a man, a case of granville island beer & a truck
Tom Taylor made the earliest batches of beer at Granville Island Brewery opened. His brother, Mitch, was a co-owner.
It’s not particularly unusual to find a bottle of wine on my desk. Friends and readers occasionally drop off something they think might be of interest, sometimes a home-made effort and sometimes a curiosity they have come across. It’s a special thrill when travelers bring back a bottle that I would never come across otherwise.
Recently, though, as I headed for my desk, our office manager said there was something on my desk, but that she was supposed to deliver some information—half of the bottles were cold.
The “something” was a case of Granville Island Brewery beer. I was pretty sure I didn’t know anyone with a connection to the brewery but the mystery was quickly solved. The man delivering it had left a note. He, Tom Taylor, was the brother of one of the brewery’s founders, Mitch Taylor. Tom, a long-time Creston resident, worked at Granville Island Brewery for the first years of its operation, from 1984-86.
I’m not sure what year I first visited what was Canada’s first microbrewery but it was probably around 1986 when I visited the Vancouver several times to attend the great Expo 86. It was then a unique opportunity to be able to buy beer that wasn’t made by one of the big Canadian producers like Labatt and Molson. Here was a new experience, a small producer making mostly German-style brews and Granville Island Brewery quickly became well known around the province.
I had no idea that Tom Taylor, whom I had known as a handyman and community bus driver, had worked at Granville Island in its formative years, or that he was employed at Columbia Brewery for 13 years prior to his time in Vancouver. I called and asked him to come in for a chat and we spent a very nice hour in my office.
He reminisced about those early days at Granville Island, when his brother and partner scrambled to find equipment for the brewery and get the brewery up and running. Because they were creating a first for the country they didn’t have any models to pattern themselves after. Tom hadn’t been a brewmaster but he had learned enough at Columbia Brewery “to know how to follow a recipe,” he said.
Mitch had a particularly strong ability to find knowledgeable people in many fields, some of whom were happy to lend their expertise just be part of this startup enterprise, Tom said. Among those involved in the early stages was the fellow who designed and built the famous Gastown steam clock.
As interesting as our chat was, though, it didn’t explain why Tom, now 80 years old, had chosen this time to tell me his story. But then he pointed out that the beer, a brew called Vintage 1984, was made to acknowledge the early days of the brewery. On the case is an image of a man loading cases of beer onto a vintage pickup. The man is Tom Taylor and the truck is a 1936 Ford Model B pickup, one that Tom had purchased back in the 1970s from a fellow near Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He and others spent two years restoring it and Tom was thrilled to drive it in a Blossom Festival parade. But money was short and eventually he sold the restored truck to his brother, Mitch.
When Granville Island Brewery began production, Mitch brought the Model B in to use for local deliveries, thinking correctly that it would be a great way to advertise the brewery. Signboards were mounted onto the box sides and Tom often used it to schlep cases of beer to pubs and restaurants in downtown Vancouver.
Tom got together recently in Vancouver to meet up with Mitch and another brother and they went down to the brewery—now owned by a subsidiary of Molson Coors—to visit the current brewmaster, an old friend. Only when he walked into the shop did Tom learn about the Vintage 1984 with his photo on each case. It brought back a flood of memories and he was pleased to learn that the Model B pickup in the picture is still at the brewery. He even got a chance to drive it again.
Of the beer itself, Tom said it is quite different from the early brews that he was responsible for making.
“They’ve “lightened it up quite a bit,” he laughed. The Vintage 1984 contains 5 per cent alcohol while the original, he said, was about 8 per cent.
“But when it’s chilled, it goes down really well!” Tom said.
September 27, 2013 - La Dolce Vita
Recently, though, as I headed for my desk, our office manager said there was something on my desk, but that she was supposed to deliver some information—half of the bottles were cold.
