What's Brewing Winter 2016

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Winter 2016

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VOL. 26 ISSUE 1

THE JOURNAL OF BC'S CRAFT BEER MOVEMENT

The End of the Craft Beer Revolution 25 Minutes without a beer Canada's most luxurious Ale Ten best Winter Warmers Casks 101: A Primer What's on your beer bookshelf?

How To Rate A Restroom More beer, less money: It's a Homebrew Life

THE

LEGEND

OF WILD BILL A What's Brewing Biography

Winter 2016 Contents

VOL. 26 ISSUE 1

THE JOURNAL OF BC'S CRAFT BEER MOVEMENT 20

ON THE COVER: Bill Herdman The WB special biography of a BC brewing original

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Victoria Beer Week Find out what's coming up in Year Three!

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The Coming Craft Beer Correction Rick Green forecasts the next phase of the craft wave

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The End of the Craft Beer Revolution Part III of Jeremiah Thunderfoot's business series

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Ullage and Spillage Thirsty J. Random sets out bar service expectations

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A View from the Cellar Cellarman Adam Chatburn's crash course on casks

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Homebrew Happenin's The secret origin of homebrew hero Warren Boyer

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Ten Beers to Warm You This Winter Dustan Sept of Beer Me BC with his 10 faves

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What's On Your Beer Bookshelf?

The WB team and friends share beer literacy info

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Books In Review: True Brews Ted Child's got a book about fermenting everything!

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Storm's Mammoth Gamble Paddy Treavor updates us on the $1000 beer

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Getting Beer Home Safely Lynn McIlwee of Hops Canary provides a travel tip

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The Hopbine: BC Road Trip John Rowling resumes his WB column in style

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Out and About Scottie McLellan reports in on the BC beer beat

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Beers, Beaches & Breweries Kim Lawton provides the update from the Okanagan

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Coastal Currents The latest from the Sunshine Coast, with Paddy

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Bathroom Nirvana Beerseeker Ivana on how to rate a restroom

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WHAT'S BREWING

OPENING REMARKS In This Issue Welcome to another massive issue of What's Brewing. I'd like to welcome some new contributors who are taking regular columns: Warren Boyer, who will cover the homebrewing scene, and Kim Lawton, now reporting in from the Okanagan. Also, pioneer John Rowling has resumed penning his traditional WB column, The Hopbine. They join columnists like Coast rep Paddy Treavor, cellarman Adam Chatburn and more. Something about all these current and former CAMRA branch leaders: they make great writers.

Corporate Supporters We certainly couldn't continue the tradition of a BC-based community craft beer magazine without sponsorship.

What's Brewing is grateful for the recent support of these Corporate Members and contributors: •

Beyond the Grape Homebrewing Supplies

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Big Rock Urban Brewing

As you're probably well aware, the craft beer renaissance in North America and elsewhere has grown interest in beer to unprecedented levels. This issue, we lead off with two stories which deal with the inevitable change in growth pattern that comes with reaching a peak. Jeremiah Thunderfoot discusses the way that we’ve come full circle back to the days of small economics in brewing, and opines that today’s craft-loving Millennials may grandfather a generation which grows up without the need for a craft beer movement. And in a piece that echoes memories of the 1990s, Rick Green urges caution to those thinking of catching the craft beer wave and warns that new entrants had better be sharp to stay afloat.

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Brian K. Smith Photography

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Category 12 Brewing

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ChillBed Industries/Smooth Edge Design

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Driftwood Brewing Company

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Granville Entertainment Group:

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Howe Sound Brewing

Speaking of the 1990s: our cover story features a BC brewer who made his name the hard way, probably a couple of decades before the BC market was ready for his creations. Bill Herdman remains as nice a fellow as you'd like to meet.

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Hoyne Brewing Co.

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Line49 Design Group

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Longwood Brewery

What Else Is New

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Moon Under Water

Aside from this magazine, What's Brewing operates an active website and social media presence. We've now expanded our service to include an email newsletter called the HopLine. We are ecstatic to announce that subscribers can look forward to regular updates from WB Communications Director and veteran Vancouver beer scene leader Monica Frost. Expect to see news, stories, events and updates from the world of BC craft beer, as well as our up-and-coming craft cousins: BC's craft cideries and distilleries.

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Russell Brewing

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Steamworks Brewing Co.

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Townsite Brewing Inc.

New on the website is our Events Calendar. The difference with ours: you can post your own events! If you're in the craft business, go ahead and submit your event at whatsbrewing.ca/calendar, or contact Monica per below.

What's Brewing BC's Craft Beer Community Magazine © 2016 What's Brewing Published by Line49 Design Group Inc. 300-1275 West 6th Avenue Vancouver BC V6H 1A6 info@whatsbrewing.ca www.whatsbrewing.ca

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The Belmont Bar

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Legacy Liquor Store

To find out how to become a supporter yourself, please visit whatsbrewing.ca/support Enjoy the read, and tell us what you think.

See you next time!

Editorial Team: D. Smith, P. Morris editor@whatsbrewing.ca Communications: Monica Frost events@whatsbrewing.ca Social Media: @whatsbrewingbc Advertising & Corporate Sales: Scottie McLellan, Susan Jones

Contributors: Warren Boyer, Adam Chatburn, Ted Child, Lundy Dale, Rick Green, Kim Lawton, Lynn McIlwee, John Rowling, Dustan Sept, Ivana Smith, Paddy Treavor, Rebecca Whyman, Joe Wiebe Cover Photography: Brian K. Smith

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Victoria Beer Week: Year Three

It's back! March 4-12, 2016

Victoria Beer Week launched in 2014 with 2,500 people attending 14 events in various venues throughout Greater Victoria. Last year, the audience for the festival jumped to more than 3,000 people and VBW2016 expects to see that rise to 3,500 or more.

Some of the most popular events from 2014 and 2015 will return in 2016 along with some new, exciting options. Beginning on a Friday night for the first time ever, the festival will kick off with two consecutive Cask Nights at the Victoria Public Market on Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5, each showcasing more than 25 cask-conditioned ales from breweries throughout British Columbia.

Also on the opening weekend is the Brewers’ Brunch at Spinnakers Brewpub, a fundraiser for the BC Craft Brewers Guild that will give ticket buyers the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of BC’s best brewmasters while lining up for bacon and eggs at the buffet. It takes place Saturday, March 5 at 11:00am. Elsewhere that same day is the Homebrewing Workshop at Category 12 Brewing (11:00 am start) and “Pedalin’ for Pints”, a bike tour between four breweries that also runs on Sunday afternoon (1:00 pm start each day).

Beer School takes place at Swans Brewpub on the afternoon of Sunday, March 6. Two classes will be offered, including one by Greg Evans, Victoria’s renowned beer historian. Full details of both classes will be posted online by mid-January.

On Sunday evening, the Drake Eatery hosts Dubbel or Nuthin’: Craft Beer Cocktails and Canapes at 7:00pm.

Monday, March 7 offers the choice of pizza or trivia. “Beer, Pizza, More Beer” returns to Pizzeria Prima Strada, but this year there will now be two seatings (5:30pm and 8:00pm) to accommodate demand (i.e. it sells out quickly!). That same night, the Northern Quarter is hosting a brand new event called the “Ultimate Craft Beer Quiz”, which begins at 7:00pm.

VBW Photo: Matt Schmitz Page 3: Christian Tisdale

How do you choose between these two events on Tuesday, March 8? If sour beer is your pleasure, then you’ll want to attend “Pucker Up” at the Churchill and Garrick’s Head Pub (7:00pm). But then you’ll miss out on “Drink in the Story” at the Drake Eatery (7:00pm), which features three female members of BC’s brewing community telling the stories of their breweries, their beer and their own experiences working in this male-dominated industry. It is International Women’s Day after all!

“Beer-B-Q” is a brand new event for VBW2016. It features barbecue food options alongside great BC craft beer at Victoria’s own rip-snortin’ country bar, the Duke Saloon (Wednesday, March 9, 6:00pm start).

Another perennial sellout, “Beer, Cheese, More Beer”, returns in expanded form in the Victoria Public Market on Thursday, March 10, 7:30pm. And VBW returns to the Victoria Public Market on Friday, March 11 for a new event called “Fishing for Beer”, which will include several fish and seafood options from market vendors as well as an optional crab boil plate.

The Definitive Victoria Brewery Crawl takes place on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12. This fancy-shmancy tour using limo buses visits three local breweries along with a secret pop-up brewery location that features three craft breweries from outside Victoria.

Closing out VBW2016 is “Lift Off”, a new event that will be held outdoors at historic Market Square on Saturday, March 12, from 1:00pm to 7:00pm. Growing out of last year’s popular Thunderdome event, Lift Off features 15 brand new beers to be sampled by a potential audience of 1,000 throughout the afternoon. Expect a pop-up liquor store on site that will be the first place to buy all those new beers that weekend.

The full schedule is available at www.victoriabeerweek.com.

Tickets are on sale now.

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WHAT'S BREWING

BUSINESS OF BEER

A poignant reminder of the realities of doing business, including craft beer business

The Coming Craft Beer Correction >> Rick Green W ith the number of craft breweries in BC expected to reach at least 130 by the end of 2016, competition is growing to the point where I expect we'll see an increasing number of business failures. That's not because there's a lack of room for growth. BC has a population and GDP similar to Oregon's, yet Oregon has double the number of breweries.

It's because there's a shrinking margin of error, especially in outrageously expensive Vancouver.

Growth of the BC craft beer market alone hasn't floated all boats. (Remember Plan B, DIX, Taylor's Crossing, and Surlie?) Yet that's what many of the startups seem to be counting on, without deeper consideration of to whom and how they will sell their beer. In fact, there are breweries that don't even have a working marketing plan (not the same as a promotion plan), never mind a marketing budget (not the same as ad hoc spending). We'll see how much longer they'll last on passion after the next 30 breweries open their doors.

Thanks to Beer Me BC, we have a good idea of whom the typical BC craft beer drinkers are, and what their consumption habits are. According to the most recent self-selecting survey, they are predominantly males between the ages of 27 and 42 living in the Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria. They drink, in ranking order of preference, India pale ale, stout, pale ale, sour ale, or saison from a bomber 3-5 days per week, mostly at home. Their beer is chosen foremost for its style, then by brewery and reputation.

DĂŠjĂ Vu?

If the anticipated growth to buoy BC's new breweries is, on the other hand, expected to come mostly from the 75% of British Columbians not drinking craft beer, the Beer Me BC statistics profiling a snapshot of the 25% who do, are of little help. Trying to appeal to that segment, consciously or not, just means competing for the same piece of the pie, but with shrinking profit margins from the downward pressure on prices. It's already happening. Will that be enough to pay off your capital outlay? Fund new tanks? Install a bottling or canning line? It wasn't for R&B and they weren't newcomers, unknowns.

If you venture outside of Vancouver or Victoria, it's easier to see that the reason the 75% are not drinking craft beer is because they haven't adopted craft beer culture and embraced a broader beer palate. It takes education and time for that to happen. I saw this recently at a dinner theatre in Port Coquitlam. It was like stepping back in time to when beer was understood to be something golden, light, and fizzy that you knocked back ice cold, bottle after bottle, for refreshment.

Coffee was also uncomplicated back then. You just ordered "a coffee" in English, then added cream and sugar to your taste.

In domestic beer land, craft beer is seen as a trend appealing to those who are fussy or snobby. It provided the dinner the-

WINTER 2016 atre with material for one of their comedy skits, whereby the owner demonstrated how to be a craft brewer. He poured a bottle of Canadian into a dimpled mug, added a couple globs of maple syrup, then stirred. Suddenly, he grabbed the mug and downed the beer in one long draught. He paused for a moment. I felt a slight queasiness, thinking it might come back up. It didn't.

