The most damaging storm in BC Hydro history ripped through southern BC on December 20, with winds of up to 100 km/h battering parts of the province, sending branches and outdoor structures flying, uprooting decades-old trees and leaving 750,000 hydro customers without power.
The seaside town of Chemainus, home to Riot Brewing Co was without power for over 80 hours as a result of the aforementioned storm. In a News Release circulated today, the owners of Riot appealed to the craft beer community and beer lovers for help with recouping revenue lost during this time. “Since the storm hit right before the Christmas season, Riot Brewing Co. experienced significant financial loss due to limited brewery hours, road closures, delivery difficulties, cancelled holiday parties and more,” the brewery said.
Not only that, a batch of beer was halted mid-brew by the outage and it was time to improvise. “The quick-thinking brewers at Riot waited for the beer to hit the right temperature, added just enough lactobacillus to get the souring process going, then held their breath for the results. Two weeks later and this improvised concoction of malts and delicious fruits is one of the happiest accidents to come out of these tanks.” The beer, named Sour Outage Passionfruit Plum Dark Sour was a creative way to make the best of a bad situation and not at all a surprising outcome for this tenacious group of business owners who after a 7-year journey fraught with delays, finally made their dream of opening a brewery come true.
Riot leaves us with this message, “if you order for a bar or restaurant, call Riot for a keg or two of Sour Outage. If you stock a liquor store, please consider ordering cases for your shelves. If you’re a craft aficionado, pick up a bottle at your local shop and tell your friends.” Look for Sour Outage to start hitting shelves and taps next week.
And if that doesn’t convince you, Riot wrote you a poem:
