery in a way they don’t want to be portrayed. It’s important to us that they’re involved in that creative process. We know how we’re starting an episode and how we’re ending it, but we also leave room to fly by the seat of our pants.”

Future plans for the show?

Nick: “Our focus is to make an awesome and stellar Season 2. So, we just did Breakwall Brewing Company and had a rip-roaring time. We’ll be spending some time in Hamilton with Shed, and we’re doing a crawl there with Fairweather, Grain and Grit, and Clifford Brewing. We’re doing Niagara College too. They’re the reason this craft beer boom happened in Ontario.”

Chris: “Its amazing to see how much the College has influenced the beer scene in Ontario. Such a huge influence! We’re really excited to work with them. It’s a dream!”

Nick: “Our hope is that people can see what our little corner of the world has to offer. What we want to do is put Niagara to Hamilton on the map. What we would love to do is continue telling that story. We have an idea to branch off into ciders, and even do an episode at Dillons, deviating away from just beer. It is about the beer but it is about the craft. We would love to go further.”

The passion for the show, and craft beer in Niagara really showed while talking to the guys. While community, and home remain at the forefront of Tales from the Ale Trail, we may see some travel in the future to other parts of Canada. But for now, you can probably catch Nick and Chris sipping their favourite brews around the Niagara Region. When asked what their favourite seasonal is, Nick promptly said, “Dark Side of the Merch from Merchant Ale House”, while Chris proclaimed, “The Strawberry Rhubarb from Oast House. The beauty is that every year it’s different because every year the crops they are using are different. So every year you’re getting a different variation which makes it interesting and fun.”

If you see the guys around this summer, make sure to toast them, and who knows? You might make a cameo in one of their hilarious, hop-filled episodes. TM