To their credit, the PoCo establishment did offer a handful of craft beers. They even took the trouble to include descriptions on the menu. Granville Island and Okanagan Spring, however, were erroneously listed in the craft section. There was also a notable lack of any dark beer, probably because their patrons consider them to be heavy and strong. If you want to drink like that, you order red wine, right? I chose their strongest beer, a Lighthouse Shipwreck IPA. It was served to me without a glass, because why would you need one when the bottle fits in your hand just fine? Fortunately, there was already a wine glass at my place setting that helped avoid any hassle with the server.

How Big is the Pie? I wonder how many of the breweries on Jan Zeschky's New Breweries in 2015 list have made the basic calculation of how much beer they will need to sell in order to pay the bills and have some money left over for contingencies, possible expansion, and to sock away for retirement? For example, will Twin City be able to sell enough beer to Port Alberni's 15,125 adults between the ages of 19 and 64 to reach this goal? If not, where will they make up the difference and how much more will it cost to make the sale?

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Training licensee employees is an investment with increasing returns. How can they sell your beer if they don't understand it or even like it? As my PoCo example above illustrates, hospitality establishments will offer craft beer if they get enough people asking for it. Without training, however, they won't actively sell it or even properly handle it. How many pubs have tried offering craft beer, but say it doesn't sell? Were they taught how? If not, whose fault is that?

Beyond these generalizations, the survival of individual breweries in a crowded marketplace will depend on their having a distinct identity to differentiate themselves, clear business goals with necessary sales targets, and a detailed plan to meet those goals that the entire team understands and gets behind. Quirky beer names, vibrant beer labels, following trends, and broadcasting on social media won't cut it when everyone else is doing it. How will one of the 75% choose your beer when standing in front of fridges full of bombers or faced with a menu of a dozen or more taps?

Rick Green is a former President of CAMRA BC and CAMRA Vancouver, as well as former Executive Director of BC Craft Brewer's Guild. Read Rick's blog at bcbrews.wordpress.com

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On the opposite side of Vancouver Island, Surgenor failed at becoming the hometown beer brand in the Comox Valley and couldn't make up the shortfall elsewhere to stay in the game. Since then, real estate refugees from the Lower Mainland and lifestyle migrants from beyond have flocked in, changing the demographics. Now its more than 32,000 people between 19 and 64 support three breweries – Cumberland, Forbidden, and Gladstone.

Has a critical mass now been reached in the Comox Valley that will naturally grow the number of craft beer drinkers to provide its three breweries with a stable foundation? Or will the new cohort of novelty-seeking thinking drinkers spread their beer budget to other breweries, attracting more serious attention from outside competitors, ending the honeymoon?

Getting a Slice To sustain our growing number of craft breweries, it's clear from the above discussion that we need to increase craft beer's market share in BC. That means making a concerted investment in educating the 75%. Direct interaction with the non-craft-drinking public is an obvious component. The first PNE Craft Beer Fest was an ideal example because of whom the PNE attracts. It's unfortunate the weather dampened a portion of that.

Coming Soon! A new book for travellers wishing to enjoy the craft beer revolution in China. For an insider's guide to the world's largest beer market, follow Rick @GreatHopForward.

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WHAT'S BREWING

BUSINESS OF BEER

The End of the Craft Beer Revolution Business of Beer Series, Part III

W

>> Jeremiah Thunderfoot

elcome to 2016. Allow me to begin with two pieces of late 2015 beer news, coming from seemingly opposite directions:

The Empire Strikes Back to Back: In October, AB InBev, an alphabet soup conglomeration of previous brewery conglomerations, was finally able to form a successful bid to acquire SABMiller. Their aim with this merger has been to truly put the ‘mono’ in monolithic (although regulators are preventing total unification). Then, just before Christmas, news broke that AB had swallowed up 3 craft breweries in one week, removing any doubt that the small fry were still on its radar.

The Rebel Alliance Grows Stronger: In December, the Brewers Association announced that the US brewery count had reached a magic number.

The record of 4131 US breweries, set in 1873, has finally been surpassed, and we now have more breweries in North America than at any time in history. Annual brewery openings in the US now exceed an average of two a day.

Here in BC, our share of that trend currently translates to about twenty brewery openings per year, as illustrated in a handy chart on Joe Wiebe’s Facebook page.

How do these two opposing trends relate to the assertion implied in this article’s title?

Coming Full Circle What it means to be a brewery is shifting, back towards an era when breweries were plentiful and local, like your neighborhood grocer. At its peak in the 1800s, the US brewing industry had thousands of members because refrigeration and transportation hadn’t yet advanced and become economical to the point that national distribution networks could develop. Beer was made and sold locally simply because it had to be. Eventually, the Industrial Revolution caught up and, via the ability to ship beer without spoiling, presented industry captains like Adolphus Busch the opportunity to conglomerate. Combined with the temperance movement and globalization, this created the 20th century trend that ultimately inspired the Movement you’re part of.

Here's a link to another brilliant illustration, courtesy of Scott Janish which inverts the graph below and shows how much of the US market the average brewery shared at the peak of the Dark Ages. The Craft Revolution has restored the number of breweries per capita back to the previously normal state.

There are organizations whose mission it is to represent this legion of small brewers in a world of gargantuan beverage companies. In BC, we have the Craft Brewers Guild. Similar organizations exist in most US states, led broadly by a Brewers Association that lobbies at a federal level. These groups endeavour to help their members peck away at their mortal enemy Big Beer, like a murder of crows harrying an eagle.

Chart: S. Janish & D. Smith Data: Beer Institute, Brewers Association, American Brewing Industry [Shih & Shih, 1958]

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As the BA will tell you, the craft revolution is in full swing.

The crows are in flight, ambushing the eagle’s territory and stealing a share of its prey. In reply, the eagle swats at them in frustration, and occasionally snags and swallows some of the juicier-looking crows. It’s murder out there, for sure.

Pity the eagle. As BA statistician Bart Watson points out, acquisitions by large brewers in recent years have been far outweighed by their ongoing losses in market share. He notes, “If you add up Blue Point, 10 Barrel and Elysian, ABI added about 150,000 bbls to its portfolio. Given recent market trends, that stems about 2 ½ weeks of share shift.”

The fastest growing segment in craft brewing today is at the tiny end of the scale. Even in recent years, small US brewers with local taprooms have typically sold ~75% of their product offsite, but pure-play tasting rooms like Vancouver’s Brassneck Brewing don’t have to do that. BA statistics suggest that there is less risk in opening this type of strictly local brewery; it’s a much more bulletproof model, offering total control and minimal exposure. [Ed. note: contrast this with the bottling-centric history of Tall Ship Ales in this issue, and reflect on how different things would have been for 1990s ‘First Wave’ brewers if legislation and market demand were the same as today].

The Millennial Effect Clearly the craft revolution represents a losing battle for macros, and the Big Beer industry has to adapt to change, much like the music and film industries have had to in the face of technology. As with those cases, a large part of the reason for the change is demographic. You’ll recall the Boom, Bust and Echo theory, and how it defines a bump in population representing to the children of Baby Boomers. As seen here, those children, commonly labelled Millennials, represent the present and future of the North American marketing demographic.

Source: brewersassociation.org Their impact on the craft beer revolution can be deduced by any observer in a modern tasting room full of 29-yearolds with beards. Because these people have elected en masse to drink craft beer, the fate of Grandpa’s beer is sealed.

The beers that Millennials like to drink reflect this craft reality, and are as far from Grandpa’s Bud as their music is from his Pat Boone. In 2015, IPA remains the top style sold

by US craft brewers, and is growing faster than the overall craft category. Boston Beer released a Samuel Adams IPA

Source: brookstonbeerbulletin.com and immediately captured a huge portion of US sales in the craft category for that style. This is indicative of the commoditization of what was once a shocking style to North American consumers.

One day, sooner than they’d like, these Millennials will be grandparents themselves. Their descendants will grow up in a world where West Coast IPA is their Grandpa’s beer.

When the Revolution Ends For this future generation, the brewing landscape will have two clear tiers: the global food and beverage giants (for whom beer is just part of a changing category portfolio, alongside cigarettes, quick-service foods and soft drinks), as well as the local operators, who will supply the taproom experience on the ground in much the same way the ‘local’ pub has done for centuries in the UK. They’ll live side by side, just as McDonald’s and Safeway manage to exist peacefully in a world full of small restaurants and corner stores.

The Beer Renaissance was always inevitable. There never really was a way that the Western World would, simply in the name of efficiency and price, forever stand for junk food and junk beverages without the choice of something better. The backlash against mid-20th century values has manifested itself in the Slow Food Movement, the rise of “organic foods” and related lifestyle trends. What we’ve cherished as a Craft Movement won’t actually cause the end of Big Beer, but it has ensured the survival of small beer, and that’s all that was necessary.

I think that generations from now, beer enthusiasts will be aware of the current Craft Beer Renaissance and will look upon it with admiration. They’ll wish they were there, like young classic rock fans that missed the Sixties and didn’t get to witness Beatlemania and Woodstock firsthand. Our movement won’t matter, except as a case study in how a group of thoughtful humans can do battle with other humans running greedy corporations. Those living to see it will know the day has arrived when people have stopped calling it “craft beer” and it just becomes “beer” again. That will be a great day.

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WHAT'S BREWING

Ullage and Spillage

>> J. RANDOM

C

The First Thirst is the Worst

all me a grumpy old man [You are a grumpy old man. - Ed.], but I had a head start. I was a grumpy young man, as photos of me sitting bolt upright in my pram will attest. Now, my well-developed capacity for disapproval is occasionally applied when assessing new watering holes. First impressions are important, and a key component of my first impression of a craft beer bar is how fast I get a beer.

I have said it before, and I will undoubtedly say it a few more times again before I shuffle off this mortal coil: “there are beer establishments in Vancouver where I swear you can almost die of thirst”, or at least black out from frustration at the time it takes to get your first beer. OK, you may have a glass of water front of you but many of us subscribe to the credo of W.C. Fields: “I don’t drink water. Fish fornicate in it” (except he did not say ‘fornicate’).

When I go out for a beer, I typically travel a ways via bus and/ or train. By the time I get to my craft beer destination, I have built up a thirst and a considerable level of anticipation. I know I am somewhat impatient, so I do try to keep it under control.

However, my focus when I walk in the door is not on a glass of water, a menu, my cellphone or the name of my server (I ask again later if they are good). My reptilian brain is simply thinking “beer now” in a Homer Simpson voice. There is a wide range in how expediently various locations fulfill this need.

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promoting yourself as a craft beer establishment then serving beer should be at the top of the priority list. I have been served a beer less than four minutes from walking in the door at least twice on a moderately busy occasion at the Tap and Barrel on False Creek, so I know it can be done by others.

The five-minute wait for the front of house person, who looked right through me once, then seemed surprised to see me a bit later, is something I have got used to. I have always been invisible in pubs and bars. The fact they had no record of our reservation is also something I am now used to in Vancouver. As Seinfeld said, “You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to HOLD the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation— the holding... ”. Why this seems to be a widespread problem in Vancouver, I have no idea.

On that thirsty night out: the fact that one of the beers we ordered had run out was just fine, no problem. The fact the dinner special we ordered had run out at 7.15 pm was fine, no problem. It was the ten minute wait for the server to get to us and the further ten minute wait without a beer.

That was the problem. We have no idea how long it could have gone on for, because we walked out. We explained to the server why we were leaving and he volunteered to communicate our concern to management. Well, management, if this story sounds familiar, you now know who that was.

minutes in a craft bar without a beer in one’s hand is not acceptable.

At one extreme is the place where you are a regular, and there’s your beer pouring before you even sit down. (Or, in at least one instance at DIX, you are so busy saying hi to people that the manager comes out from behind the bar and puts a beer in your hand.) At the other extreme, as experienced recently by this reporter, 25 minutes in a craft beer bar without a beer in one’s hand is not acceptable.

