getting into the hops. I think it’s because the customers that get behind drinking hoppy beer, they drink A LOT of it. It’s an obvious taste profile that new entrants to the market can wrap their palette around.”
But Allard says there are distinct differences to the profile of malt enthusiasts.
“Malty beer is similar to hoppy beer in that, it’s an obvious taste on the palette. But the population isn’t as educated about what it tastes like. So in our region, as a company, we’re not necessarily known as a malty brewer yet. The market is very new for us still, at this point. So it seems that everyone is expanding their palette at the same rate — granted there are a few ‘beer geeks’ that are ahead of the curve — but overall, of the 10 beers we have, half of them are super malty. It’s the direction we want to head in.” “The next beer we are going to launch is going to try and focus on what Canada’s beer style should be.” Cold Garden’s focus on grain isn’t the only thing that sets them apart from other craft brewers in the area. They boast a number of experimental recipes (and attach equally compelling names to them!). Cakeface, One Summer in Saskatoon… the intrigue alone makes you want to pop the top off of a growler. “We have some really whacky recipes… Take our Red Smashed in Buffalo Jump. The nomenclature there has a regional perspective. There’s a UNESCO Heritage Site in our neck of the woods called ‘Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump.’. It was an old ancestral hunting ground, basically. So we brewed a red beer, but we really wanted the colour to be bang on. It kept turning out a little too brown or a little too light. We finally got it to be the perfect red. And it is by far our maltiest beer on the menu. It emulates what we used to drink back in school! It’s one of our best sellers. It flip-flops between the IPA and the Red.”
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2017
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