beernesday

brewing up gender parity

2019-06-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

My article on gender parity is on the Growler website!

BREWING UP GENDER PARITY: THE QUEST FOR BEERQUALITY

REBECCA WHYMAN • JUNE 13, 2019

Women are markedly underrepresented in craft beer. This is not news to anyone. But have you ruminated on just how large the gender gap is? A 2018 survey by Nielsen-Harris found American craft beer drinkers are 68.5 per cent male and 31.5 per cent female. Closer to home, BeerMeBC’s 2018 survey had those numbers at 71 and 29 per cent, with 0.32 per cent identifying as “other.” For those not so strong in the math department, that means that there are only three women drinking craft beer for every seven men. If you were a straight man looking for a date, you wouldn’t like those odds at all. And I can tell you, as one of those three women, it’s not much fun being outnumbered everywhere I go to enjoy my beloved craft beer, delightful as those seven men may be.

Drinking craft beer is the easy part—when we move into the sections of craft beer world that involve actual effort, the gender divide gets even larger. How many female brewery owners, female brewers, and female beer reps can you name? I know from personal experience that when I’m at an event like the B.C. Craft Brewers Conference I feel like I can count the number of women present on my fingers.

Current enrollment at Kwantlen Polytechnic’s brewing program is at an 82/18 split (up from 93/7 in 2014). While the gap has been narrowing over the years, it remains a very visible reminder for every woman in that program that she’s still a novelty. Moving from alewives to less than 1/5 of the brewers-in-training, women have “come a long way baby.” Too bad it’s in the wrong direction.

These disparate numbers are great news for marketers, who love an untapped population. Rather than try to understand their target audience, too often they have relied on stereotypes and gone with “pinking” beer. Case in point: Aurosa’s #beerforher in 2017. The campaign exhorted women to “toss away all preconceptions and be yourself.” But, being yourself required drinking a beer that their preconceptions said would appeal because it comes in an “elegant designer bottle” that doubles as “a vase for fresh-cut flowers.” Really??!

The numbers are a bitter enough pill to swallow, but wait, we’re not done yet. A recent Stanford University study found that gender stereotyping significantly affects the way we evaluate products. People have an unconscious bias against women-made craft beer.

The research also found that when consumers were told the woman-brewed beer had won awards, it was rated as highly as if it was brewed by a man. Winning an award vouched for the competence of a woman. I’m not sure if I want to encourage breweries to enter more woman-brewed beers into contests so they can win awards, or if I want to cry at the ridiculousness of needing outside validation to believe women can be great brewers.

On a happier note, the Stanford study discovered that gender bias doesn’t happen when the consumer is a beer expert. In that case, the beer is judged on its merits, not by who brewed it. That gives me such hope for craft beer—you go, fellow beer nerds!

So, how do we bring about gender parity? I wish there was an easy three-ingredient recipe we could whip up. Alas, I don’t think the world will become enlightened overnight. But here are a few things I suggest we could all do to bridge the divide.

Welcome women to craft beer

Let’s get rid of all the sexist beer names and labels.
Lose the stereotypes—women like hoppy IPAs and imperials too!
Invite people in. To paraphrase diversity champion Ren Navarro, it’s not enough to allow space for others in your tasting room or brewery, they need to know they’re invited, how to access the space and that they’ll be safe when they’re there.
Put baby change stations and under table hooks for purses and jackets in tasting rooms (thank you, readers, for this feedback on my previous article!).

Make your workplace more hospitable

Assume competence. Don’t wait for an award to believe a woman knows what she’s doing. Don’t second-guess her knowledge or physical ability to do the job.
Start the conversation. Invite the women currently working at the brewery to tell you about barriers you’re not aware of, and how they think they could be removed. And—this should go without saying, really—listen to what they tell you. Their experiences are valid, whether you can relate to them or not. It’s not a slight against you that you don’t know what you don’t know. But once you do know, do something about it!
Think before you speak. Stop making jokes and comments at the expense of others. If you hear someone else doing so, call them on it. It really sucks for anyone to have to laugh off inappropriate jokes to keep the workplace harmonious.
Networking. Send more of your female employees to brewers’ conferences and the like.

Be impeccable with your word

Women, millennials, and anyone wanting to be taken seriously do themselves a disservice by equivocating. Don’t offer an opinion with one hand, then take most of it back with the other. You don’t sort-of-maybe-kind-of want people to respect you.

Counteract your gender bias. Start approaching everyone as a “them” until their gender is confirmed to you (i.e. when someone tells you the new brewer at XYZ comes from Halifax, rather than ask when “he” moved here, ask when “they” moved here.) It’s a great tool for addressing gender bias, with the added bonus of keeping you from misgendering non-binary folks.

After we’ve done all the hard work, how will we know we’re getting close to gender parity? Here are some possible indicators:

Female brewers are referred to simply as brewers.
In a mixed group of beer professionals, the women are considered just as likely to be the brewmaster.
Special brew days for women are no longer needed, it will just happen organically that a batch or 50 ended up brewed by an all-woman crew, from a single brewery or as a collaboration.
Barkerville Brewing will no longer be remarkable for its mostly female staff.
No marketing person will ever again say “let’s attract women by pinking beer.”

It will be a glorious day when it arrives. Cheers to beerquality!

the end of an era

2019-06-17T10:07:00.001-07:00

The grandfather of Canadian brewing passed away yesterday.

What's Brewing captured a final salute from John Mitchell to the BC craft beer community.

Cheers to you, John, for all you've done for the beverage and community we all love.

changing face of craft beer

2019-03-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

here are my latest ramblings in The Growler

FEATURES

THE NEW FACE OF CRAFT BEER IS HERE

REBECCA WHYMAN • MARCH 8, 2019

Tara Rafiq illustration

You know that phenomenon when something, seemingly out of nowhere, tickles your brain, then takes up residence, and has you ruminating for months? That’s what happened to me at Bart Watson’s key-note speech at the B.C. Brewers’ Conference back in October. The chief economist for the American Brewers Association gave an engaging talk about the state of craft brewing, chock-full of brain tickling stats and his interpretations of what they mean now and for the future. Including this innocuous little slide:

Nothing controversial here, folks. Just that some craft beer drinkers are drinking more craft beer, and say they are doing so because they visit breweries. Isn’t that nice? The industry must love when the already-converted are drinking even more craft. And all breweries had to do was offer appreciators a way to visit them at the source? Pure gold!

So what was it about this slide that grabbed me? It was that number in the middle of the chart: 19 per cent. The largest segment who say their drinking has been positively affected by visiting breweries is my demographic—female-identified folks 45 to 54. Menopausal old biddies for the craft beer win!

After catching my breath from performing my victory lap, I had me a good think about what breweries are doing differently from bars or pubs that is encouraging my people to visit and increase our craft beer drinking. And what else could they do to make even more people come out to mingle and keep the craft beer industry in the black?

I love tasting rooms. I think they’re the best thing to happen to my neighbourhood since they started burying cable. I don’t presume to speak for all women, but here are some of my (very generalized) reasons for visiting a tasting room over a bar or pub: I find tasting rooms friendlier and more welcoming than bars; I can sit alone in a tasting room without anyone insisting I must be there for more than the beer; when I’m at a tasting room for a beer with a friend, we are left in peace to enjoy our beer – any external conversations revolve around beer, not whether we “come here often”; the communal tables encourage making new friends; and servers at craft beer establishments love talking about beer, without mansplaining it to me.

I’m not sure why 45-54-year-olds love the breweries so much more than the 55-64 and 65+ sets. Older folks are worth trying to entice into craft beer. Speaking in gross generalizations again, they have disposable income, lots of time on their hands to drink their way through your entire beer list, and adult children they need to find places to visit with after they finally kick them out of the family home.

The stats tell us breweries are already a welcoming place for many people. What could they do to entice more of the middle-aged set? Here’s my non-exhaustive wish list:

Better lighting

Don’t make me fish out my phone and use the super-useful-but-highly-annoying-to-everyone-else flashlight app to read the menu.

Bigger writing

In that same vein, don’t make me have to swap out my distance glasses for my readers (or vice versa), or hold the menu out as far as my arms will reach.

Lower volume

Even if my hearing wasn’t going, no one likes to have to shout or be a close talker. But don’t make it too quiet, I don’t want everyone to hear my joints groan when I stand up.

Clean washrooms

If your washrooms are decent, I won’t be afraid to use them more than once, which means I’ll stay for more than one drink (and come back again). I’m fond of the non-gendered bathroom, both politically, and because it keeps the line moving faster. I also appreciate the sink outside the stall—I choose to believe it forces handwashing.

Food

I love beer snacks. But if I’ve popped in after work, or between meal times on a weekend, and one drink turns into more, I would like to be able to eat some heartier fare so I don’t fall off my barstool. Don’t make me have to leave the tasting room to find a restaurant or, horrors, go home.

Drink

Offer more than craft beer options.

Events

Make yourself an easy venue for patrons to host casual gatherings.

Staffing

Diverse hiring practices encourage diversity in your patrons.

Once they’ve welcomed more older drinkers, it would behoove breweries to find ways to welcome other groups underserved by and underrepresented in the liquor industry. Expanding the diversity of patrons is good for a brewery’s market share and is also good for the community as a whole. Having more places to gather to hear different voices keeps us all young, and well hydrated.

beer gimmicks, pretentious nonsense and hipster fuckery

2018-11-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

my growler article from back in january:

BEER GIMMICKS, PRETENTIOUS NONSENSE AND OTHER HIPSTER FUCKERY

REBECCA WHYMAN • JANUARY 16, 2018

iStock photo

This past fall, gruits – that ancient, hopless beer style flavoured with herbs that seems to be all the rage right now – got me thinking about the elusive line that divides fads, trends, and gimmicks from creative innovations and emerging styles. How do beer geeks decide where they categorize any given beer? Are gimmicky beers harming the reputation of craft beer?

I like to think of myself as a beer evangelist (also brilliant, witty, gorgeous and humble…). It is therefore my self-appointed duty to bring people into the fold. I love finding the craft beer that makes a former macro lager drinker’s eyes light up, and introducing a non-beer-drinker to a style they can’t believe is actually beer because it tastes so good.

I worry, probably too much, about how people perceive craft beer. Craft beer gets kudos for qualities like authenticity, innovation and community-mindedness.

Besides “bad” beer, what are the things that turn people off from craft beer? Or fail to entice consumers over to the craft side? Do jokey beers make people think craft beer is a joke? Does being surrounded by so many beer styles confuse folks into avoiding everything craft? Like duck confit nachos, are people rolling their eyes at the “elevated” beer styles?

I am not suggesting that we’re one gimmicky beer away from total annihilation here. Nor am I saying that there’s no place for innovation or creativity — quite the opposite in fact. I’m tickled pink that brewers are bringing the gose back. The rise of session ales? Now there’s a trend that is bringing consumers into the craft beer fold.

No, what keeps me up at night is the worry that too much hype about the crazy new beer those wacky craft brewers made from prairie oysters/beard yeast/wasp bellies/in space/under the sea is taking the focus away from the care that goes into making every single craft beer.

It’s good to get some perspective from others when your worries are swirling. I didn’t convene a panel of experts, who all came to consensus, but I did casually interrogate beer geeks and industry folks about gimmicky beers and their effect on the industry. The unscientific data I gathered is summed up below.

The words “hype,” “fad” and “trend” were bandied about. As was my absolute favourite, “hipster fuckery.” What’s hipster fuckery, you ask? According to its utterer, it is the completely unnecessary addition of whimsical ingredients and brewing techniques, especially piled on top of each other. You’re left with a beer that is fighting itself.

Hipster fuckery is a great way to alienate potential craft beer fans.

So how about we all just agree to be innovative as hell, but stop well short of hipster fuckery? Excellent! But, umm, where is that line exactly? Perhaps a look at how the not-panel perceives some headline-grabbing beers can guide us:

Pumpkin ales: Nobody likes them. The consensus is that they’re not a seasonal, no, sirree, they’re a gimmick. One brewery representative said they’d brew one over her dead body.

Raw Ale: Some see it as gimmicky. The guys at Category 12 argue that they put a lot of time and care into its development, ensuring that it’s true to the original style, but with a modern local twist. And it’s shelf-stable!

Zero IBU: Everyone agrees this is a gimmick. Potentially a great conversation starter about bitterness measurement, but a gimmick nonetheless.

Northeast IPA: Some think it’s a new style that is going to stick around (I think it is going to replace the NW IPA in popularity, it’s just so darned accessible!). Others think fad or trend. Either way, not gimmicky.

Fresh hopping: Some thought it was a gimmick, others a seasonal/legitimate beer style. Hype? Check! But that can be waved off because of the tiny time frame in which they can be brewed, marketed and sold. When you fresh hop a non-hop-forward style, though, you’re in gimmick-land. If the hops aren’t showcased, using fresh ones is masturbatory.