I am not talking about a weekend night with a game on, the place packed, and you’ve avoided the front of house person and sat in a spare seat at a long table. Then you have only yourself to blame. I am not talking about somewhere that just opened and they are still going through teething troubles. I am talking about a moderately busy night in the middle of the week with many tables empty. In the case of the aforementioned offender, they have a restaurant license and are obligated to proceed accordingly, but really, if you are

Would I have done the same thing if I had not been ignored when I walked in, if the reservation had been held, if the dinner special had been available, if I was not feeling embarrassed at having recommended this place to my American visitors? Yup; pretty sure I would. The reason is, I have been mouthing off to my friends about such waits in the past (nobody told me I was being unreasonable) so it was about time I stood up and said something to the establishment.

The evening ended well, you’ll be pleased to hear. We walked to another place and serendipitously found ourselves at a Craft Beer Month tap take-over. Available were more great beers than we could possibly handle on a worknight, a fantastic and cheap dinner special, and my favourite bar manager, formerly of the fondly-remembered place where I once had a beer placed in my hand without asking.

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A View from the cellar

I

>> Adam Chatburn Casks 101 series, part I: A Crash Course in Cellarmanship

n what I plan to be an ongoing series I hope to further broader knowledge about real ale (cask-conditioned beer), its history, practice and relevance. This first part is about the casks used to condition and serve real ale. There are two types of casks, wood and steel.

ly; nowadays they are just smaller versions of regular firkins.

Pins fell out of favour in the UK due to the percentage of loss in the lees (the yeasty muck at the bottom) but have become popular in Canada as 20L is a good size for cask nights and homebrew. 40L firkins are the most popular option around the world; they are a manageable size and can usually be drunk before they turn sour. 80L kilderkins are used in the UK but virtually unknown in North America as their volume, bulk and weight make them much less practical.

These days, wooden casks are primarily used to flavour and age beer. This is in fact a rather new practice. While beer has been stored in wooden casks through history, these casks were either charred or sealed with pine pitch to stop leaking and to prevent the beer from taking on the There are larger sizes including the 164L “barrel”, wood flavour. However with a long tradition the 245L “hogshead”, the 327L “Puncheon”, A Plastic Shive: of wood-aging in both wine and spirit prothe 491L “Butt” and the red band creates a tight seal. duction, the cross-over to bring in those flathe 1023L “Tun”. vours to beer was inevitable.

However these rarely exist as anything other Wooden casks for flavouring and aging can either be new or than a hypothetical unit of used. New wood is particularly expensive, since both wine measurement - for and spirits take up the bulk of the market. Used example beer and casks cost much less and will impart flavours crude oil output from the previous use. With sour beer populariare measty on the rise, old wine barrels are often used to ured in bardevelop these flavours, and there’s no real limit rels, although on how long these can be kept. there’s differences between Because of their size and fragility, wooden barUS and UK measrels full of beer rarely get moved. They are also urements. rarely completely sealed up (using a bung and A wooden or plastic keystone airlock rather than a shive). Once used for beer, these re-used casks are rarely filled again is used to seal the end of a cask. and usually get thrown away or recycled.

Steel casks have more in common with kegs, in that they are for transporting and serving beer. It is these casks that the rest of these articles will be covering. The distinction between kegs and casks is important. Kegs are sealed and pressurised with CO2 at all times. They require an appropriate coupler and gas source to push the beer out. Kegs are force-carbonated, and ideal for many styles of beer. Casks, on the other hand, have 2 apertures, which after filling are sealed up with disposable bungs. Carbonation (or ‘conditioning’) happens naturally from the live yeast that is present in the beer. The pressurisation comes from the CO2 building up in a pressurised vessel. Cask beer is served by piercing one of the bungs with a tap. The best analogy is that a keg is like a can of beer but a cask is like bottle-conditioned beer (in a very big metal bottle!). More on this in future articles.

Steel casks typically come in 3 sizes: 20.5L (pins), 41L (firkins) and 82L (kilderkins). Historically, pins were long and thin, like a 20L cornelius pop keg with the shive in the top and the keystone near the bottom so they could be served vertical-

Casks require disposable seals (shown above) to be used: keystones, which go in the end and get broken by a tap, and shives, similar to a bung but with a break-away centre that gets punctured when venting.

Adam Chatburn is Associate Brewer at Real Cask Brewing in Vancouver and a former President of CAMRA Vancouver. Stay tuned for Part II.

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WHAT'S BREWING

Homebrew Happenin's >> Warren Boyer

I

n 1998 I purchased a condo unit. I had my first mortgage and was struggling to make the regular payments.

I was living on a very small budget which meant dropping meat out of my diet for a while and not being able to afford luxuries such as beer. Pay day was when I would splurge and buy myself a 6 pack and a pizza. That got old pretty quick. That is when I first decided to explore homebrewing. I needed to find a way to have beer more often without having to spend more money.

I started by reading about the topic. As noted elsewhere in this issue, I purchased a book, Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide. I read it through entirely. I made some decisions about what kind of equipment I could afford and started assembling a very primitive system. I started with a 32 quart enameled canning pot. I installed a spigot on the side of it with a home-made bazooka tube inside. That was my first mash tun that I used for 15 years. I also purchased a large stainless pot in Chinatown to serve as a kettle. That pot is now my hot liquor tank. I found a maize mill missing a hopper on clearance. I bought a carboy and a plastic bucket. Finally I went to the hardware store and purchased a length of coiled copper tubing to build an immersion chiller.

Birth of a Homebrewer Once I understood how to properly enter a beer in a contest and how to develop and tweak recipes I started winning ribbons and medals. Not only that, sometimes there are prizes like free malt or hops, software, shirts, glasses, and other assorted beer-related products. Not bad for a $5 entry fee.

Often there are prizes that allow you to brew at a commercial brewery with a professional brewer. Sometimes you will brew your winning recipe and it is served to the public.

Now I'm teaching others how to brew award-winning beer. I have been teaching an all grain brewing class at Beyond the Grape in Port Moody for the past two years. It is very rewarding seeing people get excited and want to share their creations.

Often I am talking to people about homebrewing and they say "I don't have the space, I live in an apartment". Well, I live in an apartment and it didn't stop me from making best of show beers, so that is not a valid excuse. Find a way to make it work.

I belong to several homebrew clubs. Fraser Valley Fermentalists, Tricities Brew Club, and Stonehouse Brew Club. I have been a member of VanBrewers in the past. I watch the facebook groups for BrewVic and Ten Corners Homebrew Club. We have had events with Royal Canadian Malted Patrol. I am aware of Brew Westminster and UBC has a club called BruBC. I recently discovered a club called Cranbrook Brewing Culture. If you are in BC and are part of a homebrew club that is not listed here please contact me or send a message to What's Brewing.

Next I went to Spagnol's and bought the ingredients for a simple pale ale. I jumped right in and went all grain right off the bat.

That beer was drinkable and I never looked back. Imperial Stouts, IPAs, Scotch ales, and more Pale ales. I started looking for more affordable sources for ingredients and found a little brewpub in North Van called Sail- The man in his element or Hagar's. I visited the brewery and talked to the Your local homebrew stores and clubs are inbrewer, Gary Lohin. He sold me some specialty malts for a credibly useful resources. These people have made the mismuch better price then I was getting at Spagnol's. I gave him takes that you will and can help you avoid them. Most club a bottle of my IPA and asked him to please review it for me. members are open to having visitors during their brew days I'm pretty sure he never opened it. and will gladly show you the ropes.

At this point I was quite happy that I could make delicious beer tailored to my tastes for a fraction of what I was paying at a beer store. It was time to enter a contest and share my amazing creations with the world. I entered an Imperial stout at the 2000 CAMRA BC homebrew contest. The results were announced at the GCBF several weeks later. Imagine my surprise when I didn't win anything. It took me a while to figure out how to win a contest. To win you need to brew to style and make a solid beer. Well, that stout was far from meeting the BJCP guidelines. Fortunately, I had the judges' tasting notes to help explain where the entry fell short.

My intent is to write a regular column for What's Brewing concerning all things homebrew. I may discuss new techniques, post a recipe, notify of Homebrew events, or whatever I may find interesting at the time. If there is something you would like me to write about please let me know.

Now go make some beer!

Warren Boyer is an award winning homebrewer, Certified Beer Judge, Past President of CAMRA Vancouver, and and occasional Professional Brewer. Reach Warren at homebrewboy@shaw.ca

Beyond the Grape has Greater Vancouver’s largest selection of home brewing products!

(Some items may be special order)

Online shopping available at shop.beyondthegrape.com What’s Brewing special: use the discount code whatsbrewing to receive 10% off your grain order (sacks excluded)

Beginning Beer Making with Tim Vandergrift Next Class: February 27th, 2016

Warren Boyer’s All Grain Brewing

April 23rd & October 15th, 2016 Register online at beyondthegrape.com/events

3030 St. Johns St., Port Moody • 604.461.8891 (2 minute walk from Port Moody Westcoast Express Station)

www.beyondthegrape.com

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WHAT'S BREWING

Ten Beers to Warm You This Winter

BeerMeBC's annual list of top Winter Warmer ales >> Dustan Sept

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ere, in random order, are 10 of the best BC beers that are perfect for cozying up with next to the fire, sharing with friends, or even leaving out for Santa next Christmas Eve (which the jolly fellow would no doubt appreciate).

Bomber Brewing: Old Fat Heater Winter Ale A big-bodied winter ale that is all beer and no spice. The Old Fat Winter Ale is brewed to be smooth and strong with a warming sensation from its high 8.0% alcohol. Those that want a big beer without the frills of cinnamon and spice, this is the beer for you!

Longwood Brewery: Winter’s Own Weizenbock Longwood brewery takes their winter flavour inspiration from Germany with the Winter’s Own Weizenbock. This wheat beer has notes of corriander and tropical fruit in a smooth and delicious German-styled winter beer.

Fernie Brewing: Black Mammoth Winter Ale Fernie’s Black Mammoth is a winter ale with light spice, mild orange-peel notes and a very tasty cocoa-chocolate flavour.

The Black Mammoth is deceptive with its easy drinking nature: it is easy to forget that it's an 8.0% beer.

Bridge Brewing: Grinch Winter Ale The Grinch may try to ruin Christmas but Bridge Brewing is more likely to save it with this tasty brew. Pouring dark brown with a hint of red this naughty but nice winter warmer is now an oaked porter. Slight vanilla, and cinnamon flavours with notes of caramel and treacle give this brew a rich and creamy profile.

Central City Brewers: Thor’s Hammer Barley Wine Introducing a beer that needs no introduction. One of the long-time winter favourite flavours for BC craft beer fans is the Central City Barley Wine called Thor’s Hammer. This is a very big and intense Barley Wine that will drink well now or cellar for a Christmas years down the road.

Hoyne: Gratitude Winter Warmer Hoyne Brewing doesn’t like to peg their beers down to a specific style so you will just have to be thankful (or grateful) for the Gratitude Winter Warmer. This beer is easy drinking but comes in a deceptively strong 9.0% brew. The beer has smooth vanilla notes and a very pleasant spice.

Cannery: Darkling Oatmeal Stout A classic and traditional Oatmeal Stout can make a great beer for the holidays. Those looking to keep the alcohol content at a slightly lower level while enjoying big coffee and chocolate tones will love the Darkling, an Oatmeal Stout from Penticton’s Cannery Brewing: great balance, great flavour, and a label with a story behind it.

Driftwood Brewery: Singularity Russian Imperial Stout Only a beer as infamous as the Singularity from Driftwood Brewery could get away with a label that you could not really read in 2014. The 2015 version has a new label though so keep an eye out for this big, strong and dark Russian Imperial Stout at your local retailer.

Vancouver Island Brewery: Hermannator Ice Bock The Hermannator has a creaminess to it that comes with a chocolate and caramel infused booziness. The Hermannator has been a favourite winter choice for many years and continues to bring in awards year after year.

Howe Sound: Megadestroyer Imperial Licorice Stout For those that want something completely different there is the Howe Sound Brewing Megadestroyer Imperial Licorice Stout. This beer will knock you off your feet then kick you when you are down. But somehow it will also have you coming back for more with its intense, unique and delicious licorice flavour.

Dustan's website BeerMeBC.com showcases over 850 BC craft beers with reviews and great photography, plus a BC beer map and brewery directory, beer FAQ and many other resources.