The “something” was a case of Granville Island Brewery beer. I was pretty sure I didn’t know anyone with a connection to the brewery but the mystery was quickly solved. The man delivering it had left a note. He, Tom Taylor, was the brother of one of the brewery’s founders, Mitch Taylor. Tom, a long-time Creston resident, worked at Granville Island Brewery for the first years of its operation, from 1984-86.
I’m not sure what year I first visited what was Canada’s first microbrewery but it was probably around 1986 when I visited the Vancouver several times to attend the great Expo 86. It was then a unique opportunity to be able to buy beer that wasn’t made by one of the big Canadian producers like Labatt and Molson. Here was a new experience, a small producer making mostly German-style brews and Granville Island Brewery quickly became well known around the province.
I had no idea that Tom Taylor, whom I had known as a handyman and community bus driver, had worked at Granville Island in its formative years, or that he was employed at Columbia Brewery for 13 years prior to his time in Vancouver. I called and asked him to come in for a chat and we spent a very nice hour in my office.
He reminisced about those early days at Granville Island, when his brother and partner scrambled to find equipment for the brewery and get the brewery up and running. Because they were creating a first for the country they didn’t have any models to pattern themselves after. Tom hadn’t been a brewmaster but he had learned enough at Columbia Brewery “to know how to follow a recipe,” he said.
Mitch had a particularly strong ability to find knowledgeable people in many fields, some of whom were happy to lend their expertise just be part of this startup enterprise, Tom said. Among those involved in the early stages was the fellow who designed and built the famous Gastown steam clock.
As interesting as our chat was, though, it didn’t explain why Tom, now 80 years old, had chosen this time to tell me his story. But then he pointed out that the beer, a brew called Vintage 1984, was made to acknowledge the early days of the brewery. On the case is an image of a man loading cases of beer onto a vintage pickup. The man is Tom Taylor and the truck is a 1936 Ford Model B pickup, one that Tom had purchased back in the 1970s from a fellow near Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He and others spent two years restoring it and Tom was thrilled to drive it in a Blossom Festival parade. But money was short and eventually he sold the restored truck to his brother, Mitch.
When Granville Island Brewery began production, Mitch brought the Model B in to use for local deliveries, thinking correctly that it would be a great way to advertise the brewery. Signboards were mounted onto the box sides and Tom often used it to schlep cases of beer to pubs and restaurants in downtown Vancouver.
Tom got together recently in Vancouver to meet up with Mitch and another brother and they went down to the brewery—now owned by a subsidiary of Molson Coors—to visit the current brewmaster, an old friend. Only when he walked into the shop did Tom learn about the Vintage 1984 with his photo on each case. It brought back a flood of memories and he was pleased to learn that the Model B pickup in the picture is still at the brewery. He even got a chance to drive it again.
Of the beer itself, Tom said it is quite different from the early brews that he was responsible for making.
“They’ve “lightened it up quite a bit,” he laughed. The Vintage 1984 contains 5 per cent alcohol while the original, he said, was about 8 per cent.
“But when it’s chilled, it goes down really well!” Tom said.
September 27, 2013 - La Dolce Vita
first granville island brewer gets a surprise
When Tom Taylor visited Granville Island Brewery recently he didn’t expect to find a new brew called Vintage 1984. More surprising was to see his image on the beer case that holds the bottles.
Taylor was in Vancouver for a “mini reunion” with two of his brothers, including Mitch Taylor, who was one of the original founding partners of Granville Island Brewery, Canada’s first microbrewery.
“Mitch asked if there was anything I wanted to do and I said I’d like to visit the brewery to see Vern Lambourne, the brewmaster,” Taylor said on Friday. “When we walked into the brewery I saw that old photo of me from 1984 on the cases—I had no idea!”
Taylor had worked at Columbia Brewery for 13 years when he got a call from his brother in 1983. Mitch and partner Bill Harvey were starting a microbrewery and would he come out to Vancouver to work for them?
“I knew the brewery business pretty well. I started out on the bottling line and did a lot of jobs. I didn’t actually brew here but I did work in the cellars and I was always watching and asking questions. All they were doing was what I did later—following a recipe,” he laughed.
