Beau’s Brewing + Wild Rose Brewery pair up to create “Over Throne” for Ontario and Alberta
Beau’s Ottawa 2017 Series of cross-Canada collaborations continues with November release Over Throne, a rose and maplewood saison
Ontario craft brewery Beau’s has paired up with Alberta’s Wild Rose Brewery to create a new collaboration beer called Over Throne. The beer is a rose and maplewood saison, and it will be available in both Ontario and Alberta for a limited time.
The recipe for Over Throne was developed over several design sessions that took place between Beau’s Brewmaster Matthew O’Hara and Head Brewer Brian O’Donnell, and Wild Rose’s Director of Brewing Operations Brian Smith and Brewer Jonas Hurtig. The Wild Rose brewers did a pilot batch of Over Throne at their brewery to test and evolve the recipe, then flew out to Ontario in September to brew the full scale batch with the Beau’s brewing team.
With a reddish-brown hue reminiscent of autumn maple trees in Ontario, the 6% saison was brewed using organic wheat and rye malts that were smoked over maplewood, along with additional organic malted barley. Both rosehips and rose petals were added into the brew, with additional rose petals added while the beer matured. Hops are dialed back in this saison to let the other ingredients shine.
“We’ve been looking forward to this beer for months,” says Wild Rose Director of Brewing Operations Brian Smith. “We were trying to brew a real Canadiana-type of beer, so we’ve included maplewood smoke, and roses to work with the Alberta theme.” Over Throne’s aroma is floral and mildly smoky; the flavour offers balanced pepper and sweet smoke notes. The finish is dry, with lingering rose petal impressions.
Over Throne is second-to-last in a series of beers Beau’s will brew with friends across the nation to honour Ottawa 2017, a year-long celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. As with all Ottawa 2017 Series collaborative beers, a portion of proceeds from sales will go to support the work of a Canadian charity. The team at Wild Rose chose The Canadian Legacy Project, an organization that is working to address Canadian veterans living in poverty, through advocating and support with programs and events to help them improve their everyday lives (www.canadianlegacy.org).
Over Throne will be available beginning Oct. 26 at the Beau’s Brewery tap room, and City of Ottawa residents can order it for home delivery starting then as well, through the BYBO service (www.bybo.ca). Alberta will see Over Throne landing on store shelves in mid-to-late November, as well as on tap at select craft-friendly restaurants and pubs in that province.