Quotes and Testimonials “As a scientist, I’ve spent much of my life trying to solve the mystery of Dark Matter, and these people claim to have simply put it into a bottle! This is an outrage!”

- Stephen Hawking “Dark Matter represents one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” - Neil Armstrong “Thou callest this Fine Ale, ‘tis fouler than ordinary gutter swill!”

- William Shakespeare “Dark Matter and Women just about wrecked my life, but that’s all right with me” - John Lee Hooker “Mmmm Beer!”

- Homer Simpson

101-2740 Bridge Street Victoria, BC • 250-590-5758 • www.hoynebrewing.ca

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START YO UR O WN A CR AFT BEER LITE RA C Y SAM PL ER Recently, former CAMRA Vancouver Education Liaison Danny Seeton shared some beer learning tips with What's Brewing, enhanced by a snapshot of some books that have helped him become the amazing brewer and beer guru that he is.

At What's Brewing, we're all about reading about beer, and you don't have to be a professional brewer to want to do that. We thought it'd be good to share some community insights regarding the types of literature veteran beer fans read and recommend. Inspired by Danny's photgraphic contribution, here are some book-hunting tips from the WB community.

Warren Boyer Foamer's Folly, homebrewer extraordinaire >> Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide was my first brewing book. Also on the left is a commercial brewing book published in 1882 that is a very interesting read.

Rebecca Whyman Blogger & beer reporter >> Randy Mosher's Tasting Beer is great - I always recommend that one to people. For more light-hearted reading I love Three Sheets to the Wind and Man Walks into a Bar.

Dave Smith WB Writer & Editor >> My fave: Beer: The Story of the Pint, a UK beer history by Martyn Cornell.

Brad Curran Collector, former CAMRA Van exec >> I have reference books on beer, wine, scotch, tequila, coffee, chocolate, and cheese; my interest is in variations from different countries. Most of my reference books feature bottle and label photos with descriptions.

Ian Lloyd

J. Random

Blogger & former WB Editor

WB Writer & Editor

>> My books are more focused to appreciation and pairing.

>> Another vote for Dave Line: His Brewing Beers Like Those you Buy got me into experimenting with recipes. His Big Book of Brewing got me into full mash homebrewing.

Joe Wiebe Writer, journalist & beer event host >> I like Pete Brown's Hops and Glory. The Oxford Companion to Beer is a great resource. Also, I've used travel books like CAMRA's Good Beer Guide: Belgium and Larry Hawthorne: Beer Drinker’s Guide to Munich.

Phil Atkinson Founding WB Editor, CAMRA BC pioneer >> I was lucky enough to meet three late authors, including Michael Jackson, who signed The World Guide to Beer and The English Pub. We had some wonderful conversations about beer.

Dave Line, who was instrumental in setting fire to the homebrew resurgence and bringing it up to date (albeit in the late 1970s).

I also attended a wine competition with B.C.A. Turner who wrote about a million books and articles on homemade beer and wine.

John Rowling Writer, CAMRA BC pioneer, and owner of a sagging bookshelf >> On the far left top are a couple of different editions of the Pocket Guide to Beer written and signed by Michael Jackson in the 1990's. I never left town without this book as it listed every brewery in the world and rated their beers.

There are books on Belgium, the Czech Republic, England, USA, etc., because we travel. There are books on the history of brewing.

After a while I discovered cooking with beer so there are lots of beer and food books, the best of which is Stephen Beaumont's 1995 book A Taste for Beer.

There are also several books on hops, because we grow them in the garden.

Oh, and there is also the "World Encyclopedia of Cheese" because I love beer and cheese!

Pictured on facing page: contributions from 1. John Rowling 2. Joe Wiebe 3. Warren Boyer

4. Danny Seeton 5. Phil Atkinson 6. Lundy Dale

7. Rebecca Whyman 8. Dave Smith 9. Ian Lloyd

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WHAT'S BREWING

Books In Review On Fermentation:

True Brews by Emma Christensen

T

here is a time in every homebrewer’s life when their very perception of the world changes. You begin to look at everything differently, from what's for dinner to what's in the fridge and cupboards. You look at them with new insight and everything is subject to that age-old question, “Can I put it in beer?”

This eternal question is also often followed by what might be an even more essential question, maybe the quintessential question of existence, “Will it ferment?” (or alternatively, “can I make booze out of it?”). Indeed, experiments in the glorious beauty of yeast, sugar, fermentation and its byproducts may be a way to touch one's most universal and long-lasting humanity.

In case it wasn’t clear, I might be in the grips of a fermentation mania. A year ago, brewing anything but beer held little interest for me.

All it took was my neighbor asking, “Could you use some plums?” to send me researching, gathering recipes, and waiting impatiently for the next harvest. I’ve never even tasted plum wine but, at this point, like my mother-in-law’s apples, it's about the fermentation, that awesome mystery of watching fruit sugar turn into booze, and hopefully tasty booze.

Thankfully, there are quite a few books targeting just such a person as myself. One such book is True Brews by Emma Christensen, which deals with not only beer but also fruit wine, cider, mead, soda, kefir, sake and kombucha. Christensen's pedigree is from food writing and she takes a cookbook-like approach with True Brews. She takes a simple, pragmatic approach to her drinks that would appeal to those who may be intimidated by more technical books or those who are already comfortable in the kitchen.

>> Ted Child

This is a nice approach but also slightly misleading since, as most homebrewers know, yeast can be a fickle fungus and fermentation can be fraught with dangers. Like a food writer, Christensen seems to assume that if you follow her recipes everything will be fine. For instance, outside of a very brief section on stuck fermentations, there is no troubleshooting section here, nor is there one on identifying off-flavours and their sources in fermentation.

In an effort to more thoroughly critique the book, I used her “master cider recipe” on the previously mentioned apples from my mother-in-law’s tree. The recipe, like many other cider recipes I found elsewhere, starts with the apple juice and doesn’t go into any detail about sourcing or juicing apples.

So far, my cider has turned out well, but cider recipes are low-hanging fruit in the world of fermentation. I do plan to try her more complicated one-gallon beer recipe and maybe the mead as well, which is more than I can say for some other similar books.

This book stands out from many of the others focusing on a variety of fermented beverages (rather than just a single drink, such as wine or beer) by including some less alcoholic but increasingly popular drinks, specifically kefir and kombucha. I assume this is why there will be a long wait list at your library. I think it will also increase the shelf life of this book by including these drinks along with the more boozy ones.

Indeed, when your doctor tells you to never touch beer again because your liver is a stone, all that homebrewing experience can be put to better use. In the same way making cider or plum wine held no interest to me until recently, who knows what you will be inspired to ferment next.

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WINTER 2016

21

COVER

Bill Herdman: a brewer's Tale >> Words: Dave Smith | Images: Brian K. Smith

I

’d like to think that as you read these pages, you’re cozying up to a nice BC craft beer. Maybe you have something a bit hoppy, even dry-hopped. Possibly it’s something a bit experimental, showing off the brewer’s interest in their art. If you’re really in the mood you might be drinking something fairly strong like a Russian Imperial Stout or a Barley Wine. If it’s a bottled product, there may be some yeast still alive, giving it a deliberate second life after it hits the shelves at your favourite retailer.

It wasn’t so long ago that none of the above was taken for granted around these parts. Not even ten years ago, constant availability of locally-produced, envelope-pushing, experimental or extreme beers on a BC Liquor Store shelf was still a dream. Groups of us BC beer enthusiasts were chartering buses to Washington State bottle shops and bringing back as many boxes of Northwest concoctions as we feasibly could.

It was our primary means of buying the types of products we knew were out there, and craved.

This is the story of a brewer who made commercially bottled beer in British Columbia two decades ago, and did it his own way. He’s a character that didn’t fit the mold then any more than he does now. Some might suggest that he was too unsophisticated or too individualistic to conform and succeed in a business as tough as beer. Nevertheless, he epitomized the essence of the craft beer revolution, and by virtue of his dogged homebrewer’s mentality he created timeless products that were ten to twenty years ahead of their market.

The Early Days The story of Bill Herdman, idiosyncratic BC brewer dates back to 1979 in North Vancouver. At that time, 17-year-old Bill had a friend whose father, a banker by day, had a homebrewing hobby by after hours. Bill got his first exposure to the idea of do-it-yourself beer creation when he helped with the bottling. It was just a taste of things to come.

Then there was this other friend. In a story with a few twists, the most singular coincidence is Bill’s long-time acquaintance with Gary Lohin, a brewer who needs no introduction to BC beer enthusiasts. Gary was a classmate of Bill’s brother Tom, both a year ahead of Bill at Handsworth Secondary in the upper levels of North Vancouver. They became close enough that when Gary got married the Herdman boys were in the wedding party. From time to time, Gary and Bill would compare notes as homebrewers. Lohin and Herdman’s peculiarly parallel yet juxtaposed careers run as a theme throughout Bill’s story.

Bill’s first attempt at his own batch of homebrew took place in 1986. At that time, Herdman says “Gary & I [separately] had our beer kits and both got into all-grain brewing. We were boiling on the stove and doing typical homebrewer experiments. It was hard to get information on brewing”. To remedy this, Bill had acquired homebrew bible The Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian, and was an avid student.

In Vancouver, the general beer scene was of course pedestrian, although the revolution had quietly begun. Bill recalls his excitement when Granville Island’s first lager came out: “that beer was amazing. It was a shocking beer”. He describes a pilsner that, unlike their later Lager, had “an intense bitterness, and a full body; it was a real sandwich of a beer”.

South of the border, things had progressed further. Bill was aware of the US scene; he first attended the fledgling Oregon Brewer’s Festival in 1988 based completely on word of mouth. With no Internet back then, it was up to Canadians venturing down to take a chance and navigate their way to the park in Portland. Little did homebrewer Bill realize that his own beer would be served there in less than a decade.

Horseshoe Bay Bill’s breakthrough as a professional brewer came in 1989 with a gig at the legendary Horseshoe Bay Brewing. The groundbreaking spinoff from the Troller Pub was now in its second iteration, founding fathers John Mitchell and Frank Appleton having long moved on. At the time, a chap named David Bruce-Thomas was running the brewery and needed brewing staff. Herdman saw an ad in the paper, called him up and got the job.

Unlike the famous but short-lived first phase, when HBB was created as a ‘cottage brewery’ to supply beer to the Troller, the brewery’s second phase was independent of the Pub and its ownership. When Bill joined, Horseshoe Bay was supplying packaged beer to the general BC market, which included bottling until 1995, and then kegs only until its final demise in 1997. Thrown into the fire, Bill recalls, “there were challenges with production. It was quite a learning curve, especially in such a limited place.” Of course, he could always turn around and ask the senior brewer on site for help—or at least he would have, if it weren’t for the fact that he WAS the senior and only brewer. His first professional gig was sink or swim.

“I was constantly taking apart the heat exchanger because of clogging from the seedy Fuggles hops” Bill recollects. “There was no easy way to deal with grain; no grist case, so I was

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WHAT'S BREWING

milling into tubs—garbage cans—and mixing by hand. The mash tun had no side outlet, so I had to stand inside it so I could shovel it out after.”

and speaking directly to the man whose name was on the school. After talking to Siebel he packed up and left to spend 6 months in Chicago.

Horseshoe Bay inevitably had its problems. Asked what he’d do differently today, Herdman feels that there wasn’t much he could have done differently. Bill cared about the legacy of Horseshoe Bay and felt he appreciated the brewery’s history more than ownership did. As has sometimes been the case during peak waves in the craft revolution, the brewery owner wasn’t really into beer.

Asked how he came to make a life choice based on a career as frivolous as brewing, he smiles; “there was never really a question about it. I tend to be pretty impulsive about things like that”.

Bruce-Thomas’ preference was to focus on one flagship product, their Horseshoe Bay Ale. Bill felt there was interest in their other beers and wanted to bring more attention to their Porter and a new product of theirs named India Pale Ale. He also produced a well-accepted Christmas Ale. Herdman says, “I had a lot of contact with the clients back then; they loved the idea of more choices in beer. Today, that’s the bedrock of the business”.

