They only just reached their year-and-a-half anniversary, but already Smithers Brewing Company (SBC) is getting recognized for its suds on the provincial stage.
The brewery recently beat out 22 other breweries to take home the fan favourite award at the Williams Lake Craft Beer Festival (WLCBF) for its “London Fog”, a dark mild ale with earl grey tea and vanilla.
SBC co-owner Blaine Estby said it was an honour to beat out so many other well-known breweries to win the award.
“There were pretty significant guys like Strathcona [Beer Company] and Four Winds [Brewing Company] and some of the big breweries from down South as well … so it was pretty neat to be recognized.”
But the Feb. 22 festival wasn’t the only beer-related competition that SBC has participated in this month.
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On Feb. 20 the brewery was represented at the 12th annual Chowder Chowdown held at the Vancouver Aquarium.
SBC teamed up for the event, which pairs some of B.C.’s best chefs with breweries across the province to create specifically-paired fish chowder and beer offerings, with Fukasaku of Prince Rupert.
For the team’s offering they combined head chef Dai Fukasaku’s Northwest Tide’n Fungi Chowder with SBC’s Bee’s Knees Belgian-style Golden Strong Ale.
The chowder features a miso/tomato broth complimented by locally-harvested Great Bear scallops, dungeness crab, sidestrip shrimps, black cod and locally-foraged pine, hedgehog and golden chanterelle mushrooms, while the beer is brewed with wildflower honey from locally-owned Bulkley Valley Hive & Honey.
SBC head brewer Cam McKeigan said he created the beer with local ingredients in mind.
“With Bee’s Knees, I wanted to brew an Old World style with a New World twist, using Hive & Honey’s top-notch wildflower honey as a chief ingredient,” said McKeigan.
The result is a balanced beer featuring flavours of citrus, white pepper, pears and clove from the use of a Belgian farmhouse yeast that has a dry, floral finish.
“I’m really excited about it,” said McKeigan, who said the flavours are the perfect compliment to the dish chef Dai put together.
While no one from SBC was able to attend the event, their beer was sent down with chef Dai to represent the brewery at the event.
“Dai’s a wizard in the seafood world, and I’m thrilled to be sending our beer down there with him.”
SBC first opened its doors in June 2018. Since then it’s brewed over 50 different styles of beer, with a focus on locally-sourced sustainable ingredients when possible.
The brewery has 10 separate taps as well as two brewing systems for the ability to brew up to 8,000 litres of beer a week. It also features a barrel program with a number of barrels on site for creating special and one-off brews.
trevor.hewitt@interior-news.com
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