Aaron: This episode of the Cascadian Beer Podcast has been made possible
Aaron: by the BC Ale Trail. Arrived thirsty, leave inspired, at
Aaron: the bcaletrail. ca.
Aaron: Welcome to the Cascadian Beer Podcast. My name's Aaron and
Aaron: I'm a Cascadian. In this podcast series I profile the
Aaron: unique breweries around Cascadia, a region that has a strong
Aaron: presence in the international beer scene. Cascadia is a bioregion in
Aaron: the Pacific Northwest on the North American continent. It is
Aaron: made up of the U. S. States of Washington and Oregon,
Aaron: as well as the Canadian province of British Columbia. If
Aaron: this is your first time here, welcome.
Aaron: I really hope you do enjoy the following episode, and
Aaron: if you like it, please hit subscribe in your favorite
Aaron: podcast app. That way you'll never miss a show.
Aaron: East Van, or better known in the beer community as
Aaron: Yeast Van, is a major craft beer center in Vancouver,
Aaron: British Columbia. One brewery in particular in this neighborhood is
Aaron: Andina Brewing Company.
Aaron: They're about to celebrate their third birthday. Andina mixes the
Aaron: founders heritage with creative experimental flavors for their beers. In
Aaron: a bit I'll be chatting with their brew master. But
Aaron: first I sat down with one of the co- owners.
Andres Amaya: My name is Andres Amaya, and I am co- owner
Andres Amaya: of Andina Brewing Company.
Aaron: All right. And how long has Andina been open, in
Aaron: existence for?
Andres Amaya: For... well, it was founded in 2015 but we opened our
Andres Amaya: doors in 2017. So March 1st of 2020 is going
Andres Amaya: to be three years exactly.
Aaron: All right.
Andres Amaya: Yeah.
Aaron: All right. And a bit of time there between-
Andres Amaya: Three years, yeah.
Aaron: Yeah. Yeah, a bit. Well, from planning and then opening-
Andres Amaya: So planning was tough.
Aaron: Yeah.
Andres Amaya: And opening was tougher as well.
Aaron: Yeah. But how did beer find you?
Andres Amaya: Well, it was actually when I first arrived here in
Andres Amaya: Canada, which was 21 years ago, we started drinking with
Andres Amaya: my brother, the usual Fin Du Monde and Trois Pistoles and
Andres Amaya: that stuff. And we started liking beer back when and often
Andres Amaya: on drinking different various beers until we really got into
Andres Amaya: craft and really found what craft was about. One night
Andres Amaya: we were drinking in my brother's basement and drinking beer
Andres Amaya: of course and then we wanted to get into business,
Andres Amaya: we wanted to really do something different and be our
Andres Amaya: own bosses kind of thing. And it was actually my brother's
Andres Amaya: idea. He said, why don't we make beer? We're drinking
Andres Amaya: beer. We like beer, why don't we make, you know, and one
Andres Amaya: thing led to another and here are.
Aaron: All right, so were you sold immediately? Like yeah, let's open
Aaron: a brewery or did you-
Andres Amaya: Immediately. Oh immediately. My first question, my first thing is,
Andres Amaya: well we don't know how to brew. And he's like,
Andres Amaya: well, we'll find somebody who can brew. We don't know
Andres Amaya: anything about this. So we'll find somebody who... True enough
Andres Amaya: we found consultants that helped us build the brewery and
Andres Amaya: with a whole bunch of things, right.
Aaron: Right.
Andres Amaya: So, but yeah, we don't know how to brew but
Andres Amaya: we're into brewing I guess into multi beer.
Aaron: Yeah. You found a great brewer. So there you go.
Andres Amaya: We are really happy about that because we needed to find somebody who could bring a lot of
Andres Amaya: creativity that we didn't have before. And Ben happened sort
Andres Amaya: of by accident, which is good for us. Hopefully it's
Andres Amaya: good for Ben as well. But Ben was brewing out
Andres Amaya: of Callister, and he wanted to do contract brewing here.