Kettle sours: There’s no deceptive element if they are clearly labelled, and priced, as kettle sours. Probably a fad, but not a gimmick.

And the gruits that started me thinking: Nobody likes these either. Why is anyone trying to get these on store shelves? That question put them into the gimmick category.

There you have it. Lines clearly drawn. Okay, not at all. But what the discussions did crystallize for me is that hype is the antithesis of authenticity. It’s okay to be novel, but you’ve got to have substance backing it up. It’s okay to grab headlines, but do it for good reason. Envelopes are meant to be pushed, but you’ve got to keep your integrity while doing so.

Craft beer is awesome. You know it. I know it. Let’s make sure the rest of those louts know it too. Then I’ll be able to sleep at night.

does beer have terroir?

2018-11-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

my first article for the growler, back in July 2017:

DOES BEER HAVE TERROIR?

REBECCA WHYMAN • JULY 13, 2017

iStock photo

The concept of terroir and its influence are enthusiastically debated in the wine world. Very few of the beer geeks I asked cared one whit about terroir, and hadn’t even given it a thought before I asked.

After some debate, they decided that although it was an interesting philosophical question, terroir didn’t matter to their beer drinking experience or influence their beer purchases.

The casual beer drinker isn’t interested in the minutiae of which malts or hops are chosen for the beer, let alone where they’re grown. They just care that the final product tastes good. So there you have it. The beer world doesn’t care about terroir.

Enter Harley Smith and Tracy McLean of Longwood Brewing. They care. They care a lot.

But before we get to why they care, and why you might also, allow me to drone on about what “terroir” means. Indulge me please, I read a LOT on the topic.

Terroir is the concept that states that where something grows affects its make-up in many ways, most importantly its flavour.

Terroir accounts for natural influences like soil and climate, often in very small areas of land, producing different characteristics in crops. If identical crops grown a couple of kilometres apart have measurable differences from each other, those differences are attributed to terroir, and are believed to affect flavour.

The concept of terroir grew out of Burgundy, France, evolving from a defining aspect of agricultural production into a marketing concept and economic protection mechanism.

“Terroir is about asserting and justifying differences at local and even micro levels and ultimately of acquiring social, economic and political benefits from such claims,” according to Marion Demossier of the University of Bath.

We can thank terroir for the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) in France and the American Viticultural Areas (AVA). In a nutshell, these two systems protect the names of geographical regions from being used on products from outside those areas.

No calling that bubbly wine “champagne” unless those grapes were grown in the Champagne region!

Terroir is meant to evoke a sense of place. And some places just produce better tasting things, OK?

But do not mistake terroir for the locavore movement. Although related to farm-to-table, terroir does not necessarily celebrate local products. It is concerned with which growing areas produce the best crop, and the use of traditional methods to bring out that unique flavour in the finished product.

The French know you get your wines from specific regions, your cheeses from others and your produce from yet others. There is none of the 100-kilometre diet in terroir. If the best crop grows 600 km away, then that is the one that should be had.

From a marketing perspective, terroir is a golden concept. Elevate one area’s foodstuffs above the rest and give people a story to go along with the final product, and they’re lining up to pay large sums for it.

If you can convince the world of your superiority, tourists will flock to your anointed lands and spread the doctrine, multiplying your customer base and driving up profits as they go.

If you’re still with me after that long trip through terroir, you won’t be surprised that not much about it makes me eager to apply it to my beloved beer.

But wait! I want beer to claim terroir! Not least because then we can convince whoever becomes the agricultural minister that beer has gravitas – that beer is as important to the economy as wine. Then they’ll change the ALR rules to allow Persephone Brewing to keep their farm brewery, and joy will abound!

Hear ye! Hear ye! I propose that, just like the New World took Old World brewing traditions and made them our own, we take the Old World concept of terroir and make it our own. Let’s keep the sense of place, the belief that where something is grown comes out in its flavour, and the desire to produce the best crop. We’ll ditch the protectionism, the profiteering and the snobbery.

And this is where Harley and Tracy make their entrance.

Familiar with terroir from drinking wine, Harley and Tracy associate the term with Longwood’s beer.

“It seemed to aptly describe what we were doing, which is simply supporting our local farmers to create a community-driven beer,” they told me. Terroir is important to them “because it describes the regional flavour derived from years of working with the farm community to create a uniquely local beer.”

As they point out, nothing tastes as good as that tomato you grew in your backyard/container garden.

“If you want to create a uniquely original flavour there is no substitute for controlling all your ingredients from start to finish.” Yes! This is how terroir matters!

One-hundred per cent of Longwood’s current hop supply comes from within 20 km of the brewery, and 50 per cent of their barley comes from central Vancouver Island. They rely on the local community to buy their beers and in turn they support their local growers. Theirs is a reciprocal relationship from which we all benefit. It’s the New World version of the farmhouse ale!

Longwood is among many BC craft breweries that brew with authenticity, integrity and strong commitment to the communities they serve. The use of locally grown, organic, creative and foraged ingredients is becoming widespread as craft beer comes of age. If that’s what terroir can mean, then damn, I’m glad it’s in my beer!

free the hops!

2018-10-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

my growler article from last november:

FREE THE HOPS!

REBECCA WHYMAN • NOVEMBER 24, 2017

iStock photo

Of the four ingredients in beer, hops are the New World’s contribution. It seems rather fitting then, that North America has its economic paws allll over hops. Trademarks, patents, royalties – how are these business-y things having their way with our beloved hops? It must be big beer’s fault!

I understand why you’d want to make hops proprietary – it takes time, effort and money to painstakingly develop a new hop, test it eight ways to Sunday, and devote acreage to propagating it. It can take 15-20 years before any money starts coming in, and then on only a fraction of your experiments. But do you really need 20 years of royalties to recoup that investment? Off the backs of your growers and the lovely brewers who exalt your wonder-hop? C’mon, only big beer would do such a greedy thing.

Experimental breeding has brought us wonder-hops that can do it all: higher yields, greater alpha acid content (meaning fewer hops are required per batch), plus increased bitterness and aromatics. But why aren’t these wonder-hops available royalty-free like the US Department of Agriculture-developed varieties are? Are the USDA the heroes here?

Bloody big beer – hosing the little guy again!

Oh, hang on… It was Anheuser-Busch who encouraged the USDA to breed new hop varieties – the very same hops that the USDA lets anyone grow, royalty-free. Dr. Al Haunold, a now-retired geneticist at Oregon State University, created Willamette for AB, who wanted a higher-yield replacement for Fuggles. Al, bless him, dovetailed their need very neatly with his altruistic desire to breed hops domestically to save homebrewers from having to pay premium prices for imported hops.

And it was Coors who encouraged the USDA to commercialize Cascade, which had been discovered in the ‘50s but was mouldering in warehouses through the ‘60s just waiting for someone to brew with it. Coors was running short of Hallertau Mittlefruh, so when they heard that Cascade could replace it, they paid a premium to anyone who would grow Cascade for them. After that big outlay they discovered Cascade was too aromatic to be a direct replacement for Hallertau. Other brewers had fallen in love with it, though, and Cascade took its place as one of the three C’s.

And it was big beer who asked for higher alpha acid varieties. Higher alpha acids provide more bang with fewer hops, leading to more efficiency and lower costs. Which is great for big beer with the volume of hops they require. It can also make all the difference for small brewers with tiny profit margins.

Big beer has no use for the wonder-hops though. All they wanted was a more efficient hop, not these marvelous aroma hops that evolved. Heaven forbid their beers have flavour or aroma!

So crap, not only can I not blame big beer for hop-patenting, I actually want to thank them for leading us into this era of wonder-hops. I need a hoppy beer to help me come to terms with this revelation.

There are talented public hops available – Liberty, Mt. Hood, Sterling, Willamette and Cascade, to name-drop a few. And OSU is working on a schwack of new ones that they’re excited about. Suppliers like Cedar Valley Hop Yards are making a go of it without carrying patented hops. We don’t NEED the patented ones. We just like them.

Citra is a damned sexy hop. Mosaic is too. I freely admit that I love them. I’ve been known to go out of my way to drink beers proudly brewed with them. So long as you do too, brewers will pay extra for the hops, and growers will pay the royalties, and suppliers will source them, and developers will patent them.

So it ain’t big beer’s fault on this one folks, it’s ours. Only YOU can free the hops!

I’m indignant about patents on plants I think should be publicly available, but I ain’t so indignant that I’ll stop drinking delicious beers made with patented hops. It rankles that I only have myself (and all of you) to blame, but you’ll have to start the revolution without me.

Trademark Vs Patents

Trademarks provide ownership of a name, not of genetic material. No one else can market a hop with that name, but they could take the hop variety and sell it under another name. Patents, on the other hand, confer ownership of the form of genetic material of a particular plant – allowing only the owner the right to dictate the sale and use of the plant.

label of love

2018-10-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

LABEL OF LOVE: THE CREATIVE WORLD OF MODERN BEER CAN ART

REBECCA WHYMAN • OCTOBER 15, 2018

Clockwise from top left: Electric Bicycle Brewing Co.; Mikkeller’s Hallo Ich Bin Berliner Weisee; the beer label artwork of Vancouver artist Patrick Wong; Superflux’s Superfluousness. Contributed/file photos

You can’t help it, I can’t help it—we all judge beers by their labels, maybe as much as we judge the beer itself. Beer labels have been around for ages: 83 years on cans, and much longer than that on bottles. It appears we’ve been loving beer labels for that whole time—just check out all the vintage labels you can buy on eBay! Doesn’t it seem, though, that we’re loving beer labels extra hard right now?

Maybe it’s that size matters. Beer cans, especially those tall boys, offer lots of real estate for labelling. Large-format bottles provide a sizeable canvas as well.

Maybe it’s as simple as habituation. Humans aren’t that different from crows; we’re attracted to bright, shiny objects. And with social media continuously bombarding us with bright shiny objects, it’s not surprising we’re attracted by the pretty things. They do say you drink first with your eyes…

Maybe it’s the amped up level of competition. The number of breweries fighting for limited shelf space grows almost by the day, making it ever more challenging to entice people to choose this beer over that one. Allowing breweries to sell their own packaged beer in their tasting rooms (thanks B.C. government!) has assisted in getting beer into local people’s hands. To woo those not-so-local folks into choosing beers at liquor stores, what are you going to do but come up with stand-out beer labels? For the initiated, a good story, a great product and word of mouth will sell beer. But for those not in the know, it’s going to be the label that grabs their interest.

Maybe it’s pricing. Digitally printed labels and sleeves make small label runs economically possible. Anyone can make fabulous labels for even their limited release and small batch beers.

Maybe it’s industry acknowledgment. Locally, the B.C. Beer Awards added the Creative Industry Awards last year for best can design, best bottle label design, best packaging for boxes and carriers, and best tap handle. Also acknowledging how much social media matters, they added awards for best website and best social media presence as well. Beer festivals, such as the Okanagan Fest of Ale, offer people’s choice awards for best beer label and runner-up, as well as for the favourite beer. Further afield, HomebrewLabelAwards.com hands out prizes for great homebrew labels. And if all of that wasn’t enough to convince you that beer labels are influencers, USA Today has a reader’s choice award for beer labels. Now you know beer labels have arrived!

Maybe it’s about the artwork. Some breweries commission artists to create their labels. Ontario’s Collective Arts Brewing (whose beers are available on B.C. private liquor store shelves) hold open calls for art to feature on their bottles and cans. Every three months, artists can submit their works and a panel chooses the art to be featured. Vancouver artist Patrick Wong has had five of his works featured on CA bottles and cans. It’s a great way to promote artists as well as the beer, and as a bonus, offers a great conversation starter to those who may need a little help in that department.

Maybe it’s what the labels aren’t saying. I first noticed the new wave of beer labels when Superflux came out with their pastel ombre tall cans—everyone was talking about them. Then Powell Brewery caught my attention with their colourful patterned cans. It took me a bit of time, but eventually I looked past the pretty pastels and colourful patterns and realized what wasn’t there. The quiet roar of nothing offensive. No sexist images, no racist names, hallelujah! While I’m very much looking forward to Dave Bowkett finding a minute to make t-shirts using those label designs, I’m looking forward even more to the day when no one thinks offensive names and images are the way to market their beer. Also on my wish list is requiring labels to include, in print large enough for old codgers like me to read, where the beer was manufactured and by whom. I hate that the big guys can hide behind their shadow brands and subsidiaries. If you don’t want to proudly put your name on it, you shouldn’t be selling it, goshdarnit.

Maybe it’s that beer is not wine and doesn’t have to be prim and proper. Brewers can take their labelling very seriously, while still leaving room to be brash, or playful, and push the envelope on beer label designs.