Equipment at the new brewery ranged from a used bottle washer to a state-of-the-art filler, brought in and installed by a company from Milwaukee.
“I worked long hours,” he said. “Early in the morning, at about 6 a.m., I started brewing, making 200-gallon batches.
The company’s first trained brewmaster, a new university graduate from German, arrived soon after, but Taylor continued making beer, supervising the brewery and even making deliveries, all while his brother was off working on other development projects.
He made deliveries in a truck that continues to have a life of its own, a 1936 Ford Model B pickup.
Taylor first saw the truck in 1975 when he was driving to Sandpoint, Idaho to take flying lessons.
“It was love at first sight,” he said. But it took him months to muster up the courage to stop and talk to the owner of the property where the truck was parked. Eventually, at the prompting of his son, Larry, Tom knocked on the door. Assuring the owner that he wanted to restore it, and not turn it into a hot rod, an agreement was struck and he paid $375US for the vintage vehicle.
“Are you out of your mind? You paid WHAT for that that old piece of junk?” was his wife Edna’s reaction.
It took two years and a lot of help from friends to restore the truck and he was thrilled to drive it in the 1978 Blossom Festival parade. In 1979, though, the family moved to a property on Crusher Road and they needed to come up with money to drill a new water weil. Tom sold it to Mitch and it became Granville Island Brewery’s mascot nears later.
“It’s still at the brewery,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The old treasure is now owned by Lambourne, who asked Tom if he wanted to for a ride in it.
“We drove out to Jericho Beach and he asked if I wanted to drive it back to the brewery, where it is still stored. Vern was surprised when I got into the driver’s seat and put my foot on the clutch. ‘You still know how to do that?’” he laughed.
In addition to his many duties in those early days at the new microbrewery, Taylor became a familiar sight around Granville Island and downtown Vancouver, delivering cases of beer to pubs and stores. Wood signboards mounted on the truck box sides advertised the brewery’s name.
His career in the microbrewing lasted only three years, a combination of burnout and Edna’s unhappiness with city life.
One day the brewmaster breezed into the shop for an hour or two (I never knew where he was most of the time) and then headed for the door, announcing, “I’m going on a skiing trip for three weeks.”
“I said ‘What? When do I get a day off?’”
“’Well, you’ll have to talk to your brother,’ he said.”
“I said I think I will, have a good trip. But I quit.”
Mitch went over to Tom and Edna’s condo on False Creek and asked what was wrong.
“I’m just tired, physically and mentally—I can only take so much of this,” his brother replied. “He spent a couple of hours trying to talk me out of it. The next day I had a U-Haul truck loaded and we drove back to Creston.”
Taylor chuckled as he looked at his image on the Granville Island Brewery case of Vintage 1984.
“’You should get royalties for that,’ my brothers joked when we first saw it at the brewery,” he laughed.
Asked to describe the bottles’ contents, he said the beer was “not as dark as we used to make it, and they’ve reduced the alcohol to 5 per cent—ours was 8 per cent!
“But when it’s ice cold, I really enjoy it.”
September 19, 2013 - Creston Valley Advance
Taylor was in Vancouver for a “mini reunion” with two of his brothers, including Mitch Taylor, who was one of the original founding partners of Granville Island Brewery, Canada’s first microbrewery.
“Mitch asked if there was anything I wanted to do and I said I’d like to visit the brewery to see Vern Lambourne, the brewmaster,” Taylor said on Friday. “When we walked into the brewery I saw that old photo of me from 1984 on the cases—I had no idea!”
Taylor had worked at Columbia Brewery for 13 years when he got a call from his brother in 1983. Mitch and partner Bill Harvey were starting a microbrewery and would he come out to Vancouver to work for them?
“I knew the brewery business pretty well. I started out on the bottling line and did a lot of jobs. I didn’t actually brew here but I did work in the cellars and I was always watching and asking questions. All they were doing was what I did later—following a recipe,” he laughed.
