Having lived on Britannia Drive for three decades, I was keen to visit Britannia Brewing’s tap house in Steveston and sample their local brews.
Behind the taps was Trystam Hayden, an Australian transplant whose family has been involved in brewing and winemaking Down Under.
“I’m owner-operator. I have two partners in the business, but I’m the hands-on partner. I also oversee and work closely with the brewery to execute and brew the beers,” said Hayden.
Asked why the tap house and the brewery are in two locations, Hayden said, “Having our tap house in Steveston came about because we all live in Steveston and we really wanted to open a brewery here, but the zoning wouldn’t allow that at the start three years ago. So we built the brewery behind Ironwood.”
“We still wanted to brand ourselves in Steveston and this building became available and we turned this into our tap house where we showcase our beers with the food.
“We do brunch Saturdays and Sundays. We are open a little bit early on those days, at 9:30, but all the other days we open at 11 and we serve lunch and dinner.
“Here at the taproom, we do tasters and beers and flights. At the brewery, we only can do little samples and we can fill growlers of beer to take home and you can buy bottles and cans of our beer ($12 for 2 L).”
The first brew I sipped was their seasonal beer, Garden Ale. “We call it Blueberry Garden Ale, because it’s harvested from our family’s garden, so there’s blueberries,” Hayden said.
“There’s also beetroot in there; it gives it an earthy flavour and colour.”
It’s a very light refreshing beer with 4.2 percent alcohol, a mild taste of blueberries and hops, fermented really dry. Much like pale ale, with a taste of Richmond.
Next I sipped the Adrift Hop Blonde.
“It’s a blonde ale but it’s brewed with a lot of late hop addition,” is how Hayden described this ale.
“It’s got some nice citrus and passion fruit aromas. But the hops don’t come out on the palate… it’s made to be a nice, refreshing aromatic beer. It’s not bitter at all, but balanced and dry. Not too high in alcohol, only 4.5 percent. I’m from Australia and craft beer in Oz is geared to that style of beer.”
Spicing things up, I sampled the Chai Tea Saison.
“We use a Belgian yeast, but the unique character is the chai tea we add to the beer from our local teahouse in Steveston, Adorabelle,” said Hayden.
“We try to work with our local vendors. It’s a sweet and spicy aroma of orange, star anise, ginger, cardamom and pepper.
“When you pair it with the Belgian yeast, which has got an earthy character, it seems to work really well,” Hayden boasted.
Enjoy with any spicy Asian food.
Next time, I will visit three more tasty ales at Britannia Brewing.
Eric Hanson is a retired Richmond teacher and wine and beer advocate. Contact him by email at Ehanson0705@gmail.com
