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CAPITAL PINT: Charting Big Rig’s monstrous success — awards, a new growler, and LCBO glory

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Big Rig launches Big Rig Gold at the LCBO next week.

Big Rig Brewery is truckin’ along faster than even they imagined.

Last week the Ottawa brewpub, about a month shy of its first anniversary, walked away with four Ontario Brewing Awards — gold for their Champion Pilsner, silver for their Schwarzbier, bronze for their Big Rig Gold, and Newcomer of the Year.

“Awards schmawards!,” brewmaster Lon Ladell said before the awards were announced. “It’s all about the creative side for me, making beer the way I feel it should taste. Then I get to see people drinking it, and they’re happy. That’s what it’s about for me.”

After the big win, however, Ladell expressed nothing but gratitude, mentioning the awards were nice but winning new brewery of the year was the big highlight. The moment acted as a natural break for Ladell, allowing him a breather before the oncoming whirlwind.

This week they released a special growler in support of Ride For Dad, and next week you’ll find Big Rig at the LCBO. “We’ll be in 25 LCBOs in Ottawa,” Ladell says. “We’re going in with our Big Rig Gold in the 6x355mL format. Ottawa only has one other microbrewery in the LCBO right now [Kichesippi], so it’s exciting to be here as the market is exploding.”

Although the market is exploding, it’s still in its infancy compared to Victoria, B.C. where Ladell is from. Known for his brewing days at Spinnakers, a well-regarded brewery and Canada’s oldest brewpub, he spent 17 years directly involved with the beer and restaurant industry in Victoria. And then he moved to Ottawa in 2010.

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CAPITAL PINT: A state of the union with Kichesippi — celebrating its 3rd birthday with a party this Sunday (April 28!)

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Party!: kfkfkfkf

Kichesippi Beer Co. is turning three! The Ottawa brewery is set to throw a little party on Sunday to celebrate, and you’re invited. Party hats and $4 pints. Not bad. Actually, we’re not sure if there will be party hats. But there should be.

We sit down with Kichesippi owner Paul Meeks to chat about the brewery’s first three years, their Harvey and Vern’s soda line, and their Wuchak one-off series. And we somehow ended up chatting about the LCBO vs. The Beer Store debate, distilling, introducing new bottle formats, and much more.

You’re about to turn three. How does it feel?
It’s crazy. I can’t remember not having Kichesippi beer. It was just three years ago that it wasn’t around.

What’s year three going to look like for Kichesippi?
More growth is definitely going to be with the LCBO. We still just have the one sku there. We’re just waiting on our bottling machine. That’s our biggest purchase ever. Our current bottling line does 1,500 bottles over 6 hours, the new one will do 1,500 in one hour. It will let us bring Kichesippi 1855 into the LCBO, get our sodas bottled, and start our seasonal bottle program this Christmas — Wuchack Black will be our first 500-mL seasonal bottle.

And then you have your Wuchak one-off series…
That’s right. There aren’t a lot of IPAs on tap, as much as people think there are. So for the rest of the year we’re going to do have these one-offs. Right now we have Wuchak Polaris out. It only uses the Polaris hop. This hop is a small hop in terms of how much they grow, so we’re actually the largest buyer in North America. In the summer we’ll do the Wuchak West, a west-coast IPA, then Wuchak U.K., and back to our Wuchak Black [a black IPA].

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BEER LAUNCH: Cassel Brewery introduces Railroad Special Maple Rye — yes, it’s made with sap!

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Limited edition: Cassel Brewery has made just 750L of Railroad Special Maple Rye. The expect it to sell out in two or three weeks

A slow but steady stream of people stopped by Cassel Brewery’s tiny retail space when I was there this past weekend. All had empty growlers in hand, and all were asking Benjamin Bercier, one of the brewery’s three co-owners, if the Railroad Special Maple Rye was ready.

“Everyone’s been asking for it over the past few weeks,” Bercier says. “We use maple sap instead of water in our Maple Rye.”

