Play Dead IPA alive with flavour
Yellow Dog Brewing Co. crafts a finely balanced offering full of tropical fruit notes
Brew more. Sell more. Expand. Brew more. Sell more. Expand.
In these unprecedented times of demand for beer, most of B.C.’s breweries seem to be locked into this cycle of continuous growth.
Mere weeks after opening, owners with the most optimistic of business plans have been scrambling to order more tanks just to keep up with the seemingly insatiable thirst for craft beer in this part of the world.
Some have simply run out of beer. Others, like Vancouver’s Powell Street Craft Brewery, have had to move location entirely. Startups are now being advised to find a space that leaves them plenty of room for extra fermentation and/or conditioning tanks.
When husband and wife Mike and Melinda Coghill opened Yellow Dog Brewing Co. in Port Moody in 2014, they had 75 hectolitres of brewing capacity and a modest tasting/ retail area in one corner of the brewery. Back then, there wasn’t another brewery within a six-kilometre radius.
Recently, Yellow Dog took shipment of giant new tanks that will boost their capacity to 575 hl — almost eight times what they started with. Having leased and redeveloped the unit next door, the Coghills also recently opened a dedicated lounge with space for 110 people that more than triples their retail footprint. Three other breweries now lie either side of them in a half-kilometre stretch of Murray Street overlooking the upper reaches of the Burrard Inlet.
Yellow Dog’s pace of expansion is far from unusual in B.C., but that doesn’t make the challenges any less significant. With more beer and more space comes more pressure to sell, more staff and greater overheads. There’s also a certain risk to a brewery’s identity, Mike Coghill says.
“The downside to expansion, I find, is trying to expand but still hold onto that identity that you had when you opened. You don’t want to change and expand into something that you’re not,” he says.
“So we’ve been very methodical about making sure that when we expand, we’re doing it our way and we’re keeping our brand alive that way.”
As for Yellow Dog’s future plans for expansion, Coghill is taking an incremental approach.
“If people want our beer, we’ll continue to do it. As long as its living up to our quality standards, then we’ll continue to go.
“We’re not stopping. And this round we’ll see what it’s like selling the beer and what the need is and we’ll go from there.”
Craft beer’s popularity is also changing palates, a fact that’s evident in Yellow Dog’s leading seller: the bracingly flavourful Play Dead IPA (6.8 per cent ABV).
Appearance: Lightly hazy, dark gold with a tight white foam. 3/3
Aroma: Vibrant, tropical fruit — mango, lychee, melon — citrus notes of pink grapefruit and lime, and peppery grains of paradise. Lightly syrupy sweetness. Biscuity, crackery malt base. 10/12
Flavour: Mango, lime, grapefruit and richer cantaloupe marry with a touch of caramel malt sweetness, bolstering the biscuity malt base. A sturdy bitterness introduces some peppery notes, while the aftertaste reveals a more herbal side amid chewier tropical-fruit notes. The flavour profile lingers pleasingly. 17/20
Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, medium-high carbonation. Offdry. 5/5
Final thoughts: A beautifully crafted IPA packed with tropical and citrus fruit flavours, yet finely balanced and satisfying. 8/10 Final score: 43/50 Food pairing: Play Dead got me thinking of Mexican options, although you will want to keep the spiciness dialed down. Try some fish or shredded chicken tacos with a more herbal salsa verde. I also love hopped-up IPAs with aged cheddar — the stickiest, saltiest, crumbliest stuff you can find.
Buy: From $13.50 (4x 473 ml), at private stores across Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan.
Jan Zeschky is a Certified Cicerone® and BJCP Certified beer judge.