The Hidden Recordings

Happy Friday!

Hey look, it’s a new look for us! 👀 

With a new logo, we’re sure you feel compelled to share The Beer Loop with all your friends. That’s how it works, right? With the new look, we’ve also launched our Twitter feed and have started posting on Instagram with more regularity, so give us a follow if you don’t follow us already!

In today’s issue:

• We launch our podcast! 🎧️

• Our new beer release list contains 21 new beers

• We review your vote for which beer styles should go trendy in 2023

• Our featured event is perfect for Lagerheads

• Our crossword requires careful reading of new beer releases

Enjoy the weekend!

— Joseph Lavoie

FEATURED NEW BEER RELEASE

Featured Beer

This week’s featured beer is actually a six-for-one. Field House has a new mix-pack called the Sour Six Mix, featuring fruit-forward flavours complemented with dry-hopping notes. It’s the 2023 take on what has become an annual release for Field House. This year’s full roster:

🥭 Mango Citra Sour Ale

🍹 Guava Simcoe Sour Ale

🍒 Cherry Mosaic Sour Ale

🍓 Strawberry Belma Sour Ale

🟢 Key Lime Sour Ale

🌵 Prickly Pear Talus Sour Ale.

We love this fun concept, seeing how different hop combinations can enhance fruit flavours in beer.

• Available: on tap at the brewery and in 6-packs to go. Hitting liquor stores soon.

Ales

• Another Beer Co fell in love with Kölsch last year and has a new one for us all to try. It looks beautiful.

• Old Yale’s new single batch limited release, Citra Extra Pale Ale, is a single malt, single hop brew promising lots of juicy tangerine, lemon and grapefruit flavours.

• Container is bringing back its Irish Red Ale, Madra Rua, in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The colour looks stunning.

• Beacon Brewing’s Dielectric Dark Ale is like a pale ale in bitterness and a rich coffee in the finish.

IPAs

• Farm Country has a new small batch Double IPA called Lupus Humongous, a big hoppy ale with notes of orange and pine on the nose and a balanced/dry finish.

• Old Abbey Ales has a new Hazy. New Horizons comes in at 6.5 ABV and 36 IBUs.

• Camp Beer Co’s latest Xperimental IPA features three experimental hop varieties to bring out a burst of zesty tang.

• Backcountry’s new West Coast IPA features Mosaic hops and weighs in at a comfortable 5.3 ABV. It’s called, “They Didn’t Even Massage The Kale”.

Stouts

• Dageraad is back with Alone Under the Vast Indifference of the Sky, an imperial stout that is “Strong, dark and threaded with sour cherry and brett funk”. It also sports robots notes of coffee and dark chocolate.

• Callister’s The Darkest of Times was brewed during the first months of the pandemic and has been aging ever since in a Rye Whiskey barrel. Made with cacao nibs, brown sugar, maple syrup, lactose and fresh Rye, this 40-litre batch won’t last long at the brewery.

Sours

• Brewhall’s latest Mighty Morphin Sour Ranger is Green Ranger, brewers with kiwi and fresh lime zest.

• 3 Dogs Brewing has a Smokey Mezcal Sour on tap now.

• Farm House has brought back its Blackberry Peach Cobbler Sour.

• Backcountry’s Orange Creamsicle Sour makes a return today.

• Luppolo has a special one-off keg to celebrate Black History Month. It’s a blackberry sour that also features Strata, Bella, and HBC 630 hops. It has an incredible pink colour.

🎧️ PODCAST

Beer Loop Talks with Strange Fellows’ Co-Founder

I’ve previously shared with you that I spent 2022 writing a business plan to launch a brewery in the Lower Mainland but concluded that I couldn’t make the numbers work.

As I was writing the plan, I sought the advice of brewery founders, professional brewers, lawyers, and industry friends. I recorded some of those conversations with the original intent of producing a podcast that would follow my journey from concept, to build, to launch.

These recordings have sat on my hard drive for months and I hated the idea of them never seeing the light of day because of my decision to abandon the brewery project. And then it struck me: Beer Loopers might want to hear these conversations! We’re going to release these conversations in what will be our first 5-episode season of The Beer Loop Talks podcast.

Our first episode is now available and it’s a fascinating conversation with Aaron Jonckheere, co-founder of Strange Fellows. Aaron covers:

• How he and his business partner almost broke off the project because of a disagreement on what to name the brewery

• The highs and lows of launching a brewery

• Who you should recruit on your brewery startup dream team

• And his two favourite Strange Fellows beers

You can listen and subscribe here. Also available on Spotify. Episode Two drops in two weeks.

BREWING TRENDS

Last week we asked you which beers you would like to see go mainstream in 2023. Looks like you still love hazy IPAs!

