March

International Women’s Day Brews

So last month we came around one complete year of the beer club, and now we begin the routine again. This month is a repeated theme, because there’s no way we’re going to pass up the opportunity to showcase some of the beers released for International Women’s Day.  We do have a twist this year though, the women of UnWined; Val, Erin, and Deb are here to showcase their favourite beers!

The Pink Boots Society is a national non-profit organization created to help advance the careers of women and non-binary individuals in the field of alcoholic beverages.  Each year they work with Yakima Hops to create a custom blend for the brewing of beers.  Yakima donates a portion of profits from the sales of this blend back to Pink Boots, and brewers do the same with the profits of the beers they brew from these hops, creating a doubly effective fundraiser.  This years hop blend is comprised of Ahtanum, El Dorado, HBC 638, Idaho 7 hops.  The most evident notes coming through are berry, citrus, stone fruit, and tropical flavours.  Lets see how the brewers worked this fruit forward blend into the beers!

The beer club releases on the third Saturday every month.  There is no sign up for our beer club, just drop by the store any time were open and pick up a pack!  The price will be between $30 and $35.

Every Night is Girls Night

Grizzly Paw Brewery

Last year the women at Grizzly Paw went with a fruited sour that played to the notes in the hop profile, and they’ve taken that same approach this year.  They’ve targeted the berry and stone fruit notes in the hops and mated them to blueberry and peach in this sour.  The blueberry has unfortunately fallen into the background somewhat, but there is a clear plush peach presence, and an unexpected grapefruit note as well.  As a sour it’s nicely tart but not puckering, and the Grizzly Paw ladies brewed this without any lactose addition, so no sweetness here.  The can is cleverly decorated with a Brewer Barbie, so enjoy this one on your next girls night while watching the Barbie movie for the tenth time.

$5

Miss World

The Establishment

Chelsea, one of the brewers at The Establishment helmed this beer, and took it in a very anti-establishment direction.  Lagers typically employ noble hops which give them some herbal, grassy notes, but the goal of a good lager is to produce a clean highly-drinkable beer; they’re not known for “hoppiness”.  Miss World sets out to be a soft, easy drinking beer first, and with that cleanliness down as a foundation, it is then free to try new things.  Bringing in the pink boots hop blend allowed for some fun, unique flavours to develop that you wouldn’t typically see in a lager, particularly a delicate berry presence.  When that light berry, hop note is married with the aforementioned softness, the result is a beer that feels like a strawberry shortcake, becoming more than the sum of its parts.  The beauty of women and non-binary people having a place in the beer world is the influx of fresh ideas, and things like this Modern Lager are a perfect example of those fresh ideas coming to fruition.

$5

Pineapple Coconut Sour

Blindman Brewing

Pink Boots is far from the only charity being supported by brewers.  Just as last year, Blindman has opted to support the Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter (CAWES).  CAWES is based out of Red Deer and provides support to neighbouring communities, as such it makes sense that Lacombe’s Blindman Brewing would want to send some support back to them.  This year they’ve brewed up a pina colada like sour, and come up with a clever way to balance the pineapple with the coconut.  In a kettle sour it can be easy for naturally tart flavours like pineapple to totally overpower a softer note like coconut.  Their Head Brewer, Jasmine, got around this by brewing this beer without coconut at all!  After they finished brewing what was essentially just a pineapple sour, they recirculated the beer with 50(!) kilograms of coconut, toasted by the folks at Cilantro & Chive restaurant.  This recirculation allowed the coconut to clearly express itself with all its toasty softness to tame the tart edge. Nice problem solving Jasmine!

$5.50

Berry Burrow

Prairie Dog Brewing

There are many reasons I love this beer, celebrating women doing amazing things, Prairie Dog was co founded by Laura Coles.  I also personally am especially delighted when a beer I love is brewed locally.  And, for someone who associates beer drinking with the perfect finish to a hot afternoon of hiking or biking, I find this beer enjoyable year round .  It is a refreshing blond pale ale, refermented over raspberry purée, giving it a perfect balance of bitter and sweet. Named for prairie dog burrows which are the pillars of their ecosystem but rely on community for survival. This beer is a win 😊

-Deb

$6

Salted Lime Lager

La Cerveceria

A summer girl through and through, I grew up in Vancouver (as did this beer!) and to this day I love cold, thirst-quenching, crushable beers. There has been a lot of craft attempts at the “lime lager” but this is the one I come back to again and again. The balance is spot on, using UNESCO Spanish salt and rested on Mexican limes, this one screams hot days on the patio or post-adventure hydration. As we hit, mid-March I am dreaming of those long, hot summer days, and one of these will transport you there now! Awarded the Gold Canada Beer Award for best Salted Lime Lager in 2023. Enjoy!

-Erin

$5

Dent de Requin

Dieu Du Ciel

What a sweet idea to have the wine club around International Women’s Day in March! I am so grateful for my grandma who paved the road for me to be a businesswoman. She too was into business and I know she had to go through a lot more than I did to make her place. Getting into the wine industry in my young 30 was rather interesting… The wine & beer industry, even nowadays, is very male-driven. How many wine reps would come to the liquor store and ask to talk to Anthony (who was really busy cheffing at the bistro) not realizing I was the one making the wine orders - > can I tell you there are not a lot of their wines on our shelves! I think the beer industry is even more male-centric, but slowly we see a lot more woman beer makers and a wider variety of beers. It delights me to witness not only a more inclusive environment but also a diversity in products.

When Eric asked me to pick a beer, I could not help to come back to my roots in Quebec. The craft beer industry was alive over there for a few more years before it made its way out west and I missed it for a few years when I moved in Alberta. Beer brings me back to University. Dieu du Ciel was a place I visited regularly bringing my laptop to do some homework over a beer in the afternoons. I don’t think the Dent de Requin was a thing back then… I don’t recall any IPA’s of that time… but nowadays it is what I enjoy after a day playing outside in our backyard. It is a Hazy IPA, it speaks for itself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Cheers to all the women who paved the road for all the young ladies to have the life of their dreams<3

-Val

$6.50