Tasting tips for International Beer Day

After a hot day mowing the lawn or digging in the garden, prairie folk hardly need an excuse to enjoy a perfectly chilled beer. But if you were looking for one, International Beer Day 2026 takes place on Friday, August 7. Your excuse would be even better if you made that cold one a locally produced craft beer.

Manitoba has about 26 craft breweries and brewers are highly creative. If you are wanting to expand your palate, a little know-how is in order.

Sidney and Laryssa Stevenson run Section 6 Brewery (section6brewing.ca) a craft brewery and taproom in Brandon and are happy to share their expertise on what is behind all those flavours.

To start, all beer has the same four basic ingredients: malt, hops, yeast, and water.

“Malt is going to give you sugars, which are what we turn into alcohol. That’s going to give you the base, that mouthfeel, that richness. With the yeast, there’s a huge variety and that can really affect the flavour and the mouthfeel, and how much of those sugars are going to get turned into alcohol,” Laryssa says.

“Then we have hops. And hops are grown all over the world and there are many different varieties. That’s what gives beer its extra flavours.”

Hops add a great deal to the flavour depending on how much is added and at what stage they are introduced into the brewing process resulting in a flavour range from subtle and delicate to big and bold.

“You can use the same hop at different points in the brewing process and get different flavour profiles, aromas or bitterness – different expressions of the same hop. That was a really interesting way for us to experiment and tweak our recipe.”

Finally, water is the main ingredient. Stevenson says it’s important as a “clean base” and that brewers are fortunate to have good quality water in Manitoba.

All beers fall into two categories: lagers and ales. Sid explains the difference.

“Lager is fermented at a cold temperature. And those beers tend to have a very crisp flavour,” he says.

“Ales are fermented out at warmer temperatures and they tend to have a little bit more of a roundness to them. They tend to be a little more full-bodied.”

He adds that lagers are more popular in the west.

“That’s what all the domestic beers are. They’re very familiar and that’s what a good beer is. And that’s our top seller,” he says.

As a rule of thumb, lighter beers, like light lagers, should be served at around 2 C to 4 C. Darker beers like ambers, browns and stouts are traditionally served at around 8C to 10C, however, tastes in Manitoba lean toward cooler temperatures.

The criteria for tasting beer include: appearance (colour, head/foam), aroma (what you can smell in the beers before you taste), flavour (sweetness, bitterness etc), and mouthfeel (the texture on the tongue, crisp or creamy, heavy, carbonated).

“Aroma to me is my favourite thing because as I’m pouring the beer, especially our IPA (India Pale Ale), which we dry hop (adding hops after fermentation so as not to add bitterness), we get all these really fresh pineapple and mango aromas — you’re enjoying this beer before you’re even tasting it,” Laryssa says.

Appearances can vary from very light coloured to less familiar fruited beers which are rich in colour to hazy-looking like some East Coast IPAs.

Every style of beer has its own traditional style of serving glass, but most Canadians aren’t that particular, however it is important to pour beer into a glass to enjoy the aroma, which contributes to the experience of the taste.

When people first come into the brewery they will ask “what’s a good beer?” Laryssa says it really comes down to personal preference. For new folks she suggests a simple approach.

“When people come in to try beer, I give them a little sample to try and it’s thumbs up or thumbs down,” she says.

“If Sid is behind the bar, he’ll get into it and explain everything with them. If you’re an experienced beer drinker and you’ve had many different types of craft beer, it’s really fun to get into.”

A popular way to sample a few different beers at once is to enjoy a “flight” where small samples of four different varieties are presented at once. (A “flight” refers to a grouping of similar things.)

“When we pour flights, we always pour from the lightest, cleanest style to the heaviest, the darkest, the most flavourful. So something like a light crisp lager, you want to drink first and save heavy East Coast IPAs and brown ales, stouts, and fruited beers until the end,” Laryssa says.

With heavier beers first, the flavour will linger on the tongue making it difficult to clearly taste the lighter samples. A glass of water between can cleanse the palate. And there’s no need to be intimidated.

“In Brandon, we are just beginning our craft beer journey and I don’t want people to think that enjoying these different flavours is beyond them or too fancy for them. It’s really simple and enjoyable and it’s a fun outing. We don’t want people to over complicate things,” Laryssa says.

“We brew so much really good beer in Manitoba. And taking a cruise down the craft beer aisle at the Liquor Mart, you can get some of the best beer in the world that’s created right here in Manitoba.”

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