I found myself in Whitehorse this past week with my wife, many of my in-laws, and some old friends. We flew up to the Yukon for my brother-in-law's wedding, but a secondary purpose of mine was to check out Yukon Brewing, the Territory's premier craft brewery.
Tucked away in the northwest corner of downtown Whitehorse, Yukon Brewing is housed in an unassuming little structure. A handful of family members and friends joined me for the tour. We paid $10, which got us a twenty minute tour of the brewing facilities and then a tasting of YB's eight year-round beers.
The tour itself is similar to most that I've been on, in that it contained some information on the brewing, bottling/canning. and labeling processes, given while walking through the back-of-house space. As a fully operational brewery, there was a lot of work going on around us, which made for a pretty interesting experience. The tour was led by a reasonably knowledgeable and enthusiastic young woman who was happy to answer our questions and to elaborate as requested.
On top of the brewery facilities, we also got a little information about a vodka distillery on site and where Canadian whiskey is currently being made, but which is not yet ready for production.
YB uses all natural ingredients and no preservatives, which makes for a shorter shelf life, but, to my mind, a more interesting process. We sampled YB's Chilkoot Lager, Deadman Creek Cranberry Wheat Ale, Yukon Gold English Pale Ale (which I previously reviewed), Yukon Red, Bonanza Brown, Ice Fog IPA, Lead Dog Olde English Ale, and Midnight Sun Espresso Stout, the best of which I'll review over the next few days. Most were quite good, a few were ordinary, and there was one, Ice Fog, which really wasn't up to snuff. We also got to try a diluted sample of their vodka, distilled with raspberry, rose hips, and sage.
For ten bucks, I'd have liked more beer than the eight miniscule little tasters that we were given. However, everyone was tremendously friendly, and keen on beer. If you're in Whitehorse, you should definitely take this tour.
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