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Opinion

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This article was published 20/06/2019 (1918 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s craft-beer boom — which has seen the number of city’s craft breweries, brew pubs and contract brewers jump from two to 15 in just four years — has provided the city’s thirsty masses with an incredible cross-section of local beer.

But with breweries spread throughout the city — from Pembina Highway near the University of Manitoba to the Exchange District to St. James, the West End and beyond — organizing a local beer “pub crawl” can be a bit of a challenge.

Two local tour groups have taken up the task of bringing local beer lovers to breweries throughout the city, allowing thirsty Winnipeggers to hit multiple breweries in one night and sample a wide range of lagers and ales while getting a behind-the-scenes look at how beer is made — all without having to worry about driving.

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Just prior to Winnipeg’s craft-beer explosion, Jessica Marinelli found herself traveling through B.C. and the west coast of the U.S. After taking a number of tours to craft breweries, she began to think about whether Winnipeg’s burgeoning beer scene could use a similar service.

“I came home and couldn’t stop thinking about it,” says Marinelli. “I thought ‘I can do this.’”

Near the end of 2016, Marinelli took the plunge, starting Winnipeg Tasting Tours after reaching out to a number of the first wave of local brewers to gauge interest.

“It happened pretty quickly and organically. I bought a van, and we started running tours in December 2016. Winnipeg really supported it, everyone really got behind it.”

The Winnipeg Tasting Tours run around four-and-a-half hours, stopping at four breweries, ending with beer and a meal at either One Great City (Ness Avenue) or Trans Canada Brewing Co. (Kenaston Boulevard). Along the way guests get to sample a cross-section of beers at each stop, learning about the brewing process first-hand from brewers as they sip their wares.

Marinelli’s fleet has now expanded to two vans, and has a third vehicle available as needed, meaning tours can accommodate up to 35 people. In addition to the regularly scheduled beer tours which happen on weekends, they’ve also began running a monthly wine-and-food pairing tour, and have started dabbling in the occasional cannabis educational tour to some of the city’s shops.

As for the beer tours, Marinelli has made many new friends at the local breweries, and has enjoyed bringing people to Winnipeg’s craft beer scene.

“It still surprises me that there are people out there who haven’t been in one of the Winnipeg breweries. Everyone really enjoys the opportunity to meet the brewers; sometimes they’ll get to have a sample right out of the bright tank. It’s that added value.”

Winnipeg Tasting Tours can also be booked for private tours, a popular undertaking this time of year as wedding (read: bachelor/bachelorette party) and graduation season begins. Those looking to book a private tour can opt for a more customized itinerary. For more info, click here. 

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Fun fact: The first of Budweiser’s iconic Clydesdale horses started their career in the beer business in Winnipeg.

In the 1930s, as the Depression kicked in, Shea’s Winnipeg Brewery sold off their teams of Clydesdale horses, which would pull carts of beer around town, to the Busch family based in St. Louis, Mo. The horses would go on to become instantly recognizable in conjunction with Anheuser-Busch’s biggest beer thanks to pricey Super Bowl ads.

It’s these kinds of historical fun facts that are offered by the Winnipeg Trolley Company’s Ale Trail tours while riding the refurbished Trolley 356.

Established in 2011, the company began operating general historic tours of the city geared towards tourists. The two-and-a-half hour tour offered riders a glimpse of the city’s history while (somewhat) comfortably seated in the refurbished, bright orange trolley.

When regulations surrounding opening craft breweries and brew pubs were eased and the number of brewers began bubbling over, organizers saw a new opportunity.

“With the explosion of craft beer in the city, the owners of the Winnipeg Trolley Co. thought it would be something people would get excited about,” explains Ben Gilles, who leads and narrates Ale Trail tours. “There was a lot of history not told on the city tours, especially liquor- and beer-based history, that we thought we could share.”

The three-and-a-half hour Ale Trail tour provides guests with a colourful history of Winnipeg that’s primarily beer- and booze-related, with key buildings, murals and landmarks pointed out along the way. The Wednesday and Friday tours both begin at Little Brown Jug and feature two additional stops which vary depending on the day you’re attending.

They’re now venturing beyond breweries on their Wednesday tours by adding Winnipeg distillery Capital K as a stop.

“Making beer isn’t too different from one brewery to the next, while the distillery process is completely different. So we thought Capital K would be a good fit,” Gillies explains.

The Winnipeg Trolley Company still does the general city tours, and books seasonal jaunts such as the ghost tour in the fall and Christmas lights tours later in the year (albeit not in the trolley). The trolley is also available for private bookings.

For more info click here.

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Winnipeg’s newest brewery has jumped into the brewery-tour circuit, and while they’ve only been involved for a couple of months, so far they’ve liked what they’ve seen.

“A lot of people on the tour hadn’t been here before, and for a lot of them, it’s the first time being in the back of a brewery,” says Andrew Sookram, president of Sookram’s Brewing Co. “I guess I just take it for granted because I’ve been to so many. It’s great — it gets the word out for us, and for all the other breweries they’re stopping by. And maybe it’s opening their world a bit to brewery culture in Winnipeg.”

Flights of the Warsaw Street brewery’s four core beers are poured in the front of the brewery, while guests get a tour of the guts of the facility.

“They all really seemed to enjoy learning about the process of making beer. A lot of them were impressed that they could go on a tour given by the actual brewer or brewery owner… they get to see the process of how the beers are being made, and then get to taste them right afterwards.”

uncorked@mts.net

Twitter: @bensigurdson