Brassneck Brewery

A bright Pale Ale with a strong hop backbone. The ever so slightly sweet malt character plays second fiddle to the punchy hops. Somewhere between a pale & an IPA, Passive Aggressive has become our flagship.

What’s this “Changeling” all about then? Well, its kettle soured, like a Berlinerweisse. (We turn the “lactic acid dial” up a few notches on the base beer, so it’s nice & pucker). Then, as the name would suggest, we change the fruit we ferment it with.

Our most simple beer, yet the one we agonize over the most. English malts combine with the classic Cascade hop to create, what we hope will be your favourite, fridge filling “Welcome Home” beer.

We kidnapped a Saison, held it hostage for several months, letting it sit & condition on Brettanomyces. The more time passed the more it started to like us. It rewarded us by tasting delicious. Stockholm Syndrome can be a beautiful thing.

The intention here was to recreate the quintessential, slightly butch American Pale Ale with that big piney nose only Centennial Hops can give you.

Built like a lager, but fermented with an ale yeast, our tried & true Kolsch is meant for quenching thirsts, not blowing minds.

Lacto soured in the kettle (like a berlinerweisse) this was the second beer we tried this technique with. Then we added Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand. Zing! We ended up with a real pleasant tart little base beer backed up with some big gooseberry notes from the hops. The beer version of a Sauvignon Blanc if you will.

Yeah, we know, we’ve got a few pale ales on the go but we really enjoy tweakin’ the recipes & messing around with different hops. This guy does show similarities to the Passive Aggressive, but we dialed back the booze content with a lighter malt bill. It’s got lots of hop aroma & flavour coming from the Galaxy Hops (think orange citrus) but it’s not over bearing on the ol’ bitterness. The Wingman has no intention of stealing the lime light from the Passive Aggressive & is guaranteed to have your back when you need it most.

Our Porter breaks the mold by being a little on the hoppier side. We use Bramling Cross hops, an English variety known for their subtle black currant notes. The hops play nice with the roasted malt for a pronounced, lingering bitterness… if you like that sort of thing.

Our interpretation of the White IPA. Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt, Belgian Yeast, Secrets, Magic & rotating hops combine to create a lovely balance of flavours that seems to satisfy everybody from the hardest to please hop head to the not so fussy newbie.

Hazy IPA

We took another fairly straight forward style here & decided to Brassneck it up a tad by giving it a little twist. Time to get nerdy boys & girls. Ambiguation is built like a Belgian Wit except we give the beer a 100% Brettanomyces primary fermentation, then we add lacto for some acidity. Lovely subtle citrus notes & just the right amount of twang make Ambiguity a lovely way to spend a summer afternoon….on Third Beach…. skinny dippin’ (as long as you have a brown bag or two handy).

One Trick Pony is a strong IPA brewed with Pilsner Malt & a rotating single hop. We use pilsner malt, so that the malt presence provides a clean slate to showcase the hop variety. At 9%, we encourage you to not underestimate this mild mannered beast.

This one of our faves. Mostly because we rarely have the fermentation room to brew it because it takes 8-10 weeks. It’s a simple, satisfying beer. The kind beer nerds don’t really understand. “Why is my tongue not disintegrating under the intense power of the IBU’s?” “Why is it so pale, I can like, see through it & stuff?!” No Brainer, is, -ahem- well, its a no bloody brainer isn’t it! If you’re thirsty, don’t pour yourself a glass of water, have one of these instead. We think you’ll enjoy the results.

Seems that when most breweries make a coffee beer it’s Espresso Stout or Porter. We wanted to try something a little different. We brewed a base beer deep amber in colour with natural malt sweetness & delicate fruit character. Instead of adding espresso, we “cold brewed” the coffee beans in the beer. This gave us some wonderful acidity balanced with delicate fruit character rather than the big roasty flavours many of us are accustomed to tasting in other coffee beers. The final result was a real tribute to the quality of the beans provided by Bows & Arrows Coffee Roasters in Victoria BC & the creativity of our Head Brewer. **Magic Beans Batch 2 was made with beans from Anchored Coffee (Novia Scotia) & Cold Brew from our friends at Revolver Coffee in Vancouver. ***Magic Beans Batch 3 (first served January 29th, 2015) was made in collaboration with our friends Elysian Coffee. ****Magic Beans Batch 4 was made with Bows & Arrows Coffee Roasters.(So good we had to do it again)

Farmhouse Ale with Kveik yeast.

