THE WAKKER WEEKLY
Issue #1712 – Posted on: 20-Nov-2023
BREWERY “HOPP”ENINGS! Bushwakker head brewer, Michael Gaetz, reports that our seasonally available BLOOD ORANGE BLONDE ALE, SASKADIAN BLACK IPA, BARON BOCK, GRANNY’S BITTER and KAI’S MUNICH HELLES are currently available. Batches of BLACKBERRY MEAD, “MISSILE”TOW CHRISTMAS ALE, PREMIUM PALE ALE and FLEK’S CZECH DARK LAGER are currently working their way through the brewery.
One of our biggest days of the year is fast approaching! Our official kickoff to the holiday season is back with the 29th annual release of our famous Blackberry Mead. 400 pounds of Lumsden Valley honey and 88 pounds of blackberries goes into every batch resulting in a 10.5% ABV unique dry berry honey wine unlike any other!
Join us in celebrating 29 years of Mead magic. Share your cherished Mead memories by posting photos or stories online and tagging Bushwakker or using #MeadMemories. Participate in our Mead Memory Contest for a chance to win a Blackberry Mead prize pack. To enter either comment on one of our posts with a photo or story about your favorite mead memories OR post a photo and tag us in it! Be sure to use the hashtag #MeadMemories
Mead Day is December 2nd! Our favourite bottler, Austin, has switched his holiday hat and has been working hard filling bottles for our 2023 Blackberry Mead Day Release! Mead lovers no longer have to wait in line in the cold in order to secure bottles of our famous holiday cheer. Our new and improved Mead Pre-Order Page is up and running on our website. Just pick your quantity and pick-up time, pull up to the back of the building and we will drop our Christmas specialty nectar in the trunk of your toasty, warm vehicle!
Our 33rd Single Malt Scotch Tasting event sold out in just two and half hours this year. For those 150 attendees, we have a special scotch-inspired meal which will be available that evening for your consideration. Please note our full menu will also be available. Anyone wishing to dine prior to the tasting event on Saturday, November 18th should arrive by 5:30 at the latest. Our Arizona Room will be open to the general public that evening. However, food service will be suspended in that room over the supper hour while the kitchen focuses on serving the scotch tasting folks first.
Bushwakker 33rd Single Malt Scotch Tasting Optional Dinner Offering (available Nov. 18th)
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.
Or
Sticky Toffee Pudding Cheesecake
This Weekend’s Special Dining Feature for November 17th & 18th is JAMAICAN BEEF STEW for $24.95. 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 a RYE ALE from Black Bridge Brewery. Next up the TALUS WEST COAST IPA from High Key Brewing. This will be followed by the TWO-HEADED MONSTER lager from 9 Mile Legacy Brewing.
NOVEMBER PREMIUM WINE FEATURES: This month’s ORGANIC wine features are from the CONO SUR WINERY in Chile. The red is an organic CABERNET SAUVIGNON/CARMENERE/SYRAH and the white is an organic SAUVIGNON BLANC. Both are $8.95 for a glass and $23.95 for a half litre.
UPCOMING BUSHWAKKER EVENTS
Nov. 18: ANNUAL SINGLE MALT SCOTCH TASTING. Sold out! The most powerful and rare Single Malt Scotch Tasting event in our 32 year history! All single malts are cask strength and all are one time or commemorative releases. Entertainment included performances from The Regina Police Services Pipes & Drums and The Regina Highland Dance Association. Plenty of door prizes to be given away too.
Nov. 20: Monday Night Jazz & Blues. SHANE REOCH. Regina’s friendliest bluesman returns for a fine acoustic performance. 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Nov. 22: Wednesday Folk Night. ELL ‘O’ ELL & THE NEW BOHEMIANS. One of the “folkiest” folk acts to ever play a Bushwakker Folk Night. 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.
Canada’s Best Beer Winner is Brewed by a Pair of Bat Biologists in Northern B.C.