Equipment at the new brewery ranged from a used bottle washer to a state-of-the-art filler, brought in and installed by a company from Milwaukee.
“I worked long hours,” he said. “Early in the morning, at about 6 a.m., I started brewing, making 200-gallon batches.
The company’s first trained brewmaster, a new university graduate from German, arrived soon after, but Taylor continued making beer, supervising the brewery and even making deliveries, all while his brother was off working on other development projects.
He made deliveries in a truck that continues to have a life of its own, a 1936 Ford Model B pickup.
Taylor first saw the truck in 1975 when he was driving to Sandpoint, Idaho to take flying lessons.
“It was love at first sight,” he said. But it took him months to muster up the courage to stop and talk to the owner of the property where the truck was parked. Eventually, at the prompting of his son, Larry, Tom knocked on the door. Assuring the owner that he wanted to restore it, and not turn it into a hot rod, an agreement was struck and he paid $375US for the vintage vehicle.
“Are you out of your mind? You paid WHAT for that that old piece of junk?” was his wife Edna’s reaction.
It took two years and a lot of help from friends to restore the truck and he was thrilled to drive it in the 1978 Blossom Festival parade. In 1979, though, the family moved to a property on Crusher Road and they needed to come up with money to drill a new water weil. Tom sold it to Mitch and it became Granville Island Brewery’s mascot nears later.
“It’s still at the brewery,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The old treasure is now owned by Lambourne, who asked Tom if he wanted to for a ride in it.
“We drove out to Jericho Beach and he asked if I wanted to drive it back to the brewery, where it is still stored. Vern was surprised when I got into the driver’s seat and put my foot on the clutch. ‘You still know how to do that?’” he laughed.
In addition to his many duties in those early days at the new microbrewery, Taylor became a familiar sight around Granville Island and downtown Vancouver, delivering cases of beer to pubs and stores. Wood signboards mounted on the truck box sides advertised the brewery’s name.
His career in the microbrewing lasted only three years, a combination of burnout and Edna’s unhappiness with city life.
One day the brewmaster breezed into the shop for an hour or two (I never knew where he was most of the time) and then headed for the door, announcing, “I’m going on a skiing trip for three weeks.”
“I said ‘What? When do I get a day off?’”
“’Well, you’ll have to talk to your brother,’ he said.”
“I said I think I will, have a good trip. But I quit.”
Mitch went over to Tom and Edna’s condo on False Creek and asked what was wrong.
“I’m just tired, physically and mentally—I can only take so much of this,” his brother replied. “He spent a couple of hours trying to talk me out of it. The next day I had a U-Haul truck loaded and we drove back to Creston.”
Taylor chuckled as he looked at his image on the Granville Island Brewery case of Vintage 1984.
“’You should get royalties for that,’ my brothers joked when we first saw it at the brewery,” he laughed.
Asked to describe the bottles’ contents, he said the beer was “not as dark as we used to make it, and they’ve reduced the alcohol to 5 per cent—ours was 8 per cent!
“But when it’s ice cold, I really enjoy it.”
September 19, 2013 - Creston Valley Advance
Columbia Brewery brewmaster keeps Kokanee, Keith's and Bud flowing
Scott Stokes was on track to become a medical student at Thompson Rivers University when another line of work began brewing in his mind. The biology major had a summer co-op job at Columbia Brewery and began thinking that a career in brewing might not be a bad idea.
“I began to wonder if I really wanted to go to school for another four years after I got my degree,” he says.
He earned his science degree in 2002 and went to work for a microbrewery in Kamloops, only an hour’s drive from his hometown of Sorrento.
“I learned a lot about brewing in that job,” Stokes says. “And also that making beer by hand is a lot of hard work. Shoveling hot mash on a hot summer day isn’t fun.”
When a position to work under then-brewmaster Graham Kendall at Columbia Brewing came up in 2004 he jumped at the opportunity and began working his way up the ranks.