Or maybe it’s something else entirely. Whatever combination of elements it is that has led us to this moment in time, it is satisfying to see all the creativity going into labelling the drink we all love.

a brewery by any other name

2018-10-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

my growler article from April's edition:

A BREWERY BY ANY OTHER NAME…

REBECCA WHYMAN • APRIL 2, 2018

Anyone who’s done it will tell you that opening a brewery isn’t easy. Choosing the name? Even harder. Despite all the time and effort involved, and having so much riding on choosing the right one, some of B.C.’s breweries have still managed to saddle themselves with confusingly similar names.

Maybe this is only a big deal to beer geeks like me, who try to keep track of all the breweries and maniacally check off every beer on Untappd. I find I can’t keep track of who’s who any more because many of the names sound alike. My own discomfort aside, I worry that confusing consumers will turn them off craft beer.

Regardless of how good a brewery’s beer is, or in how many venues it’s available, it is still down to the customer to choose to drink it. With 150ish breweries all brewing multiple year-round beers, plus seasonals, there’s a dizzying amount to keep track of. Confusing potential customers won’t help them to choose your beer over all the others. Best case scenario: they drink the other brewery’s beer thinking it’s yours. Scary case scenario: they throw up their hands and make the easy choice—the macro-brewed beer they already know.

For the breweries already in existence whose names are confusing, I don’t have any solutions for ya. That’s above my pay-grade. I just point fingers at the imperfections in beer world and carry on my merry craft beer loving way. It’s good to be me.

Like having two teams in the CFL named the Roughriders, it matters less how it came about and more that it is unnecessarily confusing (not that “Ottawa Redblacks” is much of an improvement). There are millions of words in the English language, plus all the ones you can borrow from other languages or just invent. If that makes it too overwhelming to choose, there are professionals who can help come up with something other than the same name as the brewery down the road.

When a large portion of business names adhere to the Adjective Noun Brewing naming model, there’s an increased chance of name overlap. Following the model is easy: choose a favourite number, colour, or attribute and team it with a noun. I’m sure we can all name dozens of the B.C. breweries in this category. A third of 2017’s new breweries are there too, resulting in some name overlaps.

Incidentally, red seems to be the most popular colour choice. There’s Red Truck, Red Arrow, Red Collar and now Red Bird. Dogs are also a popular theme, with Yellow Dog, Twa Dogs, 3 Dogs and Bad Dog.

Older breweries are not immune, either: Bridge, Ridge, Big Ridge—I see a Venn diagram there.

Some confusion is unavoidable—I’m not sure how you could protect yourself against non-similar sounding names evoking similar responses in people. When Morningstar and Night Owl both joined Callister last year I had trouble recalling which was which. And if I had a dollar from everyone who’d told me how great Strange Fellows’ whiskey is when they mean Odd Society’s, I still wouldn’t be able to retire, but I’d be able to buy a really nice breakfast.

So if you have the starry-eyed dream of taking over the province, I’d suggest that a good first step is to read down the list of existing B.C. brewery names and make sure the name you’re leaning toward doesn’t sound like anyone else’s. Don’t settle for simply avoiding a trademark infringement.

Better yet, try out The Growler’s handy Brewery Name Generator!

Brewery name generator

First Letter of First Name

A- Big

B- Terrible

C- Precious

D- Green

E- Dusty

F- Soggy

G- Three-headed

H- Ambidextrous

I- Hidden

L- Lazy

J- Proud

K- Crazy

L- Aggressive

M- Mighty

N- Bubbly

O- White

P- Sleepy

Q- Rotting

R- Smashed

S- Super

T- Bashful

U- Narcoleptic

V- Trashed

W- Red

Y- Trusty

Z- Incontinent

First Letter of Last Name

A- Poodle

B- Schoolbus

C- Gumboot

D- Kangaroo

E- Bicycle

F- Dog

G- Spaceship

H- Hops

I- Pint

J- Monkey

K- Puppy

L- Sasquatch

M- Paddle

N- Rocket

O- Elephant

P- Pick-up Truck

Q- Stereo

R- Squirrel

S- Dragon

T- Bear

U- Refrigerator

V- Dinosaur

W- Ballerina

Y- Submarine

Z- Salmon

Month of Birth

January- Brewing Co.

February- Beer Co.

March- Boozeworks

April- Fermentorium

May- Brewing Inc. (A Division of AB InBev)

June- Ale House

July- Brewing and Distilling

August- Brewery and Cidery and Winery and Distillery

September- Beer and Pizza Joint

October- Fine Lagers and Ales

November- Boozatorium

December- Taphouse

fight for your right to patio!

2018-07-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

My latest feature in The Growler magazine is a timely little piece about why you won't easily find yourself on a craft beer patio in Vancouver this summer. (click the link, or see below)

I found myself a great place to drink beer outdoors this past weekend - Folkfest at Jericho Beach. True, it is where I find myself this time every year, but it struck me particularly hard this year after writing my Growler article about the lack of patios that there I was, enjoying a beer (or three) outdoors while listening to some fabulous music. We need more of that in Vancouver. It's a shame it takes someone a whole lot of hard work to get a special event licence to offer me that opportunity.

Folkfest has always been a magical event for me, long before they added a beer garden. And it is arguably a very different festival now that they have. The beer garden is a laid-back place to have some beverages, chat with friends and make new ones, all while being serenaded. Does the festival need a beer garden? Not to draw patrons. But it might to generate income. And as someone who resisted adding a beer garden to the festival, I can attest to the fact that it does not adversely affect the spirit of the festival. Folkies it turns out, are well-behaved drunks. Drinking in the hot sun does not turn them into hooligans. And judging by the clean state of the beer garden porta-potties, it doesn't ruin anyone's aim either. I smile every year when my friends say it's time to listen to Stage 4, because that means it's beer garden time, and my faith in humanity is restored for a brief shining moment.

*********************************

(YOU GOTTA) FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PAAAATIO!

REBECCA WHYMAN • JULY 11, 2018

It’s patio season, but why are there so few craft brewery patios? Dan Toulgoet photo

Picture it—it’s warm, the sun is shining, the beer is cold (but not too cold) and you’re on a patio enjoying it all. If you live in Vancouver, you’d better get up really early in the morning if you want to make that picture a reality. There are a lot of us in the city, and not a whole lot of patio seats. If you count only craft-beer-serving establishments, the number is so low I could have gone out and sat in each seat in the time it took you to read this paragraph. Some hyperbole there, but the struggle is real—there is a paucity of patio seats in Vancouver.

I’m sure there are a number of reasons for the lack. But I’m equally as sure those reasons mostly fall under the “No Fun City” banner.

Think about all the craft beer serving patios in the city. Notice anything about them? They all boast a shiny Food Primary licence. Yup, that’s the magic ticket to getting a patio in the City of Vancouver.

But hang on—there are brewery patios in other places… Like up and down Murray Street in Port Moody, for example. Those folks don’t have Food Primary licences, do they? Lucky them, their city council doesn’t require them to. Their uber-supportive mayor also went to bat for breweries to change the zoning to allow patios. While Food and Liquor Primary licences are provincial, patios are municipally ruled. All municipalities are not created equal. PoMo 1, Vancouver 0.

In Vancouver, it boils down to pay to play. Only those who can afford it get to serve you beers in the elusive Vancouver sunshine.

It’s not that Food Primary licences are prohibitively expensive—a mere $950 application fee and a 12- week processing time versus the $4,400 application fee and 7-12 month processing time for a Liquor Primary licence—it’s more about that pesky little requirement of a fully equipped kitchen. Because space and capital aren’t at all tight in most breweries…

And then there’s that other thing. That whole “most brewers didn’t get into brewing to be restaurateurs” thing. They just want to make beer and earn a little money doing so.

Pay to play seems to work okay for the bigger guys. But what are the little guys going to do? If you’re Steve Forsyth from Off the Rail, you bug city hall every few weeks to ask how that review of the Food Primary only rule is coming. You get told the review won’t happen until later this year, but you keep the pressure on.

Is there any way around the Food Primary requirement? Currently, the only option is holding special events—up to 24 per year. Twice a month during the good weather you can have a beer garden, provided you have an appropriate outdoor space to hold it in. Not a great solution, but it might just tide some breweries over until the rules change (fingers crossed).

The need for a Food Primary licence aside, getting a permit for a sidewalk patio in Vancouver ain’t easy. Among the 999 requirements: 2.43 metres (that’s eight feet for those of us not yet embracing metric) clearance for pedestrians from the patio to the nearest sidewalk obstruction. What’s a sidewalk obstruction? Street signs, parking meters, garbage cans, all those ubiquitous sidewalk features people will have to sidestep while walking merrily along. Apparently, we are a clumsy and easily distracted people, who need oodles of room to avoid crashing into stationary things. And that’s before we’ve sat out on a patio and gotten pleasantly buzzed.

The patio has to be capable of being removed with 24 hours’ notice. And if you want to serve alcohol on it, you’ll need a liquor license extension. And railings. And so on and so forth.

Then there’s what I fear is the nail in the coffin for tasting rooms already at capacity—the total number of guests including the patio can’t be greater than what is approved by their occupancy permit. For those already at their occupancy maximum, adding a patio won’t be a way to increase the number of people they can serve—it just gives some of them fresh(ish) air to sit in.

It’s a shame to see city folk having to head to the ‘burbs to sit on a patio (and take up all their seats). And when we resort to taking the future fast train to Portland in search of a patio, it’ll take money out of the local economy.

May I suggest that when you join Steve in his “open dialogue” with city hall, you add in advocating for drinking in parks. That might just ease the need for patio seats.

Or you could get a beer fridge on your balcony and just stay home.

Beau's Brewing

2017-08-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Beau's Brewing Co. is located in Ontario. I'm in BC. So while I'd love to say that I got to sit down at the brewery with the lovely Beau's folks for this interview, I did not. We went the new-fangled cyberspace way and conducted it over email.

But! But, I will get a chance to talk to Jennifer Beauchesne and brewer Brian O'Donnell in a few short weeks when they travel all the way across the country to attend the Great Canadian Beer Festival - and all I have to do is hop a ferry over to Victoria!

(Full disclosure here: the lovely Beau's folks sent me some beer samples, I get a media pass to attend GCBF because, well, I am a beer blogger you know, and I contributed to the Rwanda kickstarter. Now you know.)

I'm sure everyone's heard of Beau's, even way out on the Left Coast, but just in case you're hazy on the details: Beau's is an organic brewery, established by the Beauchesne family in 2006 in Vankleek Hill Ontario (which is between Ottawa and Montreal). Beau's celebrated their 10th anniversary by selling themselves. But not to a mega corporation like everyone else seems to be doing these days. Nope, they sold themselves to their employees via an Employee Share Ownership Plan. They're certified organic, and socially and environmentally conscious enough to be B Corporation certified as well. And then there's the Rwanda Craft Brewery Project - supporting local women to build a brewery in Kigali. So if I sound a little cheerleadery, you know where it's coming from!

Now, on to the interview!

Answers are from Steve Beauchesne, CEO and the son half of the father-and-son co-founders of Beau's.

Let me start by asking about your attendance at the Great Canadian Beer Festival. I mean, I know it's called the Great Canadian, but going into it's 25th year in Victoria, it is still mainly attended by local BC breweries. What is Beau's getting out of attending? How many years has Beau's been at GCBF?

Our first year serving Beau’s at GCBF was back in 2010. Given all the great beer being brewed in B.C. these days, we feel pretty honoured that the organizers believe having Beau’s there adds something special to the festival – that says we are doing a few things right, I think. Festivals like GCBF give us a chance to have real conversations with people who enjoy our beer, and let us build relationships with them one on one. The people we meet always have awesome stories about how they found us, or first tried our beer with friends, and they genuinely want to know more about what we do and what we brew.

Have you got anything special planned for this year's 25th anniversary GCBF?

We’ll have three different beers on tap, including my personal favourite, Lug Tread. We have been brewing Lug Tread for a dozen years now, but I’m still occasionally stopped in my tracks by what a solidly great beer it is. And our head brewer, Brian O’Donnell, is coming out to be at our booth and represent – he developed the recipes for two of the three beers we are pouring, so we should be able to get extra-geeky with the beer talk at our booth.

You're bringing a West-Coast style IPA to the festival. Are you excited to see actual West-Coasters drink it?

Ha! Yes. We have had a great response to Full Time IPA since launching it in May, and it just won two awards. We took a lot of time to develop the recipe, and seeing the positive feedback is gratifying.

Tell me about your gruit! Almost everyone I know is a hop-head - why brew a beer without any hops? Are gruits gimmicky beers? Or a true test of brewing prowess?

