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.

FIRST DRAUGHT — Steamworks’ red ale worthy of hero worship

Last week, Prairie Firehouse teamed up with Beau’s All Natural Brewing to do a one-night, six-course, six-beer event featuring some amazing dishes by chef Rebekah and team paired up with some interesting beers by Beau’s All Natural Brewing out of Vankleek Hill, Ont.

I’m a picky eater, so I gave the dishes I wouldn’t want to eat to my friend Patrick, but I found a lot of dishes that I absolutely loved! Each dish paired well with every specially selected Beau’s beer offering. At the event, I was mostly around people who I knew — a malt barley farmer, Patrick, a home brewer, and a local hop farmer, I was in good company! From the people I didn’t know I heard raving comments about the food and the beer — that’s always a good thing!

While not everybody is going to like the Tom Green Milk Stout, a lot of people seemed to like at least one or two of the beers offered.

Prairie Firehouse and Beau’s put on an absolute amazing beer pairing event that I can’t stop raving about — and the proceeds from the event will go to Brandon’s Food for Thought Program!

First Draught — Alcoholic root beer not for soda fans

Brandon restaurant Prairie Firehouse has teamed up with Ontario organic brewery Beau’s All Natural for a six-course beer and food pairing on Feb. 22. The dinner will be featuring special organic beers by Beau’s paired up with dishes specially crafted by Prairie Firehouse that match up perfectly with each beer. Proceeds from the event go to Brandon’s Food for Thought Program. Tickets are $65 and can be purchased at Prairie Firehouse.

Speaking of Beau’s All Natural Brewing, Beau’s own Halcyon Barrel House was rated as the fourth best new brewery in the world, according to the folks over at RateBeer.com. If a small-town rural Ontario barrel-aged brewery can make it onto RateBeer.com’s best new brewery list — it’s possible to see a Prairie brewery on that same list in a few years from now! Halcyon’s Infinity Mirror Brett IPA is now available in Manitoba, but only at the Quality Inn beer store in Winnipeg. I’m hoping to see a beer vendor here in Brandon bring this non-MLCC release beer to beer geeks here in Brandon, but I’m doubtful … so ask your favourite beer vendor to bring their beer in!

This week, I’m feeling that I might as well go for a soda. There’s an increasing variety of root beer-based beverages popping up in the Manitoba beverage scene, but unfortunately the one I was wanting to review for weeks — Not Your Father’s Root Beer — seems to be on hiatus here, but seeing that the stuff we got in Manitoba was a 4.5 per cent variety compared to 5.7 per cent that was common down in places like Minot, ND.

I’ve tried just about every other alcoholic root beer product out there, but then one stood out that I’ve never tried before — Hooper’s Alcoholic British Root Beer. I’ve heard in the past that the U.K. doesn’t really ever get as much of a root beer culture as we do here in North America, so it should be interesting to try something trying to replicate an American tradition, with a U.K. vibe to it.

First Draught — Can’t say enough good things about Glutenberg

There was a time when I believed there would never be such a thing as a good gluten-free beer available all over Manitoba, but there are now several options available through Glutenberg out of Quebec and Mongozo out of Belgium.

I was lucky enough to check out the Glutenberg Brewery back in June thanks to having a friend who was brewing at Glutenberg’s sister brewery. At Glutenberg I saw massive sacks of buckwheat and other various non-gluten grains being used to brew their beer.

The thing I like about Glutenberg is that they’re a craft brewery that’s experimenting with gluten-free ingredients for beer drinkers throughout Canada and the United States. They are considered one of the top gluten-free breweries in the world.

Manitoba has missed out on some of their more recent brews like their stout and thé houblonné (hopped tea ale), we currently have their Pale Ale Américaine, India Pale Ale and Blonde. The IPA is currently being discontinued, so you will see it on clearance in coming days, but their Pale Ale Américaine is currently on sale at Liquor Marts throughout Manitoba,

First Draught — Burly Wine a holiday delight for brew lovers

Though Winnipeg’s Nonsuch Brewing may not have a brick and mortar brewery up and running yet, that hasn’t stopped them from releasing their first beer.

Nonsuch is currently brewing out of Barn Hammer Brewing and had their first bottle release party a few weeks back. Their first offering is a Belgian-style Saison that tops out at 8.4 per cent ABV. It’s a sweet, yeasty and slightly barnyardy ale that Belgian beer fanatics will absolutely love.

Two of Nonsuch’s co-founders, Ben Myers and Tyler Johnson, are also originally from Brandon, so it’s awesome to see some local talent hitting the beer scene! Nonsuch’s Saison has only been out for a few weeks now but you can already find it in Brandon at the Corral Centre Liquor Mart for $12 per 750 ml bottle.

I’m incredibly biased as I’m a huge fan of Belgian-styles of beers more than most, but I think that Nonsuch will quickly turn into one of Manitoba’s top breweries, especially once they find a location for a brick and mortar brewery.

