THE WAKKER WEEKLY
Issue #1564 – Posted on: 18-January-2021
BREWERY “HOP”PENINGS! Bushwakker Head brewer, Michael Gaetz, reports our seasonally available Orangerine (Orange & Tangerine) Ale, Premium Pale Ale and Chinook ESB are currently on tap! There are also 13 other year round brews to choose from making a total of 16 Bushwakker brews currently available. Our brand new Red Currant Ale is also working its way through the brewery!
Bushwakker head brewer, Michael Gaetz, and his brewery team are excited to release the biggest beer in Bushwakker history! On Saturday, January 23rd at 11:00 AM sharp our 30th Anniversary American Barleywine (12.6%) will be available on tap and in 300 limited edition wax-dipped bottles!
Bushwakker 30th Anniversary Bison Tenderloin Dinner (available after 5:00 PM)
STARTER: Choice of:
Artisan Salad – rocket greens, gala apples, pecans, Saskatoon berries, pickled red onions, goat cheese and radish tossed in an apple cider vinaigrette and topped with sweet potato chips.
OR
Creamy Wild Rice & Trout Soup – a medley of seasonal vegetables, mushrooms and wild rice finished with cedar plank Diefenbaker trout and fried bread croutons.
MAIN: Coffee Rubbed Bison Tenderloin – Saskatchewan bison from Quill Creek is slow roasted and infused with a 30th Anniversary barleywine juniper berry demi-glaze. Served with smoked mushroom potato hash, candied carrots with squash butter and toasted pumpkin seeds.
OPTIONAL DESSERT: Sticky Toffee Pudding Barleywine Cheesecake
JANUARY PREMIUM WINE FEATURES. From the Pelee Island Winery in Ontario. The red is Baco Noir Reserve and the white is a Gewurztraminer. Both are $7.95 for a glass and $21.95 for a half litre.
This weekend’s Special Dining Feature for January 15th and 16th is a SHRIMP & SAUSAGE VERMICELLI 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.
Our Pecan Pies and Cheesecakes certainly received much of your attention last month. Let’s not forget about our signature CHOCOLATE STOUT CAKE served warm with a side of vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate rum porter sauce! Available in-house or to go. Order by the slice or call Kelly ahead of time to get an entire cake!
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!
As we get ready for our 30th Anniversary we reflect on the beer that started it all! The late Bushwakker co-founder and president, Bev Robertson, won the “Best of Show” award in The Great Canadian Homebrew Competition on October 25, 1986. This impressive win gave him the confidence to take his beers to the commercial level and was an important step in the fruition of your Bushwakker Brewpub five years later. Palliser Porter is in the style of a Robust Porter with a malty sweetness balanced by both hops and burnt malt. Palliser was the explorer who claimed much of the Canadian prairie was unsuitable for agriculture.
2021 Trends in Craft
By: Jonathan Ingram
The year 2020 was a bummer. So, let’s move on. But first, there’s the business of craft beer to consider and how it has weathered a pandemic year.
Just looking at the beer headlines and what’s trending about beer on Twitter as the year came to a close could be a perilous pursuit, because the headlines and stories emphasize problems such as a shortage of cans just when they’re needed the most—by everybody from Coca-Cola to craft brewers. There’s more fallout than usual when it comes to closings and bankruptcies. And then there’s the eternal 2020 weirdness such as sales of beer for off-premises consumption, although it increased year-over-year, beginning to lag behind wine and spirits.
When money and jobs are tight and people are drinking far more often at home instead of restaurants, bars or taverns due to a pandemic, one would expect relatively affordable beer sales to be strong. People may be drinking more alcohol in some quarters to cope, but some are drinking less due to job losses, which may be higher among those who often buy beer.
However, as Brewers Association founder Charlie Papazian often stated in his best-selling homebrewing book The Complete Joy of Homebrewing: “Don’t worry, have another (my substitution here) extraordinary craft beer innovation like a juicy or hazy IPA.” The sales of this style, as time and the pandemic march on, are among the leaders in retail sales.
It is worth asking just how it’s going with innovation in craft brewing. Apparently, there’s more emphasis than ever on existing flagships when it comes to drink-at-home packaged beer. Two of craft’s best-known beers, New Belgium Brewing’s Fat Tire and The Boston Beer’s Samuel Adams Boston Lager,” have reversed losses of market share and red ink suffered in 2019.
Draft beer, the crucible of innovation in taprooms and brewpubs, remains a quandary in terms of sales. An unverified anecdotal viewpoint by this writer – due to a lack of travel but no lack of visiting local taproom emporiums with carryout or outdoor seating – indicates that innovation continues. If the market is sick, what better medication than producing new, exciting beers?
Some segments that are measured in off-premises buying trends continue going forward from 2019. Hard seltzer sales continue to increase by astounding amounts, which only serves to put more pressure on can manufacturers and smaller brewers when it comes to accessing the retail market. White Claw’s variety pack, for example, ranked eighth in the Top 100 brand sales of IRI Worldwide tracking of retail sales, just behind Budweiser.
TIME OUT – The Dietition
A dietitian was once addressing a large audience at a health conference:
“The material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us sitting here, years ago. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks erode your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. Vegetables can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by the germs in our drinking water.
“But there is one thing that is the most dangerous of all and we all have eaten or will eat it. Can anyone here tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?”
A 75-year-old man in the front row stood up and said, “Wedding cake!”