It’s important to remember that back in the day, when hops first started getting used in beer, people thought beer made with hops was were suspect, as they were all quite used to gruits. In fact in England, they literally wrote poems and songs about how gruits (which they called ales back then) were far superior to those questionable beers brewed with hops. Once you've opened your mind to the possibilities, it is quite liberating to think that instead of only one ingredient to balance malty sweetness, you have an infinite selection of spicy, sour, bitter ingredients with a phalanx of interesting aromas you can use. The trick to avoid being gimmicky is to focus on balance - a one-trick pony that overwhelms the beer doesn't achieve much, but a practiced hand can create a masterpiece.

I understand you have some other projects you've worked on recently involving herbs, botanicals, and locally foraged ingredients. Is this a direction you intend to keep following? Is there a Sahti in your future? And how hard is it to forage organic ingredients?

We do brew with foraged and botanical ingredients, and we have been experimenting with smoking our own malts too. We will continue because it’s fun! One really cool project we worked on this year was a beer made with the Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, as part of our cross-Canada Ottawa 2017 Series that was honouring Canada’s 150^th. We went out to the island and met quite a few of the locals, and talked to them about what was foraged there. We ended up using Newfoundland partridge berries in the beer that they collected and shipped to us, as well as sea salt collected and dried. And we smoked the malts with foraged myrrh, which is hardened tree sap that gives the beer a kind of incense-like aroma. It was a beautifully complex beer, and we will be bringing it back in 2018 in a larger quantity, which means we need to be collecting some berries now and freezing them. Scalability is definitely one of the challenges of working with foraged ingredients – like, we made 1,000 litres of a really cool beer; now how do we make 35 times that so we can bring it across Canada?

We will indeed be pouring a sahti at our annual Oktoberfest this year, we just brewed it the other day. We used juniper berries in the recipe, and juniper boughs during the lautering, I’m looking forward to trying my first sample of it in the next week or so. It’s a great beer style with a very cool history.

Was the decision to sell the company to your employees the easiest one you've ever had to make?

Maybe not the easiest decision, but it was absolutely the most rewarding and right one. It’s an investment in our future, and will allow us to stay independent. We have seen employees start making decisions like owners. It changes how you feel about working for a company when you feel part of the family.

The Kickstarter campaign for the Rwanda Craft Brewery Project was a huge success. $110,400 was raised. In addition to lending your name to that campaign, you'll be providing financing, expertise and employee training. The brewery hasn't broken ground yet - how much call has there been so far for your financing, expertise and training?

Good question! There’s actually quite a bit of ground work that goes into getting ready to open a brewery that doesn’t involve the building itself. We have been advising Fina (Uwineza, the woman starting the brewery) most recently on financing, and our art director has been helping guide the branding and logo development. We have also been testing beer recipes on our pilot system, using locally available ingredients such as sorghum, cassava, and banana. We did a bit of brewing training with Fina last fall, and we expect to start training her brewing team this winter. The money we raised with the campaign is earmarked for packaging equipment, and so there is also the upcoming challenge of getting the equipment purchased and shipped to Rwanda.

How long do you expect Beau's to be involved with the Rwandan brewery? And will you be able to carry their beer on tap or in bottles?

We recognized in starting the project it would be at least a 5 year commitment at a significant level of investment. Fina has great business sense, but there are always day-to-day challenges running a brewery, many of which we have experienced and might be able to save time or headaches sorting out. The beautiful part is that our involvement will fade over time, and they will be taking over all elements, but the friendship will last forever. We are very much hoping to get at least some of the beer to Canada so that backers of the project can try it, but the true goal of the project is to make a craft beer in Rwanda for local people to enjoy.

Cheers!

Thanks so much to Steve for taking time while in Denmark to indulge me, and to Jennifer for facilitating our cross-country, cross-world interview. I'm very much looking forward to seeing Jennifer and Brian at the festival, and drinking more Beau's beers, of course!

If you haven't already got your GCBF tickets, what are you waiting for?

Beau's co-founder and CEO Steve Beauchesne

beer column

2017-07-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

From On the Coast on Tuesday:

Just when you think you’ve got a handle on craft beer, another brewery opens up, another style becomes popular or a new trend pops up.

Mariner Brewing is poised to open on the Barnet Highway in Coquitlam in August. I understand it will have a 50 person tasting room and a steam-powered brewery. So watch social media for the opening announcement!

One potential new trend is hop powder. I’m not hearing a lot about it in Vancouver yet, but there are some breweries in the US who are experimenting with it, including Georgetown Brewing in Seattle.

Hop powder is pretty much what it sounds like – it is a powdered form of hops. The powder is an essential oil-rich concentrate made by extracting resin glands from the hops at very cold temperatures in a nitrogen atmosphere to preserve the quality of the oils. The resulting powder contains twice the percentage of alpha acids – which is what bitters beer - as the original hops or the pellets they might otherwise have been converted into, twice as many essential oils, and it also costs twice as much.

For brewers, using hop powder means that less liquid is absorbed by the green matter during dry hopping, so there’s more beer in every batch, which may offset the extra price. Those who have been experimenting with the powder say that it gives incredible aroma to the beers.

For consumers though, it hasn’t been around long enough to know if can retain aroma stability as cans and bottles age on shelves.

It will be interesting to watch this product develop – to see if it lives up to the early hype and changes the industry, or if it’s just too expensive for most breweries.

And then there’s raw ale.

Raw ale is the resulting beer when the wort is not boiled. Most traditional farmhouse ales are raw and probably prehistoric beer was all raw ale.

In what is now the normal course of making beer, the wort, which is the sugary liquid extracted from the malted grains, is boiled. Boiling has three purposes – 1. To sterilize the wort so that it doesn’t get infected with unwanted bacteria; 2. extracting the acids in the hops to bitter the flavour (which also helps in protecting against infection) and 3. removing protein from the beer, which improves flavour stability.

So if you’re not boiling the wort, how can you achieve those three things?

The first issue is sterilization. The mashing process pasteurizes the wort, so no worries there. Mashing is the initial step in brewing where the starches in the grains are converted into fermentable sugars by being steeped in hot water. So long as the steeping lasts long enough at a high enough temperature, the wort is pasteurized.

The second issue was extracting the hop oils. There are several other ways to get hop bitterness than boiling the hops in the wort. You can boil the hops into a tea and add that to the wort, or you could pour nearly boiling wort over the hops.

The third issue though, removal of protein, requires boiling. So raw ales tend to have short shelf lives.

I’ve never knowingly had a raw ale before, and everything I’ve read on the subject just says you’ll have to taste the difference yourself. I understand most of the difference is mouthfeel.

There is no one style of beer that is raw, it is the non-boiling brewing method that makes it raw, rather than a beer style.

Category 12 has made a raw ale, and I took one in to the studio to taste.

It is a Westcoast farmhouse ale - a Scandinavian inspired farmhouse ale, with the addition of west coast red cedar. It is fermented for two months with Brettanomyces yeast, then refermented for a month in the bottle.

It is crisp, light, and complex. It is also very hazy as all those proteins remain in the beer, and it hasn’t been filtered.

The flavours we can attribute to the Brettanomyces yeast are the funkiness, that bit of tartness, along with some spice, all that great stone-fruit, and acetic acid (the main ingredient in vinegar).

Gloria Macarenko and I both really enjoyed the beer. I'm interested to try more raw ales so I can get a better handle on just how not boiling the beer changes the mouthfeel.

This is a limited edition beer, so if you’re interested to try it, get out there right now and get some! Available in 750 ml bottles at private liquor stores.

Beer Picks:

My beer picks this time are some very tasty summer beers:

Hoyne Brewing’s Carte Blanche White IPA – this is a well-balanced hazy white ipa with tropical fruit flavours and aromas. Wheat, melon, passionfruit and grapefruit flavours mellow into a slightly bitter finish. This is the first in a series of limited release beers where brewmaster Sean Hoyne passes the torch to the younger brewers to brew the beers they want to see in the world.

6%. Available in 650ml bottles at specialty liquor stores – but hurry, this was a limited release!

Doan’s Craft Brewing Lucinda Cassis Kolsch – Part of their Fun Times series, this is a collaboration with Odd Society Distilling. It is a blend of Doan’s kolsch beer and Odd Society’s cassis. Very light, and berry-y! The fruit, hint of wine and tartness from the cassis balance and play with the malt character of the kolsch.

5%. Available on tap at Doan’s and Odd Society, and in 650 ml bottles. Also a limited release, so get it now if you’re wanting to try it!

Off the Rail Passionfruit Hefeweisen – This is a hefeweisen for people who don’t normally like hefeweisen! It begins its life as a traditional hefeweisen, with Bavarian wheat and hints of clove and banana. Then it is infused with passionfruit. Crisp and hazy, it’s a perfect summer sipper.

4.7%. Available on tap at the tasting room.

cbc website

2017-07-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

from the cbc website, from my beer column yesterday:

Get the raw story on raw ale,
the newest trend in craft
brewing

Plus, check out Rebecca Whyman's picks for great summer beers

CBC News Posted: Jul 18, 2017 5:52 PM PT Last Updated: Jul 18, 2017 6:14 PM PT

Category 12 is a B.C. brewery that makes a beer using raw ale techniques. (Category 12 Brewing/Facebook)

The newest trend in B.C. craft beer is old school — very old school.

Raw ale is a type of beer made when the wort — the sugary liquid extracted from malted grains — is not boiled.

"Most traditional farmhouse ales are raw and probably prehistoric beer was all raw ale," On The Coast beer columnist Rebecca Whyman told host Gloria Macarenko. "There is no one style of beer that is raw. It is the non-boiling brewing method that makes it raw, rather than a beer style."

Whyman says Category 12 has made a limited edition West Coast farmhouse ale using the raw ale method.

It is a Scandinavian-inspired farmhouse ale with West Coast red cedar and is crisp, light and complex.

"The flavours we can attribute to the Brettanomyces yeast are the funkiness, a bit of tartness, along with some spice, fruit and acetic acid," Whyman said. "The fruitiness ranges from tropical pineapple to peach, depending on the strain of yeast."

Whyman's other picks for beer this week are great for summer drinking.

Hoyne Brewing's Carte Blanche White IPA

"This is a well-balanced, hazy, white IPA with tropical fruit flavours and aromas. Wheat, melon, passion fruit and grapefruit flavours mellow into a slightly bitter finish. This is the first in a series of limited release beers where brewmaster Sean Hoyne passes the torch to the younger brewers to brew the beers they want to see in the world. Six per cent alcohol, available in 650ml bottles at specialty liquor stores."

Doan's Craft Brewing Lucinda Cassis Kolsch

"Part of their Fun Times series, this is a collaboration with Odd Society Distilling. It is a blend of Doan's kolsch beer and Odd Society's cassis. Very light, and berry-y! The fruit, hint of wine and tartness from the cassis balance and play with the malt character of the kolsch. Five per cent, available on tap at Doan's and Odd Society and in 650 ml bottles.

Off the Rail Passion fruit Hefeweisen

"Available on tap at the tasting room, this is a hefeweisen for people who don't normally like Hefeweisen. It begins its life as a traditional Hefeweisen, with Bavarian wheat and hints of clove and banana. Then it is infused with passion fruit. Crisp and hazy, it's a perfect summer sipper. 4.7 per cent, available on tap at the tasting room."

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

deja vu

2017-07-18T20:36:00.002-07:00

from the CBC website today, which sounds an awful lot like my beer column of last month...

Bitter battle between Big Beer

and craft brewers gets uglier

Independent craft brewers say multinational conglomerates making it

harder to tell what's 'true' craft beer

By Aaron Saltzman, CBC News Posted: Jul 18, 2017 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Jul 18, 2017 10:37 PM ET

Craft beer sales in Canada are growing while sales of traditional, mass produced commercial beer are flat. (Barry Smith/CBC)

Small, independent brewers say big beer companies are stepping up a campaign to buy craft breweries and are employing other tactics that make it difficult for beer drinkers to tell if the suds they're quaffing are actually local.

But others say it's just good business and if the recipe and taste don't change, what difference does it make who owns the company?

The Big Beer tactics that are vexing local, independent brewers include opening up local brew pubs, allegedly controlling beer distribution, buying up hop farms previously used by craft brewers, and even quietly buying a stake in an online beer rating website.

"There's a lack of transparency," said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association for Small and Independent Craft brewers in the U.S.

The new seal of the Brewers Association in the U.S. emphasizes the word 'Independent' (Brewers Association)

"I think what has happened to some degree is the beer drinker just doesn't know who is small and independent and know what is craft anymore."

The issue is so acute in the U.S. the Brewers Association has just come out with a new seal in an effort to distinguish its members — all smaller, local producers — from the big players.

The logo features an upside down beer bottle with the words "Certified Independent Craft." Independent is also in a larger font, a deliberate emphasis.

"The benefit of 'Independent' is that it's unassailable," said Gatza.

"That's the one thing that the large brewers can't do is claim that they are independent of a large brewer so there is a purity in that word."

