FIRST DRAUGHT — When you can’t get growlers, Tropic Like It’s Hop

Last week, MBLL announced that they will ceasing the Liquor Mart growler bar program as of July 1.

The program was launched back in October 2014 with great fanfare. The idea of being able to get incredibly fresh, temperature controlled beer in 1.89-litre jugs at an affordable price was an awesome idea. Not only that, the selection rotated every so often so there was always something new to try out, so one week you might have an IPA, Radler, Lager and another Lager on tap, the next week might feature a Stout, Belgian Wheat Ale, Milkshake IPA and a Blonde Ale.

While selection changed regularly, I had a few problems with it in the past year and half. First off, I felt that MBLL’s beer selection was the most random selection possible, as if the people in charge of the growler bar program would decide on what beers would be available for the program by throwing a dart at the wall and whatever beer was closest, would be picked. So with that, you would see Radlers and Light Lagers being featured in late November when it should have been Stouts, Porters and Doppelbocks — darker and heavier beers. I joked that once summer arrived, we would see Stouts and Porters.

Secondly, if you’ve been wanting a growler fill in the past few months, you may have noticed that the 10th and Victoria Liquor Mart has regularly been out of stock on and off for quite a while. Right when I’m writing this, the Liquor Marts website states that 10th and Victoria only has one beer on tap for the four lines, a Cream Ale by Lake of the Woods Brewing out of Kenora, Ont., while the remaining three lines get unused in a season when beer sales are only going to start back up again.

FIRST DRAUGHT — So much has changed over last five years

I feel like I should be typing this in a tuxedo, as this week marks the fifth anniversary of First Draught! It really doesn’t feel like it was five years ago this week when I did my initial review, a review of New Zealand Steinlager lager, a full-on recommendation from a former 10th and Victoria Liquor Mart employee (now managing the Sobeys West End Liquor Mart Express). I’ve reviewed hundreds of beers in that time, complained about the obvious perimeteritis we receive from MBLL to the point that I’ve likely made a few enemies, and even missed out on substantial beer releases all because of releases not making it to Brandon.

On the flip side, I’ve had times where I had the honour to visit my favourite brewery on the planet, Unibroue … followed by a trip to RateBeer.com’s No. 1-rated brewery on the planet, Hill Farmstead in Vermont.

I’ve been writing about beer for much, much longer than that, but I found that more has changed in the past three years in the Manitoba beer scene than any other amount of time since the early 1990s when consolidation and brewery closures were the norm by Molson, Labatt, O’Keefe’s and others.

Today, I’m going to chat about what has changed to the Manitoban beer industry since I’ve been writing First Draught in 2014.

Imperial Stout packs a punch

I can’t believe this is the final First Draught of 2018!

While this year may not have been as prolific for new breweries opening in Manitoba, we saw Devil May Care, Kilter, Nonsuch and Winnipeg Brew Werks open up, offering a wide variety of beer options ranging from German Pilsners to New England IPAs, and even a beer brewed in honour of Brandon University’s 50th anniversary!

This week I’m checking out Woland Russian Imperial Stout by Oxus Brewing in Winnipeg. I reviewed Oxus’ NEIPULA New England IPA only a few weeks ago — many of you seemed to love it, so when I saw that Oxus came out with a Russian Imperial Stout, I knew I had to try it.

At first, I was thinking that this was going to be a stout from a brewery outside of Manitoba, thinking that it may be from a brewery out of Germany of all places.

Winnipeg’s Oxus Brewing offers tropical IPA

The trend of juicy, cloudy, overly tropical New England IPAs was heating up three years ago in Vermont and Massachusetts and ended up becoming a style that nearly every brewery on the continent ended up brewing.

In Manitoba alone, at least eight of Manitoba’s breweries have dabbled with the overly juicy hopped style of ale.

Winnipeg’s Oxus Brewing has brought out a New England IPA called NEIPULA Ale. NEIPULA is a New England-style IPA double dry hopped heavily with Citra, Mosaic, and Vic Secret hops.

