First Draught — Westman hops production jumps

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/09/2017 (2917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Here’s a quick update on Manitoba’s newest breweries: Stone Angel Brewing is now officially open as of last week at 1875 Pembina Ave. in Winnipeg. Their taproom is open Wednesday through Sunday if you happen to be in the neighbourhood. Oxus Brewing at 1180 Sanford St. in Winnipeg will be opening in the near future, right near Torque Brewing and Polo Park. Trans Canada Brewing will also be opening soon in the provincial capital, at 1290 Kenaston Blvd. (at Rothwell Road), only a block from Fort Garry Brewing and a short walk from Ikea.

As for new up-and-coming breweries outside Winnipeg, unfortunately there’s no news yet. It’s still crazy to think that only a year and a half ago there were two breweries operating in Manitoba, now there are more than a dozen. There hasn’t been this many breweries in Manitoba since the 1960s, and it’s absolutely great to see a brewery in western Manitoba (Farmery) operating for the first time since the 1930s.

Speaking of Farmery, they are currently harvesting their hop crop, so you should expect to see some specialty fresh hop-based products hitting the market later this year. This year’s harvest includes Cascade, Northern Brewer, Galena, Centennial, Chinook and Nugget strains of hops, so it’s quite the variety that will range from crisp, light and grassy lagers to sweet and citrusy, earthy and piney, and bitter styles of beer.

Farmery’s not the only hop farm in western Manitoba anymore. Just a mile north of the International Peace Garden is Prairie Mountain Hops, operated by Randy and Lyn Tye. The Boissevain operation has only been around for a year and they’ve seen an incredible interest in fresh hops from breweries from all over the region.

I was browsing Twitter back in January or February and noticed that some of my beer geek friends out of Alberta were chatting with Randy Tye, so I took a look at his Twitter profile and noticed he’s from Boissevain. It confused me why I never heard about this hop farmer, yet he seems to be in touch with a lot of Albertan beer geeks. Well, the reason was because he didn’t know who to get in contact with in the Manitoba beer scene, especially for western Manitoba, since the scene is still pretty much non-existent compared to Alberta, for now.

I met up with Tye to discuss this year’s harvest and beer in general. First off, growing hops is not an easy task as hop plants prefer a dry, climate with a lot of sun and minimal frost days — which thankfully Manitoba has in most years. Their hop harvest was finally completed last week and each vine was picked by hand, which Tye hopes he will never have to do ever again once he purchases an automated hop harvester in the near future. As for the demand, he has had breweries and home brewers from all over Manitoba and Saskatchewan interested in his hops, and Half Pints, Torque and PEG Brewing are all going to be brewing beer using his hops this autumn, so I hope that we will see some more Westman-hopped beer here in Brandon.

Some of the varieties of hops that Prairie Mountain Hops harvested in their first year include Cascade, Centennial, Willamette and Comet. Breweries in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan are asking him to brew more of specific strains of hops for next year’s harvest. It’s absolutely great to see something grown in Western Manitoba being in such great demand by breweries as far away as Saskatoon, and possibly even further in the future!

I asked Tye, “Why hops?” The original plan was to grow grapes as part of an eventual post-retirement project, but seeing that the region just can’t support wine-quality grapes, he realized that the 49th parallel is the best place in North America to grow hops, and that’s how Prairie Mountain Hops was born!

Tye wants to see more people getting into the beer industry by either growing hops or brewing beer themselves.

If you have any questions for Randy Tye, you can check out Prairie Mountain Hops at PrairieMountainHops.ca or on Twitter @PrairieMtnHops.

Since meeting up with Tye, I was really craving a bitter and hop-forward India Pale Ale, so I went with the IPA that I seem to buy every time I visit the 10th Street and Victoria Avenue Liquor Mart — Headstock by Nickelbrook Brewing out of Burlington, Ont.

Headstock is considered my ideal India Pale Ale. It’s a bitter, hop forward ale with a good deal of maltiness and beautiful appearance. The appearance is a heavy, cloudy orange body with a thick amount of beige head on top. The aroma gives off notes of pine, grapefruit, caramel, tea, lemon, a hint of biscuit and a nice floral presence. The flavour itself is for the most part reminiscent of the aroma. The first flavours that pop out are bitter pine followed by a rich, sweet caramel profile to it. There are also notes of green tea with lemon, grapefruit, and a combination of toasted barley and wheat cereal.

Headstock (seven per cent ABV) is one of the more bitter IPAs available in Manitoba, but smooth enough that I never experience any hop burns from this beer. You can find this at Liquor Marts in Killarney, Minnedosa and the 10th and Victoria location in Brandon for $3.61 per 473 ml can.

» Cody Lobreau is a Canadian beer blogger who reviews every beer he can get his hands on as he believes that he should try every beer twice to get an understanding if it’s truly good or bad. BeerCrank.ca