The barrage of columns coming out of my San Francisco trip have begun to appear. Actually the first one was two weeks ago on CBC, but they haven’t posted it online yet. This week my Vue Weekly piece appeared. In it I summarize, based upon my observations at the conference, some of the trends that I think may come to Canada in the next couple of years.
My theory is that what is happening in the States now will work its way up here – just like Double IPAs, Cascadian IPAs and the like. Some already have, like oak-aged beer. I only had room for a couple trends in the piece, but I think there are others as well. The CBC column went into a few others. One of the trends I mention I only touched on – going green. But there is lots of depths to plumb on that front. Many U.S. craft brewers are taking sustainability VERY seriously. Many of the things they are doing are economically feasible with our small breweries, but it is pretty inspiring. I will write more on that (and in fact, my CBC column today will talk about it).
I also want to highlight – as I mentioned in a post earlier – I also came away feeling like Canada’s craft brewers, while smaller, are making beer just as good as their American counterparts. Imagine what we could do with a population 10 times bigger?
April 15, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Good article. I’m not as sure that Canadian breweries measure up to the best of the States quite yet, but we’re getting there.
Noticed that you didn’t mention the American sour/wild ale trend, did you get a chance to try any while you were down there? That’s something that really hasn’t made its way into Canada yet, the only example that comes to mind is Trou du Diable’s Dulcis Succubis.
April 15, 2011 at 10:02 AM
Paul,
Your are right, I didn’t mention that – not enough space. I did have a few, mostly sour beer, with a couple with wild fermentation. I am not sure how much that trend will work its way up here. Most of the places that play with wild yeasts either specialize in it or, like New Belgium, have separate space for it. Not sure Canadian breweries will copy that soon. But it would be fun if they did.
Jason
April 15, 2011 at 11:47 AM
Both good articles(this & the Vue piece). Your mention of the oak or barrel aging reminds me of a couple Mikkeller beers I want to try – the Big Worst, a barleywine aged in bourbon barrels(19.1%) & the Black Cognac edition, an imperial stout aged 3 months in cognac barrels(17.5%). Oh, a great 3 person review of the Big Worst-from a Paris beer shop, no less-at http://www.heavyhops.com (and scroll down).
As for U.S. oak aged, I’m curious about the Oak-Aged Yeti’s from Great Divide Brewing in Colorado(among Numerous others). I’m purposely saving the bottle of Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron I got in Jan., since I hear it’s highly unlikely we’ll see too many-if any-Dogfish Head beers up here in the foreseeable future. It’s 12% abv, so it should improve with a bit of aging…although I’m not sure how long Sherbrooke had it.
April 15, 2011 at 2:58 PM
It was either a month or two, or about a year, depending on which case you got it from. We got two shipments, about a year apart. First one took forever to sell, second one was gone in a month or two. Either way, it should be fine.
April 16, 2011 at 10:28 PM
Thanks Jim, I had assumed it was ok – I’m looking forward to that one!
April 30, 2011 at 1:11 PM
Lots of room to grow in Canada. We can learn a lot about the US but would be nice to see more hop growers in the Ontario region like in the late 1800’s. The apparent golden age of hop growing and brewing. Maybe you can do some research and write about that and how we can get back into it? I love the idea of microbreweries growing their own barley and hops like Rouge…