When George Woods says it’s the perfect spot in North Vancouver to enjoy a delicious craft beer and great food with your friends and family, he’s not overselling it. Start with the Kenebeck Truffle Fries. They’re tossed in truffle oil and parmesan cheese and then topped with chopped parsley and served with their house-made garlic aioli – and it pairs well with their gluten friendly Rizzla Rice Lager. Then order one of their hand-crafted forno pizzas. I recommend the Duck Confitzza. It’s made using Anita’s organic flour, olive oil, shredded duck, sautéed apples, mozzarella, brie, goat cheese, candied walnuts and a hoisin glaze – and it pairs well with their seasonal Wyld Raspberry Berliner Weisse. And if you still have room, you have to try their Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. It’s topped with cookie crumble and chocolate milk stout sauce – and it’s heaven with their solid and robust Chocolate Milk Stout, a beer that has been aged on cacao nibs and shells provided by the East Van Roasting Company. For all you readers in the MVRD (Metro Vancouver Regional District), the address is 1015 Marine Drive. Everyone else please read on.
By David MacDonald
THE BREWERS G eorge Woods and Taylor Dean are brewers. Taylor worked through many different roles at Whistler Brewing and came to Hearthstone in the summer of 2015. George’s story is a little different. George is a student of his native Scotland’s famed BrewDog craft brewery. He ran their experimental small-batch brewery for three years. And he has a very keen palate and an amazing knack for developing recipes – and a love for snowboarding. George spoke with Spotlight on Business in late January as Darren manned the taps. “I moved to Canada in 2013 after a snowboarding holiday. I fell in love with the place and never left. The way I became a brewer wasn’t the long way ‘round like so many brewers out there. I was really just down on my luck in Aberdeen, Scotland and one day I saw an advert for brewing appren- tices. I just thought, ‘Hey, brewing sounds cool.’ And I like beer; I don’t mean just drinking it, I had a genuine interest in European beers and some American crafts so I thought GEORGE’S STORY
I’d just go along and have a kick at the can. It turned out I had a little bit of a natural flair for it. I understood the ingre- dients and the process. But I didn’t start brewing with BrewDog straight away. Me and seven other guys started with just dreadful jobs: making cardboard boxes for 12 hours a day, lots of cleaning, lots of sweeping, working the packaging line. They were such a small company at the time and they were kind of moving people around departments. But I had a real passion for it. I liked to work hard and I had no problem with the long hours, so one day they just gave me a shovel and said, ‘George, you’re mashing in today.’ That was my first brew. Working six days a week at 12 hours a day, I got really into it and became a team leader pretty quickly. Eventually I was allowed to do my own recipes. As BrewDog became more and more successful, they built a mega brewery – a huge facility. They took everybody over there and it was interest- ing. They were brewing by computer at the new facility, but it’s not what I was used to. I am a touch, taste, and feel kind of guy. So they actually sent me back to the old BrewDog facility to reopen it and use it as a small batch facility. At
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FEBRUARY 2018 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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