Three years later, he accepted a transfer to work as Kendall’s assistant in Halifax’s Alexander Keith’s brewery, one of six Labatt breweries in Canada.
“We (he and his wife, Leanne) had sold our house and were 36 hours from flying to Halifax to look for a house when I was asked to become the brewmaster here,” he recalls.
He and Leanne scrambled to find accommodation in what was then a hot housing market and were lucky to get a house on Scott Street that wasn’t listed.
“Becoming a brewmaster was my goal, anyway, so I was happy to stay here,” he says.
During his years in Creston, Stokes has earned a brewmaster’s diploma by taking courses, many by correspondence, and on the job training.
“It’s worked out pretty well,” he smiles. “Nobody ever told me when I was young that you could earn a good living making beer. But now, with craft breweries popping up all over, there are more and more people doing just that.”
Stokes is part of a small community of brewmasters in large Canadian breweries, so it still isn’t seen as a viable career by many.
“There aren’t a lot of technically skilled people available,” he reflects, “so there aren’t a lot of aspiring brewmasters in line for my job.”
In a job that he describes as “50 per cent science and 50 per cent taste,” Stokes shoulders large responsibilities and is on call 24/7 if anything goes wrong in the brewing process. And, with Columbia Brewery producing 15 different kinds of beer (Kokanee, Kokanee Gold, Kokanee Light, Keith’s IPA, Keith’s Red Amber Ale, Bud Light, Busch, Lucky, Wildcat Strong, Winchester Draught, Labatt Blue, Labatt Lite, Labatt Genuine, Kootenay True Ale and Brava), there is plenty that can go wrong.
Each of the beers has its own distinct recipe and each recipe has to be adjusted according to the size of batch that is being made.
“There are about seventeen different batches going in the brewhouse, nine in fermenting tanks and as many as seventeen more in the filter room — there’s always something to tweak.”
While the recipe is key, it’s the manual tweaks — minor adjustments to ingredient measurements or a host of other variables — that keep each beer’s flavour consistent.
Two years ago, Stokes took on a huge challenge when Creston was designated to be the first ever brewery outside of Halifax to brew Alexander Keith’s beer. Logistics — transporting ingredients and packaging, and shipping the finished product to market — are incredibly expensive in the brewing business and it’s much more cost-effective to have beer made in two or more breweries than to make it in a single location.
“That was a really good learning experience for me,” he says. “It was challenging and we were under very high pressure to meet the standards — it has to taste exactly the same as the ones made in Halifax. And we had orders coming in before we were actually ready to go.”
“I learned to question assumptions.” Malt and other ingredients can be slightly different than the ones used in Halifax and the difference in water and even elevation — “boiling at 600 metres compared to sea level makes a difference” — mean that the recipe can vary significantly in each location and matching the taste is largely a matter of trial and error for the first while.
While Stokes and other managers and lab workers constantly monitor each brew for taste, the ultimate arbiter is a tasting panel in the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, which gets samples weekly.
“I hate when we don’t get a good report,” he smiles.
Stokes and the Columbia Brewery management team have been working recently to add yet another label to the mix. They are hoping to get approval from corporate headquarters to begin making the necessary capital improvements to produce Budweiser, one of the most popular beers in the U.S. Its recipe includes up to 30 per cent rice in addition to hops and barley malt and its brewing time is about four times longer than other Columbia Brewery products, so Stokes could soon have another steep learning curve ahead of him.
Somehow, that planning has continued through the brewery’s busiest months.
“We are stressed to the max from April through July,” he says. “We’re running full bore 24/7, trying to get every last can of beer out that we can. It’s always tough in the summertime; it feels like it’s never going to end. But that’s just the way it is.”
With Labatt breweries being part of the giant Anheuser-Busch InBev global conglomerate, Creston’s operation is something of an anomaly, a small-town brewery in a big city business. But Columbia Brewery has a strong reputation for efficiency and good labour relations.