Andres Amaya: I had tried his products, I liked his Bombastic beer
Andres Amaya: and some others. And then I approached Ben, I said,
Andres Amaya: hey, we're in the lookout for a brewer. Do you
Andres Amaya: want to come and join our team instead of contract
Andres Amaya: brewing? And we sat down and sort of that's how
Andres Amaya: it happened. But Ben brings a lot of creativity, which
Andres Amaya: that's where... he's a great brewer, number one. Number two,
Andres Amaya: he's also a graphic designer. I don't know if you
Andres Amaya: know that, but he's also helped us change the labels
Andres Amaya: and change a little bit of clean, a little bit
Andres Amaya: of the branding, even though my branding is good, but
Andres Amaya: we need it to solidify our labels and a whole
Andres Amaya: bunch of other stuff. So we're lucky in that sense
Andres Amaya: that we've acquired Ben. And another thing is to attest
Andres Amaya: to his creativity, we have, and I'm sure you've heard
Andres Amaya: this, we have the Ben's Brew every Friday, where we
Andres Amaya: tap a 50 liter keg of Ben's Brew.
Aaron: A pilot batch. Yeah.
Andres Amaya: And he creates some weird stuff, which some is good,
Andres Amaya: some is not so good, but out of those Ben's Brews, we
Andres Amaya: were able to do, for example, our new Cocolat, the
Andres Amaya: toasted coconut stout, came out of that, and there's a
Andres Amaya: bunch of others that are lined up like blood orange,
Andres Amaya: a pale ale I think, or IPA, one of those.
Andres Amaya: And he did one that I really liked, which was
Andres Amaya: a lollipop IPA. So he saved loads of candy from
Andres Amaya: Halloween from his kids and did an IPA, which was
Andres Amaya: phenomenal. And he's done a lot of other works. So
Andres Amaya: that is a validation of how creative Ben is. And
Andres Amaya: yes, we're very, very fortunate. I'm sorry I expanded so
Andres Amaya: much on this question.
Aaron: No, no, no. It's all good. But with Andina I, you know,
Aaron: you were talking about your branding, you have a very
Aaron: clearly defined theme to the brewery and what is that?
Andres Amaya: Well the number one is obviously South American inspired, right?
Andres Amaya: Tried to bring our South American heritage infused with the
Andres Amaya: 21 years of being here. So we infused a little
Andres Amaya: bit with the Canadian tradition, and when I say infused
Andres Amaya: it's because there's really not a lot of craft in
Andres Amaya: Columbia. So you think about Colombian or South American beer, it's your typical Pilsner lager,
Andres Amaya: no higher than 4. 2. Anywhere in South America. You
Andres Amaya: give them a 4. 5, they're like oh, this is a
Andres Amaya: strong beer. But so it's not the actual the beer
Andres Amaya: itself that comes from there. But everything else that encompasses
Andres Amaya: our background and our food, our tradition, you know, the
Andres Amaya: language, everything that we wanted to bring and showcase a
Andres Amaya: little bit about that. So, that's number one. Number two is,
Andres Amaya: I'm not sure if you noticed, but there is not
Andres Amaya: really a lot of breweries depicting a female, a female aspect
Andres Amaya: of the brewery. And we want it strongly to be
Andres Amaya: a female brewery. First of all, beer in Spanish, cerveza,
Andres Amaya: it's female. So we want it not only in our,
Andres Amaya: in our logo and our brand, but we want it
Andres Amaya: to show a little bit of female side of our
Andres Amaya: breweries. And again, they're not really a lot of breweries
Andres Amaya: that showcase a female, like a female type of thing.
Andres Amaya: So that's number two, which I think are the two
Andres Amaya: most important aspects.
Aaron: And by like with that... Ben's been making some really
Aaron: fruity, flavorful things with South American fruits.
Andres Amaya: Right.
Aaron: So that's a nice direction that you take as a brewery.
Andres Amaya: Yeah. Yeah. We want it to... We started with, the
Andres Amaya: idea came about, you know, making some fruit beers based
Andres Amaya: on other breweries, they were making some fruit beers, so
Andres Amaya: we started bringing some fruit from Columbia, and you know,
Andres Amaya: Columbia has a lot of exotic fruit. They have, we
Andres Amaya: did one with lulo, which is a really strange fruit.
Andres Amaya: And we did a (Lulogoso) which went really, really
Andres Amaya: well. And then (fayhaw) was another fruit that it's
Andres Amaya: basically people don't know about it and we've started exploring
Andres Amaya: a lot of that. And for some reason the guava
Andres Amaya: was one of the killer ones and the Guava Saison
Andres Amaya: has turned to be our flagship right now. So yeah,
Andres Amaya: a lot of South American products, our plantain chips are
Andres Amaya: brought from South America. There's some stuff that we're bringing
Andres Amaya: from South America.
Aaron: Yeah, so, then on that, you have the beautiful tasting room? How many seats
Aaron: do you have out there? And then you have a little kitchen
Aaron: as well to go with that.
Andres Amaya: It's a cold kitchen. So we have a license for
Andres Amaya: 60 people at the tasting lounge. So at any given
Andres Amaya: point we can fit 60 but on the other side
Andres Amaya: of the bar, there's a waiting area that you can
Andres Amaya: have a beer before coming in. Weekends are especially busy,
Andres Amaya: but any other time or day would be very easy
Andres Amaya: to come in and find a spot. And yes, we
Andres Amaya: have a cold kitchen, when I mean a cold kitchen is
Andres Amaya: you can't really do deep fried or do any of
Andres Amaya: that stuff. But we do have a stove top and
Andres Amaya: some ovens and whatnot. And yeah, so we offer South
Andres Amaya: American food, right? Ceviche being number one, three, four kinds
Andres Amaya: of ceviche. And we also have a vegetarian ceviche, which
Andres Amaya: is a mushroom ceviche for those vegans, vegetarians. Platachos which
Andres Amaya: is nachos, but instead of tortilla chips is plantain chips.
Aaron: Oh that's lovely.
Andres Amaya: Yes. You can add pulled pork and a whole bunch
Andres Amaya: of stuff. And then arepas. Arepas is the poor man's bread
Andres Amaya: in South America and Columbia basically and you eat a
Andres Amaya: lot of arepa instead of bread. And then you put
Andres Amaya: on top, pulled pork, or chicken, or cheese or whatever
Andres Amaya: you want to put. So we have some of that. Empanadas
Andres Amaya: Are big. Of course, we have beef empanadas and veggie
Andres Amaya: empanadas as well. And a couple of other things. Cheap
Andres Amaya: cassava chips. And you know, some other minor stuff. Yeah.
Aaron: So what was the struggle then of opening this place and
Aaron: why did you choose East Vancouver here to open up in?
Andres Amaya: I'll start with why did we choose East Vancouver? It
Andres Amaya: was exactly because of the other breweries. We wanted to be near the other
Andres Amaya: breweries to be able to capitalize on the fact that
Andres Amaya: people would come and do tours, and be able to
Andres Amaya: go to one, or two, or three. You don't want to
Andres Amaya: be a destination brewery, you want to be able to
Andres Amaya: be part of something. So we are part of Yeast
Andres Amaya: Van right now. And-
Aaron: Like a community?
Andres Amaya: Yes-
Aaron: Of breweries. Yeah.
Andres Amaya: Yeah, and people don't want to go and stay, in my opinion,
Andres Amaya: I don't think people want to go and stay in
Andres Amaya: one brewery all night. They want to go and stay a while,
Andres Amaya: go try other beers somewhere. So that was the main
Andres Amaya: reason, and the challenges, starting from trying to find the
Andres Amaya: place, which took us about a year, trying to find
Andres Amaya: a suitable place. You know, we were very close on,
Andres Amaya: actually were in the bidding race or run with Strathcona actually.
Aaron: Right.
Andres Amaya: So there were two of us bidding for the same space
Andres Amaya: and obviously we lost. Strathcona's there now. But yeah.
Aaron: But you're still technically neighbors.
Andres Amaya: We are neighbors, yeah. And then we, right after that we found this
Andres Amaya: spot and yeah, we fell in love with the whole
Andres Amaya: style of the building and that's what we did. And we chose this place. But
Andres Amaya: you know, construction brings a lot of challenges as well.
Andres Amaya: Because you know-
Aaron: Because this isn't a new building, right? It's-
Andres Amaya: It's 106 years old.
Aaron: Yeah. So it's had a few adjustments in it's time,
Aaron: since it was originally built. So you've got to clean
Aaron: that up.
Andres Amaya: That's true. Well I'll tell you a little funny story. We were digging up in
Andres Amaya: the lounge. First of all we found three floors. So
Andres Amaya: we did one, and then we dug another one, and
Andres Amaya: then we dug another one. And so they took the
Andres Amaya: dirt out and all of a sudden there was another
Andres Amaya: floor, and then we cut it and there was three
Andres Amaya: floors underneath there. We finally got to the bottom of
Andres Amaya: it, and okay, so we dug the hole, blah, blah,
Andres Amaya: blah. Came to next day and full water. And that was strange.