Do we have too many breweries in BC?

🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ (19%) Kölsch

🟫 🟫 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ (13%) Altbier

⬛️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ (3%) Rauchbier

⬛️ ⬛️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ (10%) Black IPA

🟧 🟧 🟧 🟧 🟧 (39%) Even MORE Hazy IPAs

🟦 🟦 🟦 ⬜️ ⬜️ (16%) Other

Your perspective:

• L.S: “Long Live the Gose!!!!!! 🥰 ”

• K.X: “Adambier! Temporal did a good one, based on the excellent and sorely missed Hair of the Dog.”

• Kyle: ”ESB. It’s such an underrated style that is flavourful and easy drinking.”

• D.M: “Looking for more days full of haze!”

• R.C: “Never enough IPAs”

BEER ETIQUETTE

Courtney Iseman recently shared an essay on the awkwardness of sending back bad beer. How familiar is this story?

She makes a couple points that resonate with me:

1. You should never drink a bad beer

2. You should never be an asshole to a bartender

3. You should absolutely send back bad beer and not fear about it becoming a “thing”. Just be nice, let them know you do not like it and want something else and only offer your assessment that its off, if asked.

What do you think? You’re sat at the bar of a neighbourhood pub or restaurant, take that first sniff and sip of beer and it’s off. You take a second and third sip just to be sure and realize you really don’t want to spend $9 on a pint of beer that’s off. How do you react?

If you only do one thing this weekend

Studio Brewing is celebrating its second birthday with a BIG Party that’s perfect for Lagerheads like me. But also, for anyone, since there’s fresh beer, new beers, guest taps from Steel & Oak and 33 Acres, live music and bratwurst.

• Six lagers will be flowing, including a new German Festbier

• A new beer release called Blessings in Disguise, a Cranberry Orange Sour

• Bratwurst pop-up featuring Legends Haul

Lager Fest kicks off at noon tomorrow at Studio Brewing’s taproom.

Also happening this weekend

🎪More than 20 breweries are participating in the 2023 Sunshine Coast Beer Festival tomorrow.

🤣 It’s comedy night at Old Abbey, ce soir, with four comedians. Tickets $20.

🍴 Taste of the Tri-Cities continues this weekend. An annual food and drink festival that showcases restaurants and breweries from Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. Moody Ales and Mariner Brewing are some of the breweries participating.

🧘 Container Brewing is offering a beer yoga session tomorrow.

🎵 Live Music Sundays at Dead Frog, 230pm-6pm.

🪕 Sunday Funday at Smuggler’s Trail, featuring The Contingency.

Upcoming Events

🎤 North Point is hosting a comedy night on Tuesday February 28 and tickets are only $22.

🏃‍♀️ Steel & Oak hosts a run club every Wednesday night. Run 3km or 5km to earn that beer!

♟️ Container Brewing is hosting a regular games night, with the next sessions taking place on the first and third Tuesday of every month. Seating is limited, so you'll need to get a ticket.

🎨 Red Arrow is hosting a paint party on March 6th. Tickets $45.

🧘 Patina Brewing is hosting a mindful brewing tasting yoga class on March 11.

⚽️ Cumberland Brewing Co. has Foosball Tuesdays for the entire month of January and February, starting at 3pm. Bring a partner or come solo.

👢 Farm Country Brewing has a tap takeover on International Women’s Day, featuring 9 beers and 1 cider brewed specifically for this one-day event. Proceeds will go to Pink Boots Society and the Ishtar Women’s Resource Society in Langley. March 8.

🌭 KPU Langley Campus is hosting Food Truck Wars, with 45+ Food Trucks, a beer garden, and live entertainment from March 31-April 2.

🎪 Brewhalla is back in Fort Langley on Saturday, May 20th for the 6th annual craft beer and music festival.

🤯 Trivia Nights

• Every Monday at Smuggler's Trail in Langley

• Every Tuesday at Old Yale in Chilliwack

• Every Tuesday at Farm Country in Langley

• Every Wednesday at Moody Ales in Port Moody

• Every Thursday at 3 Dogs Brewing in White Rock, it’s music trivia.

GAMES

How closely did you read this week’s new beer release list? Test yourself in this week’s crossword?

STREAM AND PAIR

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Beer Loops you may have missed

• With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, we have a Style Explorer for Dry Irish Stout - read more

• Who was voted top brewery on Vancouver Island? - find out

• Beer Pairing: Chicken and waffles - read more

• The best beers of January - read more

• Dageraad's marketing lead curates his favourite BC beers - read more

A READER’S REVIEW

Brent, you rock!

^{If you didn’t like today’s newsletter, could you let us know why? We’re constantly looking to improve. And if you loved it, tell us why, it’s better than a free beer. Well,}