It’s also extremely productive. At peak production, the brewery rolls out up to 1.5 million cans of beer a day, in addition to 225,000 bottles a shift, plus kegs. And it doesn’t happen by magic.
“People at this brewery always find a way to make something happen. We always come together to find a way. This might not be a logical place to have a brewery, but it does what it does extremely well, so in that way it makes sense. And the water here is really good.”
Stokes seems surprised when he realizes that with only eight-and-a-half years in Creston, he is one of the longest serving managers.
“Now that I think about,” he says, shaking his head, “the time has gone by in a flash. I could count the days that have dragged by on one hand. Usually when I look at the clock and see it’s 5 p.m. I wonder where the time went.
“There’s always something to keep you busy. With all this equipment there is trouble-shooting or maintenance or full-blown rebuilds. And we have a lot of equipment. …
“We have a great team here, and that includes all of our 140 or so employees. It’s fun to come to work. And part of my job involves drinking beer. What more could you want?”
August 12 , 2011 – Creston Valley Advance
“I began to wonder if I really wanted to go to school for another four years after I got my degree,” he says.
He earned his science degree in 2002 and went to work for a microbrewery in Kamloops, only an hour’s drive from his hometown of Sorrento.
“I learned a lot about brewing in that job,” Stokes says. “And also that making beer by hand is a lot of hard work. Shoveling hot mash on a hot summer day isn’t fun.”
When a position to work under then-brewmaster Graham Kendall at Columbia Brewing came up in 2004 he jumped at the opportunity and began working his way up the ranks.
Three years later, he accepted a transfer to work as Kendall’s assistant in Halifax’s Alexander Keith’s brewery, one of six Labatt breweries in Canada.
“We (he and his wife, Leanne) had sold our house and were 36 hours from flying to Halifax to look for a house when I was asked to become the brewmaster here,” he recalls.
He and Leanne scrambled to find accommodation in what was then a hot housing market and were lucky to get a house on Scott Street that wasn’t listed.
“Becoming a brewmaster was my goal, anyway, so I was happy to stay here,” he says.
During his years in Creston, Stokes has earned a brewmaster’s diploma by taking courses, many by correspondence, and on the job training.
“It’s worked out pretty well,” he smiles. “Nobody ever told me when I was young that you could earn a good living making beer. But now, with craft breweries popping up all over, there are more and more people doing just that.”
Stokes is part of a small community of brewmasters in large Canadian breweries, so it still isn’t seen as a viable career by many.
“There aren’t a lot of technically skilled people available,” he reflects, “so there aren’t a lot of aspiring brewmasters in line for my job.”
In a job that he describes as “50 per cent science and 50 per cent taste,” Stokes shoulders large responsibilities and is on call 24/7 if anything goes wrong in the brewing process. And, with Columbia Brewery producing 15 different kinds of beer (Kokanee, Kokanee Gold, Kokanee Light, Keith’s IPA, Keith’s Red Amber Ale, Bud Light, Busch, Lucky, Wildcat Strong, Winchester Draught, Labatt Blue, Labatt Lite, Labatt Genuine, Kootenay True Ale and Brava), there is plenty that can go wrong.
Each of the beers has its own distinct recipe and each recipe has to be adjusted according to the size of batch that is being made.
“There are about seventeen different batches going in the brewhouse, nine in fermenting tanks and as many as seventeen more in the filter room — there’s always something to tweak.”
While the recipe is key, it’s the manual tweaks — minor adjustments to ingredient measurements or a host of other variables — that keep each beer’s flavour consistent.
Two years ago, Stokes took on a huge challenge when Creston was designated to be the first ever brewery outside of Halifax to brew Alexander Keith’s beer. Logistics — transporting ingredients and packaging, and shipping the finished product to market — are incredibly expensive in the brewing business and it’s much more cost-effective to have beer made in two or more breweries than to make it in a single location.
“That was a really good learning experience for me,” he says. “It was challenging and we were under very high pressure to meet the standards — it has to taste exactly the same as the ones made in Halifax. And we had orders coming in before we were actually ready to go.”
