Holiday mixer 4-pack will include a lavender-infused gruit, a coffee-infused amber ale, a Gold-medal-winning vanilla porter, and an American-Style IPA
OTTAWA – (July 4, 2014) The votes are tabulated for the brands that will make their way into the 2014 Best of Beau’s holiday mix pack, and the selections are a creative cross-section of the diversity of beer styles Beau’s All Natural Brewery has come to be known for. In order of number of votes, the chosen beers are: St. Luke’s Verse (lavender gruit), Winterbrewed (coffee-infused amber ale), Burnt Rock (vanilla porter), and Mission Accomplished (American-Style IPA).
A total of 2,097 votes were cast to choose the winning beers during the month of June. This was the third year Beau’s let democracy decide which of all the beers Beau’s has ever produced would go into the 2014 4-pack. Beau’s has released a total of 81 beers in the eight years the brewery has existed, and only a handful of brands that were impossible to recreate were excluded from the voting.
Beautiful Beau’s Bottles
Wild Oats Series beer #33 St. Luke’s Verse Gruit Ale was brewed in 2014 in honour of International Gruit Day, a celebration of this unique style of beer brewed with a variety of herbs and spices in place of hops. Copper in colour, St. Luke’s Verse offers up an aromatic herb-and-spice bouquet of lavender, accented by thyme and rosemary.
Winterbrewed (Wild Oats #9) was last brewed in 2013, and is an amber ale brewed with a blend of Mexican, Guatemalan and Ethiopian Organic Fairtrade Coffee from Bridgehead Roastery in Ottawa. The beer is malty, with roasted, toasted flavours of coffee and barley melded with nutty, fruity inflections. Winterbrewed won a Bronze medal at the 2013 Canadian Brewing Awards.
Burnt Rock is a classic British-style porter brewed with additions of organic vanilla beans and extract. Despite what the weighty aroma suggests, Burnt Rock has a good, clean finish, and sessionable drinkability. Part of Beau’s Pro-Am Series (#5), which pairs amateur brewers with the Beau’s brew team, this wonderful winter warmer was first brewed with Ottawa-based homebrew club member Patrick Boisvenue. Burnt Rock won a prestigious Gold medal at the 2013 Mondial de la Biere competition in 2013.
Completing the 4-pack is Wild Oats #35, also from February 2014, Mission Accomplished: an American IPA brewed with a bold hop aroma and assertive bitterness. The combination of organic American and New Zealand hops give the beer sweet, juicy notes of tangerine, tropical fruit and pine. Bready malts provide some backbone but ultimately are no match for the smooth hop bitterness.
BEAU’S BEER CATALOGUE BY THE NUMBERS
1 Flagship
2 Year-Round
4 Seasonals
42Wild Oats Series
22 Greener Futures Barrel-Aged Series
10 Special releases
The mix pack, containing 4 signature 600 ml bottles, will be sold for $24 in LCBOs across Ontario, as well as direct from the brewery, and through home delivery in Ottawa via BYBO (www.bybo.ca). The 4-packs are expected to be on the LCBO shelves in November 2014, just in time for the holiday season.
BEAU’S All Natural Brewing is a family-run craft brewery founded in 2006. BEAU’S brews interesting, tasty beers using the highest-quality organic ingredients & local spring water. A member of the Ontario Craft Brewers, BEAU’S is a recipient of numerous international awards for brewing excellence, including 2 GOLD medals at Mondial de la Bière (Strasbourg, France, and Montreal, Quebec); 6 GOLD medals at the Canadian Brewing Awards, 7-times “Best Craft Brewery in Ontario” (2007-2013) and 5-times “Best Craft Beer in Ontario” (2007-2011) at the Golden Tap Awards; LCBO Brewmasters Cup Champion (2013); and “Best Beer” and “Best Brewery” at the National Capital Craft Beer Festival (2012-2013). BEAU’S received a Community Builder Award from the United Way (2013), and was CAFE’s 2010 Canadian Family Enterprise of the Year. BEAU’S flagship and seasonal beers are available throughout most of Ontario. BEAU’S entire line of beer is certified organic by Pro-Cert Organic Systems Ltd, and BEAU’S is a Certified B-Corp.