“And we add maple syrup before fermentation,” chimes in Mario Bourgeois, co-owner and brewmaster. “It kicks up the alcohol content and adds a slight maple taste. Then the rye malt provides a spicy flavour to complement the maple, creating a rounded mouthfeel.”

It really does. The beer has a very thick, round mouth feel, as if you’re drinking a fermented glass of sap with some malt and hops thrown in for good measure.

Bourgeois smiles as I tell him it’s unlike anything I’ve had in recent history. It’s the reaction he’s used to seeing when people have it for the first time. But it’s a recipe he’s been tweaking for years.

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BEER NEWS: Covered Bridge Brewing Co. sets up in west end. Plans to open by June.

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Just brew it: John VanDyk, Covered Bridge Brewing’s owner and brewer

Ottawa’s brewing community is about to expand. Again.

Renovations are well underway at 6-119 Iber Road — just down the street from the Ottawa Senators’ home — where The Covered Bridge Brewing Co. plans to open by June.

“I think it’s every home brewer’s dream to go pro,” says John VanDyk, Covered Bridge Brewing’s owner and brewer. But it’s a dream that needed a loving nudge from his wife to jump out of his head and into reality. “[She] encouraged me to put together a [business] plan to see what the numbers were,” he remembers.

VanDyk grew up on the west coast. Admittedly, he says he wasn’t much of a beer drinker. After studying biochemistry in Victoria, B.C. he moved to Toronto to attend a homeopathic college. It’s there that he met his wife Kathy. In 2007 they relocated to Ottawa when VanDyk landed a job with Health Canada.

About three Christmases ago, while they were in HomeSense, he spied a Mr. Beer kit. (The little home brewing system is to beer what an Easy-Bake oven is to baking. You can decide if that’s a good thing or not.)

“My wife told me to buy it,” he says. And like any good husband, he listened. He went home, mixed the extracts with the yeast and water, and waited. In the meantime, he went online to see where he could buy refill packs.

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CAPITAL PINT: Highlighting three new Ontario craft beer offerings for spring!

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Spring has sprung, snow is melting, blah blah blah.

That’s the usual storyline this time of the year, as we — or maybe just I? — try to inject a dose of hope into our angst-laden March attitudes.

Yes, angst. You feel it, too. There are dirty, muddy, sludge-ridden streets reminding us of the winter that was — and still is. (I say winter’s not over until we see a slew of hipper-than-thou folks sporting homemade cutoff jean shorts around town. That’s not a knock against you, if you fall into that category. If I had the legs to work it, I would. And the amount of Nair necessary to make ‘em look as smooth and shiny as Michael Phelps’.) Our bodies continue to wrestle with this whole waking-up-an-hour-earlier thing. And Ottawa drivers still don’t know how to signal when changing lanes. But, I guess that’s an enraging issue every day of the year.

I need a drink after writing that. You may need one after reading it.

Well, spring also means new beer seasonals! *Manly chest bumps all around* We highlight three new Ontario craft offerings for your next shopping trip.

Amsterdam Brewery – Spring Bock

Historically, bocks were brewed in monasteries, providing sustenance for monks who had to fast throughout Lent. Well done, monks. Amsterdam’s take on the style deserves a high-five, or just a big ‘ol hug. They’ve won some awards for it, though, so I guess that’s another way to say “good job.” Aged for six weeks (Amsterdam makes sure you know this is three times longer than regular lagers, as they probably should), this year’s version jumps to 7.8% ABV, up from 7% the previous year. It pours quite dark with head that disappears quickly. It has a very distinct, floral nose, and goes down with a buttery smoothness. Pick up a few bottles, because they can be cellared for up to 36 months. 500 mL bottle for $4.25 at the LCBO (#208942)

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CAPITAL PINT: Some tasting suggestions for this weekend’s WinterBrewed Fest

Persaud's Picks: Save a few drink tickets for the Dubbel Koyt this weekend. And try the BogWater, Oiseaux De Nuit (a pumpkin gruit), and BogFather

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Sparks Street Mall will be open to a whole new kind of pedestrian traffic this weekend as WinterBrewed takes over the outdoor strip.