Of course that’s an understatement; here and now, in the peak of the revolution, being a beer enthusiast means being a child in a massive candy store.

Experimentation is an essential element that separates true craft brewing from commercially motivated brewing, be it by large or small operators.

The writing was on the wall when, creative as ever, Bill felt restricted by management’s conservative direction.

As Bill says, “there’s a side of you, as a brewer, that wants to do what you want to do.” A year and a half after landing his first professional brewing job, Herdman was gone. However, it wasn’t to leave for another brewing job, or to drop out of the industry; it was to study at North America’s most prestigious brewing school.

Siebel Institute In 1872, a German immigrant named John Siebel converted his recently-founded Chicago brewing research firm into a school. The Siebel Institute of Technology, the first of its kind in the new world, naturally became the leading force in American brewing education, surviving prohibition with creativity and remaining relevant to this day.

Herdman found Siebel in a brewing magazine, and reasoned that it represented one of the few steps forward for a brewer.

A formal education in brewing wasn’t a particularly common career path for a BC beer enthusiast back then. For one thing, travel was required; Kwantlen Polytechnic was still 25 years away from launching their current brewing science program. Bill, in typical fashion, was undaunted by this. As he says, “there wasn’t much else at the time in North America; UC Davis [near Sacramento CA] was really expensive”.

John’s great-grandson Bill Siebel, eventually Chairman and CEO, was the fourth generation in the family to lead the college. Young Herdman thought nothing of calling Chicago

At the time, Bill Siebel was a hands-on instructor, and a real mentor to the people who came to his college. The relationship with students was reportedly close, perhaps understandable in an academy dedicated to the science of producing intoxicating beverages. Herdman recalls the amazing “field trips” Siebel would lead the beer students on, driving up to.Milwaukee to spend the weekend touring breweries. He reports, “Bill Siebel had a weird tolerance for alcohol. After drinking all day, everybody else would be ready to pass out; Siebel was always fine.”

Readers, I’m sure you’ll agree that when drinking capacity impresses a brewer, it has got to involve a truly unusual level of alcohol tolerance.

Back in Vancouver with Siebel certificate fresh in hand, Bill found it difficult to get any work brewing. Victoria’s scene was well ahead of Vancouver’s by this time, but Bill wanted to stay on the mainland. Applying at all the available local plants, he couldn’t get a night shift at Shaftebury.

Homebrewing again Around this time Bill had a friend named David Philp who lived in an older Kitsilano basement suite. They did a bit of homebrewing there, with Bill of course taking the lead. In that basement were 8 refrigerators claimed from a recently-renovated apartment building down the street. Since the rent included utilities, the boys had free electricity to power, as Bill puts it, “temperature-controlled lagering and storage” to their heart’s content. Inevitably, given Bill’s certification, the hobby became more serious in intent.

The dominant new brew in BC by this time was Pale Ale from Okanagan Springs in Vernon BC (where it so happened that Gary Lohin was employed). Bill knew the beer and felt that the product had started out really well, but over time was lacking. He knew he and David could make something like that, in the same style, but better. With Bill unable to find other brewing work, the boys took matters into their own hands and decided to start up a brewery.

“We felt at the time that it would be pretty easy to make better beer than what was available” he recalls. “We felt that if we made something better, it would sell better. That was the basis of our marketing plan. When I look back, it was incredibly naive.”

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Howe Sound Brewing

www.howesound.com

Howe Sound Brewing Company 37801 Cleveland Ave., Downtown Squamish, BC, Canada

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WHAT'S BREWING

Tall Ship Ales In 1993 Bill Herdman and David Philp began creating test batches and branding materials for a new brewery named Tall Ship Ales. A little-known fact: Tall Ship’s first planned location was at 221 West 1st Street in North Vancouver, right next to a pub named Sailor Hagar’s. At the time, Hagar’s was a bar, not a brewpub. Bill and David approached the building’s landlord and got a handshake agreement to begin operations. They even completed the formal application process at North Vancouver city hall and were approved in council.

North American brewers first based their IPAs on the historic English tradition. Problem: the colonial-era product had long since died off, and nobody alive really knew what it originally tasted like. Early US craft brewing leaders like Fritz Maytag and Bert Grant came up with hoppy ales that blazed a trail for acceptance of bitter styles; these styles would eventually morph into our distinctly bold West Coast IPA.

Bill’s version of IPA was a strong beer, in the 7.5% ABV range with 70-80 IBU. It was still fairly balanced, with a malty, biscuity quality from a strong core malt base with Maris Otter and caramel malts. It had more colour than the average IPA of today. They used mostly UK hops such as the classic East Kent Goldings, in whole hop plugs, meant to dry-hop a cask. Bill reports, “we dry-hopped a lot; every beer we did was dry hopped exn pla The original cept for the Raspberry”.

“Talk about naivety” Bill says, “we went to the owner of Hagar’s and said, ‘this’ll be great: we’re going to open up a little brewery on the same block’”, thinking that he’d be their best client. He wasn’t so responsive. Sailor Hagar’s was about to start brewing its own beer, with Bill’s longtime friend Gary Lohin in the role of brewmaster.

The landlord quietly backed out of the agreement, and the boys had to look for a different home base.

Rather than looking toward the big city, they turned their eyes northwards up the Sea to Sky Highway.

Recalls Bill, “my reasons for going to Squamish were really not business-related. I just liked Squamish; I wanted to be closer to the mountains and the Chief”. Asked if he based the critical decision of location of selfish personal reasons, Bill cheerfully responds, “of course!”

David and Bill borrowed the money and got started. The resulting brewhouse was basic but nice, featuring a 10 hectolitre direct gas-fired Ripley Stainless system, with a mash/ lauter tun, hot liquor tank and the essentials. They launched with their flagship beer, Tall Ship Ale, and started bottling in 1994.

There wasn’t really anyone in BC they were emulating at the time. Without anything near the level of education in the local marketplace there is today, they’d get their inspiration from south of the border.

After the acceptance of their flagship Ale, Tall Ship branched off with a Rasberry Cream Ale, an IPA, and a dark quasi-stout known as Black Ship Ale. Lohin recalls how Bill pushed the envelope with his recipes. “All his beers were super-alcoholic”, Gary muses. “He had an 8% raspberry beer.” Right, actually the Raspberry Cream was 8.5% ABV, an insane number for a core lineup fruit beer then and now.

India Pale Ale Bill was an avid reader and fascinated by the history of beer.

Right from the beginning, he found the story of India Pale Ale to be the most compelling; a beer born of excess, IPA involved taking an already-finished strong beer and putting it over the top with additional hops.

Today, IPA is the cheeseburger of North American craft beer, available everywhere. Back then, the BC public hadn’t heard of it, unless they knew of a Nova Scotia beer named Alexander Keith’s.

The importance of IPA to Tall Ship’s reputation and legacy is demonstrated by the fact that it took over from Tall Ship Ale as their biggest seller by 1997. It is mind-boggling that a tiny BC company was selling IPA as their number one packaged beer to consumers back then.

Bill became recognized as an IPA guy in the brewing fraternity. According to Joe Wiebe, James Walton of Storm Brewing waited a “suitable mourning period” after Tall Ship’s demise before marketing his Hurricane IPA. Gary, by then up and running at Sailor Hagar’s, was making Bengal IPA (a brand currently brewed at Howe Sound and served at Hagar’s to this day). Unlike Gary and James, Bill had to sell a large percentage of his products in bottles directly into the retail market, requiring the consumer to buy-in without interaction from serving staff. How anybody but beer geeks ever bought a case beats me.

Of course, these days Gary is known for eventually breaking down the commercial IPA barrier with his Red Racer IPA, which became a de facto standard in the BC packaged product market. Bill notes that Gary really took the ball and ran with it after moving to Central City. With no hesitation he says that Gary’s IPA is probably the beer most regularly purchased for the Herdman household.

WINTER 2016

Barley Wine With similar pluck, Bill decided to bottle a product called No. 1 Barley Wine, something that was rare at the time. Gary was also in the process of creating BC’s most legendary barley wine, Thor’s Hammer, down at Hagar’s. There had been beers of that style in on the West Coast for some time, from Anchor and Sierra Nevada among others. Those ground-breaking beers of the 70s and 80s were in the 8-10% ABV range. Tall Ship lauched theirs at 14%.

Tall Ship: The Lineup Tall Ship Ale

5-6% ABV

"one of the more assertive B.C. pale ales" 1

Raspberry Cream Ale

5.5-8.5% ABV

"super-alcoholic for a raspberry beer" (G.L.)

How did they manage this feat in a small brewhouse?

India Pale Ale

Bill recalls, “It took two mash tuns to fill one kettle. You’d fill the mash tun, overfill the thing, do a mash with no sparge, just drain it into the kettle. You’d get it a little more than half filled. As that batch starts boiling, you’d get another mash going. It would lauter in to the next one while it was at or below a boil, until the kettle gets full. Then we’d add maybe 100 lb of honey to that and let it boil for six hours. We’d pitch yeast 3 times during fermentation, and oxygenate it more than once. That’s how we’d get the gravity up to that level.

"The first real IPA sold in bottles in BC." 1 3 "strong, amber-red with...good flavour development" 2

We’d usually brew two of those, back to back: two days of double mash, 6-hour boils. It was quite a day.”

No. 1 was bottled in 187 ml champagne bottles, marked with the date and capped with gold foil. They sold for $5 each, an exorbitant price at the time for a small bottle; a true collector’s item now. They sold well enough that David and Bill started making Barley Wine year round.

Tall Ship didn’t stop there; Bill went on to produce a Smoked Porter and a Russian Imperial Stout. According to the venerable BC Beer Guide, the Imperial at the time was “probably the most expensive beer ever commercially sold in B.C.”

Drawing a Comparison The activity described above may not sound especially impressive to newer professional brewers or advanced homebrewers of today. Even back then, aside from Bill and Gary, it's certain that there were a number of other BC brewers making ales like these for home use or sale on premises at brewpubs. However, looking back at what was going on in terms of bottled products available to the public in BC liquor stores two decades ago, it’s difficult to find ways to compare.

In Vancouver, easily the first brewery that comes to mind is Storm. Another pioneer well ahead of his time, James Walton followed in Bill’s footsteps to some degree. Bill would

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7.5% ABV

Black Ship Ale

5.6% ABV

"very smooth, with notes of hazelnut and dark chocolate" 2

Smoked Porter

6.0% ABV

"A distinctive treat...with a definite smokiness in the aroma and taste" 1

Russian Imperial Stout

8.5-9.5% ABV

"Deep black, with a big malty nose and an rich, aggressive flavour" 1

No.1 Barley Wine

11.25-14% ABV

"it was meant to mature over the years, and has done so brilliantly...

Great legacy for one of the real BC craft brewing pioneers" 1 1 BC Beer Guide 2 Michael Jackson, Pocket Guide to Beer 3 Joe Wiebe, the Thirsty Writer have loved to produce an ongoing series of brewing Brainstorms the way James is now well known for doing. But for a packaging microbrewery like Horseshoe Bay or Tall Ship, it wasn’t as simple as just serving product from a tap or filling kegs; each time you created an innovative bottled beer you had to have more labels, more SKUs, and your keg clients had to change taps more frequently. Throngs of East Van growler owners were two decades away.

For better contemporary comparison, a decent source of reference is my copy of Michael Jackson’s Pocket Guide to Beer, 6th Ed. (1997), in which he lists Tall Ship’s IPA, a quasi-stout known as Black Ship Ale and a Smoked Porter (giving the latter his “worth seeking out” stamp of approval). Right next to the TSA listing is Storm, probably the local brewery closest in spirit to Tall Ship. Jackson lists Hurricane IPA, and gives good marks for James’ Continental Coffee Ale. Other BC breweries listed include the aforementioned postBill Horseshoe Bay, Bowen Island, and other more familiar names that have survived to this day. Spinnakers got good marks for an Eau de Tabernac, a commendably ambitious product describe as “aged in the style of Rodenbach”. However it likely didn’t present Spinnakers the burden of packaging and distribution.

