Looking for stocking stuffers for the beer lover in your household or a new beverage to add to the holiday festivities? Burnaby-based breweries are at your service.
Two Burnaby breweries are on the BC Ale Trail's list of more than 100 seasonally inspired suds being created by craft breweries around the province.
"Featuring unmistakably festive flavours including juniper, cinnamon, cocoa and eggnog, these wintry beers are often a little darker and stronger, making them well suited for colder, darker days," a press release from the BC Ale Trail says.
The two Burnaby breweries with new holiday releases included in the list are both popular and award-winning: Dageraad and Steamworks.
From Dageraad (114-3191 Thunderbird Cres.), you can enjoy an annual favourite, plus three new Entropy releases. Here's how the BC Ale Trail describes them:
- Anno 2022 (8.5%): A strong, golden ale brewed with Okanagan pears and Indian coriander, then bottle-conditioned with brettanomyces claussenii, a strain of wild yeast that adds funky, fruity flavours and slowly develops over time in the bottle, preserving freshness and adding layers of complexity as the beer ages.
- Entropy No. 24 – Take Manhattan (10.5%): This cocktail-inspired beer is a blonde ale aged in rye and port-finished bourbon barrels, then blended with cherry juice and merlot grape must.
- Entropy No. 26 – Pirate Quad (13%): A special batch of '21 vintage 10° aged 14 months in South American rum barrels making it absurdly dark and luxurious.
- Entropy No. 27 – 12° (11.8%): This began as a special, extra-strong quad that aged seven months in oak barrels with a blend of saccharomyces, brettanomyces, and lactic acid bacteria.
From Steamworks (brewery and taproom at 3845 William St., Burnaby), you can enjoy a salted chocolate porter — and if this description from BC Ale Trail doesn't tempt your holiday taste buds, it's hard to know what would:
- Salted Chocolate Porter (6% ABV | 16 IBU): With generous additions of vanilla and local sea salt, the toast and intense chocolate of the dark malts makes this brew reminiscent of a salt-finished chocolate tart.
Want to venture farther afield? Here's the whole list of BC Ale Trail holiday suggestions.
Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, [email protected]