First Draught — Make mine a delicious dubbel

I went to a bottle share at my Dutch friend Yost’s place back in the summer, I brought a few beers including Unibroue 17 and a couple IPAs, while Yost took beers out of his beer cellar from his trips to Belgium.

One of the beers he was sampling was Corsendonk Pater Dubbel Ale. I love trying Belgian dubbels that I can’t get here in Manitoba, so I was absolutely excited that day. Fast forward three months later — I was visiting the 10th and Victoria Liquor Mart and noticed a few new random beers, two of them happened to be products by Corsendonk! The delicious Pater Dubbel Ale just happened to be one of the beers brought to Manitoba, the other being a Belgian tripel.

All I remember about Pater Dubbel Ale was how delicious it was, so that’s what I’m going to feature this week! Pater Dubbel pours a thick, dark brown body with a nutty brown/caramel hue, and a finger’s worth of yellowish-beige head on top.

The aroma is a sweet raisiny scent with earthy hops, bananas, caramel, a light doughiness, and faint notes of chocolate at the end. So far, this is pretty much on point what I would expect for the style, so that’s always a good sign!

First Draught — Shrugging Doctor cider appealing

Tis the season to buy beer gifts … Fa la la la la la la la!

The first advent calendar of the year, the International beer advent will be coming out today at select Liquor Marts at 9 a.m., mainly at the Dauphin, 10th & Victoria and South End Brandon Liquor Marts. The International advent calendar tends to be the one calendar that people want this year, but unfortunately each location only gets a few of them each year.

This year, 10th & Victoria will be getting in seven advent calendars, South End will be getting in four and Dauphin will be getting in six. I made my frustration known to Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries last year because they underestimated how many people would want to buy a calendar. I’ve voiced my disappointment for the lack of calendars again this year, so I likely won’t be buying one until I’m in Winnipeg a few weeks later. If you want to get a calendar, you will have to show up before the store opening (9 a.m.). Otherwise, no advent calendar for you … unless if you make a road trip to one of the many Winnipeg locations that may still have it in stock.

To me, advent calendars have been a Christmas tradition since I was old enough to eat — my mom would always buy me those cardboard box chocolate advent calendars. So now that beer advent calendars exist, I like to try a different beer each day, with trying out beers from places like Norway, Iceland and Australia. Some years I was lucky enough to get one of the six or seven advent calendars from 10th & Victoria, while other years I’ve paid friends to make me a custom-made calendar.

First Draught — Kicking off stout season with flavourful Sasquatch

The beer social networking and rating website Untappd released their list of the top (non-American) international sports venues with the highest amount of beer consumption.

Surprisingly, three of the top five venues were Canadian, but what was even more surprising is that Winnipeg’s Bell MTS Place was ranked as the stadium with the fifth-most beer checkins in the entire world.

For the beer drinkers who go to Bell MTS Place for a hockey game or for a concert, the only beer you can get there is produced by Labatt. Mill Street’s 100th Meridian Lager actually beat out Budweiser as the most popular beer for Untappd users at Bell MTS Place, which is a bit surprising because Budweiser is seen to be the default beer for Winnipeg Jets due to all the advertising and promotions through the past six years.

Hopefully one day we will also see beer brewed in Manitoba being served at Bell MTS Place. I can dream.

First Draught — Fuller’s Organic Honeydew Ale is sweet, naturally

This week, the beer is all about honey! Honey has been a part of beer for centuries now: macro breweries like Sleeman have their Honey Brown Ale, while many smaller craft breweries will actually make their own meads out of honey! Half Pints created an amazing white honey mead called Sweet Heidrun, which at 10.5 per-cent ABV, which was incredibly heavenly, sweet, syrupy, and may never be available in Brandon at this point.

I’ve been looking for a good honey-based beer rather than a mead for the last little while — I’ve tried Unibroue’s Lune de Miel but it is currently out of season, as well I’ve tried Little Brown Jug’s honey-based Golden Ale, but it was lacking the honey, and wasn’t available in Westman yet ... So, I needed to go out and find a honey-forward beer that’s worth savouring post-harvest.

The one beer that came up in my search was Fuller’s Organic Honeydew Ale. I have vivid memories of this beer back when there was a Liquor Mart at the Shoppers Mall — this beer seemed to be everywhere. I refused to try this beer for several years since because I just wasn’t interested in reviewing a “popular honey ale that you could get anywhere.” The thing is that I need to try everything that I feel will become the next big trend, and I know that honey ales and lagers will be a popular spring time seasonal style of beer in the coming months.

So, this week I am finally going out and checking out Fuller’s Organic Honeydew Ale. I love seeing new certified-organic beer here in Manitoba, and hope to eventually see organic grain farmers here in Westman being malted at organic malting facilities ... but until then, I have this beer and Beau’s All Natural for that.

First Draught — Westman hops production jumps

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.