Looking for the perfect beer to pair with your bbq? The Globe & Mail's Beppi Crosariol has some tasty suggestions, including Great Western Brewing Company's Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale.
Media attending the Banff Rocky Mountain Wine & Food Festival over the weekend were treated luncheon at Saltlik Banff, where JOEY Restaurant Group Executive Chef, Chris Mills, unveiled the steakhouse's latest menu. Saltlik (with locations in Calgary and Banff) just recently joined the JOEY Restaurant Group Family.
Check out this post from Calgary's City Style & Living magazine for the scoop on the new menu items.
Read the whole story here.
Read beer expert Jordan St. John's article about Original 16, which ran over the weekend in the Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto Sun newspapers.
Elettra Communications is offering a six to eight week Public Relations internship. This is an ideal position for someone who would like to gain valuable experience working in the field of PR, and is currently enrolled in, or has recently completed, a Public Relations program or a degree in Communications, Arts or Business. It will provide the chosen candidate with a general overview of the industry, as well as relevant skills and experience. The intern will be responsible for assisting with the following: • Drafting media releases and other materials • Creating media lists • Preparing PR campaign recap documents • Conducting research • Coordinating aspects of events, including working with suppliers and sourcing materials • Administrative duties
Requirements: • A keen and demonstrated interest in the field of public relations. • A high level of interest in the media and current events. • Excellent written and verbal communications skills. • The ability to multi-task.
Hours: 9am-5pm. Position will likely be four days per week, however, this is TBC. Occasional evenings and weekends may be required.
About Elettra Communications Elettra is a communications agency based in Vancouver. Our services include: media relations, media training, product launches and openings, community relations & CSR strategy, events, promotions, and issues and crisis communications.
Our clients include: Vancouver Airport Authority (YVR), JOEY Restaurant Group, Vancouver magazine, Great Western Brewing Company, Larco/Morgan Crossing, Noise Digital, and Meetingmax. http://www.elettra.ca
Please send cv and cover letter to: Gwen Hardy Elettra Communications gwen@elettra.ca
Bloggers have been tasting Great Western Brewing's Original 16. Click the links below for the latest blog posts:
Jason Foster's On Beer review.
Regina Leader Post's Irene Seiberling in Anything & Everything.
Stephen Beaumont's World of Beer.
And Tory Burtch talks to Great Western's Brewmaster, Viv Jones, on the Great Canadian Beer Blog.
2011 Restaurant Award winners reflect the shift to quality casual dining
Vancouver, B.C.; April 13, 2011 – In celebration of B.C.’s dynamic culinary scene, top chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers, and food critics paid tribute to the winners of the 22nd Annual Vancouver magazine Restaurant Awards yesterday at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel.
“It’s clear that quality casual food is what diners were seeking this past year,” said Vancouver magazine Editor-in-chief, Gary Stephen Ross. “That’s the lesson to be drawn from our stellar group of Restaurant Award winners.”
Nowhere was the shift more evident than in the Restaurant of the Year category, where the winner of Best Informal Restaurant, La Quercia, took the top honour. La Quercia also won Gold in the Best Casual Italian category. Last year’s Restaurant of the Year, Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar, was named Best Formal Restaurant and took Gold again in the Best Seafood category.
As further evidence of the casual dining trend, Bao Bei won multiple awards including Best New Restaurant, Best Small Plates, and Best New Design. Best Food Cart, a new category this year, saw Roaming Dragon take Gold for its Asian-infused street eats, while Southern food style Re-Up BBQ took Silver, and Japadog won Bronze.
Nico Schuermans was honoured as Chef of the Year for nurturing the burgeoning culinary scene on Beatty Street with Chambar, Café Medina, and Dirty Apron cooking school and delicatessen. Chambar won Gold in the Best Other European/Middle Eastern category and the magazine singled out Café Medina for having the city’s best breakfast.
Jack Evrensel, Proprietor of the Top Table Group (Araxi, Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar, Cin Cin, and West), was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Thirty years after opening Araxi in Whistler, he has set the standard by which rooms in B.C. are judged. Evrensel was honoured for his unrelenting focus, demanding standards, and hard work. Several perennial favourites also received top honours, including: Vij’s for Best Indian; Le Crocodile for Best Formal French; and Tojo’s for Best Formal Japanese. The inaugural Pastry Chef of the Year award went to Thomas Haas.
From Marketing Magazine
By Eve Lazarus
Great Western Brewing Company of Saskatoon is expanding its product line with the launch of a new premium beer called Original 16 in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
The brewery, which has an annual marketing budget of just over $1 million, will roll out a radio, billboard and online campaign this week. Saint Bernadine Mission Communications of Vancouver designed the packaging, the collateral, trade materials and the advertising creative. It worked with Engine Digital on web marketing and Elettra Communications on public relations for the launch.