Prince George’s Deadfall Brewing hopes to put northern B.C. on the craft beer map after Canada Beer Cup win
By Andrew Kurjata · CBC News
Editor’s Note: Always nice to see an ALES alumni member go on to become successful on the national stage!
Erin and Brandon Baerwald met while studying bats in Alberta. Now living in Prince George, B.C., they have just been named the makers of the best beer in the country by the Canada Beer Cup. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC)
A small brewery tucked away in the corner of a strip mall in northern B.C. is unexpectedly busy this week after being named as the makers of the best beer in Canada.
Deadfall Brewing, which just opened its doors in Prince George last year, was the gold medal winner at the Canada Beer Cup held in Niagara Falls, Ont., on Oct. 25.
Its founders, husband-and-wife team Brandon and Erin Baerwald, weren’t even there in person because they had no expectation of placing in the contest held by the Canadian Craft Brewers Association. The national competition, celebrating independently owned and operated breweries from across the country, attracted more than 1,200 entries.
“Gobsmacked, overwhelmed, bewildered,” Erin said of her reaction to the news of their victory.
“Totally did not believe it,” Brandon adds.
The pair spoke to CBC News a week after their win and just after Brandon finished making another batch of the gold medal winner, dubbed Basal Brown Ale. His tanks and workstation are in full view of the small tasting room set up in a semi-industrial part of the city, which serves a population of about 90,000 people.
Neighbours include auto repair shops and carpet cleaners, and a sign on the wall warns the capacity is just 30 people, though far more are trying to get in these days.
“Suddenly, it’s everybody’s favourite beer,” Brandon jokes.
All week he’s been fielding calls from Ontario and beyond from sellers hoping to stock his product, though the Baerwalds say their immediate focus is on keeping their Prince George customers happy.
But they hope the win will draw attention to the burgeoning craft scene in the province’s upper half, which has long been overshadowed by the better-known brewers in the East Vancouver neighbourhood and Vancouver Island.
“We’re not some podunk place,” Erin said. “There’s all of these breweries that are so good and have been around for a while and for us to win, this really says there is good stuff here…. We’re legit.”
A complex blend riddled with personal meaning
The Canada Beer Cup was first held in 2022 as a way to bring global attention to the country’s craft industry. Winners are selected by a panel of international judges who do blind tastes in a variety of categories, before naming the best beer overall.
The decision to name Deadfall this year’s winner was unanimous, said head judge Stephen Beaumont.
“We were all delighted by the complexity and balance of the beer, and for me personally … hugely impressed by the fact it was the product of such a young brewery,” Beaumont said in an email to CBC News.
“The proverbial ‘cherry on top’ for me and a few of the others judges, was the fact that it was of a style not especially trendy or in vogue these days.”
That’s one of the reasons the victory was such a surprise the Baerwalds, as well — they say that until now, the Basal Brown has been one of their lowest sellers.
But it’s also one riddled with personal meaning: Basal means “base” or “beginning,” and the beer was the first recipe they put together, as well as the first released under the Deadfall name. Its logo is a Townsend’s big-eared bat, a tribute to the Baerwald’s origin story as a couple, so meeting while doing field research on bats in Alberta in 2007.
They were married in 2013 — their victory was the same week as their 10th anniversary — and made their way to Saskatchewan as Erin pursued a professional career in academia, while Brandon turned his attention to brewing, realizing that getting two research positions in the same city was unlikely. Before long, he was learning the trade in the 400-person community of Nokomis, Sask, about 130 kilometres northwest of Regina.
TIME OUT – Mead Bees
Some bees fly into a pub and land on the bar.
The bartender says, “What do you bees want?”
Naturally, they love honey wine, so they ask for mead.
The bartender splashes the bar with mead and asks, “Do you bees drink a lot?”
They all answer at once, “Just enough to get a buzz on”
Just two more weeks until our annual Blackberry Mead Release on Saturday, December 2nd! Lots of folks have already visited our Mead Pre-Order page on our website. No need to wait in line in the cold anymore now that you can pre-order your mead for advance walk-in pick-up or curbside pick-up.