“I learned to question assumptions.” Malt and other ingredients can be slightly different than the ones used in Halifax and the difference in water and even elevation — “boiling at 600 metres compared to sea level makes a difference” — mean that the recipe can vary significantly in each location and matching the taste is largely a matter of trial and error for the first while.
While Stokes and other managers and lab workers constantly monitor each brew for taste, the ultimate arbiter is a tasting panel in the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, which gets samples weekly.
“I hate when we don’t get a good report,” he smiles.
Stokes and the Columbia Brewery management team have been working recently to add yet another label to the mix. They are hoping to get approval from corporate headquarters to begin making the necessary capital improvements to produce Budweiser, one of the most popular beers in the U.S. Its recipe includes up to 30 per cent rice in addition to hops and barley malt and its brewing time is about four times longer than other Columbia Brewery products, so Stokes could soon have another steep learning curve ahead of him.
Somehow, that planning has continued through the brewery’s busiest months.
“We are stressed to the max from April through July,” he says. “We’re running full bore 24/7, trying to get every last can of beer out that we can. It’s always tough in the summertime; it feels like it’s never going to end. But that’s just the way it is.”
With Labatt breweries being part of the giant Anheuser-Busch InBev global conglomerate, Creston’s operation is something of an anomaly, a small-town brewery in a big city business. But Columbia Brewery has a strong reputation for efficiency and good labour relations.
It’s also extremely productive. At peak production, the brewery rolls out up to 1.5 million cans of beer a day, in addition to 225,000 bottles a shift, plus kegs. And it doesn’t happen by magic.
“People at this brewery always find a way to make something happen. We always come together to find a way. This might not be a logical place to have a brewery, but it does what it does extremely well, so in that way it makes sense. And the water here is really good.”
Stokes seems surprised when he realizes that with only eight-and-a-half years in Creston, he is one of the longest serving managers.
“Now that I think about,” he says, shaking his head, “the time has gone by in a flash. I could count the days that have dragged by on one hand. Usually when I look at the clock and see it’s 5 p.m. I wonder where the time went.
“There’s always something to keep you busy. With all this equipment there is trouble-shooting or maintenance or full-blown rebuilds. And we have a lot of equipment. …
“We have a great team here, and that includes all of our 140 or so employees. It’s fun to come to work. And part of my job involves drinking beer. What more could you want?”
August 12 , 2011 – Creston Valley Advance
Good things brewing in the bc beer business
We don’t drink a lot of beer in our home, wine being the beverage of choice. Guinness is an occasional treat for me, and Angela enjoys a bottle of Corona in on a hot summer day. When I have lunch in a pub I prefer draft beer and it is Kokanee Gold that I order.
Last week, though, I decided to venture out and try some of the products from Cannery Brewing Company in Penticton. I had chatted on the phone with co-owner Patt Dyck a few days earlier and had become fascinated by the range of beers produced at the microbrewery that she owns with her husband, Ron.
Among the many benefits of our instant, online world is that I was able to check for the availability of Cannery Brewing products in Creston. I learned that four different beers are available on the BC Liquor Store shelves — Squire Scotch Ale, Blackberry Porter and Maple Stout.
I picked up one 650ml bottle of each (some of the products are sold in cans, too), fully expecting that I would only be sharing the ale — Angela is not a dark beer drinker. Until now.
The first bottle we opened was the Squire Scotch Ale. Smooth and incredibly creamy, it is a brew that would be hard not to like. We had a glass each with dinner and gave it two thumbs up.
On another night I was surprised that Angela accepted my offer of a taste of the Blackberry Porter. No doubt the berry flavour, and not the darkness of the porter, was the appeal. She loved it, and I felt lucky that I was able to have half the bottle. I have since bought a few more bottles of each and I can foresee the day when I’m going to have to arm wrestle for my share.