NEIPULA pours a somewhat-cloudy orange body with a bit of a copper hue to it, a good amount of carbonation throughout the body, and a thick, frothy white head on top that diminishes rather quickly to leave behind a mild amount of lacing on the glass.

Pivo Pils a crisp, light pilsner

Rating: 3.5/5 Pints … use graphic

Even before I started this review, I did the No. 1 “no no” that should never happen in any beer review — spill beer before critiquing it. Thankfully it was only a splash … but that splash could have gone to my belly instead of falling on the floor!

Well, I was overly excited when I saw this week’s beer at the LC, so it has a bit to do with me spilling it anywhere and everywhere.

Collaboration worth a look

One of my favourite things about the craft beer industry is when breweries team up to work on special collaboration beers.

Recently, Torque teamed up with Minnesota’s Surly Brewing on a delicious Rye IPA called Callahan (available at Dauphin Liquor Mart), while last year Ontario’s Beau’s All Natural Brewing teamed up with a bunch of breweries across Canada for Canada’s 150 — including a collaboration with Half Pints for a beer brewed with rye bread called Killer Kvass.

The thing that’s best about collaborations is that the two breweries usually will use each other’s expertise to come up with something unique and rare.

I wasn’t planning on buying Braupakt by German brewery Weihenstephaner as I initially thought “oh, another Oktoberfest beer, this is a month too late,” but no — this wasn’t an Oktoberfest beer released later than it should have been. Rather, this is a German-style wheat ale, a style that’s always in trend no matter the season. For this beer, Weihenstephan partnered up with California-based Sierra Nevada Brewing for this project. This marks the first time that I’ve ever seen a product related to the Sierra Nevada branding available in Manitoba.

Check out these Oktoberfest beers

Oktoberfest is becoming much more of a popular event here on the Prairies, so I’ve decided to review three beers from three breweries out of three provinces that happen to be brewing an Oktoberfest style lager or ale. I hope you enjoy the three selections I’ve specially chosen for my personal Oktoberfest. If not, maybe you’ll enjoy next week’s selection!

•Beau’s All Natural Brewing’s Märzen Oktoberfest Lager (Vankleek Hill, Ont.) — This weekend marks the 10th annual Beau’s Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill. I wish I was able to visit, but unfortunately I’ve done too many beercations this year, it seems.

This year’s Beau’s Oktoberfest features musicians such as Joel Plaskett, Fred Penner and Sloan, all acts that have performed in Brandon in the past, as well as a wide range of indie acts, also a wide range of Beau’s beer to pair with the music and local food trucks. I may not have time to be able to visit the lovely town of Vankleek Hill to go to one of Canada’s top rated Oktoberfests, but Beau’s brought out their Märzen Oktoberfest Lager to those who want to have a mini-Oktoberfest in their homes!

Beau’s Märzen Oktoberfest lager pours a clear, rye whisky or caramel brown body with a light amount of carbonation. My mind thinks that I’m drinking rye whisky … but I’m not. The aroma has notes of caramel malt for a hefty sweetness, a light nuttiness and an earthy yet bitter hop presence with a bit of peat at the end.

Manitoba brewers unveil new beers

I’ve been writing about beer for a few years now, and I’ve seen the local beer scene go from simply just Fort Garry and Half Pints to around 15 breweries! In this week’s column, I’m concentrating on two breweries that only started selling their beer in the past few weeks.

First off, we have Winnipeg Brew Werks. I’ve talked about Winnipeg Brew Werks before — the owners of the brewery are Darren & Zoe Wanless and Bernie Wieland. Darren grew up in the Belmont and Wawanesa areas, while Bernie grew up in Brandon and Neepawa areas. Many of you will be familiar with Bernie’s work already as he created a lot of the beer recipes for Lake of the Woods Brewing out of Kenora, Ont., and Little Brown Jug (1919) out of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Brew Werks currently only has one beer, a German-style pilsner, simply named “Pils" that I had the honour of being the first person to ever try. “Pils” is rated at 5.0 per cent ABV and is now available throughout Manitoba.

