THE WAKKER WEEKLY
Issue #1708 – Posted on: 23-Oct-2023
BREWERY “HOPP”ENINGS! Bushwakker head brewer, Michael Gaetz, reports that our seasonally available SASKADIAN BLACK IPA, BARON BOCK, RASPBERRY BLONDE ALE, GRANNY’S BITTER and KAI’S MUNICH HELLES are currently available. There are also bottles of our GREAT PUMPKIN SPICED BROWN ALE in our offsale for your upcoming Hallowe’en festivities. Batches of PREMIUM PALE ALE, FLEK’S CZECH DARK LAGER, BLACKBERRY MEAD, BLOOD ORANGE BLONDE ALE and “MISSILE”TOW CHRISTMAS ALE ARE currently working their way through the brewery.
Although our GREAT PUMPKIN SPICED BROWN ALE is no longer available on tap, there are still bottles available. Bottles of this seasonal spooky brew have been known to appear at many a Hallowe’en party! Stop by and visit our offsale cooler today!
There was indeed a lineup for our Cask Strength/One-Time Release Single Malt Scotch Tasting event tickets last Saturday. The first scotch fans were here an hour before the tickets went on sale. Over 150 tickets sold out in two and a half hours. Get ready for the most powerful and rare Single Malt Scotch Tasting event in our 32 year history!
Bushwakker 33rd Single Malt Scotch Tasting Dinner Offering (regular menu also available)
Starter: Cardini Caesar Wedge Salad with Laphroaig Caesar dressing, candied bacon and focaccia garlic toast points.
Or
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with a Highland Park bacon jam & crème fraiche drizzle and focaccia garlic toast points.
Main: Braised Lamb Shank with Talisker jus, roasted autumn vegetables served on a bed of creamy braised leek aged cheddar risotto.
Dessert: Glenmorangie Brown Butter Apple Tart with Butter Ripple Ice Cream.
This Weekend’s Special Dining Feature for October 20th & 21st is BEEF MADRAS CURRY for $24.95. We will also feature a TORONTO BURGER & A PINT for $24.95 for the Rider home game on Saturday. 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 GUEST TAP is currently pouring the LET’S GOSE TO THE PEACH from Saskatoon’s High Key Brewing. Next up is the HOPPED UP HONEY AMBER ALE from Saskatoon’s Paddock Wood Brewery.
OCTOBER PREMIUM WINE FEATURES: This month’s red wine feature is the RELAX PINOT NOIR from Germany (as part of our Oktoberfest celebrations) and the white wine feature is the RELAX PINOT GRIGIO from Italy. What a twist! Both are $8.95 for a glass and $23.95 for a half litre.
Loads of thanks to supervisor Shauna for giving our chalkboards a much needed makeover! Crisp Bushwakker lagers and hearty Bushwakker ales call for crisp and hearty chalkboard lettering! Beautiful work and now so easy to read. Our last major blackboard overhaul dates back to the days when Mary McCusker was our original lead server and brewpub artist in residence! Who remembers Mary?
Family tradition! It isn’t just the Robertson family who can boast their family generations working at The Bushwakker. Longtime Bushwakker supervisor, Cher Amyotte, has now ensnared her daughter to work on the floor and her son to work in the kitchen! If this isn’t a “warm fuzzy” we don’t know what is!
UPCOMING BUSHWAKKER EVENTS
Oct. 21: RIDERS VS. ARGONAUTS. Saturday afternoon football in Regina! Enjoy our gourmet game day EDMONTON BURGER & A PINT SPECIAL before or after the 2:00 PM football contest. Come “devour” the competition!
Oct. 23: Monday Night Jazz & Blues. A STORRY WITH HUGHES. Talented acoustic blues duo featuring Jeff Storry and Billy Hughes! 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Oct. 25: Wednesday Folk Night. NEIL CHILD AUTUMN SINGER/SONGWRITER SHOWCASE. Veteran songsmith curates a number of local singer/songwriters including: Mark Wilson, Cori Knelsen, Sarah Adams, Donny Reddekop, Trent Keggott and Baron Child. 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.
Plant to Pint: Growing
Farmers are helping to grow the craft beer industry in Saskatchewan
By Peter Mills – CBC Saskatchewan
This is the first piece in a three-part series about Saskatchewan’s craft beer industry, the creative people behind it, and its impact on communities.
