What does it mean to be a Canadian craft brewery? Although provincial guidelines vary slightly, craft brewers across Canada follow the same operating principles: Craft breweries are independently owned and operated, where a large beverage company cannot be a controlling shareholder The brewery is small, producing no more than 400,000 hectolitres of beer per year,...

What are Cryo Hops?  Before diving right into the swirling whirlpool of Cryo Hops, let’s first look at how hops are used in brewing.  Hops are one of the 4 essential ingredients in beer, along with water, yeast and barley. Brewers may use either whole cone or pelletized hops, where whole cones are kept intact,...

What is a Hefeweizen? Hefeweizens are a type of weissbier or white beer, also commonly referred to as weizenbier, or wheat beer. Translated from German, hefeweizen means “yeast wheat,” an apt description as they are the two defining ingredients for the style. Malted wheat contains higher levels of protein, contributing to hefeweizen’s trademark cloudy appearance,...

What is Zoigl Beer?  Brewed for over 500 years, Zoigl is a style of beer made in accordance with traditional methods in five towns in the Oberpfalz, a region in eastern Bavaria that borders Czech Republic. Traditional Zoigl beer bottom-fermented beer, unpasteurized and unfiltered, brewed in the community brewhouse in the small towns of Eslarn, Falkenberg,...

History of Grisette  In the late 1800s, Southern Belgium’s Hainaut province became an industrial mecca, moving away from agriculture, into coal and stone mining. With industrialization on the rise, local brewers began producing beer for growing population of local miners. Saison was the brew of farmhands, and grisette became the brew of miners. The term...

What is a Czech Pilsner? The origins of pilsner beer dates back to 1842, named after the ancient city of Plzen, now part of Western Czech Republic, where the beer was first brewed. Prior to the advent of pilsner, beer drinkers were only accustomed to dark, heavy, cloudy beers. This Plzen brew is renowned for...

What is Nitro Beer?  Most beer is carbonated through CO2, both naturally through fermentation and additionally through forced carbonation. To achieve peak effervescence, carbon dioxide is injected into the beer, pressurizing bottles, cans, or kegs.  Nitro beer differs in that it contains a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, where nitrogen accounts for 70-75% of...

What makes beer like Al’s Cask Ale so special? Read on. Definition of “Cask Ale” Cask ale is unfiltered and unpasteurized. Traditionally cask ale is also cask-conditioned, undergoing a secondary fermentation in the cask. This contrasts with “keg beer” which is generally filtered and carbonated. Cask-conditioned beers are also referred to as “real ales”. Beer...

History of Tequila & Mezcal The origin of fermenting agave began somewhere between 1000 B.C. and 200 A.D., where pulque, a drink made from fermented sap of the agave plant, was first documented on a stone carving from 200A.D. A prized drink among the Aztecs communities, it is thought that pulque may have existed as...

What is an English bitter? A modern bitter describes a subset of English pale ales that are gold to dark amber in colour, ranging in strength from 3% to 7%. The description of bitter is fairly vague, mostly because regional differences and variation between breweries make it difficult to precisely define. Historical Bitter In the early 19th century,...