A recent summer camping trip to Manning Park led me through the Fraser Valley for the Chilliwack Sunflower Festival and that got me thinking about beer.

The Fraser Valley saw hop growing as a key industry once upon a time and hop farming is back largely thanks to the growth of craft brewing throughout B.C.

Hops in case you don’t know can be a key ingredient in beer and while beer really only requires malted barley, yeast and water, hops in B.C. beers have really become a thing!!

Inspired by the growth of hops in the Fraser Valley, I looked for some breweries on the BC Ale Trail that were near the Sunflower Festival. Old Yale Brewing was the closest.

Old Yale Brewing

I tried the following at Old Yale Brewing: They included Head Shaker Honey Lager, Off Trail Pale Ale, Tequila Gose, and Sasquatch Stout.

I have also been a sucker for stout’s, often dead set against drinking a Gose and a Honey Lager and a Pale Ale is always a nice compliment when trying a flight of four beers.

The Sasquatch Stout is always a fav of mine because it satisfies my palet and love for all things coffee and chocolate. It’s the 2014 award winner for Best Beer In Canada and rightly so in my book.

Having tried and not liked the Habanero Peach Goes from Parallel 49 Brewing, I was pleasantly surprised by the Tequila Gose at Old Yale. It contains Pink Himalayan Salt, Agave Tequila, and reminded me of drinking a Margarita. Delicious!!

The Fraser Valley Ale Trail also includes the following breweries. Flashback Brewing in Chilliwack, Ravens Brewing and Field House Brewing in Abbotsford and Langley has Five Roads Brewing, Trading Post Brewing, as well as Dead Frog Brewery.

Dead Frog Brewery has always been a bit of an icon in my book having been in operation since 2007 and with an old favourite of mine their Nut Brown Ale.