We love beer! (and how Fredericton is rocking the craft brew scene)
- angef9
- Jul 27, 2015
- 2 min read
If you’ve read a single post on this blog, you’ve probably noticed the topic of beer come up. More than once. Well, quite a lot really. And there’s a reason for it. We love it. We search out new and interesting local brews when we travel, Greg loves coming up with interesting new beer recipes at home, and we are loving seeing more and more small craft brewers pop up here in Fredericton.
I am admittedly a total beer snob (you can also read this as fussy). I’m a decisive kind of girl and I know what I like. And what I am liking lately is a few great locally made options. I would rather have no beer than to have to drink one of the big-label domestics. And don’t even think about putting a red in front of me. A lot of places, this makes even having a beer tricky. One can only drink so much canned Guinness… it’s just not right. Thankfully, Greg has a much larger range of acceptable beers and is frequently taking one for the team and finishing off something I take two sips of and hate. Thanks dear!
I find Fredericton to be a pretty creative kind of city, and I’m so pumped about what’s going on in the craft brew scene here. So pumped in fact, raving about it is one of the few posts on this blog that isn’t about our travels.
First and foremost, I think a giant shout out has to go out to the fine folks at the Fredericton Craft Beer Festival. What an amazing job they are doing at bringing craft brews to the thirsty masses! And not just at their annual festival, but by putting on lots of smaller events throughout the year to hold us over until March comes around. Last night, we checked out their beer and ice cream pairing at the King St Ale House. I love beer. I love ice cream. I wasn’t sure if I would love them together, but it was totally worth giving it a go. Six ice creams from Chef Aaron (listed in order of deliciousness – beet root and goat cheese, watermelon chili, strawberry basil, chocolate and vanilla ice cream sandwich, deep fried sriracha, and peanut butter and chocolate) along with six east coast (ish) brews (Big Axe’s Shakespeare’s Stout, Propellor’s Organic Ale, Garrison’s Apricot, Picaroons’ Blonde Ale, Trailway’s Mango Wheat, and Unibroue’s Éphémère Cranberry). This year, we’ve also attended their Canada Day Beer Bash, and were the cakes behind their beer and cake tasting.
And we’re super pumped for the Fredericton Beer Run this coming weekend… we’ve even trained for it, running and drinking beer! Run a 4k, 6k, or 12k along the lovely St. John River trail… and then spend a few hours sampling awesome beers from local brewers like Trailway, Grimross, Big Axe, and RailCar (and some awesome ciders too, like from Red Rover and the Gagetown Fruit Farm). And you get a snazzy glass. And the satisfaction of knowing you earned those beers! There’s still tickets – get yours here! And stay tuned for some more fun events, because I know they’ve got some up their sleeves.
And if it wasn’t for the FCBF, I likely wouldn’t know about two of my current personal faves Grimross‘s Maritime Pale Ale and Trailway‘s Session IPA. It takes a lot to convince me to drink beer I can see through – but they have done it (Garrison’s Hopyard previously had that honour all to themselves). Many thumbs up!
So obviously I’m not a beer expert, I’m not up on everything that happens in the Fredericton beer scene, and this blog is not meant to be the be-all-end-all when it comes to all craft brewers in and around the Fredericton area. But if that’s the kind of information you’re looking for, maybe check out the Maritime Beer Report.
Or just head over to Grimross and have some beer!
Disclaimer: We may be friends with the FCBF organizers, but that doesn’t make the job they are doing any less awesome.
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