July is Haskap Beer Month in B.C., an initiative brewed in the Shuswap.
Throughout the month, breweries across the province (as well as one in Japan) are releasing special, seasonal beers containing the dark purple, antioxidant rich 鈥渟uperfruit,鈥� the Haskap berry.
The idea for marking July as Haskap Beer Month was born from a pairing of Sorrento farm neighbours Rebecca Kneen and Brian MacIsaac of Crannog Ales, and Carma Clarke and Kevin Kelly at Wolf Springs Farm. Specifically, it came from an evening of drinking beer and eating haskaps.
鈥淗askap Beer Month kind of started because we were hanging out one night and eating Carma鈥檚 beautiful berries and we thought, 鈥榯his would make such a great beer!鈥欌�� said Kneen. 鈥淪o we made a beer with it, and we thought more people should make beer with this berry. It鈥檚 really, really good, and it鈥檚 a relatively new berry to B.C. We thought, they come out in June, so why don鈥檛 we just declare July to be Haskap Beer Month. Give people a chance to get the berries, get them in their beer and make something, and then we鈥檒l see if we can get other brewers onboard.鈥�
Read more:
Read more:
Read more:
Kneen describes Crannog鈥檚 haskap offering, Mac Tir (meaning Son of the Earth) Haskap Ale, as a bright, tart beer with a lovely berry aroma and flavour, 鈥渁nd a pink head just for the fun of it.鈥�
Participating brewers include Salmon Arm鈥檚 Barley Station Brew Pub with their haskap infused ale (to possibly pair with their haskap beef burger) and Revelstoke鈥檚 Mt. Begbie Brewing Co. with their Canadian Belgian Haskap. Japan-based brewer North Island Beer is also taking part with their Haskap Gose of Hokkaido.
To learn more about haskap berries and Haskap Beer Month, visit wolfspringsfarm.ca, or the BC Haskap Association website at .
newsroom@saobserver.net
Like us on and follow us on
