The weather is warming up, the patio is open, and we’ve been very busy in the brewery this month! Even though the new provincial health orders mean there is no longer any dining or drinking inside, we have (in my opinion) one of the best patios in town and are still open 7 days a week.
Exciting new brew news! Early this month we were able to get together with Boundary Brewing Company for a collaboration to bring back the Oak Kettle Altbier, one of their signature recipes. We don’t have an oak kettle at KBC so we brewed the beer on our steel kettle instead and I’m happy to announce that it still turned out great!
For those that don’t know, Boundary Brewing Company was one of Kelowna’s early craft breweries that operated out of a small brewhouse/taproom just down the road from where we are at KBC. Owner Oliver Glaser set up the brewery in 2017 and I was actually the brewer there from 2019 until they were unfortunately forced to close their doors last year just as Covid-19 was starting to take hold. BBC always had a reputation for great German-style beers and a cosy atmosphere, that made it quite a unique place to visit.
The Oak Kettle Altbier at Boundary was always a crowd favourite and has been missed since the departure of BBC.
“A medium bodied, easy-drinking, crushable copper coloured ale just like what you’d get in Dusseldorf! It pours a rich copper-brown with a mellow aroma and creamy head. Malt-forward and balanced with soft notes of caramel, biscuit, a hint of roasted barley, and a mellow earthy-floral touch of hops.”
Oli came in to help us out on brew day and it was great to be back brewing that recipe that I have made many times before. A wide range of different grains are used to develop a complex malt profile in the beer, and the smell is just unreal!
We brewed this very early in March so the beer is already available on tap! You will eventually be able to pick this up in liquor stores, but for now it is in-house only.
In addition to the Altbier, this month has seen the return of our house-made sour beers to our taplist. The cherry sour is back, alongside our kettle sour. The cherry sour has been crazy popular, so much so that we are already brewing another batch to keep up with demand. It is also available in cans for takeout at the brewery so come in for a taste! It’s a great beer for a sunny afternoon and I’ve been enjoying it a lot lately. We will be adding it to our main beer line-up and it will soon be getting its very own custom label, here’s a sneak preview of the design as well as a picture of the beer itself to whet your appetite!
Thanks for reading and for your support. This is a tough time for all of us in the restaurant/pub industry and we appreciate all the people going that extra mile to support local by coming in to sit on our patio or by picking up our beer from your local liquor store!