Pils pours a crisp, clear golden straw body with a light amount of carbonation. The aroma has a sweet, honey-like presence with a bit of crisp barley with a light grass hop profile and a touch of a bready profile to it. The taste is a sweet, honey-like aroma with a rich crisp prairie barley presence to it, there's a light grassy hop presnce to it, and a light touch of bready dough taste at the end.

FIRST DRAUGHT — Grand Slam a stout worth craving this summer

The Winnipeg Beer Festival will take place at Fort Gibraltar in St. Boniface on Aug. 12. Unlike Flatlanders’ Beer Festival back in June, this festival only showcases breweries and distilleries from Manitoba. This is a great way to be able to try beers and spirits that are made in Manitoba by Manitobans.

This year’s edition features 10 Manitoban breweries and one Manitoban distillery, Capital K Distillery. I won’t be going this year as I’ll be in Montreal during the event, but it will be a great way to meet the people who work hard creating Manitoba’s beers and spirits. Tickets are $45 and more information about the event can be found at WinnipegBeerFestival.com.

It’s still summer, but I’ve been craving stouts a bit lately — not just any stouts, but mostly boozy Imperial Stouts, creamy Milk Stouts and breakfasty Oatmeal Stouts. I was in Jamaica back in December 2014 and I found that the local stouts were absolutely amazing in the scorching hot Jamaican heat.

To most people, the thought of drinking a dark, heavy beer on a hot 30 C day is the opposite of a good idea, but some stouts taste like heaven after swimming for over half an hour. If you’re ever in Jamaica, Guinness Extra Foreign Stout and Dragon Spitfire Imperial Stout are absolutely worth trying … move over, Red Stripe!

FIRST DRAUGHT — Innis & Gunn goes tropical with Mangoes on the Run IPA

Ten years ago, I was living in Quebec City to improve my horrible French and getting paid to improve it as much as I could. It was an awesome summer.

I was already an annoying beer snob by then, but I turned into a poutine snob thanks to their local poutine chain Chez Ashton. In the three months I was there, I went to more concerts than just about any time in my life. I saw local bands such as Les Dales Hawerchuk, Winnipeg’s own The Weakerthans and even bands like Van Halen.

One of the biggest shows I saw the entire summer I was there was Paul McCartney — 10 years ago this week. That was likely the best free concert I’ve ever attended but 10 years later my feet still hurt from that very concert.

What does this have to do with beer? Not much, really! Well, Scotland-based Innis & Gunn Brewing released a new beer called Mangoes On the Run IPA a few months ago, with a name like that ... for some reason all I can think of is Paul McCartney’s Wings’ hit “Band on the Run,” so all I’ve been doing for the past few days is singing “Mangooooooes on the run!” Well I’m thinking that Mangoes On the Run is Innis & Gunn’s take on the tropical pre-New England/Milkshake IPA trend, before all IPAs had to be thick and creamy and overly heavy. Mangoes On the Run is brewed with a medley of Hercules, Citra and Simcoe Hops to give it a rich, fruity aroma and flavour to it.

FIRST DRAUGHT — Saison du Tracteur harvests rich medley of rye, barley, wheat

July 12 marks the final session of beers for this year’s Coast to Coaster event at Manitoba Liquor Marts. In this final batch, Half Pints is releasing a beer in a can for the first time in their 12-year history (Codename: Ghost New England IPA), while we see some old Coast to Coaster breweries making an appearance again this year, including PEI’s Gahan Brewing and New Brunswick’s Picaroons Brewing.

This year’s edition of Coast to Coaster showcased more of what was the emerging styles in the Canadian brewing industry more than anything. This year featured several New England IPAs, Milkshake IPAs and Sour Ales, all styles that would have made a beer drinker in Westman confused a few years ago. This year’s Coast to Coaster may have featured the best lineup I’ve seen yet. I feel that Flying Monkeys’ sweet and tropical Live Transmission Milkshake was pure desserty heaven, and I’m likely the one who bought the entire city’s supply of the beer without realizing it.

