The newest brewery to take up residence in the Dominion Triangle in Port Coquitlam (as of whilst I’m writing this) opened their doors to our Tri-City Bikes & Brews members to give us an insight into the inner workings of the brewery, how all of their tasty beer is made, and give us some new samples and a bit of background on where they came from and what we can expect in the near future.

Head Brewer and Head of Operations, Miguel, lead us through the taproom, past the brushed stainless steal fermentors and kitchen to an opening in the back of the brewery with a table laden with some of their newest beers and a stack of flight glasses.

We started the experience with a little bit of background of the brewery, including the infamous story of how one of their fermentors was stolen from the back of building before they had even opened but was eventually returned to them, albeit a little dented – the dent now stands as a point of pride facing the taproom, visible to all – then quickly moved on to sampling our first beer – Black Forest dark lager.

While a little unusual to start with a black beer, as Miguel explained to us while pouring out our samples, this dark lager is toasty and malty but still light and crushable as opposed to overpowering like a stout or porter.

Samples drained, we then took a tour of the facility itself with a running narrative on just how their beer is produced – buying the grain, milling, mashing, sparging, boiling, fermenting and eventually packaging (with their own canning line no less). Miguel’s enthusiasm for what he does was infectious – I’ve done a few brewery tours before but they have been pretty dry and dull – but in the intimate setting of a small microbrewery and with a passionate brewer we were all captivated by the inner workings of the process.

Eventually we headed back to our little corner and sampling table for a taste of one of Boardwalk’s latest releases – Dank Your Citra Dipa. This was brewed as the first of a series of brews celebrating single hops, Citra in this case. One of my favourite hops because of all of the citrus fruits coming through, this double IPA packed a real citrus and hoppy punch and was dangerously easy-drinking for an 8.9% DIPA.

We enjoyed our samples while throwing question after question at our host until we eventually retreated back to the taproom to sit and enjoy some more of the beer we had just been learning about.

Overall a great afternoon, some fantastic beer to try, great knowledge gained and all-round good times had.

Thanks you to our hosts, Boardwalk Brewing and Miguel for taking the time out of his day to show us around!

Stay tuned for the next one!