take on an English porter.”
Cooke speaks of his beer recipes as any artist does about their body of work — with honesty, passion and pride. But he counters that with a bit of humility over being an award winner. Before starting up District, he had won awards for various beer recipes at other microbreweries. However, he’s quick to turn the conversation back to the recent success- es of his latest creations. For example, the Dark earned a silver medal last year in an international beer competition in Calgary, Alberta (finishing just behind a Munich Dunkel, actually from Munich!). Their Bavarian Dark also won a Gold in Winnipeg and a Bronze for their seasonal Radler. “We’ve always had an open-door policy.” Lagers aside, yes, District’s future does hold … wait for it … an IPA! Cooke discusses their decision to jump into the hoppy fray as a sort of a feat of brewing diversity. “We wanted to showcase that we could brew a really good India Pale Ale as well. I t’s our choice to brew lagers, but we decided to throw a ruffle into people’s expectations of us. But true-to- form for District, we wanted to do something different with it. So it’s a low-alcohol Session-type IPA. More of a British Session, really.” Cooke explains that the lower alcohol content means that it doesn’t have the ‘muscle’ to support in-your- face hops. Rather, it finishes as a more accessible, easy-to- drink full-bodied IPA. And the experimentation continues in Regina! Up next for District Brewing is barrel- aging beers. They have acquired some chardonnay and bourbon barrels to bring their latest creations to that next level. Some smaller batches of exper- imental concoctions will be sure to please the patrons of their soon-to- be-constructed tasting room. It will provide the brewers with a good yardstick to measure what should possibly be brewed into larger batches, and what should probably remain in the ‘tasting room only’ keg for the diehards and beer geeks. As Saskatchewan joins the craft revolution, District Brewing is happy to lead the charge. They embrace the grassroots approach to marketing within the community. True face-to- face contact. “We’ve always had an open- door policy. So when people walk in off the street, they’re pretty much grabbed by the hand and shown around the place. The tasting room will just be an extension of how we show people what we do.” Cooke goes on to point out that many of the ideas for future recipes come directly as a result of these informal conversations with people on the brewery tour or in the current makeshift tasting room. And the community is buying in with their support.
“It’s just a conversation about beer. It’s what we do.”
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DECEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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