The independents keep falling

That the small brewers feel the need to rebrand their product in a way they think can't be co-opted is a testament to the level of incursion Big Beer has made in their market segment.

This is what the new seal will look like when placed on the products of participating independent brewers. (Brewers Association)

Behemoths like Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer, have been gobbling up successful craft breweries. According to Forbes, AB InBev boasts annual sales of $55 billion US after its merger last year with SABMiller.

AB InBev recently bought Wicked Weed, a famed craft brewery based in Asheville, N.C., the 10th craft brewery added to its stable, which includes Chicago's Goose Island and Seattle's Elysian Brewing.

In Canada, this trend includes Toronto's Mill Street and Quebec's Microbrasserie Archibald (both owned by Labatt, itself a subsidiary of AB InBev), B.C.'s Granville Island, owned by Molson Coors, as well as Quebec's Unibroue, owned by Sapporo (which also owns Sleeman), makers of Blanche de Chambly.

Crystal Luxmore is a beer writer and certified cicerone, a sort of beer sommelier (Oliver Walters/CBC)

"They're buying up smaller breweries as a way to grow bigger," said Crystal Luxmore, a beer writer and certified cicerone, or beer sommelier.

"For years, traditional beer has either flatlined or gone down," she said.

"But craft beer as a category grows year-on-year, and I think there's lots and lots of room to capture more market share, and so that's why bigger breweries are going after the craft or independent brew segment."

But it's more than that, say small brewers.

Hidden identities?

"They portray these beers as if they come from small companies when in fact they come from very large companies," said Gatza.

Toronto's Summer Craft Beer Fest is on this week, featuring local, southern Ontario beers from craft brewers such as Redline Brewhouse in Barrie, Hometown Brewing of Norfolk County, Barley Days Brewery in Prince Edward County and Niagara's Oast House.

But alongside those microbreweries are names like Labatt's Mill Street, Creemore, owned by Molson Coors, and California's Lagunitas Brewing company, owned by Dutch giant Heineken NV.

Organizers defended the beer selection.

Drink Inc.'s Scott Rondeau says a multinational corporation may own a craft beer brand, but that doesn't mean the beer has changed. (Barry Smith/CBC)

"They're still making the same beer," said Scott Rondeau of the event's organizer Drink Inc.

"Take Creemore: They're still making it out of the same place. Still the same brewmaster, still the same building, still using spring water, it's still the same people that worked there over 10 years ago."

But craft brewers say it's not the same.

"AB InBev has been buying out true indie craft breweries and then continuing to market them as if they're still true indie craft breweries." said Sam Calagione, founder of the popular Delaware craft breweryDogfish Head Brewing, who believes the lack of transparency goes even further.

Last month Dogfish Head Brewing asked to have its beer removed from beer rating site RateBeer after word got out that ZX Ventures, backed by AB InBev, had bought a minority stake in the site last year.

"Once we found out about it we wanted nothing to do with RateBeer anymore even though our beers are very highly rated on there, because we just thought it was a massive conflict of interest."

Beau's Brewing Company of Vankleek Hill, Ont., is family run and employee owned.

Buying the supply chain

Other moves that have also raised the ire of craft brewers include AB InBev's restricting the sale of South Africa's small but prized hops crop to its own brands, according MarketWatch.

In a statement quoted by Beer Street Journal, AB InBev said it was stopping the sale of these hops to craft brewers because of low yield.

"Unfortunately, this year we do not have enough to do so given the poor yield. More than 90 per cent of our South African-grown hops will be used in local brands Castle Lager and Castle Lite, beers we've committed to brewing with locally grown ingredients," AB InBev said in a statement.

Then there was a Wall Street Journal report about an incentive plan purportedly offered by AB InBev to beer distributors to carry its own brands. Craft brewers worried it would make it harder to get their own products to market.

Fighting back

In San Diego, the beer community is in such an uproar over AB InBev's 10 Barrel Brewing opening a brew pub, one self-proclaimed (presumably craft) beer fan started a Go Fund me campaign to fly a banner overhead that read: 10 Barrel Is Not Craft Beer.

The goal was $900. The campaign raised $4,840.

Local beer critics claim AB InBev's brew pub "will chip away at the local brewing community, siphoning off precious market share from other San Diego craft breweries."

Canadian craft brewers share many of the same concerns as their American counterparts about the dilution of the term "craft beer." But there is no comparable national craft brewers association in Canada like there is in the U.S., so there's no organization to co-ordinate a branding campaign.

Jason Fisher is the owner of Toronto's Indie Ale House (Oliver Walters/CBC)

"Kind of like the VQA for wine, right?" said Jason Fisher, owner of Toronto's Indie Ale House. VQA Ontario is an independent authority that establishes and monitors the province's "appellation of origin" system for wine.

"That symbol [would say] the beer is actually made where you say it's made and made by a brewery that's not partially owned by Molson, Labatt's, or one of their subsidiaries," Fisher said.

"That would be amazing. Consumers would take a little while to understand that. But the more support that goes into those types of breweries the better the beer that comes out."

cbc website

2017-07-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

from the cbc website

Planning the perfect craft
brewery exploration in B.C.
this summer

CBC beer columnist issues advice on including brewery tours in
holiday plans

CBC News Posted: Jul 04, 2017 7:12 PM PT Last Updated: Jul 04, 2017 7:12 PM PT

Include a craft brewery tour in your holiday plans this summer, says On The Coast's beer columnist. (CBC)

Summer is here and, with it, comes holiday plans and road trips.

Whether as an excuse to travel or simply a quick refreshment stop along the way, On The Coast's beer columnist Rebecca Whyman says touring B.C.'s craft breweries is a must this summer.

"If you like beer, even a little, it is really easy to include brewery stops on your vacation or to use visiting breweries as an excuse to take a vacation," she said.

Whyman recommended the online B.C. Ale Trail to plan a trip, using the sample itineraries to make self-guided tours around the province. A beer tour is much more than just drinking, she said, because it gives a more rounded exposure to the whole industry.

"You get to meet the people who make the beer. You get to see where the beers are made. You get to soak up the unique ambiance of the tasting room, all things you just can't get any other way," Whyman said.

And, she added, it's a way to taste beers that don't always make it to liquor stores or pubs.

Beer picks:

Whyman's picks for this week come from stops along the B.C. Ale Trail that are available in the Lower Mainland.

Nelson Brewing Company's Happy Camper Summer Ale
This is an organic, light pale ale with a tropical aroma and crisp malty body. Dry-hopped with Rakua hops from New Zealand, for tropical notes of peach, pineapple and mango. At 4.2 per cent, it is a great way to refresh yourself in the hot weather. Available in six packs of cans at provincial and specialty liquor stores.

Nanaimo's Longwood Steam Punk Dunkelweizen
This is a dark wheat ale, but don't be scared to have it in the hot weather it is light bodied and crisp! Made with 35 per cent Canadian wheat, which combines with their house ale yeast for a fruity and clean palate. Five per cent. Available in tall cans at provincial liquor stores.

Penticton's Bad Tattoo Los Muertos Cerveza Negra
It is a silver medal winner at the Canadian Brewing Awards. It is a dark lager made with a mix of Pilsner, crystal and Munich malts. Reminiscent of a German Bock, but with a Mexican twist. Crisp and refreshing. Five per cent. Available in six packs of bottles at provincial liquor stores.

With files from On The Coast.

beer column

2017-07-05T12:14:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally here, and there’s no better time for a BC road-trip!

Some of my vacations come about because of beer, and some fit beer in along the way. With breweries popping up around every corner, it is easy to include stopping in to check out the vibe and sample the wares any time I find myself travelling. If a locale has a large concentration of breweries, I’ll visit based on that alone - and discover the other wonderful things it has to offer along the way.

I know not everyone is as craft beer obsessed as my friends and I are, but if you like beer, even a little, it is really easy to include brewery stops on your vacation – or to use visiting breweries as an excuse to take a vacation!

It’s easy! You don’t even need a travel agent! If your vacation destination is in BC, there is a great planning tool available online – the BC Ale Trail. It is a website that offers sample itineraries for self-guided tours in many areas around the Province. The itineraries include craft breweries, pubs, restaurants, cafes, outdoor activities, sight-seeing and accommodations. It can be a one-stop shop if you want to follow the itinerary to the letter, or you can use the Ale Trail suggestions to add to your own vacation plans. And if you don’t have a destination in mind yet, the Ale Trail can inspire you!

The BC Ale Trail launched last year and is adding 6 new ale trails this summer. If your travels will take you outside of BC, there are other ale trails to follow, such as the Inland Northwest Ale Trail in Spokane, Washington, the Oregon North Coast Beer Trail, and a series of Portland Ale Trails by neighbourhood.

Many breweries are struggling to keep up with local demand so they’re not able to send their beers to the Vancouver market – if you want to try those beers, you have to travel to the tasting room or local pub! And by doing so, you’ll be supporting the local economy.

Similar to wine tasting, visiting a brewery is a more rounded introduction to the product than simply picking it up from a liquor store. You get to meet the people who make the beer, you get to see where the beers are made, you get to soak up the unique ambiance of the tasting room, all things you just can’t get any other way. Often tasting rooms will have experimental beers to try as well – these are beers that are only available at the brewery.

Tasting rooms are also a great place to meet people. A stop, whether for a quick one or an afternoon of tasting, can be a great resource for finding out about special events being held nearby, where the best food is in town, soaking up some local history, and getting directions to that secret swimming hole. Becoming part of the community, even for a short time, adds to the tourist experience.

Tasting rooms allow children, so there’s no worry about what to do with the family when the adults want their turn to choose an activity. And most tasting rooms offer growler fills, so you can take beer to go too. Which is very handy if the brewery is on your way from point A to point B – taking beer to go means that the driver gets to taste too!

Beer festivals make a great inducement for a vacation or weekend away. You can find calendars of beer festivals on the BC Ale Trail website, the What’s Brewing website, and the Brewer’sGuild website. Better than sticking a pin in the map to choose where to go, finding a beer festival can be the starting point of a great road trip. Already going somewhere? Check to see if there just happens to be a beer event going on nearby – ‘tis the season, so the odds are good that there will be something happening!

And if all else fails, find yourself a patio to sit on and enjoy the summer weather while it’s here!

Beer Picks:

I’ve chosen some beers from across the Province’s stops on the BC Ale Trail, that are available in the Lower Mainland, for this week’s picks:

Nelson Brewing Company’s Happy Camper Summer Ale – This is an organic, light pale ale with a tropical aroma and crisp malty body. Dry-hopped with Rakua hops from New Zealand, for tropical notes of peach, pineapple and mango. At 4.2% it is a great way to refresh yourself in the hot weather! Available in six packs of cans at provincial and specialty liquor stores.

Nanaimo’s Longwood Steam Punk Dunkelweizen – This is a dark wheat ale, but don’t be scared to have it in the hot weather – it is light bodied and crisp! Made with 35% Canadian wheat, which combines with their house ale yeast for a fruity and clean palate. 5%. Available in tall cans at provincial liquor stores.

Penticton’s Bad Tattoo Los Muertos Cerveza Negra – It is a silver medal winner at the Canadian Brewing Awards! It is a dark lager made with a mix of Pilsner, Crystal and Munich malts. Reminiscent of a German Bock, but with a Mexican twist. Crisp and refreshing. 5%. Available in six packs of bottles at provincial liquor stores.

cbc website

2017-06-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

from the CBC website

Beware of 'crafty' marketing,

beer columnist says

Check out Rebecca Whyman's beer picks for this week

CBC News Posted: Jun 20, 2017 7:39 PM PT Last Updated: Jun 20, 2017 7:39 PM PT

A California beer drinker sued MillerCoors LLC in 2015, claiming their Blue Moon beer is not actually craft beer and marketing it as such was deceptive.

Is the beer you drink craft? Or is it merely craftily marketed?

On The Coast beer columnist Rebecca Whyman says it can be hard to tell sometimes.

Between acquisitions of craft breweries, shadow brands and marketing elements that make a beer look craft, there are several ways big breweries are creeping into the world of craft brewing.

"I think that beer makers should be honest about the beers they're making. Unless you pay a lot of attention to the fine print and do your research, it is very easy to be taken in by shadow brands and crafty beers," Whyman told On The Coast guest host Gloria Macarenko.

"Does everyone know that Granville Island Brewing is owned by MolsonCoors and Stanley Park Brewing is owned by AB InBev? Those facts certainly aren't proudly announced on their labels."

Shadow brands and "crafty beers" are those that are owned by a larger, non-local brewery but appear to be local craft beers at first blush.

Sometimes these are new brands created by breweries, and sometimes these are craft breweries bought out and then brewed at much larger facilities rather than locally at the former craft brewery site.