Andres Amaya: So we got the water out, whatever you call it,
Andres Amaya: and next day we'd come in, full of water. Sure enough,
Andres Amaya: there was a water leak from the main water coming
Andres Amaya: from the city parking lot, big water leak. And so
Andres Amaya: that was $ 50, 000.
Aaron: Right. But now you've got three floors. Well-
Andres Amaya: Three floors, exactly.
Aaron: But I mean what you've done to the building, I
Aaron: mean, you can't miss it when you come driving past.
Aaron: It's a bright yellow building with-
Andres Amaya: Very bright.
Aaron: Which, and by the way, does the woman that represents
Aaron: Andina brewery, does she have a name?
Andres Amaya: She does. Her name is La Pola. La Pola means,
Andres Amaya: I'm sure you're going to ask me this, La Pola
Andres Amaya: has two significance. The number one is, she was a
Andres Amaya: lady who started the revolution against the Spanish in Colombia.
Andres Amaya: So she has a, what you call it, a heroine
Andres Amaya: or whatever, in the Colombian history. And also pola means
Andres Amaya: beer. It's a slang for beer. So in Columbia you'll
Andres Amaya: say give me a pola, her name is La Pola,
Andres Amaya: just because of that.
Aaron: Right.
Andres Amaya: And yes, she's really big upfront on the building. The building is
Andres Amaya: yellow and very, very bright. And like you say, you can't
Andres Amaya: miss her, she's big.
Aaron: So how was the opening then? How were you received by the
Aaron: community? Like how, how were those first few days of opening?
Andres Amaya: It was fantastic. I think that it was well received.
Andres Amaya: I think we had, I don't know if you recall,
Andres Amaya: we were in the news, the global news the day
Andres Amaya: before. So that helped us a lot, sort of, you
Andres Amaya: know, push us forward. And we had a lot of
Andres Amaya: people come and visit us in person.
Aaron: It was March, right? So it's-
Andres Amaya: Yeah it was March.
Aaron: So everybody's coming out of hibernation for the winter.
Andres Amaya: Exactly.
Aaron: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andres Amaya: So it was packed practically for the first three months, you couldn't
Andres Amaya: get in.
Aaron: Yeah.
Andres Amaya: Which was good. But then-
Aaron: I tried.
Andres Amaya: And other... Parallel 49 was close. So there was not
Andres Amaya: really a lot of other choices with food and stuff like that. So
Andres Amaya: soon they open, and then you know when everything went
Andres Amaya: back to normal.
Aaron: So where does the brewery go from here? I mean
Aaron: your packaging now, and how far in the province do
Aaron: you reach with your product?
Andres Amaya: I would say, well it's, yes. So we have some
Andres Amaya: packaged products, cans. We have a six core beers, five
Andres Amaya: core beers, and one seasonal comes out, which is a stout
Andres Amaya: that comes out in the winter. And also we're doing
Andres Amaya: our limited releases. Last year we did about four of
Andres Amaya: them. This year we're planning on doing one per month.
Andres Amaya: So between 10 and 12 this coming year. We started about
Andres Amaya: four months ago selling on Vancouver Island. We have about
Andres Amaya: 40 to 50 clients now out there. And about a
Andres Amaya: month ago we started in the Okanogan area region. You
Andres Amaya: know, (Cologne) up in [Tiktin 00:14: 59], Lake View Country, Vernon,
Andres Amaya: couple others there. But that's been really recent. So I
Andres Amaya: think that's as far as we go. One store out
Andres Amaya: in Abbotsford that's really adamant of getting our product. But
Andres Amaya: that's as far as we go. Yeah.
Aaron: Cool. And then are you happy with the size? Are
Aaron: there any expansion plans in the works for the tasting
Aaron: room or-
Andres Amaya: No, no plans whatsoever. It's more just... we have space
Andres Amaya: in the back, so as production ramps up, I think
Andres Amaya: that will, you know, start getting more... getting new tanks in,
Andres Amaya: and it really depends on, you know, what the sales
Andres Amaya: are looking like, and yeah, if anything will be just new
Andres Amaya: tanks and that's it. No expansion (inaudible) no.
Aaron: Yeah. And if somebody was wanting to go down the path of
Aaron: opening a brewery themselves, what would be some advice you
Aaron: can give them?