There’s another beer I ended up buying a good amount of when it was available in Brandon — Shawinigan, Quebec’s Le Trou du Diable’s Saison du Tracteur, a Belgian-style Farmer’s Strong Ale brewed with barley, rye and wheat that’s absolutely plentiful on a sunny Prairie afternoon.

Saison du Tracteur was available here in Manitoba back in spring last year, so it’s not a beer that’s new to Manitoba at all. Unfortunately since the Saison du Tracteur came out last year, Molson Coors purchased Trou du Diable, I was absolutely devastated when it happened but I was also excited to see more of their beers available in Manitoba, more consistently — but that has yet to surface.

First Draught — Malty, easy-to-drink Crafty Radler a refreshing option

Judging by the weather lately, summer must be here, which means it’s Radler season! Over the past few years, Radlers have only gotten more popular with beer drinkers and even people who despise the taste of beer.

A Radler is generally a 50/50 mixture of beer and grapefruit juice, but these days Radlers have expanded to lemonade and other types of juices. Radlers are generally only 2.5 to 3.5 per cent ABV, so they’re definitely thirst quenching on a hot summer day.

I found that Waterloo Brewing’s Grapefruit Radler was considered to be the top Canadian Radler for many years, but now all the big breweries are making Radlers so that people will keep buying their products. Many people are willing to buy a Radler if it has Bud Light branding on it as they’re already familiar with the brand, rather than try a Radler from a small craft brewery in any pocket of the country.

While Waterloo seemed to be the most popular brand for Radlers for years, I found that Crafty Radler by New Brunswick-based Pump House Brewing had the top-selling craft Radler last year. Crafty Radler was so popular last summer that I saw people’s faces lighting up when they found out that the beer was back in stock after being sold out for a couple weeks.

First Draught — Lamp Lighter is the ideal brew to review in Cummings’ honour

I went on Facebook the other day and found out that Burton Cummings likely won’t be performing the national anthems at Bell MTS Place anytime soon as he got in a serious car accident in LA. To me, he is the personification of the typical Manitoban. So this week’s review is in honour of Brandon University honorary grad himself, Burton Cummings! I hope he gets better real soon.

BTW — Go onto YouTube and type the words “The Guess Who Tonight Show” (without quotations), and you will be in for a treat that was done only a few weeks ago — a “Tonight Show” parody of “American Woman” by Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Bacon!

To honour the Stacheman himself, I felt that Lamp Lighter by Trans Canada Brewing was the perfect brew to review as Burton Cummings was the celebrity Winnipeg Jets captain back in the early ’90s. Trans Canada Brewing is located right off Route 90 on Kenaston Boulevard near IKEA/Fort Garry Brewing, so I know that Cummings himself is familiar with the neighbourhood.

Lamp Lighter is described as being an easy drinking amber ale that’s brewed using traditional U.K. malts, imparting a deep red hue and subtle notes of caramel, raisin, and a hint of roast chocolate.

First Draught — New craft brewery serves up tasty IPA

I’m currently mourning the loss of my favourite India pale ale crystal glass I purchased at Hudson’s Bay for $9.99 back in 2014. As I was moving glasses around only moments before starting this review, my IPA glass fell and shattered into a million pieces at what seemed like 400 frames per second in slow-mo as I saw it happened. My gut sank and now I’m without an amazing IPA glass!

If you’re lucky enough to have a nice beer glass (even the nice free ones with a case of your favourite beer), treat them well and don’t put them near the ledge of any table, ever!

It’s about time to give an update on the Manitoba craft beer scene. Brasserie Nonsuch has been doing an amazing job with releasing a new Belgian-style beer every month or two. Many of you will know that their first batch of the Saison was overly carbonated, but their releases afterwards have been pretty spot on. Last week, they brought out their Belgian Strong Ale, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale that tops out at eight per cent ABV. This beer is in the same category as Unibroue’s Trois Pistoles. You can find this at the Corral Centre and South End Liquor Marts for $11 per 750-ml bottle.

Fort Garry has released their first Barley Wine called Cannon Fodder. Cannon Fodder retails for $9.20 per 650-ml bottle and is available at the Brandon South Liquor Mart.