Whyman says if where your beer is coming from and who is producing it is important to you, it's important to do your own research, which can be complicated.

But if you're looking for local, guaranteed craft options, here are Whyman's picks for this week.

Hearthstone Brewing Wyld Raspberry Berliner Weisse

"So light and refreshing for summer! This wheat beer is a mere 3.2 per cent alcohol for your ease of enjoyment! Brewed with wild lactobacillus bacteria and 200 pounds of local, whole raspberries, it's pink and it's tart! Available in six packs of cans at the liquor store and on tap at the North Vancouver tasting room."

Strange Fellows El Jefe Bavarian Style Wheat Beer

"Banana and cloves: it must be a hefeweizen! The yeast culture comes all the way from Germany, bringing some old world street cred to this new world summery beer. Fruity, spicy and cloudy. 4.5 per cent, Available on tap at the tasting room."

Moody Ales Sublime Pineapple Hefeweizen

"Because summer is the time for hefeweizen! German yeast meets American hops meets pineapple juice. It's sessionable, fruity and refreshing [at] 4.8 per cent, available at the liquor store and on tap at the tasting room."

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

beer column

2017-06-21T12:00:00.001-07:00

Everyone knows that I'm a big fan of craft beer. I extol the virtues of the local craft beer community and of drinking locally brewed beers at every opportunity, including on CBC Radio's On the Coast every second week.

But what about the other part of the beer industry, big beer, and how they’re using some questionable tactics to entice unwitting consumers?

I have nothing against beer makers making and selling beer, be they large or small. And I have no issues with people drinking beer they enjoy, whether its craft or macro.

As a big fan of craft beer, though, I do like to make sure macro beer drinkers have been introduced to craft beer so they can make an educated decision when choosing the beers they drink!

And I think that beer makers should be honest about the beers they’re making. Unless you pay a lot of attention to the fine print and do your research, it is very easy to be taken in by shadow brands and crafty beers.

Shadow brands and crafty beers are those that are owned by another brewery but made to appear to be locally brewed craft beers. Sometimes these are new brands created by breweries, and sometimes these are craft breweries bought out by the Anheuser Busch Inbev monstrosity and then brewed at their worldwide facilities rather than locally at the former craft brewery site.

And what’s the big deal about that?

Nothing, if you know that’s where your beer is being brewed and who owns the brewery.

I think it IS a big deal when there’s trickery afoot, though. Does everyone know that Granville Island Brewing is owned by MolsonCoors and Stanley Park Brewing is owned by AB InBev? Those facts certainly aren’t proudly announced on their labels.

What about Shocktop and Blue Moon? All their advertising would lead you to believe that they are craft breweries. But they’re not, they’re just brands owned by AB InBev and MolsonCoors respectively.

I guess it’s buyer beware though, and if you care about who is making your beer and where, you’ll educate yourself. Unfortunately it’s not that easy to do. Just reading labels on the beers won’t necessarily tell you who brews the beer. And some ownership models are very confusing. Granville Island Brewing was purchased by MolsonCoors through Creemore Springs. Stanley Park Brewing is actually made by Turning Point Brewing, which was owned by the Mark Anthony Group, which has since been purchased by AB InBev. But nowhere that I could see on the Stanley Park Brewing website does it mention being owned by anyone else. Turning Point Brewing Company doesn’t even have a website and the Mark Anthony website doesn’t mention Stanley Park Brewing as one of its products. So how is anyone supposed to figure out who brews their beer?

AB Inbev is insinuating itself into all the corners of the beer industry. For example, a subsidiary of AB Inbev called ZX Ventures bought a minority stake in the formerly independent beer rating site RateBeer.com. Without telling anyone for eight months! A website that people have come to know as a place where they can get an honest unbiased opinion about beers was partially bought out by a stakeholder. ZX says it acquired RateBeer in order to get insight on the beer market – to have their “finger on the pulse”. RateBeer is not the only beer rating website out there, but it is one of the top two and craft brewers are worried that beer rankings on the site will become biased. RateBeer majority owner Joe Tucker says that the computational methods used to rate the beers won’t change and that there’s data transparency to ensure it doesn’t. That’s not enough for some craft brewers. Several breweries have demanded that the site remove their beers, including Dogfish Head, whose owner, Sam Calagione, said: "We believe this is a direct violation of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics and a blatant conflict of interest." and "It just doesn’t seem right for a brewer of any kind to be in a position to potentially manipulate what consumers are hearing and saying about beers, how they are rated and which ones are receiving extra publicity on what might appear to be a legitimate, 100 percent user-generated platform."

According to GoodBeerHunting.com, ZX has also purchased a controlling share in Northern Brewer, the leading online homebrewing supply platform, which is now promoting recipes from AB InBev’s High End brands like Goose Island and Elysian. And AB InBev has partnered with Conde Nast to launch a beer publication called October. October will include beer ratings, but claims it will exist as an independent editorial property.

With their enormous buying power, the AB InBev monopoly owns a great many hop and grain growing farms. In fact, they own pretty much all of the hops grown in South Africa. In the past portions of the crops were purchased by independent breweries around the world. Not this year though. Citing poor yields AB InBev are keeping all of the South African hops for their own breweries. Anyone else who has a recipe that depends on South African hops is just plain out of luck. They’ll have to try to find a substitute, or change the recipe. And with everyone else except for AB InBev in the same boat, the price of those substitutes is bound to rise.

AB InBev owns the breweries, it owns the distribution chains, it owns the coolers in liquor stores in some States, ensuring only their products can be sold chilled, it owns the ingredients necessary to make the beer, it owns part of a beer rating website and magazine... Each of these pieces of the monopoly may not seem like a big deal, but when taken as a whole, they are a threat to the independence of beer.

So, there you have it. As a fan of craft beer, you can see why I neeeeed you to know whose beer you're drinking and what your money is supporting. And yes, I'd rather you didn't support AB InBev by buying their products, but now you know, make your own choices!

[Full disclosure: I get invited out by lots of AB InBev and MolsonCoors owned breweries to fun parties, and they send me free beer and swag. I totally go to the parties and accept the swag. I even Instagram about it. But I don't spend any of my hard-earned cash buying their products. In the past I have made some of their subsidiaries' products my "beer picks". I won't be doing that any more. It may be arbitrary, but that's my line in the sand. Draw yours wherever you need to.]

Beer Picks:

Some nice local craft beers!

Hearthstone Brewing Wyld Raspberry Berliner Weisse – so light and refreshing for summer! This wheat beer is a mere 3.2% for your ease of enjoyment! Brewed with wild lactobacillus bacteria and 200lbs of local, whole raspberries, it’s pink and it’s tart!
Available in six packs of cans at the liquor store and on tap at the North Vancouver tasting room.

Strange Fellows El Jefe Bavarian Style Wheat Beer – Banana and cloves – it must be a hefeweisen! The yeast culture comes all the way from Germany, bringing some old world street cred to this new world summery beer. Fruity, spicy and cloudy.
4.5% Available on tap at the tasting room

Moody Ales Sublime Pineapple Hefeweisen – because summer is the time for hefeweisen! German yeast meets American hops meets pineapple juice. It’s sessionable, fruity and refreshing.
4.8% Available at the liquor store in 650ml bottles and on tap at the tasting room

And finally:

I’d like to bid a fond farewell to the outgoing brewers at the Callister collaborative brewery: Lightheart, Boombox and Real Cask – good luck in your future endeavours and keep making us beer!

And welcome to the new brewers Night Owl and Morningstar! I’m looking forward to trying your beers!

Some links:

http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKCN0T003Y20151111

https://www.biv.com/article/2015/11/battle-brews-over-assets-ownership-beer-industry/

http://www.beerscenemag.com/2017/06/anheuser-busch-inbev-purchases-stake-in-ratebeer-com/

http://goodbeerhunting.com/sightlines/2017/6/2/ratebeer-zx-ventures-acquisition-minority-stake-anheuser-busch-inbev

http://pitchfork.com/news/71269-new-craft-beer-focused-website-october-launches/

http://goodbeerhunting.com/sightlines/2017/5/4/breweries-drop-from-wicked-weeds-funkatorium-invitational-following-ab-inbev-sale

https://www.ratebeer.com/forums/ratebeer-investment-announcement_296260.htm

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/05/ab-inbev-just-commandeered-the-entire-south-africa.html

http://goodbeerhunting.com/sightlines/2017/5/11/ab-inbev-cuts-access-to-south-african-hops
https://www.craftbeer.com/news/sam-calagione-letter-ratebeer-ownership

cbc website

2017-06-08T01:17:00.000-07:00

from the cbc website:

B.C. tops the podium at the
Canadian brewing awards

Province takes home 51 of 164 medals at the 15th annual competition

CBC News Posted: Jun 06, 2017 10:01 PM PT Last Updated: Jun 06, 2017 10:01 PM PT

B.C. breweries tied with Ontario for the most medals earned at the 15th annual Canadian Brewing Awards, which were held in Ottawa on May 27, 2017. (CK Golf Solutions/Flickr)

British Columbia has some pretty good beers, according to On The Coast beer columnist Rebecca Whyman.

West Coast breweries tied with Ontario for the most medals at the 15th annual Canadian Brewing Awards, were held in Ottawa on May 27.

B.C. took home 51 of 164 medals, with Revelstoke's Mt. Begbie Brewing winning the coveted "Best Brewery in Canada" award.

Other notable winners from the province include Powell Brewing, which took home four medals, and Steamworks, Off the Rail and Bomber Brewing, which claimed three medals each.

This is the first year that breweries were required to be 100 per cent Canadian-owned to be eligible for the awards, a rule that essentially highlights craft breweries by making bigger breweries ineligible, said Whyman.

The columnist said the recognition is welcomed by owners.

"A beer award is an acknowledgment that all of their hard work and the risks taken to enter an industry with lots of competition and small profit margins were worth it – they made a really great beer! And the industry, their peers and their faithful supporters recognize, and celebrate, that really great beer," said Whyman.

She added customers can use the awards to expand their tasting menu.

"If you're new to beer you can take the list of winners as a to-do list, tasting the local winners in each style category to gain an appreciation for the differences between, for example, classic-style India pale ales and North American-style IPAs, knowing you are trying very good examples of each style," Whyman said.

Here are the columnist's picks from the gold medal-winning beers.

Steamworks Brewing's Black Angel IPA

"It's a black IPA, also known as a Cascadian Dark Ale, which means it is as malty as it is hoppy. Although it is dark in colour, it has angelic citrus notes keeping it light. 7 per cent abv. Available in 330ml bottles at liquor stores and the Steamworks tasting room."

Powell Street Brewing's Lazy D'haze IPA

"It's a Northeast style IPA, which makes it as hazy as the summer days are long. Lots of fruity goodness from Amarillo and Equinox hops, with intense aromas of grapefruit, orange, apricot, melon and berries. 7 per cent abv. Available on tap at the tasting room."

Strathcona Brewing's British IPA

"It's a classic English IPA, which means it is more balanced between hops and malts than a Pacific Northwest IPA. Lightly hopped with traditional English hops, it has subtle citrus flavour and a nice dry finish. 6 per cent abv. Available in 355ml cans and on tap in the tasting room."

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

beer column

2017-06-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

my notes from yesterday's cbc on the coast radio beer column:

The 15th Annual Canadian Brewing Awards were held in Ottawa on May 27th. As is becoming the norm, BC breweries shone on the medal podium! Our breweries won 51 of the available 164 medals – tying with Ontario for the most medals won. If you were at the Vancouver Craft Beer Week tasting festival at the PNE on the weekend, you no doubt saw many of the trophies on display at the brewery booths.

Mt. Begbie Brewing in Revelstoke was the big winner! They walked away with the coveted “Best Brewery in Canada” award, plus Gold medals for their High Country Kolsch and Cream Ale, and a Bronze medal for the Brave Liver Scotch Ale. Mt. Begbie began brewing in 1996, and just underwent an expansion to a new larger space with a tasting room and retail store. It’s great to see that expansion paying off for them in having their beers recognized country-wide.

British Columbia swept the medals in three style categories: English Style Pale Ale, American Style Black Ale and Flavoured Stout/Porter.

Notable local winners were Powell Brewing with a gold, two silvers and a bronze; Steamworks with two golds and a bronze; Off the Rail with a gold and two silvers, and their across-the-street-neighbours Bomber Brewing with a silver and two bronzes.

Congratulations to everyone who won medals! (see below for a full list of the BC winners, and the Canadian Brewing Awards website for a complete list of winners)

2017 marked the first year that the criteria for entries was changed to require that breweries be 100% Canadian owned to be eligible. This new criteria probably doesn’t affect most of the small breweries as they tend to be locally owned. It does mean that the biggest of the big breweries are no longer eligible to enter the contest, and in effect makes the Canadian Brewing Awards the Canadian Craft Beer Awards. I can’t say that I’m upset by this rule change.