The weekend also marks the halfway point of Beau’s ambitious month of “feBREWary.” The five-week stretch sees the Vankleek Hill brewery releasing seven different beers, and hosting a boatload of events including tonight’s Winterbrewed launch party at Bridgehead Roastery. (This is more of a party for their Winterbrewed beer — a coffee-beer collaboration with Bridgehead — than it is for the WinterBrewed festival. But it’s also, kinda, sorta for the festival as well. Yes, it’s all very confusing. But, really, it’s a chance to drink some great beer so do you really care?)

When you stumble across Beau’s spot on Sparks Street, you’ll notice a few variations of gruits. Co-founder Steve Beauchesne explained to us a few weeks ago that he wants his brewery to become a world leader in this ancient style of beer.

This is an opportunity to taste beer the way it might have tasted pre-1515. In fact, their Dubbel Koyt, which they’ve just released, is a gruit based on a recipe from the early 1500s that was uncovered by beer researcher Ron Pattinson.

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CAPITAL PINT: The inaugural WinterBrewed Festival launches on Sparks Street (Feb. 16 & 17)

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Winterlude just became a lot more fun. Yeah, skating on the Rideau Canal is good times, but, really, what’s a festival without some adult beverages in the open air?

Next weekend, WinterBrewed will make that possible.

On February 16 and 17 the inaugural WinterBrewed festival unleashes outdoor beer happiness along Sparks Street Mall. We chat with founder JP Fournier, who’s also in charge of National Capital Craft Beer Week, to get the skinny on what to expect.

Why did you choose Sparks Street Mall as the location for WinterBrewed?
Sparks Street has really shown a strong commitment to revitalizing their mall with exciting events (New Year’s Eve had 20,000 people!). The atmosphere is very user-friendly for an event of this type, and their management has been very helpful in promoting the event. The fact that Sparks Street is right downtown where a lot of the Winterlude action is was a key element in choosing the site as well.

What’s the biggest challenged of putting together a winter beer festival?
I’d have to say the temperature. Because we don’t know how warm or cold it might be, we have to plan for both. Too cold and kegs can freeze; too warm and snow/ice dependent programming will suffer. I’m confident that we’re covered no matter what, though. We have heaters in each tent; beer storage that can either heat up or cool down, depending on the ambient temperature outside; and some great food and hot beverages planned that’ll keep folks nice and warm.

WinterBrewed is setting up a hot beer section. For those who haven’t experience hot beer before, is this some kind of weird joke?
Not at all! Actually, this is our modern take on an old tradition of heating beer with a hot poker pulled out of a fire. Beer is very versatile and lends well to spicing, mulling, and infusing with various hot drinks. Some styles are actually even better and exhibit more depth when served at cellar temperatures rather than ice cold. You’ll have to try it to believe it, but this is going to be a great experience for those who are adventurous enough!

I heard Beau’s is bringing in an ice bar that’s 88-feet long. Seriously?
Yes! They commissioned delivery of an iceberg. Actually, they have Carleton University engineering students designing and building it for them.  Can’t wait to see the thing when it’s all done!

There are 13 breweries that are participating. Are they bringing any special one-offs for WinterBrewed?
Well, the winter warming tent will have many beers not usually available in the style that they’re going to be served. But I have it on good authority that most of the breweries are bringing some exciting seasonal winter brews, some cask ales, and a few specialty one-offs too.

Visit www.winterbrewed.com for full event details.

ON SHELVES THIS MONTH: Muskoka Brewery’s Legendary Muskoka Oddity

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Odd is in.

If it’s a little wacky, off-centred or just plain weird, you’re probably going to take a second look. Right?

While that’s a simple Psych 101-esque statement, it’s probably why I saw two guys in their early 20s doubletake at the LCBO when they came across Muskoka Brewery’s Legendary Muskoka Oddity.

The seasonal brew comes in a striking 750 mL bottle, corked and wired in, making it feel as if it should be out with the wines. The guys picked it up, admiring the artwork before their companions foolishly pulled them away. “They were going to enjoy that…” I thought.