Mr.Personality is another one from our “Meant to be Poundable so Shuddup And Drink” range. Inspired by the Vienna Lager style, but fermented with a German Kolsch yeast we just wanted a well made, clean amber ale, with no surprises measuring high on the thirst satisfaction scale. We’re pretty sure that’s exactly what you get. (and if you don’t get the irony of it being named Mr.Personality, we’ll look forward to your 2 star review on a certain widely used iPhone app that brewers really love to hate ;)

This beer won’t have the Beerazzi foaming at the mouth, but if you’re looking for a straight up brown ale that won’t club you over the head with alcohol, we think we might have just the thing. Subtle notes of milk chocolate with just a hint of blackcurrant from the addition of Bramling Cross hops. Relax, it’s a traditional English Mild

As with most Imperial Stouts BIG roasty flavours of coffee & chocolate prevail with a little hint of licorice. Ours has a lovely dry finish putting all those big flavours in harmony

You may or may not know that our brew system was from the legendary brew pub DIX. Former brewmasters Derrick Franche & Tony Dewald put DIX on the map for its killer IPA. If you can believe it 20+ years ago, IPA’s really were not that much of a thing here, in Vancouver. It took some big ole hoppy kahounas to brew a bold mega IPA. We asked them if they would brew the IPA to the original DIX specs, on the original DIX system, here at Brassneck. They agreed. The beer was awesome. So good in fact, we asked them to brew it every December, cause ya know what?? Traditions are a fine thing. So, if you need a break from those new fangled, hazy, hoppy-not-hoppy, fruity petuity creations & you crave a little old school bitter blastin for your taste buds, look no further, what you need is a glass of DIX…

A riff on the Hefeweizen style, Brassneck “Multiweizen” is made with 5 grains. Rye, Wheat, Barley, Oats & Corn. We open ferment with a nice authentic hef yeast. The open fermentation allows the yeast to go bonkers, producing all kinds of fruity esters. The combination of the fruitiness, gentle cinnamon & clove characteristics of the yeast with the natural sweetness & body of the malts, gives this beer a creamy mouth feel & unique complexity.

Built with almost entirely German ingredients, the best way we could describe this beer is a “Dark Altbier”. (A term which would no doubt have most German purists spitting feathers!). Not unlike a stout, this beer is black in colour, with a bright white head. But instead of the usual heavy malt character of a stout, “Blacklight” has a light mouth feel, complimented by a pleasing roastiness & balanced with delicate fruit from the German ale yeast.

We’ve always wanted to have good quality lagers available at Brassneck. However, due to production restraints & the amount of fermentation time a really great Pilsner deserves, our capabilities to produce this kind of beer have been severely limited. (mostly ’cause you buggers drink the beer so bloody fast!) This is only the second time we’ve brewed the King Maker, the first time being over a year ago. It’s a special one for us, we hop you like it. German Pilsner Malts & a healthy dose of Tettnanger hops give this pilsner a distinctly European edge.

We’d describe it as an Abbey Style Ale. We use a blend of Chimay & Duvel yeast strains to maximize the Belgian-ee-ness. Then we hurl in some dark candi sugar to twist up the ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’ knob. Tastes good. Drink some.

Changeling fermented with Viognier grape must.

Went there one weekday evening and I loved how cozy it felt. It wasn't loud nor was the music. We were served water right away and service was great. I asked for a taster and the size was very generous. The decor is nice as well and the place very clean. Server was very friendly as well. Will definitely go back again.

I just want to say that I really appreciate that they have all their off sale tall cans as singles. I have been visiting breweries around Vancouver for a project and, as so far, they have the biggest selection. At one point or another, everyone buys a 4 pack or 6 pack of beer that just isn't their taste. It is great that I can try something new and, if it isn't my taste, it is just one can. It is also great if you know everyone's favorite so that everyone gets what they really want.

Solid brewery spot. Lager is must (as say that as a humble yet choosy beer nerdy perspective). Sour was solid as it hit a Goldilocks Zone of approachability being tart, sour, a little sweet, with some body vs vinegar sour or candy sweet. Imperial Stout was also solid. Medium motor oil, noticeable banana, sweet chocolate (not cloying in my opinion) that is complimented by the body (I dislike thin sweet bombs). Hummus was really tasty, home made crackers, the bread was homemade (or tasted like it), and the kids loved the local root beer, it's rather fantastic. Their Scarlitos Way cookies were just wow. I was hoping a dope name would lead to a delicious cookie. Miso chocolate? Shut up and take my money. Their peanut butter cup one is waiting to be devoured. Most of the servers were kind and attentive. Definitely worth a visit. And 20 secs away in the corner is a vegan donut shop with really good espresso pours.

Very nice brewery. I recommend the Hazy IPA (concentration face).

The water was nice. Everything else paled in comparison. I don't know how you make a 7% dry hopped pale taste like Coors Lite, but I guess it's a skill of a kind. The service was lovely, so there's that.