Of course the winners find winning useful for marketing purposes. The industry as a whole benefits too though. Having diverse breweries winning awards, as we have in BC with the 51 awards won distributed among 33 breweries across the province, both medium and small, established and new, shows the depth and quality of the beers being made.

When an industry takes off the way craft brewing has, there is always the worry that quality will suffer. Awards competitions help the breweries by having their beers judged by accredited judges who offer feedback. Winners know they’ve brewed good beers. Those who didn’t win can use the feedback offered to improve their beers.

For consumers, following the results can be useful too. If you’re new to beer you can take the list of winners as a to do list, tasting the local winners in each style category to gain an appreciation for the differences between, for example, Classic style India pale ales, and North American style IPAs, knowing you are trying very good examples of each style. Or if you’ve been wanting to branch out from your old familiar favourites, but felt overwhelmed at the liquor store or by lists with 40 tap offerings, using the winners list to help you narrow the choices can take the pressure off those tough decisions!

Of course there are drawbacks to competitions. Despite there being guidelines, blind tastings, and every effort to remain impartial, judging is still a subjective process. On any given day the results will vary from another day. There are checks and balances in place to minimize the effects of subjectivity, but until we get beer judging robots, it will always be there.

I’ve heard people complain about regional bias – if all the judges are from a particular region, the beers from that region tend to be judged more positively. This doesn’t happen through malevolent intentions on the part of the judges, they’re just unconsciously rewarding the familiar, which goes back to the impossibility of human judges being truly impartial.

One advantage to the subjectivity of beer judging, though, is the flexibility that comes with it. If judges were able to be 100% impartial, I don’t think we’d see innovative beers being rewarded, or the style boundaries being successfully pushed.

Finally, I think winning a brewing award means a lot to a small brewery - and not for marketing purposes because small breweries don’t even have marketing departments! A beer award is an acknowledgment that all of their hard work and the risks taken to enter an industry with lots of competition and small profit margins were worth it – they made a really great beer! And the industry, their peers and their faithful supporters recognize, and celebrate, that really great beer.

Beer Picks:

Let’s go with some gold medal winning beers:

Steamworks Brewing – Black Angel IPA – It’s a black ipa, also known as a Cascadian Dark Ale, which means it is as malty as it is hoppy. Although it is dark in colour, it has angelic citrus notes keeping it light. 7% abv. Available in 330ml bottles at liquor stores and the Steamworks tasting room.

Powell Street Brewing – Lazy D’haze IPA – It’s a Northeast style IPA, which makes it as hazy as the summer days are long. Lots of fruity goodness from Amarillo and Equinox hops, with intense aromas of grapefruit, orange, apricot, melon and berries. 7% abv. Available on tap at the tasting room.

Strathcona Brewing British IPA – It’s a classic English IPA, which means it is more balanced between hops and malts than a Pacific Northwest IPA. Lightly hopped with traditional English hops, it has subtle citrus flavour and a nice dry finish. 6% abv. Available in 355ml cans and on tap in the tasting room.

BC Winners

Axe & Barrel – Silver – Kolsch

Bad Tattoo – Silver – Los Muertos cerveza negra

[Big Rock – Gold – Pilsner; Silver – Grasshopper Kristalweisen - didn't count as BC medals]

Bomber Brewing – Silver – Absolute Horizon CDA; Bronze – Martzen; Bronze – Russian Imperial Stout

Bridge Brewing – Silver – Side Cut IPA

Cannery Brewing – Gold – Baltic Porter; Bronze – Thornless blackberry porter

Central City – Gold – Thor’s Hammer barleywine; Bronze - Red Racer doppelbock

Coal Harbour – Gold – Smoke & Mirrors

Dageraad – Silver – Burnabarbarian

Dead Frog – Silver – Reina de Fuego

Deep Cove – Silver – Dry Dock Double IPA

Fernie Brewing – Silver – Sap Sucker Maple Porter

Foamer’s Folly – Gold – Blacksnake Porter

Four Winds – Silver – Belgian tripel; Silver - Nectarous

Fuggles & Warlock – Bronze – Raiden Black Rye IPA

Gladstone – Bronze – Belgian single

Hastings Mill Brewing – gold – Griswold Winter Ale

Luppolo Brewing – Bronze – Wild Saison with pear

Moon Under Water – Gold – Pilsner

Mt. Begbie - Gold - Cream Ale; Gold - High Country Kolsch; Bronze - Brave Liver Scotch Ale

Off the Rail – Gold – Belt Up ESB; Silver - Classic Pale Ale; Silver – Crazy Train IPA

Phillips Brewing – silver – Electric Unicorn White IPA

Powell Street – gold – Lazy D’Haze IPA; Silver – old Jalopy Pale Ale; Silver – Ode to Wallflower; Bronze – Dive bomb

R&B – gold – Red Devil Pale Ale

Red Truck – Silver – Red Truck lager

Riot Brewing – Silver – Classical Pilsner

Steamworks – gold – Black Angel IPA; Bronze – Commonwealth Pale Ale

Strange Fellows – Bronze – Reynard sour

Strathcona – Gold – British IPA; Bronze – Belgian gold

Townsite – gold – Blueberry sour; Silver – Biere d’hiver

Trading Post – gold – smuggler’s trail rye amber ale

Tree Brewing – silver – red lager

Whistler Brewing – Gold – Chestnut Ale

Yaletown – Silver – Valley of the Monks Porter

Yellow Dog – Bronze – Shake a Paw Smoked Porter

Steamworks/Dageraad Collaboration – Gold – East of East Van Saison

Swept categories:

English Style Pale Ale Category: R&B took god for the Red Devil pale ale, Off the Rail won silver for their Classic Pale Ale and Steamworks won Bronze for their commonwealth Pale Ale.

American-Style Black Ale: Steamworks won gold for the Black Angel IPA, Bomber took the Silver for Absolute Horizon Cascadian Dark Ale and Fuggles & Warlock won Bronze for their Raiden Black Rye IPA.

Flavoured Stout/Porter: Hastings Mill Brewing Company (more commonly known as Pat's Pub) won gold for their Griswold Winter Ale, Deadfrog Brewery took the silver for Reina de Fuego and Cannery Brewing Co. won bronze for Thornless Blackberry Porter

oh those macro breweries!

2017-05-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

if the news broken by modern times brewing is correct, then ab-inbev has just fucked the little guy, again.

when ab-inbev merged with sabmiller, they took over the sab hop farms in south africa
who do you think is getting all those hops now?
only breweries owned by the megalith ab-inbev
so all those north american craft breweries that were using them, just lost them

read all about it:

beer advocate

the drunken goat

casa agria facebook

proclamation ales facebook

cbc website

2017-05-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

from the cbc website

A beer by any other name:
sexism in craft beer labels

Beer columnist Rebecca Whyman weighs in on controversial labels
and marketing

CBC News Posted: May 10, 2017 5:00 PM PT Last Updated: May 10, 2017 5:00 PM PT

Steamworks Summer Ale is one of Rebecca Whyman's beer picks for this week, and she highlighted the sunny label as one of the things she likes about it. (Steamworks Beer/Facebook )

It is getting harder and harder to find unique beer names as more breweries enter the market, but the supply of offensive and sexist options seems endless, according to CBC On The Coast's beer columnist.

Rebecca Whyman says, in many cases, attempts at puns or edgy labels can miss the mark.

"Brewers love their puns," Whyman said. "Some of those edgy names are actually passing edgy and going into the land of offensive."

She told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn that she wouldn't name any examples of particularly offensive labels on air but described them as overly sexualized.

There are lists of names shaming the worst offenders, she said, for those who are curious.

"There are some racist names as well, but sexist seems to be the place where most people are taking their names," Whyman said.

Roughly, 70 per cent of craft beer drinkers are men, Whyman said and so most of the marketing is aimed at men.

With their smaller budgets, she added, craft breweries tend to not be as overtly sexist as mainstream beer, but it is still an underlying trend.

"Craft beer is light years ahead of mainstream beer in terms of its inclusivity, but there is still the whole gender inequality," Whyman said. "We're not seeing the same ads from there, but we are seeing a lot of labels and beer names that are following the sexist suit."

The number of women drinking craft beer is rising quickly and competition for their beer dollars increasing, she added, and so sexist labels are a choice that could cost breweries a significant customer base.

"There are so many other ways," Whyman said. "Have a brightly coloured label, use really edgy artwork that doesn't include anything that is controversial. You can still stand out."

Here are the top beers that have stood out to Whyman this week:

Steamworks Summer Ale

For the first time, Steamworks Brewing has produced a summer ale. Very orange, zesty, it is an easy drinking 4.8 per cent wheat ale. Bright citrus and fruity hops, joined by grains of paradise for a little spice.

Available on tap at Steamworks and in tall cans (473ml) both on their own in four packs and as part of the summer mashup sampler pack. Speaking of beer labels, I really love the sun on these cans— it's gorgeous.

Lions Summer Ale

Granville Island has come out with a summer ale as well. You may remember back to the days when there were winter and summer solstice ales from G.I.B.

Nowadays, they're called The Lions. Lions Winter Ale has been around for a while and is now joined by the Lions Summer Ale. Weighing in at 4.7 per cent, this one is easy drinking and refreshing. Tropical fruit and biscuity malts, with a slightly tart finish. Available in cans and bottles and at the taproom on Granville Island.

Park Life Passion Fruit Ale

Bomber Brewing's super popular Park Life Passion Fruit Ale is back. I call it an old favourite, but it's only three years old.

This is an American blonde ale infused with passion fruit juice. It is crisp and tart, and totally tropical. Sweet and sour balance each other on top of this summer ale that still manages to taste like a beer (as opposed to a radler). 4.5 per cent. Available on tap at the tasting room and in six packs of cans.

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

sexism in beer

2017-05-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

from my beer column on cbc radio one's on the coast with stephen quinn yesterday:

It is getting harder and harder to find unique beer names. As more breweries and beers enter the market, more names are trademarked and no longer available for use. Amidst all the ‘cease and desist’ letters flying around, there may be another controversy brewing.

Is beer becoming a soap opera? And so are the suds of our lives... It does seem like it sometimes! While any service industry would make for a good soap opera setting, I think what’s happening in the beer industry is just good old fashioned growing pains, though.

Brewers and beer marketers love a good beer pun. But with so many beers needing names, there is a shortage of not-yet-trademarked puns left out there. If you can’t be punny, then how about edgy? Sometimes breweries are going past edgy though, and into the land of offensive names. I would give some examples, but I’m afraid you might find them offensive! Seriously though, the types of names giving rise to most complaints are the sexist ones. Just google “sexist beer names” and you’ll see why I couldn’t say them on the air. See also Thrillist for their top 13 from 2013.

Beer is a collaborative and friendly industry, but it is still a male-dominated one. Craft beer may be light years ahead of mainstream beer in terms of inclusivity, but it still suffers from gender inequality and sexism. Mainstream beer markets to men, and their ads tend to involve scantily clad women. Craft beer doesn’t have the same big budget for advertising as mainstream beer does, so where craft beer is not doing right by us all is in the naming of their beers and the label artwork they’re choosing.

None of the beer names or labels that make the lists of most offensive are from BC. But that doesn’t mean local breweries can’t improve their inclusivity. All BC beer names and labels have to pass through the Liquor Distribution Branch before hitting store shelves. While I can't think of any offensive names or labels that have managed to sneak through, there are some sexist names and labels out there. Remember Lighthouse's Siren label from back in 2013? And what about Central City’s Red Racer Girl? That very long-legged woman in garters, coasting on a bike. Is she offensive? I wouldn’t go that far, but in my opinion she is overly-sexualized. Why is that necessary to sell beer? And if you have to try three times to get your labels past the LDB, there’s no way you aren’t aware they’re going to upset some people.

A lot of people will say the beer labels are all in good fun, or that I don’t know the difference between sexism and sexy. While I beg to differ, I won’t go on for long about this, but I do want to drop in just a few observations made by Canadian women in the beer industry about how sexualized and sexist beer labels affect them: “I’m not in on the joke, I’m the butt of it.” “Maybe they are saying that their beer isn’t meant for me.” “I don’t necessarily care how artistically the woman on the can is depicted, or how empowered you think she feels. There’s too many other great ideas and creative concepts in this world, at this point in time, to still put forward sexist marketing because it was presumably the best idea on the table.” “When I see these ads it reminds me of the times people have not seen my value as a brewer, but could only identify me as muse or ask if I am even capable of lifting a grain bag.” (All quotes borrowed from BensBeerBlog)

I like to think that the craft beer industry is above going for the low-hanging fruit. Even with the increased competition for beer names, it is an active choice to go the sexist route. With the number of women drinking craft beer rising quickly, and competition for their beer dollars increasing, it is a choice that could cost breweries a significant customer base.