The listing for bottler Granville Island, by that time owned

by Andrew Peller Wines and with over a decade of brewing experience, includes a Tenth Anniversary Ale and an Island Bock. But nothing pushing the envelope like Tall Ship.

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Tall Ship may not have been the most well-known brewery in BC, but it wasn’t without its admirers, including outside the province. In 1997, Tall Ship was invited to attend Oregon Brewer’s Festival, putting them in rare company as one of the few Canadian participants in OBF history. Their banner still proudly hangs in the rafters of OBF’s North tent each July. For many years there were no Canadian breweries at OBF, until the streak was broken in 2015 by Central City with their US-branded ‘Red Betty’ IPA. OBF inclusion is yet another instance of the intermittent synchronicity betwixt the careers of Herdman and Lohin.

Challenges Things weren’t easy in Squamish; Tall Ship needed to sell and deliver beer to Greater Vancouver to survive. Unlike the tasting lounges of today, Tall Ship had no foot traffic, and often had no local accounts. All product was shipped into the city via a black cube van described as “the famous beer truck” on Tall Ship’s 1998 website: “It was often mistaken for an entire fleet of Beer Trucks because it went everywhere.” According to Bill, “deliveries were a logistical nightmare”.

Bill remembers ruefully, “we had no idea about how distribution worked.

You’re not really selling to the drinker; you’re selling to the pub owner. The question becomes, “what are you going to do for us?”

“I got fed up with trying to sell kegs to licensees. Back then, it wasn’t unusual to have to perpetually give away one in four or five kegs free. They’d ask for free kegs to start with” he notes. Sometimes bars would sell the beer, pocket the money and when Tall Ship showed up to pick up the kegs, they’d get a “sorry, no thanks” and no money, period.

They found it much easier to sell directly to the BC LDB; apparently shelf space wasn’t an issue then (just a tad different situation exists now). The general distribution arrangement meant that they’d ship to the distribution centre, and any liquor store could order from there. Bill remarks, “That’s why we bottle-conditioned all of our products, and we used the 355 ml US-style bottle (a more squat shape than the default 12oz tallneck). The beers could last a really long time.”

This may not have been as effective a quality control method as Tall Ship hoped. A comment on BC Beer Guide by reader Andrew Litzenberger mentions that “...they were plagued with distribution problems through the LCB who did not necessarily have a first-in first-out policy. I saw many bottles [of the Raspberry] in store that had gone off.”

For any brewers just starting out, it probably seemed like Bill and David were living the dream. Of course, in hindsight, it’s not all a dream running a small brewing business. “There were times when I was literally working around the clock, doing 8-10 batches a week, with nobody to help except with the bottling” says Bill.

For a variety of reasons, the Tall Ship left dock for her final sailing in 1998. Like many breweries of the 1990s, this shooting star burned brightly before fading out.

Aftermath After the Tall Ship days, Bill retreated from brewing for a while.

Since then, he’s bounced around. Not long ago, Bill was back home in North Vancouver, brewing at Green Leaf. Joe Wiebe documents Bill’s creativity in a September 2014 blog post: He’s on the cutting edge again, brewing mixed-fermentation beers and brett IPAs, and creating crazy contraptions such as a cider press powered by a stationary bike—with the juice used in a sour apple saison. More recently he was associated with Big River in Richmond, before their recent changeover and relaunch as BRB Brewing Co. After this interview, I was delighted to meet one special Tall Ship recruit who’s in Herdman’s life to this day. Bill’s eventual wife Shannon was Tall Ship’s only female team member. Shannon, who still works in Squamish, explains that she thinks she was hired as a long-sighted pickup move.

Now, with a young son and daughter facing special challenges, Bill and Shannon juggle a tough schedule, making Bill’s next move in the beer world unclear. Herdman, who got his first job as a commercial brewer before some of the current generation of BC brewers were born, is cagey about his future in professional brewing. However he allows that sooner or later the call of the mash tun will beckon. People ask him, “how did you get into brewing?” and Bill responds “brewing got into me”.

Herdman is a great evangelist for individual brewing. After the interview he tried to convince me I’d start homebrewing one day too. He cheerfully admits, “I try to get anybody into it if I can”.

So how did he get the nickname Wild Bill? “Maybe because of my affinity for wild fermentation and wild yeasts”, Herdman says coyly. As for the beard, Bill says, “since my daughter was 3 or 4 years old, she’s been in charge of it”. With a full beard a requisite in both the brewhouse and tasting room today, young brewers and hipster beer geeks alike would do well to show respect to Herdman’s venerable whiskers.

All in all, Tall Ship Ales lasted for five and a half years. According to the BC Beer Guide, Tall Ship was “An outfit that in many ways embodied what a craft brewery should be all about - bold, unique beers made with care and attention.”

I’d suggest adding “stubborn determination and sincerity” to that analysis. And a brewer who came along a couple of decades before most of us were ready for him.

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BUSINESS OF BEER

As The Glacier Shifts

>> Paddy Treavor The legacy of Canada's most luxurious beer On November 30th 2015, Paddy Treavor broke the story of Canada’s most expensive beer. He revists the story for What's Brewing to detail how things have progressed since then.

"It is the most interesting beer in the province right now."

W

hether Glacial Mammoth Extinction has justified its creator's opinion has caused some arguments amongst BC craft beer lovers since it was released December 5th, but what is not up for debate is that the $1000 price tag makes it Canada’s most expensive beer, and certainly one of the most expensive beers in the world at this time.

The story of this beer, which broke on my VanEast Beer Blog, was picked up by mainstream local and Canadian media, as well as Fox News in the USA. “It's been great,” stated owner-brewer James Walton about the media frenzy related to Storm Brewing's sensational release.

The notoriety and hefty price tag has everything to do with some special packaging. Walton was so pleased with how the Glacial Mammoth Extinction turned out that he decided to commission two East Vancouver artists to create unique works of art to package a limited release of 10 1L bottles from the 400 litres produced. It is these unique growlers that are selling for $1000.

Although the bottle is the media story, the beer stands out as one of the most unique that Walton has ever released, and that is saying something. Without the special bottle, the beer sells for $80/litre, making it likely the most expensive growler fill in the province anytime soon.

Storm's iconic brewer has earned the nickname of The Mad Scientist in BC craft beer circles and is well known for thinking outside of the box when it comes to brewing beer. The Glacial Mammoth Extinction is a prime example of how far Walton is prepared to push the envelope.

Walton took his already formidable Imperial Flanders Red Sour Ale, which is an 11% sour bomb meant for those most adventurous of craft beer drinkers, and froze it to -30° C in two stages over the course of a month. The boozy liquid which remained was then placed into French oak barrels and aged for two years. What has come out of this intense and complicated process is a 25% ABV nectar that tastes more like fortified wine or Port than beer.

Art meets craft beer

Walton released a keg as a sneak preview of what was coming last year. The extra year in the oak barrels has treated this beer well, mellowing it out and allowing the more subtle flavours to come to the fore. A few pooh-poohed the beer before even tasting it. I will say that I liked this beer; it is highly drinkable even at 25%, and that is as close to a review as you will get from me.

Image: Ryan DeCorby The beer comes packaged in hand-blown glass Storm describes it as "a sweet, rich, viscous 100% malt bevbottles created by Terminal City Glass Co-Op's Brad Turner. erage that resembles Port more than beer". Walton says the These bottles are works of art in their own right, but when beer is "bullet proof" and "likely infinitely stable" in regards you consider that each bottle is adorned with a one-of-ato cellaring, stating that the beer may go flat in the flip-top kind pendant, made from 35,000-year-old mammoth ivory bottles but that it will not go off. by artist Richard Marcus, you understand the price tag.

It was a huge gamble for Storm to package up the special $1000 bottles as Walton had to pony up thousands of dollars to buy the unique art work used to package the beer. “I thought there was a good chance I'd be embarrassed and have to give them away as Christmas presents,” he joked.

A few doubters out there chalked up the $1000 price tag to nothing more than marketing, but, as this writing, Storm has already moved eight of the $1000 bottles and a big portion of the remaining 390 L in growlers. “The buyers are mostly regular customers, stated Walton.“ The idea of beautiful art that is beer related is very appealing.”

“I'm liking the respect the beer has garnered” Walton shares.

“I wanted to make something that approximated the upper range of wine for price and alcohol level. The Port comparisons are especially rewarding to me.” Walton hopes his experiment and success will inspire others to push limits and be creative.

“Hopefully more breweries will push the envelope now that it's been done here,” stated Walton who says the hype has increased as has sales of all his beers both at the brewery and on tap in bars and restaurants around the Lower Mainland.

“It has really done a lot to raise the profile of the brewery.”

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WHAT'S BREWING

Getting Beer Home Safely ...travel tips from Hops Canary >> Lynn McIlwee

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y husband and I plan our vacations to beer-friendly cities to visit breweries and scout out the good beer bars in that area. Maybe one day my work colleagues won’t ask me why I’m visiting places like Belgium or Austin.

The conversation usually goes like this: •

“Do you have family there?”

•

“No”

•

“Oh?” [pause] [confused look] [please supply more information]

•

“We love beer and it’s a great place for it”

•

“Oh…” [searches AA contacts] “sigh…”

Back to the actual travel. Here are some tips to get your precious, precious beer home safely.

Hard suitcase - bring a hard shell suitcase for the beer or purchase a suitcase just for bottles such as the Wine Check bags (they even have a hard shell case now).

We own the soft shell with the shipping insert.

us Canadians, for 48 hours or longer you can bring back 8.5 litres per person. There’s no duty-free for under 48 hours (boo).

Over Limit - if you are over limit for duty-free, have your receipts ready with the cheapest beer you bought. You don’t want to be paying up to 90% tax (yes, that’s what Canada makes you pay) on the expensive bottles.

Weight - bring a hand-held luggage scale to make sure your checked baggage doesn’t exceed 50 lbs. Overweight fees are hideous and drinking at the baggage desk may be frowned upon.

To date, all of our beer has made it home in one piece without any leaking or breakage. I’m the master suitcase-tetris packer - that is until CATSA gets their paws on the bag and reorganizes it for me. At least they leave a nice little “we were here” note…

Happy travels!

Extra luggage - to save on your baggage fees, pack your smaller suitcase inside of the larger one, or travel lightly and pack a backpack as your carry-on for the ride home. That extra suitcase is for your beer, of course.

Bubble wrap - bring this with you Packing - wrap your bottles in bubble wrap and pack your clothes around the bottles and outside perimeter to make sure nothing will move. Hopefully those pesky CATSA agents don’t take a peek and unwrap everything. Let me tell you, they never pack it properly.

Leakage - if you’re concerned about the caps coming off, secure the caps with electrical tape or pack your bottles in bags such as Wine Skins or Jet Bags. These are padded, absorbent and reusable.

Pictured directlry above: a travel case similar to Lynn's, from The Wine Check, www.thewinecheck.com Center: another hardshell case from WineCruzer, www.winecruzer.com

Customs - check your duty-free limit and calculate your allowance in ml/oz, not in the number of bottles you’re bringing back. You could go way over your limit if you just declare the number of bottles as they base it on 355ml. For

On HopsCanary.com, Lynn writes about our beer related travel around the world, beer festivals, local beer events and other beer topics of interest.

SMOOTH EDGE DESIGN More..

BEER PADDLES TAP HANDLES ACCESSORIES SMOOTHEDGEDESIGN.CA 604-831-8611

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WHAT'S BREWING

The Hopbine >> John Rowling

O

GCBF Research Dept. Road Trip

ne of the most interesting tasks that I am involved in for the Great Canadian Beer Festival is selecting the beers. Gerry Hieter, the GCBF chair, and I sit down a month or so before the festival and pick what we hope will be an interesting selection. But we often find that, although we may be familiar with most of the breweries and their beers, there are always some that we've never tasted. So we finish up guessing. To avoid this, Gerry suggested that we do a short brewery road trip.

