Historic Canadian beer for Canada day

[nickbrew]

I am hoping that someone on this forum might have some information for me to make a recipe for Canada day (July 1).

My hope is to create something that (some or all):

1. Uses all Canadian ingredients
2. Follows styles indigenous to Canada (Ice beer or "arguably" a Cream Ale")
3. Attempts to recreate historic beers made in Canada soon after independence (1867)

From what I know, the first commercial brewery ever in Canada was by Louis Prud'homme (Montreal, 1650). The first commercial brewery in what is now formally Canada was The Army and Navy Brewery in Halifax (1867), now known as Moosehead. Any other info would be helpful here.

Of course there are a number of Canadian fermentables (Pale 2-row, munichs, pale wheat, ESB, etc). I have not been able to find any information on yeast or hop strains developed in Canada.

Any information will be greatly appreciated, there is roughly 8 weeks to develop, prep and brew this batch.

 

[JKaranka]

I'd go for one of the old X ales, maybe a XX or, if not, a porter (a style that survived into the 1960s in Canada when it had gone in Britain). OG around 1.065, 50-60IBU of the first generation of Manitoban hop crosses - can you get Canadian Bramling Cross or Bullion?. A grist of mainly pale malt with a small amount (2-3%) of Amber or Black malt for colour. One of the things with Canadian brewing is that until some point in the 20th century (1940s maybe?) it forbid the use of adjuncts a bit like British brewing did until the 1880s. Not quite sure if they counted sugar as an adjunct (Britain didn't), but they wouldn't have added unmalted or non-barley stuff.

You have some details of Victorian beers in Canada here:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/labatt-beers-1893-1894.html
and here:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/beer-in-1890s-canada.html

You can get an idea from the styles, gravities, attenuation and hopping rate.

Bit of a view on ingredients here:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ale-brewing-in-usa-and-canada-in-1907.html

 

[nickbrew]

Thank you so much, this is some really fantastic information. As far Bramling Cross or Bullion, my LHBS does not carry them but I can try my best to see if they can get it for me. I have continued to do some research and after looking through that blog I have requested the book Brewing in Canada from 1965. Hopefully I can continue to narrow down this recipe and get brewing in the next few weeks.

I'd go for one of the old X ales, maybe a XX or, if not, a porter (a style that survived into the 1960s in Canada when it had gone in Britain). OG around 1.065, 50-60IBU of the first generation of Manitoban hop crosses - can you get Canadian Bramling Cross or Bullion?. A grist of mainly pale malt with a small amount (2-3%) of Amber or Black malt for colour. One of the things with Canadian brewing is that until some point in the 20th century (1940s maybe?) it forbid the use of adjuncts a bit like British brewing did until the 1880s. Not quite sure if they counted sugar as an adjunct (Britain didn't), but they wouldn't have added unmalted or non-barley stuff.

You have some details of Victorian beers in Canada here:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/labatt-beers-1893-1894.html
and here:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/beer-in-1890s-canada.html

You can get an idea from the styles, gravities, attenuation and hopping rate.

Bit of a view on ingredients here:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ale-brewing-in-usa-and-canada-in-1907.html

 

[nickbrew]

As a note, I will be supplementing whatever recipe I end with alongside a maple beer of some sort, either a porter or cream ale just for the hell of it. I chose maple as an homage to being stereotypically Canaian, plus it is really tasty and much easier to brew than anything beaver or moose-related.

And will be using water that I harvest from icebergs later this month. Picture below is an example of some of the harvest from last year; tastes so clean!

 

[nickbrew]

Bumping to try to get some more input on this matter.

After reading "Brewing in Canada" (1965) I have in the very least come up with some of the brewing art and science available at that time. I feel like it would be more feasible to try for a centennial-type of recipe for what was available in 1967, 1867 data is much too hard to come by.

Having said that, this is what I found:

• Ales at the time most commonly had 5% abv
• Ales were commercially fermented in open fermenters.
• Both ale and lagers were typically fermented for 7 days.
• Primarily used Canadian barley and malts from 7 malting plants (in Calgary, Winnepeg, Fort William, Toronto, Montreal)
• All hops were grown in British Colombia.

Correspondence with Hops Connect in B.C. forwarded me to the Chiliwack Museum website, where it was shown that:
"In Sardis, East Kent Goldings, Willamettes, Fuggles, Brambling Crosses and Brewer's Gold were the commen types of hops that were grown," and were distributed to major commercial breweries like O'keefe and Labatt in the 20th century.

So not too many big differences from today. Looking for others to weight in; leaning towards making an open fermented "centennial ale" at this point, grains are still undetermined.



Brewers Association of Canada. (1965). Brewing in canada. Ottawa: Brewers Association of Canada. Montreal, QU: Ronald-Federated Limited.
Introduction - What are hops? (2008). Chiliwack Museum and Archives. Retrieved from http://www.chilliwackmuseum.ca/hops/BG_Introduction.html

 

[JKaranka]

Brewers Gold is another descent of the wild Manitoban hop and a sister of Bramling Cross

 

[DenBobber]

My only comment here is to say that brewing with water from an iceberg is simply awesome.

 

[Riot]

If you can't find Bramling Cross locally I know that OBK has them in stock right now. Pretty sure they are UK grown however, still may be worth looking in to.

 

[nickbrew]

I will try my best to see if my LHBS can get some in, otherwise ill try for OBK; I just know that its very expensive to get anything shipped here to Newfoundland so it's not worth it unless I get a large supply.

Also, thanks! I can't describe the unique flavor of iceberg water. My pilsner I made with it last year is still my favorite brew to date. Here is a picture of the chunk I picked off of it compared to the actual berg it came off of. Hard to appreciate the size but the full berg was approximately half a kilometer away. This year I will be trying to harvest what is called the "vein" of the iceberg, a jet blue and perfectly pure cross-section.