Main St. Brewing is running the gamut from mild to wild by putting milder ales in the spotlight during a March Mildness event and announcing new additions to its award-winning lineup of Garage Series barrel-aged and wild-fermented beers available exclusively at the Mount Pleasant brewery (261 E. 7th Ave).
March Mildness
March 1-31 at Main St. Brewing
Inspired by Seattle’s Machine House Brewery and its annual event that showcases milder beer styles made for and enjoyed by true ale aficionados, Main St.’s March Mildness will feature the release of several special entries to its Tunnerman’s line of cask ales.
March Mildness on Main St. kicks off with the debut of Brighton Blonde English Ale (3.9% ABV / 33 IBU) and continues throughout the month with a Calm Before… Dark Mild Ale (3.8% ABV / 30 IBU) and Rye Bitter Ale (3.8% ABV / 28 IBU) are available exclusively from the hand-pull beer engines in its taproom and to-go in single 473-mL cans and four-packs from its retail store next door.
Return Of The Garage Series
New Gale Force Old Ale Debuts March 26
Main St. will welcome the newest entry into its Garage Series of wild-fermented and barrel-aged beer when it releases its 2023 Gale Force Old Ale on Sunday, March 26 to mark International Orval Day.
Orval Day celebrates beers — like Gale Force — that is fermented with the same brettanomyces yeast isolate used to make the iconic Trappist beer brewed by monks at Belgium’s Notre Dame d’Orval Monastery.
The series, which debuted in late 2021, is the brainchild of Head Brewer Azlan Graves and showcases his passion for experimentation and mixed-fermentation styles of brewing.
Two of his first three entries in the series — the 2022 Gale Force Old Ale and Circa 1775 Sumac-Rosewater Saison — earned gold medals for Best Strong Ale & Lager and Best Specialty Wild Ale, respectively, at the 2022 BC Beer Awards.
Graves incorporated remnants of the 2022 Gale Force into the new edition and put it through a secondary fermentation to impart a subtle tropical fruit character and depth of sweetness that complements the English malts.
The resulting beer summons up a storm of dark cherry, pineapple, and manuka honey aromas and flavours of upside-down cake, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Four more keg- and bottle-conditioned releases will round out the 2023 offerings in The Garage Series: a Brett Pale Ale that will mark Main St.’s 9th anniversary in May; a Golden Apricot & Noyeaux Sour wild ale incorporating organic apricots and toasted noyaux; a Piquette Style Ale collaboration with Pamplemousse Jus Natural Winery in Summerland brewed with pinot noir grape pomace; and a Bourbon Porter set to warm up the dark beer season in fall and winter.
A limited amount of 500-mL Champagne bottles of Gale Force (8.6% ABV / 46 IBU) will be available for purchase exclusively at Main St. while supplies last.
Beer lovers can get the inside track on future releases and special advance sales by signing on to Main St.’s ‘Brew News’ newsletter list via mainstreetbeer.ca.
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