and here are my notes from yesterday's beer column on cbc radio's on the coast with stephen quinn:
Bridge Brewing, of North Vancouver, hosted a 10k run on
Saturday morning – the first of what will hopefully become an annual event. 50 runners met at the brewery at 9:00 and
went for a 10k run. Nothing too exciting
about that. Proceeds went to the Harvest
Project – a worthy cause to support for sure, but what made this run worth
telling you all about is the growlers.
Of the 50 people registered for the run, a full half of them ran with
two full growlers. That’s about 10 extra
pounds these folks lugged up hill and down for 10 kilometres. I myself did not carry the growlers, but the
people who did have my respect – it was not easy! People carried them on their shoulders, laid
them on their forearms and dangled them from their thumbs – and for their
troubles? Bridge Brewing is filling
those growlers for them, two fills per week, for a month. Oh, and they get bragging rights! I do have to add though, that the growlers
were full of water during the run, which a couple of runners poured over each
other at the finish line!
Changing topics, do you really convert non-beer drinkers into beer
geeks? Will they all start running races
with growlers?
“Convert” maybe isn’t the right word to use, that does make
it sound like beer geeks are a cult, but the phenomenon is quite similar. I love beer, we all know that, and I talk
about it a lot. Often I’ll mention beer
to someone and they’ll tell me they don’t really like beer. I ask them what kinds they have tried and
what they don’t like about it. Most of
the time they’ve only had yellow fizzy beer.
Some don’t like how full the carbonation makes them feel, some cite the
flavour as what they don’t like. If they
seem open to the idea, I suggest that I can help them find a beer more to their
liking – that there is a whole world of other beers out there that perhaps they
might like. So far, everyone who has let
me introduce them to that wide world of beers has found at least one style they
like. In fact, some of them got so much
enjoyment out of finding a beer that they like that they went on their own beer
journey and found others.
Depending on what they say they do like, I try to find a
beer that would be a good fit. So for
someone who drinks ciders or fruity cocktails, I usually suggest a fruit
beer. For someone who thinks beers are
too heavy, I suggest a refreshing wheat ale or a crisp pilsner. A coffee lover might find a coffee porter to
be their gateway beer. Its a challenge,
but I really enjoy trying to think of a beer that would be similar enough to
things they like to give them a positive experience of beer.
I have been very successful in introducing a few non-beer
drinkers to beer. In that I’m at
100%. In introducing craft beer to a
main-stream beer drinkers though, while I have been very successful there too,
I’m not at 100% - there’s still one hold-out!
A friend who just won’t stray from her mainsteam lagers. But you know what, she tried some craft beers
and found that she prefers her beers.
And that’s okay. It takes all
kinds! But in my experience she is the
exception to the rule. Everyone else I
have introduced to craft beer has embraced it.
Sure, some of them still drink mainstream lagers, but not all the time! And I love when they text me or call me to
tell me about some new craft beer they tried and loved. Or that they are turning into a hop
head. Several of my friends who started
their craft beer journey with fruit beers are now drinking ipas and sours and
barrel-aged brews and loving them. And
buying bottles to cellar. They join
CAMRA and have started to convert their friends to craft beer as well. Which makes it sound like a cult again, but
its not! Its not about stats, for me its
about sharing something I love with other people. I can’t believe how many people profess to
like beer and yet never try anything except a fizzy yellow lager – I just want
to show them there are other things out there.
And for those who have only ever tried the fizzy yellow lager and not
liked it, I want to make sure they know that not all beers are created equal
and if they look a little further afield, they won’t have to miss out on the
sociability of beer drinking.
Is there one “gateway” beer that converts people to craft
beer in large numbers? There is, and it is a surprising one because it is an
ipa. Normally a very hoppy beer is not
one that you would give to someone you are trying to turn into a beer drinker
because hop bitterness seems to be an acquired taste rather than an inherent
one. But Fat Tug by Driftwood Brewing in
Victoria is an ipa that most people love – even though it is 80 ibus and 7%
alcohol by volume. There’s just something
about its citrusy goodness, those notes of grapefruit, mango, melon and
passionfruit that has turned all my friends who were not hop fans into
hopheads. I wouldn’t give it to someone who
didn’t already like beer though – its not a gateway to beer, its a gateway to
craft beer!
Beer Picks:
In honour of election day, I have four beer picks – a green one, a
blue one, an orange one and a red one!
Green: Nickelbrook
Organic Lager
Blue: Phillips Blue
Buck
Orange: Elysian
Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale Ale
Red: Elysian Men’s
Room Red
