THE WAKKER WEEKLY
Issue #1675 – Posted on: 06-March-2023
BREWERY “HOPP”ENINGS! Bushwakker Head brewer, Michael Gaetz, reports that our seasonally available ARCTIC DARK MUNICH DUNKEL, “MISSILE”TOW ENGLISH BARLEYWINE and CHERRY LIME ALE are currently available. There are still some bottles of the amazing THREE-DOWN BOHEMIAN PILSNER in our offsale cooler. A batch of TWO SONS MILK STOUT, BARON BOCK and SASKADIAN BLACK IPA are also currently working their way through the brewery.
Earlier this week we tapped a tank of our band new CHERRY LIME ALE! Made with 84 pounds of cherries and 42 pounds of limes. Initial bright cherry sweetness followed by a citrus kick. The perfect beer to usher in springtime in Saskatchewan. Hurry up spring!
Just over a year ago, Russian military forces began their brutal invasion of Ukraine. Thousands upon thousands of lives have been lost on both sides in addition to a huge number of Ukrainian civilian casualties. Millions of Ukrainians fled from their homeland to escape the war. A number of them now reside in Regina. We feel very fortunate to have these three fine Ukrainian gentlemen working in the Bushwakker kitchen. One of the challenges facing the hospitality sector since the pandemic is a severe labour shortage. Their skills are most appreciated and welcomed. Slava Ukraini!
The biggest Bushwakker St. Patrick’s Day Bash in our 32 year history is coming up on Friday, March 17! Entertainment starts early with a 4:00 PM start. Irish dancers, pipes & drums, an Irish Coffee Milk Stout firkin tapping, a Celtic trio and amazing headlining act, West of Mabou! $10 cover charge. Plan to arrive early in order to get a seat!
The annual Prairie Dog Magazine’s “Best of Food” Regina Awards reader’s poll event is now underway! The first step is the call for nominations. Please visit Best Restaurant | Restaurants (Local) | Best of Food 2023 | Prairie Dog (prairiedogmag.com) to view the various categories, pubs and restaurants and start your delicious journey by selecting your favourites. Then the voting will begin! Celebrate the varied and vibrant Queen City cuisine and culture!
This Weekend’s Special Dining Feature for March 3rd & 4th is KOREAN GRILLED CHICKEN THIGHS for $21.95. Our Saturday CLASSIC STEAK & A PINT SPECIAL as well as 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 YESTERDAY’S IPA from Swift Current’s Black Bridge Brewery. This will be followed by the DAS ROGGENBIER from Saskatoon’s High Key Brewing.
MARCH PREMIUM WINE FEATURES: This month’s wine features are from California. The red wine is PROPHECY PINOT NOIR. $8.95 for a glass and $23.95 for a half litre. The white is SMOKING LOON PINOT GRIGIO. $7.95 for a glass and $21.95 for a half litre.
UPCOMING BUSHWAKKER EVENTS
Mar. 3: FIRST FIRKIN FIRDAY! Enjoy the pomp and circumstance of this longstanding Bushwakker monthly tradition! A piper from The Regina Police Services Pipes & Drums leads a keg (the firkin) of special ale throughout the pub in a procession. A guest volunteer tapper is selected to wield the handmade wooden maul affectionately named,The Mighty Firkin Wakker, and attempts to tap the keg in one mighty blow! This month’s firkin offering will be a never-before-attempted CASCADE DRY-HOPPED CHERRY LIME ALE! The suds-soaking spectacular takes place at 5:30 PM.
Mar. 4: FREE SATURDAY AFTERNOON BLUES SHOWCASE. Presented in conjunction with the Mid-Winter Blues Festival. Enjoy this special “Women of Blues” event which will showcase three great local blues acts including The Dara Schindelka Trio, Resonance featuring Christie-Anne Blondeau and Just Sayin’ featuring Jan Seitz. Hosted by Jeff “Redbeard” Corbett. Be sure to enjoy a slice of this annual Bushwakker Blues event dessert, Redbeard’s Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake! 1:30 PM until 4:30 PM.
Mar. 6: Monday Night Jazz & Blues. 8’S ENUFF. Powerful mini big band delivers intense big band, jazz & swing tunes. 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Mar. 8: Wednesday Folk Night. DIETER & WESTON. Two veteran Regina musicians combine forces in making their Bushwakker debut as a duo 7:30 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. 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. Closed Sundays.
