It all starts with a:
Hello neighbour! We got some bad beer here. It just doesn't taste quite right, and we don't want to give it to our customers. Typically, we would just throw it down the drain and lose all that product and hard work. But we hear you can save it...
And then we say:
Why of course we can rescue your bad beer from being wasted. We're Confluence. We can do anything. Let's throw it in our still and see what spirit we can devise from the distillation.
This is how it's been going since we've opened. At first, we didn't know exactly what to expect from distilling beers containing random malts, yeasts and hops. All those factors change the flavour of the spirit that come out of the still, which means we can't necessarily use it for gin, vodka or whisky.
So every time we receive a beer from a YYC brewery, it's a crap shoot of what to expect. It's pushed us to finesse our techniques and work outside our comfort zones. This is how we started creating some of the most interesting products we've released.
We've already released some of these "accidental" beer collaborations with local breweries such as Cabin Brewing, Establishment Brewing, Uncommon Cidery and High Level Brewing.
Limoncello, Pear brandy, an Old Fashioned cocktail and a Black Manhattan cocktail are just the start of our journey. All these products are so special, since they are made from one-off "bad" batches of brew, we can only make a limited amount of each product. So, not only are they one-of-a-kind but basically irreplicable. .
It's been over 2 years since our first rescued product release, so you might be thinking, WHY NOW? Why are we talking about it now?
Not too long ago, we were shooting the shit with some friends, chatting about how we rescue beers from breweries, and they started getting really excited about it. The idea that we are saving beers was weirdly exhilarating. It's fun, it's cool, and it is the epitome of community collaboration. What is more Confluence then combining all these things together?
But us being us, we thought, if we're going to make this beer rescue program official, why not one up ourselves and use these collaborative products to rescue more than just beer?
Which is why we're talking about it now.
This program announcement is being made with the release of our latest and first official Beer Rescue Program product: Genever!
Like I said, we do our most creative work with these rescued beers, and Genever (aka Jenever) is no exception. This spirit is a traditional drink from the Netherlands and Belgium. It has been drunk by the Dutch since the late 1500s! Arguably, a full 200 years older than what we think of as gin today. It's still a very popular spirit in the Netherlands. The best way to describe Genever is a combination of gin and whisky. Check out more details here!
We have more Beer Rescues coming down the pipeline, so keep your eyes peeled for our cooky creations and help us save some furry friends.