David Walker, partner at Saint Bernadine, said the beer is called Original 16 to honour the original 16 founders of the company who remortgaged their houses and put up their life savings in 1989 to buy the facility and keep their jobs.
Walker said extensive focus group research found that the story behind the company resonated with the target market of males 19 to 45. The theme is carried through the radio advertising and on the website which will debut a 16-part documentary about the company.
The creative for the billboard is a product shot and the tag line: “Some beers have a story. This one has a legend.”
Great Western Brewing produces four brand families of beer: Original 16, Great Western Brands, Brewhouse Brands and Value Brands.
Congrats to our friends at JOEY Restaurants and the Wine Room at JOEY Bentall on their gold medal at the Playhouse Wine Awards.
See the list of winners in the Vancouver Sun.
The Calgary Herald reviewed Great Western's Original 16.
Food stuff
BY JASON VAN RASSEL AND GWENDOLYN RICHARDS
Smooth beer honours owners
Review . These days, a brew doesn't impress the beer snobs unless it's aged in 300-year-old bourbon barrels or is bitter enough to shred your palate.
On that basis, Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale likely won't impress the elitists -but it's a smooth, refreshing beer for the rest of us.
Great Western Brewing Company in Saskatoon created and named the beer in honour of its original 16 employees, who worked in the city's Carling-O'Keefe brewery when the company merged with Molson. The new owners were going to shut down the plant, but the small group of employees bought it instead, and the Great Western Brewing Company was born in 1991.
The company says Original 16 is meant to appeal to western Canadian palates. It's an easy-drinking beer with mild hop bitterness and a crisp finish.
It's not unlike Molson Export -which isn't a backhanded compliment: Molson Ex won a gold medal in the North American Blonde/Golden Ale category at the 2010 Canadian Brewing Awards.
Original 16 is available in liquor stores and select pubs and restaurants in Western Canada.
Click here to read the Regina Leader Post's article about Original 16, Great Western Brewing Company's new premium Canadian Pale Ale.
Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale honours employees who saved the regional brewer from wrecking ball more than 20 years ago.
This week, to celebrate the commitment, dedication, and determination of its original sixteen founders, Great Western Brewing Company will unveil its new premium beer brand, Original 16. The new brew, which will arrive on shelves on March 20, is a crisp, refreshing Canadian Pale Ale.
More than twenty years ago, the brewery’s previous owner (one of the big national brewers) had slated the city-block-sized facility in downtown Saskatoon for closure. Sixteen employees decided they weren’t going to let that happen. With determination, commitment, passion, and the personal risk that came with taking on such a large-scale facility, they saved the brewery. It was renamed Great Western Brewing Company, and began producing high quality beer. Original 16’s March 20 launch date is timed to celebrate the anniversary of when the first bottle of Great Western beer came off the production line.
“In 1990, we were striving to keep a great Western Canadian brewing tradition alive. All sixteen of us embarked on a single-minded journey to make the highest quality beer available, right here in Western Canada,” said Don Ebelher, one of the original Great Western Brewing Company founders and current Director of Operations. “Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale celebrates that legacy and honours the spirit of the company’s founding.”
Original 16 is made with 100 per cent two-row prairie barley (widely considered to be the best in the world) and produced via a double-aging process through which the beer is matured for seven days, then chilled to minus 1.5 Celsius and held for a 24 day (minimum) cold-aging period. The beer then undergoes final filtration at this temperature to ensure maximum clarity.
“The result is a perfectly-balanced, exceptionally smooth-tasting Canadian Pale Ale with a delicate citrus hop flavour and fruity aroma,” said Viv Jones, Brewmaster, Great Western Brewing Company. “This pale ale is refreshing and highly drinkable and will leave a sparkle on your tongue.”
“Listening to our customers has always been a cornerstone of our success, and we heard loud and clear that there was a demand for premium beer that is truly Western Canadian,” said Michael Micovcin, CEO, Great Western Brewing Company. “Great Western Brewing Company is proud of the way Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale honours our brewery’s founders by staying true to our Western Canadian roots."
Original 16’s premium packaging is silver and white with gold accents. The beer is available in four-pack 473 ml cans, six-pack 341 ml bottles, twenty-four 341 ml bottles, and draught.
Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale will be available from March 20 at liquor stores, in select privately-owned cold beer and wine retailers, and in select re restaurants, pubs, and lounges in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Original 16 Canadian Pale Ale will be priced in the domestic premium category.