THE WAKKER WEEKLY
Issue #1556 – Posted on: 23-November-2020
BREWERY “HOP”PENINGS! Bushwakker Head brewer, Michael Gaetz, reports our seasonally available Ponce de Leon Blackberry Raspberry Ale, Premium Pale Ale and Chinook ESB are currently on tap. There are also batches of Blackberry Mead (which will be released on Saturday, December 5th but bottles are already available to pre-purchase on our website for curbside pick-up or take-out) working their way through the brewery.
BUSHWAKKER MEAD DAY 2020 is just two weeks away! Many folks have already safely pre-purchased our famous Blackberry Mead on-line. As is Bushwakker tradition, it will be released on the first Saturday in December which is December 5th this year. Due to the pandemic we certainly don’t want lots of people all huddled up waiting in line at this time. You can pre-purchase your mead bottles, mead masks, mead t-shirts and mead cheesecake by visting the BUY MEAD section of our website found at https://bushwakker.com/shop/ Choose from one of the many 30 minute time slots available and select if you would like curbside pickup at our back door or if you would like to come in through our back doors to pick it up yourself. We have a smaller supply of mead this year because our brewery was shut down for a number of months so order yours today to avoid disappointment!
Our NOVEMBER PREMIUM WINE FEATURES are from Chile. The red is Clos de Luz Arao Carmenere Blend. $8.95 for a glass and $23.95 for a half litre. The white is De Gras Reserva Fume Blanc. $7.95 for a glass and $21.95 for a half litre.
This weekend’s Special Dining Feature for November 20th & 21st is a GREY CUP BURGER & A PINT for $19.95. Our Saturday CLASSIC STEAK & A PINT SPECIAL for $21.95 will also be available.
In addition to taking our beer home in glass bottles, 2 litre jugs and growler fills direct from our pub, you can find a varying selection of 650 ml bottles of Bushwakker beer in ALL SIX REGINA SLGA stores, as well as METRO LIQUOR REGINA.
BUSHWAKKER GIFT CARDS are available in $25, $50 and $100 denominations. Give us a call at 306-359-7276 or stop by to get yours. They work very well with all dine-in or takeout food and craft beer desires!
BUSHWAKKER “NEW NORMAL” NOTES
Our Hours of Operation are Monday to Thursday from 11:30 AM until 9:00 PM and the kitchen closes at 8:00 PM. Fridays and Saturdays we open at 11:00 AM and close at 10:00 PM. Kitchen closes at 9:00 PM. We are still closed on Sundays at this time. Our takeout food and beer services will continue to be made available.
Masks are now mandatory. Our Provincial Government recently intensified its Public Health Order requiring the use non-medical face masks indoors. Consider our new “Bee Safe” Bushwakker Blackberry Mead Face Masks which are now available for advance purchase on our website at https://bushwakker.com/shop/This quality mask features must-have adjustable ear loops and a form-fitting front seam for improved breathability. A useful and special souvenir to remember one of the strangest Mead Days in history! Bar Manager Grant says they are super comfy!
Reservations are accepted and encouraged. We accept reservations as late as 6:00 PM from Monday to Saturday. Call at 306-359-7276 to secure your table. Please note under current guidelines the maximum number of people who can be seated at the same table is limited to six. Larger reservations must occupy more than one table and maintain physical distancing between each table.
Please continue to practice safe health and social distancing practices. Remain connected to one another and to us! In addition to this weekly newsletter, we are very active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Check-in with us often as we navigate these continually evolving times together. Try to support local businesses whenever possible. Be vigilant in your resolve to protect yourselves which in turn will protect others. Please don’t let your guard DOWN so the province can continue to open UP!
Our Football-themed Burger & a Pint Specials have been very well received this year. We look forward to Chef Mike’s most decadent gourmet burger of the year; his GREY CUP BURGER!
Book Review: Beer and Racism
By Bart Watson
This post will be a first for my blog: a book review. The book, Beer and Racism: How Beer Became White, Why it Matters, and the Movements to Change It by Nathaniel Chapman and David Brunsma was released in October as part of the “Sociology of Diversity” series from Bristol University Press.
The book is an academic book. I say that upfront to set expectations. There is plenty of very real, non-academic content that will be relevant to a non-academic industry participant, but to get to the content an industry member will likely find most valuable, you’ll need to work through (or skip) literature reviews, theoretical framing, and the trappings necessary for an academic volume. Skimming past the academic debates to get to the content may be worth the trouble. While I doubt many readers care where this work falls in the various academic literatures or the frequent citations of Bourdieu, many brewers might be wondering more urgently about their role in systemic change in this country and how our industry interacts with those larger questions.
In the same vein that this book is an academic work, it is not a “how to,” and there are few practical suggestions on how to build a diverse organization. If you’re looking for that, there are plenty of resources popping up. It is, however, theoretical background for those who are interested in learning about systemic racism, and more specifically, how those structures that have long driven inequality in American society have manifested themselves first in beer and brewing, and now craft brewing.
Taking a step back, much of the story is bigger than craft beer or even beer. At many times I was reminded of Garrett Oliver’s comments that were quoted in a recent Dave Infante piece: “craft beer is part of America, and America has problems.” The history that is laid out throughout the book makes this clear. That is not to say that the beer industry is blameless. Rather that the rules that shaped America’s relationship with beer, both formal laws and informal cultural and marketing practices, stretch back well before anyone marketed malt liquor or put the word “craft” in front of “beer.” From the places we have been welcomed to drink to the drinks we have been marketed, Americans have long faced very different worlds, including in beverage and hospitality, based on their race (and gender – although the book primarily focuses on race, sexism is often interwoven in the story).
If I could boil the central thesis of the book down to a sentence or two, it’s that the craft beer community and industry have both been created by networks that offer unequal access, something that many industry participants (specifically the white and male ones) are likely oblivious to; they miss the “forest for the trees.” Furthermore, these systems and networks are tough to break: it’s hard to introduce black people to craft beer in white spaces, and those spaces stay white without inviting in a black perspective to the industry side.
TIME OUT – A Bridge Too Far
A man was walking along a California beach and stumbled across an old lamp. He picked it up and rubbed it and out popped a genie.
The genie said “OK, OK. You released me from the lamp, blah blah blah. This is the fourth time this month and I’m getting a little sick of these wishes so you can forget about three. You only get one wish!”
The man sat and thought about it for a while and said, “I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii but I’m scared to fly and I get very seasick. Could you build me a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over there to visit?”
The genie laughed and said, “That’s impossible. Think of the logistics of that! How would the supports ever reach the bottom of the Pacific? Think of how much concrete…how much steel!! No-think of another wish.”
The man said OK and tried to think of a really good wish. Finally, he said, “I’ve been married and divorced four times. My wives always said that I don’t care and that I’m insensitive. So, I wish that I could understand women….know how they feel inside and what they’re thinking when they give me the silent treatment….know why they’re crying, know what they really want when they say ‘nothing’….know how to make them truly happy….”
The genie said, “You want that bridge two lanes or four?”
A sign o’ the times. This year’s commemorative Bushwakker Blackberry Mead T-shirt encourages us to take care of ourselves and of one another. Limited quantities are available. Order yours today for a December 5th takeout or curbside pickup https://bushwakker.com/shop/