Oddity hit the shelves last week. I had the chance to sample the Belgian-style ale about a week previous, before it was completely aged and ready for sale. I was impressed, and even more so when I drank the final product this week.

This edition of Oddity is slightly different than the version Muskoka Brewery released last year. They’ve added more juniper berries, as well as bitter orange peel, trappist yeast, and Sorachi Ace hops to go alongside the sweet orange peel shavings and heather tips (which they’ve pared back on this time around). Branding Manager Jason Dawes says they were fortunate to have the hops in reserve, since Brooklyn Brewery placed a huge order making them hard to come by.

The juniper and orange peel really jumped out when I poured my first bottle. It had a very sweet beginning that didn’t dissipate too much. On my second bottle, though, the bitter orange peel really popped on the finish. That sour, pith-like taste lingered (in a good way…really) with just a hint of the alcohol showing through. Oddity’s ABV weights in at 8 percent, which gives it a nice warming aftereffect.

Muskoka Brewery recommends pairing Oddity with food such as calamari, guacamole, and baked white fish. I say, however, it’s best on its own. This is a very complex beer, and worth sampling on a few occasions to taste any subtle differences.

Legendary Muskoka Oddity is available at the LCBO (#290973) for $9.95.

 

 

 

 

CAPITAL PINT: Forget hops. Beau’s celebrates International Gruit Day with an unusual style of beer made using bog myrtle

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co. is heating up their operations for February.

The Vankleek Hill brewery has proclaimed the 28-day period as FeBREWary, which will see them unveil seven beer releases in four weeks.

Not impressed? Seriously? Give them a break! That’s a lot of beer coming your way.

Still waiting? Okay. Well, how does the first ever International Gruit Day sound? Yup, Beau’s is setting aside Feb. 1 to celebrate this unusual and rare style of beer.

Now you’re excited? Good.

You may also be slightly confused, especially if you’ve never heard of gruits before. Fear not, we’re here to help. Or, more accurately, Beau’s co-founder Steve Beauchesne is here to help.

We stole a morning out of his busy schedule to talk about the history of gruits, BogWater (their current gruit that’s available right now), and Beau’s place on the world beer stage.

What exactly is a gruit?
There are different ways to look at a gruit. The most simplistic way is a beer that’s made without hops. In my mind, though, a gruit needs to have bog myrtle in it. There are Scottish beers known as heather ales, which could be lumped in with gruits but it makes more sense for heather ales [to be its own category] and gruits to be another.

We’re in a cool position because we’re one of the leaders in this style of beer so we kind of get to define it. I’m sure other people will find reasons to agree or disagree based on historical data, but from my perspective, when I’m talking about gruits from our brewery, I’m talking about beers where bog myrtle is the primary spice.

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CAPITAL PINT: Everything you need to know about Gatineau’s expanded Festibière (Jan. 24-26)

Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.

Looks like Le Festibière de Gatineau: Les Hiver N’Ales is expanding for its second year.

On Jan. 24 to 26, the Château Cartier in Gatineau (Alymer sector) will transform its tranquil surroundings to host thousands of people strolling through to sample some of the best winter ales around.

Anglicized as Winter BeerFest: The Winter Ales of Gatineau, the sophomore edition will feature an outdoor ice bar, skating rink, and large bonfire. And to accommodate more revelers, they’ve added a third day: Saturday, Jan. 26 is dubbed as the festival’s family day. Dogsledding, sleigh rides, and outdoor games will take place throughout the afternoon for the kids (and for those who feel kid-like after a couple of drinks).

What’s on tap? Well, so far 11 breweries are signed up, but we’ve been told the festival is waiting on at least another four to sign on the dotted line. With the exception of Labatt and Molson, all participants are Quebec-based microbreweries: Microbrasserie Charlevoix, Pit Caribou, Trois Mousquetaires, L’alchimiste, Trou du Diable, À la Fut, Chelsea Pub, Micro du Castor, and the new Gatineau to-be-opened-in-February brewpub Gainsbourg.

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