9 Mile Legacy
brewery in
Saskatoon
local getaway
A Real Brew-Aha
exploring saskatchewan’s beer renaissance, one pint at a time
EvEryonE knows bEEr is made from
barley. Farmers grow a lot of barley on
the Prairies. So beer must be a big deal
in Saskatchewan, right? The problem
is Canada’s beer bigwigs—Labatt and
Molson—haven’t brewed beer here
since 1989, meaning there hasn’t been
local production in decades.
Happily, that’s all changing. Renewed
interest in local brewing over the last
three years has given rise to seven new
Saskatchewan microbreweries. These
rookies join a pair of pioneers who
paved the way long before anyone even
used the term “craft beer.”
The origins of Saskatchewan’s beer
culture date to the mid-1970s when
University of Regina physics professor
Bev Robertson spent a sabbatical
year in Stuttgart, Germany. There, he
cultivated a taste for proper German
48
fall 2016
CAA sasKatCheWaN
bräu, but upon returning home was
hard-pressed to find suds of similar
quality. So, he tried his hand at home
brewing. Before long, Robertson and
a couple of pals found themselves
prepping big batches on a weekly
basis. As avid cross-country skiers
who liked to “bushwhack” new trails,
they dubbed themselves the
Bushwhacker Brewers.
The contemporary
North American
microbrewery
movement began
taking hold in
the 1980s, but
Saskatchewan’s
liquor laws
didn’t yet permit
brewpubs.
Robertson worked
with the provincial government to
modernize the outdated rules and,
in 1991, he opened the doors to the
Bushwakker Brewpub in the Strathdee
Building, a heritage structure in
Regina’s Warehouse District.
No beer-soaked stay in Saskatchewan
is complete without visiting Bushwakker.
Try to catch a monthly First
Firkin Friday, a bagpiperled cask-tapping
procession that gives
a willing customer
the honour of
tapping the firkin
(a.k.a. keg)—and
getting soaked in
beer as a result.
Bushwakker’s
Bushwakker’s
annual
Blackberry
First Firkin
Friday
Mead release every
9 mile: NathaN JoNes
by JoE wiEbE