Andres Amaya: Wow, I guess... Yeah, I think the one piece would
Andres Amaya: be to get as much information as you can before
Andres Amaya: you open, from your fellow brewers. Don't be afraid of
Andres Amaya: asking for help. I was a little shy in asking
Andres Amaya: for a lot of help and some of the stuff
Andres Amaya: I had to learn by myself, and learned the hard
Andres Amaya: way, where I could have gone to anyone of the
Andres Amaya: fellow brewers and say, hey, how do we do this
Andres Amaya: and get you know, a safe path. But that would be
Andres Amaya: my advice. Just get yourself as much information as you
Andres Amaya: can about any questions that you may have with fellow
Andres Amaya: brewers and people who've been in a brewery and... because
Andres Amaya: you want to avoid all those mistakes that we've done,
Andres Amaya: right? And if we can say, hey man, just do this and do it
Andres Amaya: this way, it'll save you a headache, it'll save you
Andres Amaya: time, it'll save you a lot of that stuff. So
Andres Amaya: that would be my number one advice.
Aaron: Right. Well thank you so much for your time, sir.
Andres Amaya: Thank you.
Aaron: It's was a great chat with you.
Andres Amaya: Thank you.
Aaron: Same, same here. Big thanks to Andres far his time.
Aaron: Really appreciate it. I'll be talking to their brewmaster in just a
Aaron: little bit, but before I get into the next interview,
Aaron: I just want to thank BC Ale Trail real quick for
Aaron: making this episode possible and you can check them out
Aaron: at the bcaletrail. ca. There you'll find a map for a lot of
Aaron: the breweries in East Van as well as a bunch
Aaron: of other breweries around the province of BC. There's recommended
Aaron: itineraries for local things you can do in the different
Aaron: regions of the province. There's a blog with lots of
Aaron: great stories and a calendar of all the beer events
Aaron: that are going on around BC. So whether you're planning
Aaron: your next trip to visit us here in British Columbia,
Aaron: or you're just wanting to be a tourist in your
Aaron: own backyard, let the BC Ale Trail guide you to
Aaron: your next beer adventure. Arrive thirsty, leave inspired at the bcaletrail.
Aaron: ca. All right, part two of my interview with Andina
Aaron: and I sat down with their brewmaster.
Ben Greenberg: My name is Ben Greenberg. I'm the head brewer at
Ben Greenberg: Andina brewing.
Aaron: My favorite question to start off with is how did beer find you.
Ben Greenberg: How did beer find me. You know I started drinking
Ben Greenberg: beer when I was a teenager and always enjoyed it
Ben Greenberg: and liked... Really liked seeing the progress of beer becoming
Ben Greenberg: more interesting. And in terms of making beer it was,
Ben Greenberg: I've always been a creative person. I've always liked making
Ben Greenberg: stuff. I mean I started my professional career as a
Ben Greenberg: graphic designer and art director, and started home brewing because
Ben Greenberg: it was one more thing I could make and share,
Ben Greenberg: and it just escalated to this.
Aaron: Yeah. So like what was the big wow factor with
Aaron: beer? Was it the flavor profiles or just food pairings? Because
Aaron: I'm just trying to find that creative spark there and
Aaron: maybe say-
Ben Greenberg: I mean at first it was just something different. Everything
Ben Greenberg: I had ever made before really to put out there
Ben Greenberg: in the world was a visual thing, either art or
Ben Greenberg: design, and then it was just different, and I found
Ben Greenberg: just so much satisfaction with the whole process. It wasn't
Ben Greenberg: even just the final product, it was each step of
Ben Greenberg: it. I really enjoyed doing. So, I mean it really
Ben Greenberg: started off on just the hobby selfish level of it.
Ben Greenberg: I just had a lot of fun doing it.
Aaron: All right. So how did your first home brew go then?
Ben Greenberg: I've always joked that I would love to have a
Ben Greenberg: bottle of it still just to know, because at the
Ben Greenberg: time I was like, this is great. Yeah, it was
Ben Greenberg: a basic pale ale, that was fine. I'm sure it
Ben Greenberg: was pretty under attenuated and lacking in hops, but it
Ben Greenberg: turned out okay. My second one was a stout. I
Ben Greenberg: did it on the stove top and it was my
Ben Greenberg: first boil over and my last batch of beer done
Ben Greenberg: in my kitchen because, that was quite the cleaning.
Aaron: Right. So what happened post kitchen then? Did you go-
Ben Greenberg: Bigger system, propane out in the garage, and-
Aaron: All right, so then what drove you to go down
Aaron: the route of beer?