It was decided that, at the very least, we should be current on the new breweries on Vancouver Island, and then we should catch up on some of the multitude of new breweries in Vancouver. So on a Thursday morning in late September we drove North out of Victoria. Our first stop was Red Arrow Brewing about 40 minutes away, on the south side of Duncan.

This brewery opened last June in a former motorcycle factory. (The company, Arrow Custom Cycle and Polishing Ltd. specialized in building custom Harley Davidson motorcycles and parts and accessories. David Saari had only four employees but his bikes sold for $50-100,000!) The building is ideal for a brewery. It is beautiful, made of red brick covered in ivy, and has a patio for special events. The former showroom has been converted into a tasting room featuring a growler bar, tasting flights, and retail store. Lance Steward and Chris Gress are the principal owners, both formerly associated with the Craig Street Brew Pub in Duncan. Chris proudly showed us

around his 20-hL brewhouse and pointed out the various features of the building. One of the most impressive legacies is the freight elevator formerly used to move bikes up and down, but now used to move equipment and supplies. Chris mentioned that the local water is great, “but the water is so soft that the brews need yeast nutrients to be added!” We tasted a couple of his beers. Kustom Kolsch is a clean version of the German classic, slightly spicy and herbal. Threesome Ale is brewed with honey, hemp, and Hibiscus, which gives a nice tart finish well balanced by the honey.

Next we stopped for a quick lunch at Longwood Brewpub in Nanaimo. This well-established pub was as expected – great food, great beer! An hour’s drive north brought us to Cumberland, a once flourishing coal mining town. This town was named “Luckiest Town in Canada” in 2002 by Labatt Breweries, due to its phenomenal consumption of Lucky Lager.

Cumberland Brewing has changed all that. In one year the town has gone from being a bastion of bland beer, to embracing the range of beer styles that Cumberland’s brewer, Mike Tymchuck, has introduced into the community. We had a tasting tray of Forest Fog (unfiltered wheat ale), Just A Little Bitter, the excellent Red Tape Pale Ale (my favourite), Summit Smash (made with two row malt), the very smooth Dunkel, and finally the Oatmeal Stout. We were sitting on one of the picnic tables on the patio at the back of the pub. This was a great location in a small town and we felt very relaxed. We had

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food and farm produce. We met with Aaron Rail (who we knew as a chef at Spinnakers) and Max Oudendag, two of the owners. There were five casks from Russell, Gladstone, Tofino, Parallel 49 and Bridge Brewing, and we sampled them all. By the time we got back to the hotel Forbidden Brewing’s tasting room was closed so we’ll have to check that one out later.

great beers in good company. This was obviously a true "community brewery". It would have been easy to sit on the patio all afternoon, but Gerry had plans. We were to go next to Gladstone Brewing in the heart of Courtenay.

First we checked in to the Westerly Hotel and Convention Centre in Courtenay, noting Forbidden Brewing just across the parking lot. A short trip brought us to Gladstone Brewing, a funky downtown brewery with a busy community tasting room staffed by knowledgeable enthusiastic people.

The owners are Daniel Sharratt and Alexandra Stephanson. Head brewer is well known former Victoria homebrewer, John Adair, most recently brewing at Parallel 49 in Vancouver.

We tasted an excellent Czech-style pilsner (6%) made with European malts and hops, and a well-balanced IPA with lots of hop flavour and aroma.

After Gladstone we walked to a small cask festival at the White Whale, a pub/ restaurant that serves local beers, sea-

The next morning we took the Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay ferry, drove through West Vancouver, over the Lions Gate Bridge, and into downtown to our hotel. A short cab ride brought us to Strange Fellows Brewing on Clarke Drive. Here we met up with our old friend, Iain Hill, who, for 19 years, guided the brewing in all the Mark James Group brewpubs, while brewing some great beers at Yaletown in Vancouver. Iain and his partner, Aaron Jonckheere, are the two "Strange Fellows". But they make great beer! The brewery is impressive and has lots of room for expansion. The brew house is a Ripley 30 hL system. Iain proudly showed us a newly acquired 6000 L French oak Foudre (or cask) for maturing some of their beers. Iain is very keen on sour beers, so we sampled his Roxanne Black Raspberry Sour Grisette. This beer starts as a Saison and is then soured in the kettle, followed by the addition of several hundred pounds of black raspberries—delicious! Iain has been developing multi-culture yeasts for years at Yaletown (remember his award winning Oud Bruin?). We also tasted an excellent dark IPA made with Maris Otter, black, dextrapils, and chocolate malts, and Magnum bittering hops, plus Amarillo and Centennial, and finally dry hopped with the same hops.

After that we walked up busy Clark

Drive to Adanac Street. Here there were two breweries. We chose Bomber Brewing and found one of the tiniest tasting rooms ever. Across the way was Off The Rail, but we had to skip them in the interests of time. Up on Franklin Street is Callister Brewing owned by Chris Lay and Diana McKenzie. This is an interesting set-up as four breweries share this facility. First is Callister itself, and we tasted La Grand Maison (a French Saison) 6.8%, and Nordic Saison with Juniper, rosehip, Yarrow, and burdock, also 6.8%. The three other brewing brands are Brewery Creek Brewing (brewer: Chester Carey), Machine Ales (brewers: Adam Henderson and Matt Kohlen) and Real Cask (brewer: Adam Chatburn).

From there it was a short walk to Powell Street Brewing where we met award winning owner/brewer David Burkett. David started the brewery as a nano-brewery in his spare time, but since winning Canadian Brewery of the Year in 2013 he has had to expand and is now in a very nice large facility. He showed us around and then we sampled some of his beers. The White IPA (6%, 56 IBU's) was very refreshing.

We were enjoying Ode De Citra Pale Ale when David got us to sample his Fresh Hop IPA (7%) made with Centennial, Cascade and Chinook hops: it was very "moreish".

So, did we accomplish our objectives?

I'd say that we did and we didn't. Certainly we visited some great brewers and tasted some excellent beers.

Good Beer is Alive and Well in British Columbia! But will we have an easy task next August? With the rumoured twenty new breweries opening between now and then, I think we'll still finish up guessing!

Afternoon in the shade at Cumberland Brewing

John and Carol Rowling are founding members of CAMRA BC. Read John's column in Celebrator magazine.

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WHAT'S BREWING

Out and About W

>> Scottie McLellan BC Beer Beat: Fall 2015 hat’s Brewing attends a lot of events. The craft movement is so large there are continually events everywhere, so we try and catch what we can. Here are our most recent adventures in the Fall of 2015.

Great Canadian Beer Festival, Victoria Sept 11-12 I can never say enough about this event. It was fabulous to see the large amount of craft beer offered to the public from the wide varieties of brewers. Enthusiasm for beer was rampant throughout the event and I enjoyed meeting the new brewers, tasting the beers and being part of the grandest beer event I know. Excellent job, GCBF team and volunteers.

Thank you to GCBF for letting What’s Brewing launch our 25th Anniversary Edition at this year’s Festival!

Gabriola Beer and Wine Fest Sept 19 Silva Bay Resort hosted this annual event with stunning scenery from the windows into local waters. Pouring were Lighthouse, Saltspring, Hoyne, Moon, Longwood, Four Winds and Howe Sound.

The beer serving was in the upper ale room. The Reps were enthusiastic and attendees keen to know more about beer and breweries. This was a new venue for this event and everyone showed interest in talking to the brewers. Although a smaller event, people seem to come from seemingly everywhere. Good job people.

Kamloops 1st annual Brew Loops Sept 25 - 27 Four venues saw this event move the brewers around town for a more city-wide perspective.

It’s a big deal in Kamloops, and they did it up right: well organized and promoted. The smaller number of brewers helpsed the event let patrons get a sense of it all. Breweries included Driftwood, Howe Sound, 3 Ranges, Cannery, Phillips, Persephone, Red Collar, 4 Winds and Noble Pig, the local brewpub.

There was an afternoon meet and greet at the Red Collar Brewery tap room. This local brewer makes a wide selection of hand-crafted beers and the reps and attendees of the afternoon sampled some exceptional beers. Great Job, Red Collar Brewing.

An evening block party event at Red Beard Café took the

brewers all the way across town to this location. This café promotes craft beer only and gives everyone a chance.

Brewers attending had their beers poured both inside and outside in tents. Three excellent live bands on the outdoor stage had the place just hopping (pardon the pun). Thanks to Red Beard staff. Thanks to Kamloops folks; good people.

The next morning brewers did a tasting in the local farmers market which was well received; locals in this area are discovering the movement.

Saturday night saw the final event at the Curling Club with all casks and, again, 3 bands. Locals were appreciative of the organizers providing this event and everyone was pleased.

Local restaurants had artisan crafted canapés for attendees and the night was different in its tone as the discussions centered around the casks.

The smaller number of brewers and larger venue allowed for patrons to get involved. Well done the organizing team.

Courtenay Beer Fest Oct 02 This 2nd Annual event was sold out and packed to the rafters; steaming with the energy of FEST. There was an industry portion for an hour then the patrons filled up the historic Native Sons Hall.

There is a strong and growing beer movement in Courtenay and people seemed well versed on the topic. Local restaurants and tap houses are getting in on it and the wave is surging in the Courtenay-Comox-Valley region.

Just across from the hall was local brewery Gladstone—their taproom filled with reps socializing before the event. They have a fine selection of good beer and the consensus was a huge thumbs-up for the hospitality and brews. Much thanks to the organizers.

Red Arrow Tap Takeover at Garrick’s Head Oct 07 This was a night for the newest brewing concern in Duncan to show its wares.

They provided a sheet of interesting creative craft beers and were backed up by their supporters who came down on a hired bus. Love the spirit, what we’ve been building towards forever; fantastic enthusiasm.

Fresh Hop Festival (Fresh to Death) Sat Oct 10 at Hoyne and Driftwood

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Great Canadian Beer Festival, Victoria Sept 11-12 Well, beer fans enjoyed this craft event as the rain poured down for hours upon everyone. Celebrating the Hop harvest, beers included Bomber Brewing (Vancouver) - Fresh Hopped East Van SMASH ISA, Bridge Brewing (North Vancouver) - Fresh Hop Red IPA, Category 12 Brewing (Victoria) & Red Truck Beer (Vancouver) - Accelerated Transmission Wet Hopped Pale Ale, Central City Brewers & Distillers (Surrey) - Wet Hop Pale Ale, Dageraad Brewing (Burnaby) - Wet Hopped Blonde, Driftwood Brewery (Victoria) - Sartori Harvest IPA, Hoyne Brewing (Victoria) - Wolf Vine Wet Hopped Pale Ale, and ...you get the idea! Good job all around by the organizers.

In Victoria rain never stops a beer festival; liquid sunshine.

It was good catching up with reps and brewers and sharing their enthusiasm.

BC Cider Week Sea Cider, Saanichton Oct 18 This was the largest number of cider works assembled for festivities ever seen on the Island. All their brands spread about inside the amazing cider house, and the bucolic grounds around, with apple orchards, sheep and a large crowd of cider folk.

I got around to all, checking on the wares and ran into folks I know from the beer movement. I met a whole new group of craft works with reps, cider makers, and events growing of their own making. All of them had something to say on the topic. Good to see two of my favourite spots represented by cider works Cawston and Merrit with country styles of hand-crafted ciders.

Yours truly has travelled in many cider countries in my time, England, France, Germany, Hungary and Luxembourg to start. Each village and hamlet pub has centuries of cider history and I always try the same dram as the regulars; never fails, and is usually village cider or perry.

It’s fantastic to see a movement grow with teamwork from all places, including volunteers. Nice to meet everyone including Forbidden Fruit Winery, Cider Riot, Salt Spring Wild Cider, Faustino Estate Cidery, Summerland Heritage, BX Press, Twisted Hills, Left Field, Tod Creek Craft Cider, Merridale, Dominion , Sea Cider, Untapped Brands (especially wide variety of styles,Ginger, Hopricot, Black Currant, Habanero and others) Spinnakers, BC Tree Fruits.

