THE WAKKER WEEKLY
Issue #1655 – Posted on: 17-October-2022
BREWERY “HOPP”ENINGS: Bushwakker Head brewer, Michael Gaetz, reports that our seasonally available HARVEST OKTOBERFEST LAGER, PONCE DE LEON BLACKBERRY RASPBERRY WHEAT, SUMMER WHEAT and KAI’S MUNICH HELLES are currently available on tap, in our offsale and for growler fills too. Our GREAT PUMPKIN SPICED BROWN ALE bottles sold out quick last weekend but there is still a small amount on tap. In addition to taking our beer home in glass bottles and 2 litre jugs direct from our brewpub, you can find a varying selection of 650 ml bottles of Bushwakker beer in a number of REGINA SLGA stores.
NEW WEEKEND HOURS OF OPERATION! Fridays and Saturdays we are open from 11:00 AM until midnight. The kitchen is open until 11:00 PM and last call is at 11:15 PM.
This Weekend’s October 14th & 15th Special Dining Features will see the return of Chef Mike’s famous low and slow oven roasted PRIME RIB served with JUMBO YORKSHIRE PUDDING. We plan to make our prime rib dinners available every weekend into the new year. Our Saturday CLASSIC STEAK & A PINT SPECIAL will also be available. Our Monday and Wednesday WINGS & A PINT SPECIAL and Tuesday PIZZA & A PINT SPECIAL are also great value deals.
Our SASK CRAFT GUEST TAP is currently pouring the OUTSTANDING IN MY FIELD Single Hop Session Ale from Swift Current’s Black Bridge Brewery. Next up is the ICEBERG TONKA DUNKEL from Regina’s Malty National Brewing.
OCTOBER PREMIUM WINE FEATURES This month’s wine features are the organic HERITAGE ROAD WINES from Australia. The red is the Bloodstone Shiraz and the white is the Moonstone Pinot Grigio. Both are $7.95 for a glass and $21.95 for a half litre.
WE ARE HIRING! The busy fall and winter season is a comin’! We need experienced lunchtime servers, full and part-time cooks and part-time bartenders. Stop by with your resume today!
Now on SaskTel maxTV Local on Demand! The Bushwakker Brewpub was recently featured on “Behind The Menu!” This 25 minute finely crafted video tells the story of how the national award-winning brewer, Bev Robertson, carved his own path—whether he was “bushwacking” on cross-country skis, or paving the way to help legalize brewpubs in Saskatchewan. His legacy of fine food, beer, and service lives on through The Bushwakker and many other Saskatchewan brewpubs alike.
You can now also view this video on YouTube by visiting https://youtu.be/58dqbNmDb4U
EXTENDED! The 2022 edition of the Regina HOP CIRCUIT has seen its most successful year to date! Due to all those smiles the Hop Circuit season will be extended until the end of October. You still have a chance to earn a commemorative Hop Circuit glass or even pick up another one. Grab a map and visit all six participating breweries at your leisure. Download the free Hop Circuit app to make your experience even slicker!
Oct. 14-15: BUSHWAKKER PRIME RIB WEEKENDS RETURN! Chef Mike’s famous “low and slow” oven roasted prime rib is back every weekend. Served with rosemary jus and jumbo Yorkshire Pudding. Potato and vegetable selections will vary every weekend. Available in an eight-ounce or ten-ounce cut.
Oct. 17: Monday Night Jazz & Blues. THE JAZZ BAND-ITS. Huge band delivers big band, jazz and swing tunes loud and proud. 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Oct. 19: Wednesday Folk Night. BRADFORD. Together again! Talented acoustic duo featuring Brad Papp and Mark Radford returns. 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Oct. 20: SCIENCE PUB – “Democratic Champion or Villain? Social Media’s Fall from Grace” Our wildly popular Science Pub Series has returned for a 10th incredible season. Enjoy lectures on scientific topics of general interest in our Arizona Room over fine craft beer and award-winning pub cuisine. The room opens at 5:00 PM. Avoid disappointment and come down early for dinner and a pint before the presentation which begins at 7:00 PM. This month’s lecture will be presented by Dr. Brian McQuinn from the University of Regina Politics & International Studies Department. In Canada, 94% of adults with internet access have an account on at least one platform, with almost half relying on social media as their primary news source. The adoption of social media will continue to accelerate, transforming social, political, and military conflict, scrambling our understanding of modern warfare, public health communication, and political discourse. Many of these conflicts are now contested as much online as in the real world, representing one of the most pressing concerns in the coming decade. Anti-democratic and extremist actors take advantage of social media’s reach to advance political extremism, stoke racial hatred, and spread medical disinformation, undermining democracy and public health.
Oct. 22: SASK vs CALGARY. The only Rider home game of the month! Kickoff is at 5:00 PM. Be sure to stop by before or after the game and enjoy our gourmet CALGARY BURGER & A PINT SPECIAL. Come “devour” the competition!