Ben Greenberg: As a career? I had worked in a few different
Ben Greenberg: industries before that weren't full of the type of people
Ben Greenberg: that are in craft beer. So really it was the people involved that
Ben Greenberg: drew me to it as much as doing the job
Ben Greenberg: itself. I've met so many amazing people that, as you know, there's
Ben Greenberg: like, people are friendly and helpful and it's community based
Ben Greenberg: and it's wonderful. So-
Aaron: A lot of other creative talents as well.
Ben Greenberg: Yeah, exactly.
Aaron: Yeah.
Ben Greenberg: Yes, definitely. So yeah, that's what really drew me to it.
Aaron: Okay. And so then did you have a dream of
Aaron: opening a brewery because you didn't start here?
Ben Greenberg: No, no. So I mean professionally I started at doing
Ben Greenberg: night owl brewing out of Callister and that was great
Ben Greenberg: experience. A lot of fun and yeah, it was pretty amazing
Ben Greenberg: and definitely I hadn't been there too long before I
Ben Greenberg: realized I wasn't going to stop making beer and working
Ben Greenberg: in this field.
Aaron: And I mean you, you get that instant feedback when
Aaron: you're at Callister, right? Like the brewhouse is basically next
Aaron: to the bar anyway, so people will yell at you
Aaron: if your beer is not right, right?
Ben Greenberg: Yeah, and you work behind the bar one day a week.
Ben Greenberg: So it was a great experience to be able to make the
Ben Greenberg: beer and then actually serve it and talk to people
Ben Greenberg: about it. People are pretty kind. It's definitely not, it's
Ben Greenberg: a biased feedback, but I'm fine with that.
Aaron: But you were focusing on a different style at that
Aaron: time when you're out of Callister right? What kind of beers
Aaron: were you looking to do?
Ben Greenberg: So then I... It wasn't too, too different from what
Ben Greenberg: I like doing now. I like making poppy beers and
Ben Greenberg: doing some fun fruit stuff and experimenting with stouts. I've
Ben Greenberg: actually tweaked a lot of recipes and brought them over
Ben Greenberg: here. More sours here, is the biggest difference. People love
Ben Greenberg: fruit sours.
Aaron: All right, so then how did you end up here then?
Ben Greenberg: Originally I was talking with Andy, the owner of Andina,
Ben Greenberg: about contract brewing here and doing night owl here, and
Ben Greenberg: there wasn't the capacity or the space, and he was
Ben Greenberg: looking for a head brewer and it was just a
Ben Greenberg: good fit.
Aaron: Just put one and one together, and yeah. What would you say the main
Aaron: theme of Andina is that you try to accomplish in
Aaron: every beer?
Ben Greenberg: The main theme... Yeah. I try to make beers that
Ben Greenberg: are fun, that are, you know, exciting and new but
Ben Greenberg: not crazy and different for different sake. I try to
Ben Greenberg: make enjoyable beers for the season. The owners are Colombian
Ben Greenberg: so we use a lot of South American ingredients and
Ben Greenberg: tropical fruits and I try keeping that in there. But
Ben Greenberg: at the same time we are an East Vancouver based
Ben Greenberg: brewery so have some appeal to the local craft beer
Ben Greenberg: drinkers, and they like me, you know like, like hoppy
Ben Greenberg: pale ales and IPAs, and a lot of people are
Ben Greenberg: drinking lagers and the sours for sure are very popular.
Aaron: And I've hung out in this tasting room many a
Aaron: times. I'd say that your beers are very approachable and
Aaron: just very, just enjoyable. There's nothing too overpowering about them.
Aaron: I find them all well balanced and-
Ben Greenberg: Oh thank you.
Aaron: And you know, and those nice little experiment things, you know, it's like, oh cool.
Aaron: It's not over the top with, here's a ton of
Aaron: fruit, and just where the fruits overpowering the beer at
Aaron: that point right? So...
Ben Greenberg: Yeah, I like when there's balance and it doesn't have
Ben Greenberg: to be subtle. It can be, you know, it can
Ben Greenberg: be a lot of fruit if there's a lot of
Ben Greenberg: other things going on. The Guava Saison has quite a
Ben Greenberg: bit of guava in it, but that yeast character really
Ben Greenberg: comes through too. So it's a, yeah, I tried to do
Ben Greenberg: a balance.