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.
The Real Story Behind St. Patrick’s Day’s Green Beer
By Phil Edwards
Drink some green beer to celebrate a special day. Shutterstock
Green beer is the delicious treat that many drink (and drink and drink) on Saint Patrick’s Day. But the most colorful beer is not an Irish tradition: it’s an American-born innovation that requires a lot of moxie and a little blue food coloring.
This is how it came to be one of our greatest traditions involving food coloring.
The origins of St. Patrick’s Day’s green beer
Regardless of who invented it, the first people to make green beer probably made it the same, slightly unintuitive way it’s made today: a mixture of beer and blue food coloring (the blue mixes with the natural yellow of the beer to make green).
Generally, the drink is credited to Professor Thomas H. Curtin, a physician who made green beer for his clubhouse in New York. Curtin’s green beer was around as early as 1914, but other green beers appeared at the same time or slightly earlier.
In 1910, the Spokane Press used a headline to shout, “Green Beer Be Jabbers!” (“be jabbers” is an excited swear). According to the paper, the First Avenue Bar served the beer to patriotic Irishmen and anybody else who wanted to drink a green brew. Whoever wrote about it had clearly been drinking some green beer:
Some poetic description of green beer. (The Spokane Press)
The practice grew, but not that quickly: in 1926, the Washington Post still called it “an anomalous concoction.”
By the ’50s, green beer was a mainstream symbol of a holiday that was becoming less specifically Irish and more American. The tradition spread across the country, and bartenders caught on that it was easy to make green beer and even easier to drink it. Eventually, the beverage became so popular that it went international, too. As late as 1985, United Press International reported that the Irish were still being introduced to the delicious, unusual drink made in their honor.
It was an impressive turnaround for green beer, since the term used to be synonymous with beer that wasn’t ready to be consumed.
Green beer used to make you sick … and not in the way you think.
Green beer wasn’t always the distinguished treat it is today — in fact, it used to make you sick.
“Green beer” is a term brewers still use today to describe beer that’s too young (or “green”). As described by Serious Eats, green beer still contains acetaldehyde, which can make beer taste bad because it’s not yet fully fermented.
It was such a big problem in the late 1800s and 1910s that beer companies leapt on the idea of “green beer” to promote their own products. Beer companies warned against the “biliousness” that could come from drinking green beer. Schlitz even used the impressive slogan “Schlitz is Old Beer” to convince drinkers its beer wasn’t green:
One of the more unusual ad slogans in history. (The Evening Times)
Was green beer actually a problem? Maybe. In 1922, the Washington Times found a chemist who said “green beer is extremely bad on the stomach.” Fortunately, though brewers still use the term today, underaged beer is less likely to make it into your stomach because beer production is better understood and regulated.
That said, green-dyed beer still has the power to make you sick — you just have to drink too much of it.
TIME OUT– St. Patrick’s Pints
A man from Dublin moves to County Cork. His first night there he patronizes the local pub, and orders three pints at the same time.
The bartender is curious, but doesn’t say anything. He serves the man his three pints. The new customer sits quietly and drinks all three beers.
The next night and the next, the same thing happens. Each night the man orders three pints all at once, and sits quietly drinking. Since nobody knows him, he becomes known to the locals as “The Three Pint Man.”
After a week, the bartender’s curiosity gets the best of him. He asks the man why he always orders three pints at once.
The friendly customer explains, “My two brothers have moved away. One to Canada and one to New Zealand. We all miss each other, so we agreed to always order three pints as a way of remembering each other every day.”
Word spreads. The locals respect and admire this quaint family ritual. Eventually “Three Pint Man” becomes a minor celebrity.
Then the day after St. Patricks Day he comes into the pub as usual, but only orders two pints. The bartender and the locals are shocked. They realize one of the brothers has met with an untimely end, and they respectfully let “Three Pint Man” drink in peace.
After a week, the bartender decides to offer his condolences. “I’m sorry about the loss of your brother,” says the barkeep. “Which one was it? The Canadian or the Kiwi?”
“What?” says Three Pint Man. “Oh no, nobody’s died, nothing like that. My brothers are both fine. It’s just that I overdid it a bit on St. Pats, so I decided to give up drinking for the rest of Lent.”
Plenty of Irish dancing from The Prairie Gael School of Irish Dance at our upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Party! Their first performance will be at 4:00 PM.