The smell is the first thing you notice at Maker’s Malt. Initially, it’s somewhat off-putting – a bit musty, like wet laundry. Then, it starts growing on you. It smells fresh, like new life. It smells like the soul of beer.
“We’re malting 24/7,” co-founder and maltster Matt Enns said. “You go from the steeping phase being just under water – very neutral smelling. You move into germination, and it should smell like fresh cucumber cut out of the garden, because it’s very fresh.”
Most consumers won’t pop some malted barley in their mouth for a snack, but the taste is extraordinary. It’s earthy and nutty, and snaps like the toasted popcorn kernels at the bottom of a movie theatre bag.
“If the analogy was bread in a toaster, we could take it all the way from untoasted to burnt, and there’s all the flavour profiles and colours and aromatics in between,” said Enns.
But before barley gets to those phases, you have to grow it.
Timing is everything
Enns grew up on a farm near Rosthern, Sask., northeast of Saskatoon, so it’s unsurprising he would eventually work in agriculture. But he wasn’t always on that path.
“Growing up as a kid, my dad said to me quite a few times, ‘You’re just not a farmer,’” Enns said with a smirk. “And you’re not sure quite how to take that one – still not. But I think I know where he’s coming from: you kind of go through a bit of growing up in life.”
Enns went to the University of Saskatchewan, graduating with a physical therapy degree, then started his own practice.
He was still connected to the family farm, he owned some land, and the rustling fields of barley began calling him back to Rosthern.
“You realize there is a lot of beauty in being out in nature most days, seeing the crop every year have this renewal,” Enns said.
It wasn’t just the tranquil life of working in nature that he missed. Enns saw an opportunity in 2016.
“We saw craft beer really starting to move forward in the province,” he said. “I was like, ‘Wow, people are passionate about this,’ and it was reminiscent of the wine world. Like if you went out to the Okanagan and just got that whole story behind the product, it kind of said to me, ‘I think this is going to come to Saskatchewan.”
Hop to it
That year was a turning point for Guy Shepherd as well.
A farmer with land in the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan, Shepherd was never a big fan of super hoppy beer. Then in 2016, his son moved back to Saskatchewan from Boulder, Colo. — a place with a thriving craft beer industry.
“His thought on hops was that he could maybe merge some of his knowledge of the beer industry and our knowledge of agriculture, horticulture and farming,” Shepherd said. “So we’ve kind of grown up with some of the brewers that tried to develop markets and trust and show that we could produce a good consistent product, and hopefully it will grow for the next five to 10 years as well.”
Guy Shepherd’s son influenced him to take on hop production on his farm in Saskatchewan. (Justin Shepherd)JGL Shepherd Farms now grows hops for several Saskatchewan breweries. (Justin Shepherd)
Today, JGL Shepherd Farms grows hops between Moosomin and Fleming, and provides them to Saskatchewan breweries like Pile O’ Bones, Rebellion, Nokomis Craft Ales and Great Western.
Shepherd doesn’t just invite brewers to come see his farm. He serves them supper in his hop field.
Rebellion Brewing Company in Regina drives 30 people 230 kilometres once a year for a private visit. Shepherd said their CEO “goes up and down the rows and smells the hops and maybe buys a few based on what he can smell.”
“They’ve been very supportive in trying to source some local stuff for the great beer they make,” Shepherd said. “It’s pretty neat to know that what you’re drinking came from the farm and that it’s all part of the industry.”
Pretty soon Shepherd’s farm will be even closer to the industry. His son-in-law and daughter are opening Skout Brewing in Moosomin.
TIME OUT
SCOTCH WHISKEY WOES
I got home after a stressful and demotivating day to find my partner moving my whisky collection up to a high shelf. I can always rely on her to lift my spirits.
An old woman drinks whisky for the first time. She thinks for a while, and then says: “Strange, the stuff tastes exactly like the medicine my late husband had to take for twenty years!”
She was only a whiskey maker….but he loved her still
I’m on a whiskey diet. I’ve lost few days already.
The other day I bought 2 large bottles of whiskey, but I was worried I would drop them on my way home. To solve this problem I drank them before beginning the long walk home. I’m really glad I did, because I fell over six times!
Our most “flavourful” Bushwakker Single Malt Scotch Tasting is coming up on November 18th. All six featured whiskies are one-time or commemorative cask strength releases. It will be challenging to top this one! The event sold out in two and half hours.