Aaron: What's going on from here? Which direction are you wanting
Aaron: to take this thing? Are we finding a good groove
Aaron: at the moment or are we going to be experimenting
Aaron: into new areas too?
Ben Greenberg: Yeah, I'll be doing some more experimenting, kind of a
Ben Greenberg: combination of refining what I've done in the last 14,
Ben Greenberg: 15 months here and trying some new things. I'm going
Ben Greenberg: to try to barrel age a few different beers, stouts
Ben Greenberg: and saisons, and whatnot. As soon as I have time
Ben Greenberg: and the space to do that. And yeah, doing... Got
Ben Greenberg: some new fruit ideas for sours. We've got some co-
Ben Greenberg: labs lining up, so we're going to try some stuff
Ben Greenberg: that's got some input from other brewers too, which is
Ben Greenberg: always fun and exciting too.
Aaron: Right. And then, yeah. Where does your inspiration come from?
Aaron: Is there any locals that you turn to all the
Aaron: time for, to see what they're up to?
Ben Greenberg: Yeah, and it changes regularly. There's a real wealth of
Ben Greenberg: amazing beer around here and it's... you can't, I can't
Ben Greenberg: keep up with it all. So yeah-
Aaron: Especially in this neighborhood, I mean, you can't throw a
Aaron: stone without hitting a brewery. It seems like there's a
Aaron: lot in this neighborhood.
Ben Greenberg: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So I mean I've had some, I
Ben Greenberg: don't even know where to start. There's so many. I
Ben Greenberg: could just give you a list for this entire interview
Ben Greenberg: of great peers I've had recently. This year I feel like
Ben Greenberg: I've had a really, a lot of really good fresh
Ben Greenberg: hop beers, which I don't find every year. I find
Ben Greenberg: they're kind of hit and miss, but they are, they've
Ben Greenberg: been pretty amazing and just had Bombers, Powells was incredible
Ben Greenberg: this year. And those are pretty good. So maybe do
Ben Greenberg: a big batch of that next season and yeah, other
Ben Greenberg: great beers. I've had a couple of great Fieldhouse beers
Ben Greenberg: recently that I've really enjoyed and yeah.
Aaron: Okay, cool. And if somebody was wanting to make better
Aaron: beer themselves what would be some nice, good practical tips
Aaron: you could give them?
Ben Greenberg: Practical tips for making better beer. Being meticulous with every
Ben Greenberg: process and note- taking. I find I cannot leave myself
Ben Greenberg: enough notes of what I did because it's... I'm not
Ben Greenberg: going to remember exactly what I did every step of
Ben Greenberg: the way, but every little detail makes so much difference
Ben Greenberg: and having a good record of that helps so much
Ben Greenberg: for following batches.
Aaron: Cool. Well thank you so much for your time, Ben.
Ben Greenberg: Thank you.
Aaron: Yeah, it's great to chat.
Ben Greenberg: Yeah, great.
Aaron: Big thank you to Ben and Andres for their time.
Aaron: Really do appreciate it. And you got to get down, check it out.
Aaron: It's a beautiful spot. And you know, like we said in the interview,
Aaron: you can't miss it. Bright yellow building down in East
Aaron: Vancouver. Yeah, it's pretty hard to miss. But yeah, definitely
Aaron: need to go in and check it out the next
Aaron: time you're in Vancouver. Thank you so much for listening
Aaron: to this episode. I do hope you've hit subscribe if
Aaron: you haven't already. That way you'll never miss an episode,
Aaron: and if you liked this episode too, feel free to
Aaron: share it with your friends and if you have somebody visiting
Aaron: Vancouver soon, share with this episode. You know what? I actually did
Aaron: just that, well, before this episode was released, but I
Aaron: gave some friends a heads up. They were in town
Aaron: celebrating a wedding anniversary and said, hey, here's some breweries
Aaron: you should check out, send them to the BC Ale Trail, and they really
Aaron: liked it. So yeah, big thanks again for the BC Ale
Aaron: Trail for making this episode possible. If you want to
Aaron: follow us, you can on social media, at facebook. com/
Aaron: cascadianbeer, or on Twitter at Cascadianbeer, and on Instagram at Cascadian Beer Podcast.
Aaron: You can also go to the website, at cascadian. beer.
Aaron: Thank you so much for your time. I really do
Aaron: appreciate it. And until next time, remember, support your local.