Capital Pint by Travis Persaud is generally published every second Thursday at OttawaMagazine.com. Follow Travis on Twitter @tpersaud.
Sparks Street Mall will be open to a whole new kind of pedestrian traffic this weekend as WinterBrewed takes over the outdoor strip.
The weekend also marks the halfway point of Beau’s ambitious month of “feBREWary.” The five-week stretch sees the Vankleek Hill brewery releasing seven different beers, and hosting a boatload of events including tonight’s Winterbrewed launch party at Bridgehead Roastery. (This is more of a party for their Winterbrewed beer — a coffee-beer collaboration with Bridgehead — than it is for the WinterBrewed festival. But it’s also, kinda, sorta for the festival as well. Yes, it’s all very confusing. But, really, it’s a chance to drink some great beer so do you really care?)
When you stumble across Beau’s spot on Sparks Street, you’ll notice a few variations of gruits. Co-founder Steve Beauchesne explained to us a few weeks ago that he wants his brewery to become a world leader in this ancient style of beer.
This is an opportunity to taste beer the way it might have tasted pre-1515. In fact, their Dubbel Koyt, which they’ve just released, is a gruit based on a recipe from the early 1500s that was uncovered by beer researcher Ron Pattinson.