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Of all the stories I’ve written for the Free Press in the past year, none has elicited as much feedback (all positive, no less) than last weekend’s piece about the folks behind The Søbr Market.
Clearly there’s an appetite/demand in Manitoba for non-alcoholic options that aren’t coffee, water or pop.
The number of non-alcoholic beers in our market continues to grow, although most local brewers don’t make low/non-alcoholic brews. (Michele McDougall / The Brandon Sun files)
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The article also spurred a couple questions about low/non-alcoholic products that I thought I’d tackle here…
Why don’t more local craft breweries make non-alcoholic beer?
I’ve asked local producers about this, and the general consensus is that it’s cost-prohibitive and time/labour-intensive.
To make a non-alcoholic beer you either have to prevent or minimize fermentation near the start of the process, or remove the alcohol that results from said fermentation after the fact. (There’s a good roundup of different processes to make non-alcoholic/low-alcohol beer here.) This can often involve pricey equipment, additional labour and so on.
Farmery is currently the only producer I’m aware of making non-alcoholic beer. Some locals, however, are making other kinds of booze-free drinks.
Good Neighbour Brewing Co., for example, makes two flavours of sparkling hop water, while over at Little Brown Jug they’ve launched a flavoured sparkling water line called Brite Water (the raspberry lemon is delicious). And Dead Horse Cider Co., meanwhile, makes ginger-lemon and ginger-lime craft sodas out of non-alcoholic apple cider.
Are any of the dealcoholized wines any good?
Most non-alcoholic wines have a bit more sugar in them than their alcoholic counterparts; this means most zero/low-alcohol reds taste sweeter than the typical boozy red, while some white wines that are typically a touch sweet (say, Riesling) do better than those typically fermented dry (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and so on).
Shane and Jessie Halliburton of The Søbr Market felt sparkling wines seemed to be the best at imitating their alcoholic counterparts, and I agree. (Having said that, I’m curious to try the Edenvale line of non-alcoholic Aussie wines they carry, which they said are quite good.)
Jessie and Shane Halliburton of The Søbr Market pose in front of some of the low/no-alcohol wines and other products they carry in their online store. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press)
One thing the Halliburtons lamented was the lack of low/zero-alcohol wines being made in Canada. I’m aware of only one — or Ones, rather, made by Tyler Harlton, formerly of TH Wines in the Okanagan Valley. The Søbr Market isn’t carrying them (yet), but a recent Instagram post by Ones indicates they’re available (or will be soon) at Kenaston Wine Market.
What are some of the best zero/low-alcohol wines, beers, spirits or other beverages you’ve had? Who’s doing the best alcohol-free cocktails in the city? Let me know.
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Tasty tidbits
Prairie Theatre Exchange and the folks at The Beer Can are teaming up for a theatre-and-beer event on Friday, Jan. 27. Doors for the 7:30 p.m. staging of Jessica B. Hill’s Pandora will open at 6:30, and before the curtain goes up folks can sample drinks from Torque Brewing Co., Good Neighbour Brewing Co., Nonsuch Brewing Co. and Dead Horse Cider Co. The custom-brewed Princess Street Pale, made by Torque in honour of PTE’s 50th anniversary, will also be on sale. The post-show plan is to have a talkback event about the science of beer. Tickets are available here.
A new Vietnamese eatery has recently moved into Market Burger’s old digs at 645 Corydon Ave. Chào Vietnamese Cafe, Lounge and Patio is serving up all manner of banh mi, vermicelli bowls, soups, rice plates and more. Check out their menu here.
Lolly’s is getting set to move from its current location at 100 Innovation Dr. (at Smartpark Innovation Hub at the U of M) into more centralized digs. The eatery, which features handhelds, pizza, brunch items and more, will be setting up shop at 303 Main St. (the Canadian Grain Commission building) in February, making a tidy little collection of places to eat along the Main Street strip that includes Earls, Modern Electric Lunch, OEB Breakfast Co. and, soon, Friskee Pearl Bar and Eatery.
Veg Out, the annual vegan food festival hosted by Winnipeg VegFest, is currently underway with roughly 30 local restaurants participating in the 10-day event. Proceeds from this year’s festival will be donated to the Free From Farm Sanctuary, an animal refuge in Ste-Geneviève, Man. Find a full list of restaurants and their featured dishes here.
And don’t stow your stretchy pants just yet, because Potato Week is just around the corner. The starchy food festival from Peak of the Market runs Jan. 20 to 29 and will see local eateries turning Manitoba-grown spuds into danishes, pizzas, latkes, doughnuts and good ol’ French fries. Visit potatoweek.com for more info. (A heads-up that La Poutine Week is also on the horizon, beginning Feb. 1.)
Recommended fare
Ben: American rock band The National just released a new song, Tropic Morning News, in advance of their ninth album First Two Pages of Frankenstein, and it’s great. The quintet also announced a North American tour in support of the new album, which comes out in April; the trek, sadly, does not include Winnipeg. (They were slated to play here in July 2020, but the show was postponed and subsequently cancelled.) However, there’s a nice big gap in their 2023 schedule that lines up pretty nicely with the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Hm…
Eva: Mushroom stroganoff for all that ails you. Who needs beef or chicken, when you’ve got loads of cremini and portobello mushrooms? I’ve been craving rich, hearty foods lately and this dish certainly hit the spot when I made a big batch earlier this week. This is my go-to recipe, but I like to add a squeeze of grainy dijon mustard to sauce and garnish it with chopped green onions.
Homemade
Homemade: Recipes and Stories from Winnipeg and Beyond is a community cookbook celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Free Press. An e-version of the cookbook can be ordered online here.
This week we have a recipe for Tteokguk, a Korean rice cake soup traditionally eaten on Lunar New Year.
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