take on an English porter.”
District’s Festbier Märzen Lager pours bronze and smooth, with a round, slightly sweet palate and a deep, toffee-ish aroma. The appetizing bitterness serves to balance rather than challenge the malt. The word Märzen itself has an interesting history. Literally, it means “of March” in German. It was the last batch of beer out the door in old-time Bavaria, as brewing was forbidden in the old country between April and September. This tradition runs back to times when brewers didn’t have cooling capacity or refrigeration. This led to the brewers producing their beer that would benefit most from aging in March. It would sit and age over the summer months, and be released after harvest in September and October. Thus Oktoberfest was born. Cooke points out that, though District’s Märzen it is a malt-forward beer, it was designed for drinking a litre at a time, making it more approachable than many malt lagers. “It’s not a sipping beer by any means. It’s a malt-forward beer that highlights what malt can be. It has a nice balance that makes it very drinkable in larger quantities.” The decision to focus on lagers was based mainly on what Cooke and his partners enjoyed drinking themselves. But from a sales standpoint, much of the decision was really just a shot in the dark. “To be completely honest, we didn’t have a lot of market research on what Prairie drinkers really pre- ferred. There weren’t really enough craft breweries around to figure that out… it was more just trying some things and seeing what worked. People are used to drinking lager- style beers, so let’s show them that lagers can have more flavour, and at the same time, not blow their heads off with super hoppy beer.” District definitely embraced the ‘ease them in’ approach to gaining an audience for craft beer in Regina. Because there was little reference point for stronger craft brews, offering a double IPA with mouth-slapping hops would’ve run counter to enticing people through the door and educating them on the joys of becoming a craft beer enthusiast. In fact, most of the now large and successful craft breweries continue to produce accessible, light lager-style beers alongside their richer beers.
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 simply sells more than stouts and porters.
That’s not to say that District Brewing shies away from heavier beers. Far from it.
While the ‘old-reliable’ may be the blonde lager, their Bavarian Dark Lager brings an old-world feel to a malt-for- ward base. A bit of a history lesson on the production of dark beers comes with a taste of subtle noble hop bitterness and aroma. Those who have enjoyed a pint of the Bavarian Dark have also noted hints of toffee, raisin and chocolate in its finish. “It’s essentially the oldest type of beer around. And the reason why it’s dark ist that, at one point, all beers were dark. That’s because people were using fuel other than wood to fire up the kilns. All that smoke and hot tem- peratures made the malt dark… so our Dark is a German
“It’s just a conversation about beer. It’s what we do.”
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NOVEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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