This experience shouldn’t come as a surprise, I suppose. Microbreweries have been popping up with regularity, growing in popularity at an astonishing rate. Last week, when I heard on CBC Radio that there are now beer sommeliers, whose job it is to educate and advise customers about beer and the way it can complement food, the idea made complete sense. There is a dizzying array of beer available and, with its range of body, flavor and aroma, it makes perfect sense that it should be treated with the same consideration as wine.
Microbrewery products aren’t meant to be aged, of course, so there is no need to start building a beer cellar. In fact, Cannery Brewing Company is typical in that it doesn’t use preservatives and the beer isn’t pasteurized. So don’t buy more than you expect to consume in the next few weeks — check the “best by” date.
Beer really does pair well with food and one of the obvious wine tricks — using the same wine when cooking as you plan to serve with the meal — applies. Think of a nice Irish stew, made and served with stout. I’ve done that many times with Guinness and now look forward to using the Cannery Brewing Maple Stout as the cooking liquid and table beverage.
Browse liquor stores, both government- and privately-operated ones, and you will find a good selection of products from lots of small producers. It can be fun to try something new and different. On the Cannery Brewing website are some of Patt Dyck’s favourite recipes. Some are made with beer and others she recommends serving with a specific style of beer. I’m planning to try her recipe for walnut crusted chicken breast with mango, and I will gratefully accept her beer-pairing suggestion, too.
February 2012 - La Dolce Vita
Last week, though, I decided to venture out and try some of the products from Cannery Brewing Company in Penticton. I had chatted on the phone with co-owner Patt Dyck a few days earlier and had become fascinated by the range of beers produced at the microbrewery that she owns with her husband, Ron.
Among the many benefits of our instant, online world is that I was able to check for the availability of Cannery Brewing products in Creston. I learned that four different beers are available on the BC Liquor Store shelves — Squire Scotch Ale, Blackberry Porter and Maple Stout.
I picked up one 650ml bottle of each (some of the products are sold in cans, too), fully expecting that I would only be sharing the ale — Angela is not a dark beer drinker. Until now.
The first bottle we opened was the Squire Scotch Ale. Smooth and incredibly creamy, it is a brew that would be hard not to like. We had a glass each with dinner and gave it two thumbs up.
On another night I was surprised that Angela accepted my offer of a taste of the Blackberry Porter. No doubt the berry flavour, and not the darkness of the porter, was the appeal. She loved it, and I felt lucky that I was able to have half the bottle. I have since bought a few more bottles of each and I can foresee the day when I’m going to have to arm wrestle for my share.
This experience shouldn’t come as a surprise, I suppose. Microbreweries have been popping up with regularity, growing in popularity at an astonishing rate. Last week, when I heard on CBC Radio that there are now beer sommeliers, whose job it is to educate and advise customers about beer and the way it can complement food, the idea made complete sense. There is a dizzying array of beer available and, with its range of body, flavor and aroma, it makes perfect sense that it should be treated with the same consideration as wine.
Microbrewery products aren’t meant to be aged, of course, so there is no need to start building a beer cellar. In fact, Cannery Brewing Company is typical in that it doesn’t use preservatives and the beer isn’t pasteurized. So don’t buy more than you expect to consume in the next few weeks — check the “best by” date.
Beer really does pair well with food and one of the obvious wine tricks — using the same wine when cooking as you plan to serve with the meal — applies. Think of a nice Irish stew, made and served with stout. I’ve done that many times with Guinness and now look forward to using the Cannery Brewing Maple Stout as the cooking liquid and table beverage.
Browse liquor stores, both government- and privately-operated ones, and you will find a good selection of products from lots of small producers. It can be fun to try something new and different. On the Cannery Brewing website are some of Patt Dyck’s favourite recipes. Some are made with beer and others she recommends serving with a specific style of beer. I’m planning to try her recipe for walnut crusted chicken breast with mango, and I will gratefully accept her beer-pairing suggestion, too.
February 2012 - La Dolce Vita
