Steveston might be criticized for having too many coffee places, souvenir shops, and sushi restaurants, but it certainly isn’t the case with brewpubs.
There’s only one, Britannia Brewing ,at Bayview and Second streets.
And what a delightful variety of beers they have on tap. It’s becoming such a mecca for craft brew lovers, you can almost hear them cheering, “Rule Britannia!”
Last week, owner Trystam Hayden guided me through a tasting of three of his beers: the Bier de Garde (Blueberry Garden Ale), the Adrift Hop Blonde, and the Chai Tea Saison.
My tastes are very traditional and I shy away from fruit and exotic spices in my beer.
But what impressed me is that those three beers were all dry and nicely balanced so you knew you were drinking a real beer.
Any exotic ingredients were thankfully subtle, like a pinch of salt.
Today, it’s time to sample my favourite tipple at Britannia Brewing: the Wave Crusade X (Extra) Pale Ale. It’s a British pale ale but Hayden has made a fusion of the British crystal malt with West Coast hops, BC Cascade hops plus Amarillo and Centennial Hops from Yakima.
The result: ale with extra bouquet and flavour.
My second favourite Britannia brew was their Riptide Rye IPA (India Pale Ale) a beer that every North American craft brewery makes.
Coming from a family with a long history of brewing in Australia, Hayden is keen to play around with recipes.
Hayden explains, “Our IPA is another hybrid style. It’s not a straight West Coast style, which is big, bitter, lots of hops, usually filtered clear. Then there’s the East Coast style using a different stain of yeast, leaving a lot of unfermented malt so you get a bit more mouth feel and sweetness.
“What this allows is, you can hop it up a lot more — a hell of a lot more late in the process — to bring out those wonderful hop aromas, the citrus, the orange, the passion fruit, the tropical hop aromas,” says Hayman passionately.
The final beer, the Ashore Rye Porter, is perfect for December’s windy and rainy weather.
Hayden continues, “It’s a true British style brown porter where we add 20 percent rye malt.
“It gives an aromatic coffee smell and a spicy character on the palate. But here is no espresso in there, it’s just from the brown malt. There’s a few types of British crystal malt, a special roast malt, and the brown malt. It gives you that coffee and chocolate aroma and flavour and the thick head.”
To celebrate the Christmas season, a winter seasonal beer will be released, Imperial Stout Porter.
For sipping any of the beers or enjoying them with lunch or dinner or weekend brunches, Britannia Brewing in Steveston is your destination. To purchase growlers, bottles, or cans of Britannia brews, visit the brewery at 110-12500 Horseshoe Way.
Eric Hanson is a retired Richmond teacher and wine and beer advocate. Contact him by email at [email protected].
