Colourful Breweries
Did you know that 13 different B.C. breweries have a colour in their name? The most commonly used is red/rouge (5) with white coming in second (3).
Black Kettle, Buffalo Rouge, Copper, Grey Fox, Red Arrow, Red Bird, Red Collar, Red Truck, SilverStar, White Rock Beach Beer, White Sails, Whitetooth, Yellow Dog.
Honourable Mention: Changing Colours Brewing Project.
Closed: Green Leaf.
Beer & Literature: Sean Hoyne’s Career in Brewing
Back in 1989, Sean Hoyne was a grad student in English Lit at UVic and an avid home brewer. Swans Brewpub was about to open, and Sean’s wife Chantal encouraged him to apply for the brewer’s job. Sean showed up for the interview with Frank Appleton with a 6-pack of his homebrew, and Frank said, “There’s no time like the present.” They sampled his beer and talked about literature and by the time Sean left, a friendship had bloomed and the job was his. After several years at Swans, Hoyne moved on to build and brew at Canoe Brewpub just down the street. Then, in 2011, he finally opened his own brewery, Hoyne Brewing, which is still going strong today.
The Great Porter Flood of 1814
The dark, hearty ale that came to be called Porter was first blended by the publican of the Blue Last, a working-class watering hole on Shoreditch’s Great Eastern Street. His customers were the strong workers who carried goods unloaded from ships at the docks to markets, shops and warehouses in the heart of London, and the hit beer was named after them. The style became so popular in London that some porter breweries built enormous aging vats that would dwarf even the biggest fermentation tanks used today. The largest on record held about 32,500 hL (over three million litres). Sadly, in October 1814, one of these giant tanks burst, resulting in a flood of porter that killed eight people. More than 1.2 million litres of beer gushed out of the brewery, which was located in a densely populated slum of cheap housing and tenements. At least eight people were killed, including some who drowned in nearby basements.
