Great Canadian Beer Festival--Notes

     On September 8 I found myself in Victoria, B.C., taking in the aforesaid festival held in a baseball stadium (home of the HarbourCats, who play in the West Coast League with the Bellingham Bells. the Wenatchee AppleSox, etc.).  The festival drew around ninety brewers, snuggled into some sixty-seven booths.  The very lively craft brewing scene here in British Columbia was here in full force but representation from the eastern end and middle of the country seemed slight.

     "Well, yes, it's not all that national," local beer writer Joe Wiebe told me.  "We have a couple of breweries from Quebec, a couple from Ontario--it's a big country and a long way to travel, from the Maritimes, say."  Joe added that the name, Great Canadian, had been the title of this festival from its beginnings, 26 years ago, the oldest festival in Canada held in an outdoor setting.
      I thought, of course, of the Great American Beer Festival, held in Denver every September like this one, and such a prestigious event brewers from every corner of our big country clamor to get in.  Denver is not too far from the middle of the USA, and it is the capital of a state so passionate about local beer they elected a craft brewer as governor.  Project Denver's longitude up into Canada and you are somewhere between Moose Jaw and Saskatoon, so you see the problem.
      Anyway, there were some fine beers pouring in Victoria that afternoon.  One of the more unusual was called Beets By Sinden, from Town Square Brewing in Edmonton (one of four Alberta brewers who pooled their resources to share a single booth).  Now, I didn't live twenty-plus years in Montana without knowing what beets meant in that part of the world--big foot long sugar beets.  But no, said the brewer, Drew Sinden, I'm using those dark red beets you get as a vegetable side. Adds tartness and a redder coloration to an ale.  Had to agree with the man, he made a tasty brew here.
     Another concoction caught my eye in the program: Wild Sour Lavender Gruit.  This came from Moody Brewing in the Vancouver suburb of Port Moody.  First time I tasted a lavender-bittered beer I spit it out, it was awful.  That was in Omaha. Second time I tasted one, in Anacortes, it was pretty good, I finished my festival four ounces.  This time it was damn good.  Stats per the program: 4.5% abv, zero IBUs.  And yet it had some distinctive bitterness, kind of a lemony finish.
      I found Field House Brewing in Abbotsford, visited once before, several years ago, and gladly had another wee glass of their Salted Black Porter (6.5% abv, 23 IBU).  The magic ingredient here is dutch droppies, a salted black licorice candy we can blame the Netherlands for.  Next time I'm in Lynden, Wash., I look for some. 
     My best-of-show was an IPA, so it must have been toward the end of my tastings.  Sip an IPA early in a festival and your scorched earth taste buds may not respond to any gentler brew.  This was called Passionfruit Destiny IPA and it is made by Fuggles and Warlock in Richmond, near the Vancouver airport,  6% abv and 62 IBU but not a hop bomb.  Infused with fresh passionfruit in the (secondary?) fermentation, it was just delicious. 
(Visited 09/08/18)