Quidi Vidi Brewery has gone from launching great new beers, to launching entire fleets of great new beers. The sweet suites of beers are coming to us in the form of themed series.

For example, this fall they launched their “Open Saison” series. It pairs popular local fare like rhubarb and raspberry with the saison style of beer, because these local flavours pair so well with saisons. The Open Saison series produced 4 beers: The Open Saison Rhubarb, Raspberry, Blueberry, and Crab Apple. Next fall, who knows. Already looking forward. The next series is being dubbed “From the Bogs & Barrens.”

Bogs & Barrens Collaborative Series to Create Distinctly Local Beers

“For the inaugural Bog & Barrens series, we’re teaming up with chef Jeremy Charles,” says Quidi Vidi’s Justin Fong.

“The idea behind the series is to collaborate every year with a passionate, creative Newfoundlander. It won’t always be a chef, maybe next year it will be an artist or musician. The goal is for our collaborator and our head brewer to create beer that would only be made in Newfoundland.”

For November 2018’s Bog & Barrens series, the QV team and Jeremy foraged the goods to make the following 3 beers:

  • An Imperial Bakeapple Gose
  • A Pineapple Weed IPA
  • A Smoked Alder Porter

“So 3 super big, fun beers,” Fong says.

The imperial bakeapple gose is the first of the 3 out of the vats. You’ll be able to find it in cans at NLC shortly. Goses are an interesting style of beer that have gone extinct, and been resurrected more than once. It’s an ale named after the German town of its origin, Goslar, or Germany’s Gose River. A distinguishing feature is the addition of salt (in the case of QV’s beer, salt from the Newfoundland Salt Company). Fong sums it up as “a salty kettle sour.” There is a lot going on in the beer. It’s worth trying for the uniqueness alone.

The pineapple weed IPA has the pineapple notes you’d expect. Fong says it’ll be a tropical, New England style IPA. It was brewed using hops with tropical fruit and pineapple notes. The beer is dry hopped with pineapple weed instead of more hops, to pull in a ton of its natural pineapple aroma (and some earthy, grassy flavour).

As for the smoked alder porter, it’s the resinous buds of the plant that are smoked and added to the beer recipe.

Bogs & Barrens Series to Launch with a Meal Event at Merchant Tavern & Raymonds

The beers will launch at an event at Jeremy’s restaurants – Merchant Tavern & Raymonds – on November 27th and 28th. Ticket details TBD at the time of this article going to print.

They’ll be serving wild game from the same bog and barren habitats as the ingredients in these beers — moose, bear, partridge, and hare. “For example, moose eat a ton of alder cones, so the dish with the smoked alder porter is going to be a moose stew,” Fong says.

The imperial bakeapple gose will be paired with bear in some form. Maybe bear charcuterie. “Because in Labrador, bakeapples are what all the bears eat,” Fong explains.