The American Brewer’s Association, in a policy that is more bark than bite, have said they won’t announce winners with offensive names at their competitions. If the Brewer’s Association’s independent outside review panel deems a winner’s name offensive, the winning name will not be announced at the awards ceremony, the winner will not be allowed to mention that win in their marketing, and a report will be issued on the Brewers Association website. President and CEO Bob Pease says “We want our members to be responsible corporate citizens.” Program Director Julia Hertz says that every brewery has the right to name and market their beers as they want. “Our hope is that they do it true to the values and integrity that the craft beer community should aspire to.”

It appears to be a compromise position between banning beers and condoning offensive names, but I think it is a step in the right direction. The Brewers Association is a trade organization that hosts two annual contests, the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival. While their policy will only affect their own membership, they are an important organization in the beer industry and this decision may well start conversations about what constitutes an offensive name and why the craft beer industry needs to hold itself to high standards.

The issue has reached beer publishing as well. All About Beer magazine made a stand earlier this year that “Beers that demean women or promote rape culture will not be reviewed or promoted in this magazine or on AllAboutBeer.com.” Editor John Holl says. “We will not be quiet about this important issue.”

Alas, I don’t think the BA policy will cause the Brewers Association of Canada or Beer Canada to adopt a similar one. Those organizations only represent the few breweries who brew most of the beer in Canada and I don’t foresee them changing their marketing practices any time soon.

I asked the BC Beer Awards folks if they were considering adopting a similar policy. I was told that they did meet on the subject, but are not going to draft a policy. Director Chester Carey told me, "The liquor control board is pretty strict about what products they register already so we don't really anticipate having to make a call ourselves. If something got by them that was by consensus "explicit, lewd, or demeaning" we wouldn't publish that material but could still recognize the brewery for the liquid produced, which has always been our focus."

Similarly the BC Craft Brewers Guild has no plans to adopt a policy. According to Executive Director Ken Beattie the guild has “never had a complaint brought to our attention concerning offensive beer names in BC.”

So it’s business as usual around here. I do think that each organization that makes a stand will get more people in craft beer talking, though. Talking about their responsibilities to each other and their consumers, and how to be inclusive and welcoming to all beer drinkers.

Beer Picks:

Let’s go summery – I hope there’s no controversy about that – with two new summer ales and an old favourite!

Steamworks Summer Ale – for the first time, Steamworks Brewing has produced a summer ale. Very orange zesty, it is an easy-drinking 4.8% wheat ale. Bright citrus and fruity hops, joined by grains of paradise for a little spice. Available on tap at Steamworks, and in tall cans (473ml) – both on their own in 4 packs and as part of the Summer Mash-up sampler pack. Speaking of beer labels – I really love the sun on these cans! It’s gorgeous!

Granville Island has come out with a summer ale as well. You may remember back to the days when there were Winter and Summer Solstice Ales from GIB. Nowadays they’re called The Lions. Lions Winter Ale has been around for a while, and is now joined by the Lions Summer Ale. Weighing in at 4.7%, this one is easy-drinking and refreshing. Tropical fruit and biscuity malts, with a slightly tart finish. Available in cans and bottles and at the taproom on Granville Island.

Bomber Brewing’s super popular Park Life passionfruit ale is back! I call it an old favourite, but it’s only 3 years old! This is an American blonde ale infused with passionfruit juice. It is crisp and tart, and totally tropical! Sweet and sour balance each other on top of this summer ale that still manages to taste like a beer (as opposed to a radler). 4.5% Available on tap at the tasting room and in 6 packs of cans.

some reading:

bensbeerblog: Let’s talk about sexist beer marketing

allaboutbeer.com: Taking A Stand Against Sexist Beers

beer column

2017-04-27T16:48:00.001-07:00

my notes from tuesday's beer column on cbc radio one's on the coast with stephen quinn:

The pace of brewery openings appears to be slowing somewhat in Vancouver. But there have been several brewery openings already this year across the province – among them Back Roads Brewing in Nelson, not to be confused with Back Country Brewing in Squamish! And Highway 97 Brewing in Penticton, Gibsons Tapworks, and Twin City Brewing in Port Alberni also opened.

Existing breweries continue to expand as well, so the thirst for craft beer isn’t waning! I think there is still room in Vancouver’s market for more craft breweries, and definitely there is a lot of room in many underserviced areas in the province.

So far most of the local breweries share a common model. Some of the exceptions being Callister’s cooperative set-up, as mentioned a moment ago, Factory’s contract model and Howe Sound’s ownership of R&B Brewing, where they continue to make R&B brand beers, alongside Howe Sound brand beers.

And with Vancouver only having a couple of areas appropriately zoned light industrial for breweries with tasting rooms, the breweries are mostly located in East Van and along Main Street.

What sets them apart from each other are their branding, the types of beers they are brewing, and how they are packaging their beer. So long as they have a good business plan, and good beer of course, breweries are finding their niche and they are flourishing.

But how do you find your niche? When there were fewer breweries, it was easy to be different by choosing a different type of beer to focus on – like Dageraad’s focus on Belgian beers. Two of the more recent additions to the Vancouver scene chose another country’s influence as their niche – Luppolo Brewing went Italian and Andina Brewing went South American. Both offer food from their inspiring countries, and Andina even imports grains from Patagonia to use in their beers. Both breweries have managed to fill their tasting rooms, despite being in close proximity to many other breweries.

Branding is the biggest way breweries differentiate themselves from each other. I’m worried we’re running out of names though – Back Roads and Backcountry? Big Rock, Big Ridge, Bridge – it can get quite confusing! Branding becomes even more important the more breweries there are, especially ones with similar names. If your labels stand out, that’s one way not to be confused with your neighbour.

We’re seeing a fair number of established breweries relaunch themselves with new branding. Vancouver Island Brewing rebranded themselves recently after being purchased by a new owner, as did Bowen Island Brewing. Driftwood Brewing redesigned their labels last year and Parallel 49 is in the middle of renovating their tasting room into a restaurant. Craft beer may be a very friendly industry more interested in collaboration than competition, but it is still an industry and breweries are fighting to keep their customers as more and more breweries enter the market. Shelf appeal is definitely part of that. It’s easy to remember whose beer is whose when you’re at the tasting room; distinctive labels and branding are necessary to help people identify whose beer is whose on the liquor store shelf.

You know what I’d love to see someone put in a tasting room? A swim-up bar! I just can’t get enough of those!

Slightly more realistically though, I would love to see more craft beer patios! And breweries opening up second locations – particularly breweries from outside of Vancouver. There are lots of Vancouver neighbourhoods that are not zoned for brewery tasting rooms, and don’t have a craft beer bar – if breweries were to open up a pub or a restaurant, like Howe Sound Brewing did with Devil’s Elbow and Central City with their Beatty Street location, but instead of locating them downtown, chose a neighbourhood currently without a craft beer bar, I think whole new markets would open up. I’m not suggesting it would be easy – liquor licences are very hard to come by, restaurants don’t have a track record as a safe investment, and I’m sure owning a brewery is already exhausting enough. But I’d still love to see craft beer reaching into all the neighbourhoods in Vancouver. I’m very fortunate to live in East Van, right in between a dozen wonderful breweries, so I’m well served by craft beer. I want to see that for everyone.

As more breweries enter the market, eventually there will be a saturation point. I think the breweries who are looking ahead to that time and coming up with ways to reach more beer drinkers will easily survive any market adjustment. As a rising tide floats all boats, the more competition there is in craft beer, the higher the quality of the beer is going to be. I think inferior product will be the first to fail, followed by those with a poor business plan. But the breweries with quality beers and an eye on how to reach their customers, and make new ones, ought to be around for a very long time! Which is a good thing, because I want to be able to drink good beer for the rest of my life.

Beer Picks:

Moody Ales Intrepid Lemon Matcha Saison – which we’re sampled on air! This is their Spring seasonal, and it’s from a recipe homebrewer Steve Sheldon brought to Moody Ales. Crisp, refreshing, earthy and spicy. It begins its life as a traditional Belgian farmhouse ale, then takes a sharp turn into uniqueness with a dose of organic lemon matcha tea near the end of fermentation. You can find the matcha saison at the tasting lounge, and in 650ml bottles at BC and private liquor stores. 6.9%. It pairs well with seafood, sushi, fresh fruit and light pasta.

Luppolo Brewing’s Belgian Blonde ale – This newly released Belgian-style blonde ale is fruity, and of course, delicious! Aromas of clove and banana lead to flavours of pear and subtle spice. It's lightly hopped and fermented with Ardennes yeast. Available at the tasting room in flights, glasses and growler fills.

Mt. Begbie Brewing’s Tail Whip Helles Lager – this spring seasonal is made with 100% BC ingredients, including barley from Armstrong, hops from Malakwa and water from Revelstoke. It is a crisp, clear, refreshing lager. 5.2%. Available in 650ml bottles at private liquor stores.

pink pints

2017-04-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

Pink Boots Beer launch is this coming Sunday- April 30th from 1-4 at Red Truck Brewing!

Be the first to try it!

$1 from every pint will go back to the Pink Boots Society.

Spread the word!

What will you be tasting?

NAME OF BEER: Pink Boots Unite Golden Honey Ale

Sessionable springtime ale dry-hopped with Cashmere, Triple Pearl & Challenger providing floral & earthy notes which play well with the subtle honey & light biscuit backbone. Hops are donated from Topp’s Hops in Abbotsford & Organic Honey is from GoldStrike in Lillooet, BC.

International Women’s Day collaboration brew between: Big Ridge Brewing, KPU Brewing Program, Red Truck, Bomber Brewing, R&B, Dogwood Brewing, Foamer’s Folly, Callister & Steamworks.

STYLE OF BEER: Golden Honey Ale

ABV: 5.4%

IBU: 30

INGREDIENTS USED: Mostly BC malt, local hops (Challenger, Triple Pearl & Cashmere), 40 kg Organic Honey, ale yeast from Four Winds

SUPPLIERS USED: Topp's Hops from Abbotsford, GoldStrike Honey from Lillooet

cbc website

2017-04-26T16:17:00.001-07:00

cbc website regarding yesterday's beer column on radio one's on the coast

Are new B.C. craft breweries
struggling to distinguish
themselves?

Plus, check out Rebecca Whyman's beer picks for this week

CBC News Posted: Apr 26, 2017 10:23 AM PT Last Updated: Apr 26, 2017 3:30 PM PT

Dageraad Brewing's Burnaby tasting room. Beer columnist Rebecca Whyman says Dageraad carved a nice niche for themselves as specialists in Belgian-style beer. (dageraadbrewing.com)

New craft breweries keep popping up in B.C., but On The Coast's beer columnist says finding a niche is becoming increasingly difficult.

While the first breweries that opened had novelty appeal, that's wearing off as more enter the market, especially in the Lower Mainland.

On The Coast's beer and wine stories

"When there were fewer breweries, it was easy to be different by choosing a different type of beer to focus on, like Dageraad's focus on Belgian beers," she told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn.

"Branding becomes even more important the more breweries there are, especially ones with similar names. … We're seeing a fair number of established breweries relaunch themselves with new branding."

New model of craft brewing coming to Vancouver, says beer columnist

Whyman said beyond that, breweries should consider opening up second locations, especially outside of brewery-rich East Vancouver.

Another idea — open up more patios to provide a more varied tasting room experience.

Don't forget a pretzel necklace: 5 tips for a better beer festival experience

"Inferior product will be the first to fail, followed by those with a poor business plan," she predicts. "But the breweries with quality beers and an eye on how to reach their customers, and make new ones, ought to be around for a very long time."

Here are Whyman's beer picks for this week:

Moody Ales Intrepid Lemon Matcha Saison

"This is their spring seasonal, and it's from a recipe homebrewer Steve Sheldon brought to Moody Ales. Crisp, refreshing, earthy and spicy. It begins its life as a traditional Belgian farmhouse ale, then takes a sharp turn into uniqueness with a dose of organic lemon matcha tea near the end of fermentation. You can find the matcha saison at the tasting lounge, and at government and private liquor stores. 6.9 percent alcohol, It pairs well with seafood, sushi, fresh fruit and light pasta."

Luppolo Brewing's Belgian Blonde Ale

"This newly released blonde ale is fruity, and of course, delicious! Aromas of clove and banana lead to flavours of pear and subtle spice. Brewed with pilsner, wheat, rye and oats, and lightly hopped. Available at the tasting room in flights, glasses and growler fills."

Mt. Begbie Brewing's Tail Whip Helles Lager

"This spring seasonal is made with 100 percent B.C. ingredients, including barley from Armstrong, hops from Malakwa and water from Revelstoke. It is a crisp, clear, refreshing lager. 5.2 percent, available at private liquor stores."

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

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