Nov. 14: Monday Night Jazz & Blues – Special Edition. PRODIGALS QUARTET. Presented in conjunction with The Regina Jazz Society. One of the biggest Bushwakker live music events of the year! Prodigals Quartet is a brand new Quartet to Regina. They are new because this will be the first time this group has been put together in this configuration. Three of the players are outstanding Saskatchewan musicians. Donny Kennedy is originally from Regina and has just recently returned this fall to Regina after a 25+ year career as a professor at McGill University attaining a Masters Degree in jazz performance with high distinction in jazz saxophone. Donny is active as a performer playing in versions of his own quintet and sextet and with many others including a list of the “who’s who” in jazz. Also originally from Regina, Derek Friesen, studied at McGill University as the top graduate selection for the Ray Hnatyshyn – Oscar Peterson scholarship for top graduating high school musician. Derek also graduated from The Berklee College of Music in Boston on a full tuition scholarship and has received a Masters Degree from the New England Conservatory with high honours. Additionally, Derek has performed in over 65 countries playing with the best of the best in jazz. In 2020 Derek graduated from the James Cook University in Australia with a degree in Dentistry and currently practices alongside his father at Landmark Dental in Regina. After touring and playing throughout Canada early in his career, Chris Wallace moved to Scotland teaching as the head tutor at Stevenson College in Edinburgh. From there Chris toured and played on five continents with every imaginable genre of music and all the best players on the jazz scene including a stint in New York with such outstanding drummers as Joe Farnsworth and Willie Jones III. After the better part of a decade in Toronto and once again recording with anyone and everyone of significant status, Chris has returned to Saskatchewan where he teaches while living in Fort Qu’Appelle. The final quartet member is Josh Rager who is a keyboardist, arranger and composer teaching jazz studies at Concordia University in Montreal. Josh has played and toured all over North America and Europe including recording with Nikki Yanoffsky at Carnegie Hall. Josh is one the new breed of Quebec musicians offering up a sweet, smoky, fast-paced brand of fusion and up tempo jazz.
This is Regina’s newest, hippest and swingiest group to open Regina Jazz Society’s 2022 – 23 annual regular jazz programming. Tickets are $20 each and are available at The Bushwakker Brewpub or by visiting www.jazzregina.ca. Rush seating only. Plan to arrive early for dinner and to get a good seat! Note earlier start time. 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM.
CURRENT HOURS OF OPERATION AND RESERVATIONS NOTES
We are open Monday – Thursday from 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM. The kitchen closes at 9:00 PM and last call is at 9:15 PM.
NEW WEEKEND HOURS! Fridays and Saturdays we are open from 11:00 AM until midnight. The kitchen is open until 11:00 PM and last call is at 11:15 PM.
Reservations are accepted and encouraged. We accept a limited number of reservations as late as 6:00 PM every day except Fridays. Fridays we accept reservations as late as 3:00 PM. Call us at 306-359-7276 to secure your table. Our two banquet rooms are also available for private party rentals. Call Kelly at 306-359-7276 to book either our main floor Arizona Room or basement Clubroom.
Brewing Beer at the Speed of Sound
FROM THE BREWER’S JOURNAL CANADA
As a scientist on an acoustic-science research team at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and published in the Albuquerque Journal, Eric Davis has long been interested in acoustic sensor technology. Developments in this science apply to the oil and gas sectors and other industries, but we saw the potential in the brewing industry. Visiting craft breweries in the Denver area last year, as well as canvassing many of the breweries in New Mexico, the scientists were aware of their challenges and assessed the potential for acoustic-sensor technology in this fast-growing industry that nonetheless has complex technical challenges. It looked like a good fit of technology to a tasty application.
Brewing is a multi-step process. In the critical fermentation stage, yeast is added to a mixture of wort, which is an infusion of malt or other grains, and hops (a so-called slurry) within a stainless-steel vat. Inside the vat, yeast sets to work converting sugars in the wort to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Brewers often check progress manually by draining off the product to sample it.
With batches sometimes containing hundreds of gallons in larger industrial operations, the fermentation stage can take weeks. That’s plenty of time for something to go wrong — at the expense of the batch, the labour to produce and monitor the product and the availability of the equipment occupied by the beer-in-progress.
With a window into the problem, they returned to the lab and we embarked on developing a solution. Brewing beer proved to be a novelty at Los Alamos, but the physics of materials is a longstanding specialty. So in our unique pilot brewing operation, we developed the SoniView acoustic sensor system.
SoniView relies on a couple of key pieces of technology. Vibrations from a transducer attached to the front, the outer side of the vat send sound waves into the medium inside the tank. A sensor on the back, the outer side of the vat picks up the vibration and converts it to an electrical signal. Fed into an oscilloscope and a computer, the system provides visualizations and data on the progress of fermentation.
Knowing the distance from one side of the vat to the other, the “time of flight” it takes the sound wave to travel from the transducer to the back sensor helps determine the speed of sound through the liquid. That speed constantly changes as the beer ferments and the relative amounts of sugars, alcohol and other components change. Additionally, when the slurry is actively fermenting, the sound travelling through the liquid will be weaker because so much carbon dioxide is being produced. Carbon dioxide production drops off the longer the wort ferments, which is picked up by the acoustic sensors. Eventually, the yeast dies off and drops to the bottom of the vat as trub, a layer of sediment. The sensors provide continuous, real-time insight into the entire process.
Traditional brewing means periodically checking the fermentation by draining some product out during the process. SoniView’s monitoring capabilities provide the lynchpin for more efficient — and profitable — processes. Now data can be acquired in real-time, so labour that might otherwise be spent manually checking on fermentation is freed up for other tasks. SoniView also quickly and accurately determines the transition from yeast slurry to beer when dumping the yeast and closes the dump valve. This is especially important for larger breweries because slurry may require expensive handling and disposal. It also saves beer during the dump process.
TIME OUT
A man goes into a bar and seats himself on a stool. The bartender looks at him and says, “What’ll it be buddy?” The man says, “Set me up with seven whiskey shots and make them doubles.” The bartender does this and watches the man slug one down, then the next, then the next, and so on until all seven are gone almost as quickly as they were served. Staring in disbelief, the bartender asks why he’s doing all this drinking. “You’d drink them this fast too if you had what I have.” The bartender hastily asks, “What do you have pal?” The man quickly replies, “I only have a dollar.”
