100-MILE - PALE ALE

In July of 2020, the TYEE and J.B. MacKinnon – co-founder of the 100-mile Diet movement issued the 100-MILE BEER CHALLENGE to local breweries to brew a beer made with 100% of ingredients that were grown within a 100-mile radius of their brewery. Our ears pricked up! This didn’t sound too difficult… We had already been in collaboration discussions with our friends at Locality Malt & Brewing in Langley and have used locally grown hops over the years for our fresh-hopped beers. But we had to wait – for the barley to be harvested and malted, and for the hops - which we got from Bredenhof Farm in Abbotsford - to finish growing, be harvested and dried. While we’ve successfully wrangled wild yeast for brewing from a local orchard in the past, for this project we turned to Bright Brewers Yeast at UBC for the yeast culture.

Brewed on October 18th this beer is now on tap at Strange Fellows Brewing. While we haven’t yet found a bottle or can manufacturer located within 100-miles we hope we’ll be able to eventually package a truly local beer in every sense - but until then, you’ll have to pop by the brewery for a glass or a growler fill.

STYLE West Coast Pale Ale

COLOUR Golden

AROMA Earth / Grass / Resinous

CHARACTER Round malty body / Assertive hop bitterness

A.B.V. 5.0%

PAIRS WITH Fish & Chips / Tacos / BBQ

MALT Pale & scatter-grain from Locality Malt & Brewing, Langley BC

HOPS Chinook & Centennial from Bredenhof Farms, Abbotsford BC

YEAST American Pale Ale from Bright Brewers Yeast, UBC

 

BREWER’S NOTES

This truly local beer was brewed entirely with ingredients grown within a 100-mile radius of Strange Fellows Brewing. Except for a slightly hazy appearance this is a West Coast Pale Ale with an assertive bitterness and a round malty body. Our friends at Locality Malt and Brewing in Langley grew and malted the barley. The hops were grown at Bredenhof farm in Abbotsford and the yeast culture came from Bright Brewers Yeast at UBC. Unlike so many modern IPAs and Pale Ales the hops bring less ripe fruit and more earth, citrus peel, orange, and resin flavours. The malt backbone is responsible for the round body and subtle sweetness that balances these hop characteristics.