Grand Show; regards to Kristin staff; and the great catering of foods inside the house.

Winterbrau Canoe Brewpub Nov 14 Breweries announced by their material included Granville Island Brewing, Howe Sound Brewing, Swans Hotel & Brewpub, Tofino Brewing Company, Category 12 Brewing, Fernie Brewing Company, Axe and Barrel, Phillips Brewing Company, The Moon Under Water Brewery & Pub, Lighthouse Brewing Company, Driftwood Brewery, Russell Brewing Company, Spinnakers Brewpub, 4 Mile Brew Pub, Four Winds Brewing Co., Salt Spring Island Ales.

I love this event; a chance to get to meet consuming locals and get their opinions on the movement and brews. Canoe provided a gastro breakfast sandwich for all the breweries.

Doors opened at 1 pm and Canoe totally filled with young patrons looking for some of the finest winter brews around.

Wait staff were constantly around with high-end appies from the house chef. Pip to Daniel Murphy and Canoe team—great show. A grand time was had by all heading into Christmas.

Thanks for reading What’s Brewing, and thanks to Dave Smith for taking the helm. See you next time.

Scottie has covered the BC Craft Beer scene for What's Brewing for a quarter cenbury.

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WHAT'S BREWING

Beers, Beaches>> Kim&Lawton Breweries / CAMRA OKANAGAN

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Okanagan Craft Calendar

hen thinking about the Okanagan, for many people, wine might be the first thing that comes to mind. However, for those of us who love the craft beer scene, the Okanagan is a growing and exciting beer region. We’ve got lots of awesome things happening with new beers, new breweries, great craft-beer focused events and a new CAMRA South Okanagan branch. This new column, Beers, Beaches and Breweries, will encompass what’s new and hip in this hopped-up region.

On the third Thursday of every month, craft beer lovers can be found at Penticton’s Kettle Valley Station Pub for their cask nights and the monthly CAMRA South Okanagan meeting.

This has become a must-attend event for craft beer lovers to try a cask made specifically for the night. The brewer or key member of the brewery team often comes to these events to talk about the beer and brewery. Next up is a special cask of The Muse & The Golden Promise from Penticton’s Cannery Brewing on January 21st.

We’re also stoked for the 3rd annual Apex Brewski craft beer, spirits and cider event coming up on February 13th. This event, hosted by The Gunbarrel Saloon up at Apex Mountain Resort, sold out well in advance the last two years. Over 20 BC breweries, cideries and distilleries will pour their favourite hand-crafted products and the Saloon will craft-up some awesome appies to complement the beverages.

Brewski brings locals and tourists to the slopes to ski, board or snowshoe during the day and then celebrate the Apex après ski vibe at night. After the festival ends at 9:30pm, the fun continues on the dance floor for the Brewski after-party featuring live entertainment. Your Brewski ticket gives you a discount on your lift passes for the weekend, so why not bring your sweetheart and make it a Valentine’s weekend to remember. Ask about “Apex Brewski” special accommodation rates when you book your weekend stay.

Be sure to also mark the dates for the St Patrick’s Day event at Tree Brewing with Irish-inspired casks and an Irish-inspired menu. Shortly after that, the 21st annual Okanagan Fest-ofAle takes place on April 8th and 9th in Penticton and features craft brews, cask ales and quality ciders from 50 exceptional craft breweries, along with great entertainment and fabulous local food. The 2nd annual Great Okanagan Beer Fest follows along soon after in Kelowna, May 12-14.

While you are in the Okanagan, be sure to check out the growing list of craft breweries and craft beer focused pubs and restaurants. If you haven’t been to the Okanagan lately, you’ll need a couple days to see what’s new:

Great times await at the Apex Brewski event Feb 13th •

Cannery Brewing has opened a new brewery in Downtown Penticton.

•

The gang from Tin Whistle took over the old Cannery Brewing location and made it their own.

•

We've seen the opening of the brand new BNA Brewing in Kelowna.

•

Plus, the "new brewery smell" is still lingering at the Tree Brewing Beer Institute in Kelowna and at Bad Tattoo Brewing in Penticton.

While you are touring the breweries of the Okanagan, your palette will appreciate great craft-beer- friendly food at many of the breweries. Bad Tattoo Brewing features fantastic wood-fired al forno pizza;, Cannery Brewing has an awesome expanded food menu and Tree Brewing has hired Chef Stuart Klassen to oversee the kitchen at The Beer Institute.

Plus, when you’re in Oliver, check out Pappa’s Firehall Bistro located directly above Firehall Brewery.

When you’re travelling around the Okanagan, enjoying some of the awesome restaurants, be sure to ask for a local Okanagan craft beer or look for a special craft-beer- paired dinner. SmackDab at the Manteo in Kelowna puts on some fantastic dinners. In Penticton, Brodo Restaurant has partnered with Cannery Brewing to offer a series of beer-paired dinners on Feb. 24, April 27 and June 22nd.

I tell you, there is so much happening in the Okanagan craft beer scene! And there’s more to come. Until next time, cheers.

Kim Lawton is President of CAMRA South Okanagan, Marketing Director at Cannery Brewing and Okanagan correspondent for BC Craft Beer Month. Follow Kim on Twitter @DogLegMarketing

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WHAT'S BREWING

Coastal Currents

>> Paddy Treavor / CAMRA Powell River

Sunshine Coast Update

C

raft beer is alive and well on the Sunshine Coast.

With the emergence of both Townsite (Powell River) and Persephone (Gibsons) as two of the most well-respected breweries in BC, combined with the founding of CAMRA BC’s Powell River Branch, local craft beer lovers are finding that they no longer need to travel to Vancouver and Victoria for great craft beer events.

This year, Persephone is expanding their event, with 350 tickets available (click here) and by increasing the participants pouring from 14 last year to over 20 this year. There will be a cidery and a distillery in attendance for those who want to sample local craft cider and artisan spirits. And, like last year, there will be a homebrewer’s booth with samples of their beers.

January and February are traditionally slow months, but here are a few upcoming events.

One of the unique aspects of this event is the afterparty arrangement with local pubs. For a donation, festival-goers will be able to grab a shuttle bus and be driven to participating pubs and a local hotel. All proceeds from the Festival and shuttle bus will go towards the SCACL.

Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Festival February 6th 2016, 4:00-8:00 PM Quality Farm, 325 Pratt Road, Gibsons BC This is the second February that Persephone Brewery has organized a major craft beer festival in Gibsons and, if this year can live up to the standard of last year’s event, it will be a must-attend festival.

Last year, inspired by the highly successful Inaugural CAMRA Powell River Craft Beer Festival, the Persephone crew put together their own event to help raise money for the Sunshine Coast Association for Community Living (SCACL).

The first Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Festival was just as successful as Powell River’s, selling out its 230 tickets and raising just over $4,000 for SCACL.

“We consistently heard from both brewers and festival-goers that this was one of the most fun events of its kind in BC— not just the festival itself, but the after-party events too”, says Dion Whyte, Persephone’s General Manager. “This year’s location promises to be special. The greenhouse facilities at Quality Farms are being converted to a comfortable, inviting and memorable venue that connects three things we at Persephone care deeply about: craft beer, local agriculture and fun community events! We expect to sell out again this year well in advance of the event.”

Participants will include Tod Creek Craft Cider, Persephone, Yellow Dog Brew, Category 12 Brewing, Howe Sound, Steel & Oak, Dageraad Brewing, Strangefellows Brewing, Four Winds

WINTER 2016 Brewing, Townsite Brewing, Moon Under Water, Main Street, Twin Sails, Long Table Distillery, Parallel 49, Driftwood, Hoyne and Moody Ales.

Tickets are $35 ($30 for CAMRA members), including a 5-oz tasting glass and three drink tokens. There is also a special ticket and growler fill price for $49 See Eventbrite for details.

Townsite Brewery’s 5th Annual Invitational Brewmasters Dinner January 15th 2016, 6:30 PM Rodmay Hotel Rainbow Room, Powell River BC This annual beer paring dinner is not well known outside of Powell River, but is truly one of the best beer pairing dinners held anywhere in BC and word is beginning to spread beyond the Upper Sunshine Coast. Even at $75 a ticket ($70 for CAMRA members), this four-course meal sells out before tickets go on sale. The event has grown in stature to the point where it attracts people from as far as Victoria and Vancouver.

Each year Townsite Brewery invites three other breweries to bring a beer to be paired with a dish created especially for the event by a local Sunshine Coast chef. This year sees Driftwood Brewery, Category 12 Brewery and Townsite’s Sunshine Coast cousin, Persephone Brewery participating. One of the beers being paired is a collaboration brew between Persephone and Townsite, the first collaboration between the two Sunshine Coast breweries.

If you do not have tickets for this year, you are out of luck, but do yourself a favour and mark your calendar for late November 2016, when tickets do become available for the 2017 dinner and contact the Townsite Brewery, or the Powell River branch of CAMRA if you are a member anywhere in BC.

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Townsite Brewery’s Warehouse Speakeasy Party January 16th 2016, 7:30 PM Townsite Brewery, Powell River BC Because the Invitational Brewmaster Dinner sells out every year (see above), Townsite Brewery made a decision years ago to take advantage of the fact they have some of BC’s best breweries in town and organize a fun and unique craft beer event the night after the beer pairing dinner each year. This year’s event is being held in the brewery itself and is entitled a “warehouse speakeasy party”. $15/ticket gets you 2 beverages and snacks. Beers from Category 12, Driftwood, Persephone and of course Townsite will be on tap for this event. Tickets are still available at the brewery (it will sell out) and this event will not only be unique, but a lot of fun as Townsite does it up PowTown style.

CAMRA Powell River Annual General Meeting February 21, 2016, 12:00-2:00PM Lighthouse Pub, 5764 Wharf Ave, Sechelt BC CAMRA Powell River is taking their AGM on the road this year due to the growing membership of the branch on the Lower Sunshine Coast. The event is free to attend but is open to members in good standing only. Annual branch elections will be held and branch business discussed.

A cask of Persephone Brewery beer will be tapped and the Lighthouse Pub is offering 10% off craft beer sales to CAMRA members that day. If you live in the Sunshine Coast area and want to know more about CAMRA Powell River, check out www.camrapowellriver.ca or e-mail prespowellriver@camrabc.ca. You will be able to join up at the AGM and participate if you so desire.

BeerSeeker Ivana's handy

Restroom Report Card How to rate your local brewery during bathroom break

the

GOOD

+ A

Close proximity to the seating area and easy to find so you don't have to waste valuable time looking Easy to tell which is men's and which is women's Soft lighting and pleasant decor

Plentiful stalls, floor-to-ceiling walls and doors with locks that clearly say "vacant" or "occupied" Has the "extras": hand lotion, hair spray, Kleenex

Touch-free everything: toilet, the soap dispenser, faucets and the hand dryer or paper towel dispenser. Bonus points: automatic doors because some people DO NOT wash their hands

Garbage can by the exit for the paper towel you use to open the door (did I mention: some people DO NOT wash their hands)

the

BAD

CF

Bathrooms are difficult to find and you have to wander around until you finally discover them in a hidden corner, through several doors, down a flight of stairs, down a long hallway. So far away that you need Google Maps to find your way back.

Bathroom doors that are not clearly marked Men/Women; you have to wait for someone to come out.

One-person bathrooms you can't tell if you just locked or unlocked Stalls with warped locks you can't budge

Small so small you bang your knees closing the door

The new all-in-one faucet with built-in hand dryer. Trying to find the sweet spot on a these after a few beers is impossible

& the

GRUNGY

Carpeted floors: yuk!

No place to hang your purse in the stall

Wet counters, empty soap dispensers, non-working automatic anything, overflowing garbage Old-fashioned cloth towel at the end of the roll: you have to find a corner to dry your hands on Plexiglass stall panels, so you can see other people's silhouettes.

Why? In a grungy class all by themselves: Portapotties But that's the price you pay for loving outdoor beer festivals!