THE WAKKER WEEKLY
Issue #1558 – Posted on: 07-December-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. Our brand new Orangerine (Orange & Tangerine) Ale is currently available in our offsale and will be on tap soon. Our famous Blackberry Mead will be released on tap and in bottles on Saturday, December 5th. Many folks have already pre-purchased their mead on our website for curbside pick-up or take-out but bottles will also be available in our offsale cooler.
BUSHWAKKER MEAD DAY 2020 is Saturday, December 5th! It was right down to wire in getting the final bottles filled for the big day. Thank you to the many folks who took advantage of this year’s new service and pre-purchased our famous Blackberry Mead on our website. We will of course have mead bottles in our offsale cooler at the end of the bar. We will also have our new “Bee Safe” mead masks, “Bee Safe” mead t-shirts and Blackberry Mead cheesecake available!
BUSHWAKKER GIFT IDEAS FOR YOUR SASKATCHEWAN BREWPUB LOVER!
Perhaps one of our brand new Bushwakker Mead masks or a “Bee Safe” Blackberry Mead t-shirt. Our “Craft Beer Pioneer” t-shirts and classic Joe Fafard designed t-shirts are a timeless gift which are uniquely Saskatchewan. Bushwakker Growler Gift Boxes include your choice of a glass or insulated black stainless steel Bushwakker Joe Fafard growler, two pint glasses and a gift certificate redeemable for a growler fill. Our Christmas Variety Six-Pack features some of our seasonal and specialty offerings including bottles of Blackberry Mead and “Missile”tow Christmas Ale (available December 12th), our ornate fancy Hop Handle Growler Christmas Package with 2 Glasses and a Growler Fill is also back by popular demand…and you can’t go wrong with a Bushwakker gift card available in $25, $50 and $100 denominations. They work very well with all dine-in or takeout food and craft beer cravings!
DECEMBER PREMIUM WINE FEATURES. The red is Carmen Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon Single Vineyard from Chile. The white is Toasted Head Chardonnay from California. Both are $8.95 for a glass and $23.95 for a half litre.
This weekend’s Special Dining Feature for December 4th and 5th is a STEAK & ALE POT PIE for $18.95. 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.
Can’t have a Mead Day without our famous Blackberry Mead Cheesecake! Be sure to stop in for a slice or order one to go this Saturday, December 5th!
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.
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 the new provincial guidelines the maximum number of people who can be seated at the same table is now limited to four. Larger reservations must occupy more than one table and maintain three meters of 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 open back UP!
Commemorate the strangest Mead Day in Bushwakker history! Special “Bee Safe” Mead t-shirts and face masks will be available.
‘People Can’t Seem to get Enough’: Mead Having a Renaissance in Saskatchewan
Emily Pasiuk · CBC News · Posted: Dec 03, 2018
Editor’s note: This year’s Bushwakker Mead Day will look quite different from previous years. We certainly cannot have a legion of Blackberry Mead fans all huddled together waiting in line during a pandemic. We are very happy with your positive response to our brand new mead curbside pickup and takeaway option which we introduced in mid-November. We will still have mead bottles available in our offsale cooler at the end of the bar and invite all to join us in our physically-distanced pub for a goblet or two of our Christmas specialty honey nectar. Please enjoy this story which Emily wrote two years ago.
Mead has essentially three ingredients — honey, water and yeast — but a mead brewer would probably tell you the drink has a world of possibilities. You can add berries, apples, spices, peppers, currants and grains. The list goes on. The versatile beverage is thought to be among the oldest fermented drinks in the world, and mead is having a resurgence right here in Saskatchewan.
Grant Frew, bar and marketing manager at Bushwakker in Regina, said that mead is unique for a few reasons. “People tell me, and pardon the pun, but it’s a different kind of buzz that they get off of mead,” he said. “The fact that we ferment it out a little bit more than normal, it’s a little bit dryer but still lots of fruity flavour. You can taste the honey, but there’s not that cloying amount of sweetness. “Bushwakker famously makes blackberry mead, and releases it once a year on the first Saturday of December. Some years, people have lined up for blocks just to get a case.
Tents line the street in front of Bushwakker Brewpub on Saturday in anticipation of the release of their blackberry mead. (Emily Pasiuk/CBC News)
Frew said that over the years, the ancient drink has risen in popularity. “A few years ago, we were really the only game in town,” he said. But now, there are more locations in Regina producing mead. Saskatchewan’s first brewery dedicated to mead, Prairie Bee Meadery, recently opened in Moose Jaw.
A look at two past blackberry meads from Bushwakker. (Emily Pasiuk/CBC News)
Rebellion Brewing Co., just down the street from Bushwakker, is also brewing its own mead. Mark Heise, president of Rebellion, started out by brewing mead at home. When he opened the brewery, he carried the recipe over. “People can’t seem to get enough,” he said. Heise said that the increase in mead popularity has been dramatic. They are sending their first shipment of mead to Alberta next week.
Local ingredients
Both Heise and Frew use local ingredients. Heise gets the fruit for the mead he makes at Over the Hill Orchard just outside of Lumsden and Frew said they source their honey from a producer in Lumsden as well.
Heise said that he originally got into mead because he knew there were quality local ingredients in the province. “The benefit of having such a strong agriculture sector here is that we basically have the world’s bread basket and fruit basket and honey basket all right here in our own backyard,” he said.
Bushwakker’s honey producer saves them the darkest, best honey every year. “A lot of people akin our blackberry mead release to being a truly Saskatchewan experience,” Frew said. “I think there’s a lot of warm fuzzies attached to our blackberry mead release. A lot of Saskatchewan pride.” Frew said he loves that the mead is different every year because of the variations in the honey. “It ages wonderfully,” he said.
Mead Day
Some mead fans still line up in the early hours of the morning to get their hands on Bushwakker’s concoction. You don’t have to line up anymore since the brewery changed their buying rules, but some diehard fans do it for the tradition.
Curtis Mang has been coming for mead at Bushwakker for 11 years now. “[It has] become a tradition that is known throughout Regina and to uphold it, keep it going, is a lot of fun,” he said. Mang said he loves meeting people in line every year and seeing some old faces too.
Curtis Mang stands surrounded by friends old and new with past bottles of Bushwakker mead. He still lines up every year to buy it. (Emily Pasiuk/CBC News)
“Some of these people I only see once a year so every single year it’s ‘There’s White Boots, there’s Facemask’,” he said. “The idea of the line has just become a tradition for those who did it years back when you needed to. And it’s not a thing you have to do, it’s a thing you do.”
TIME OUT – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1. Good: Your wife is pregnant.
Bad: It’s triplets.
Ugly: You had a vasectomy five years ago.
2. Good: Your wife’s not talking to you.
Bad: She wants a divorce.
Ugly: She’s a lawyer.
3. Good: Your son is finally maturing.
Bad: He’s involved with the Woman next door.
Ugly: So are you.
4. Good: Your son studies a lot in his room..
Bad: You find several porn movies hidden there.
Ugly: You’re in them.
5. Good: Your husband understands fashion.
Bad: He’s a cross-dresser.
Ugly: He looks better than you.
6. Good: You give the “birds and bees” talk to your daughter.
Bad: She keeps interrupting.
Ugly: With corrections.
Masks will be a popular stocking stuffer this year. New Bushwakker branded green and white masks and Bushwakker “Bee Safe” mead masks are a great way to show your local support and pride!
