Glacial Gruit

History & Style

Glacial Gruit is a coast-to-coast-to-coast celebration of Canadian history and nature, and highlights the work of our key nature museums across the country. Founded in 2002, the ANHMC is a Canadian network featuring fifteen of the country’s key natural history museums from each province and territory, and serves as an exchange of information on issues dealing with collections, research and education.

Glacial Gruit is a beer inspired by the earth’s most recent glacial period, which took place 30,000 to 10,000 years ago. During this period nearly all of Canada was completely covered by ice, however most of the Yukon and parts of the Northwest Territories remained ice free, providing hospitable refuges for plants and animals. This allowed for many now-extinct creatures, such as the Yukon Horse, to roam the barren, cold and iceless plains of the glacier-era Yukon.

In 1993, two placer (stream bed) miners discovered the 26,000-year-old remains of a Yukon Horse, frozen and buried underground near Dawson City, YT. The discovery was the best-preserved example of an Ice Age animal found in North America. Members of the ANHMC were able analyze the horse and identify what plants it had most recently eaten, allowing for new insights into glacial-era life and vegetation in Canada. This discovery, along with the subsequent research conducted by members of the ANHMC, inspired the selection of ingredients that went into Glacial Gruit, including yarrow, fireweed, rosehips, and buckwheat.

Additionally, Glacial Gruit is fined (part of beer-making that makes a beer more clear, and less hazy) with the use of glacial clay collected by members of the ANHMC from a glacial valley on Nunavut’s Axel Heiberg Island. The clay truly puts the “glacier” in Glacial Gruit!

We have to recommend you serve this beer … ice cold!

Tasting Notes

Glacial gruit pours hazy copper with a white foam. The aroma is floral, sweet and subtly smoky. The flavour is mildly tart and fruity, suggesting citrus.

Food Pairings

Fried chicken and waffles, Rondelé (Boursin) cheese, crêpes Suzette.

Available At…

• The Beau’s Tap Room
• BYBO.ca (Ottawa)