Barnside Brewing Co. employee fills a glass with beer. PHoTo: SAMANTHA HOLOMAY

Hopped up and
feral for B.C. beer

Unique hops could change craft beer industry

By SAMANTHA HOLOMAY

n their quest to breathe new

life into the local B.C. hops

industry, Langara researchers

are brewing new feral strains
they hope will be a hit on the craft
brewing scene.

Ji Yong Yang and Kelly Sveinson
have worked on a ground-breaking
project for five years.
They first identified new
species of feral hops in
the wild, then grew
them to establish their
hardiness.

“The ones that we're
working on will perform
the same function as
other hops, but we're
trying to develop hops
that are from B.C.,” said
Sveinson.

Now, they are testing them for the
first time to see whether they make
good beer. If the beer is good, they
hope to patent the hops and allow
B.C. and Canadian farmers to grow
them “to give them a competitive
edge in this hop industry,” Yang said.

Hops are the key ingredient in
brewing craft beer and significantly
impact the beer's flavour and profile.

The number of craft breweries in
B.C. has almost quadrupled in the
last decade, according to the BC
Craft Brewers Guild.

The explosion in the number of
craft breweries initially led to many
new hop farms emerging. However,
because the Americans patented
the most popular strains of hops,
B.C. breweries turned to the U.S. to
source their hops. As a result, many
of the province’s farms were forced

to shut down.
Ken Beattie, BC Craft Brew-

the climate.”

— KEN MALENSTYN

ers Guild executive director, said
producing beers with fresher ingre-
dients is crucial to the success of the
hop growing industry.

“People will wait with bated breath
to get the latest fresh hop beer,” he
said.

Since the craft brewery industry's
resurgence, the focus he says has
been on brewing fresh local hops.
He suggested that B.C.’s hop farm-
ing market needs to attract interest
by promoting local products.

Josh Mayich owner and operator
of Island Hop Company in P.E.1.

“You're tasting a local
flavour that’s developed
by mother nature, by
terroir, by the soil, by

CO-OWNER OF BARNSIDE BREWING CO.

invested in the Langara feral hops
project as a commercial partner.

Island Hop Company is presently
growing the same feral hops from
the Langara project on their farm.
Mayich said he is waiting to see how
the varying weather climate affects
the hops growth and flavour profile.

“In Canada right now, we don't
have a variety of our own that's truly
born and bred here. This
will be a nice stepping-
stone to start getting it,”
said Mayich.

Ken Malenstyn, the
co-owner of Barnside
Brewing Co., said that as
they brew larger batches
of the feral hops in the
future, they will have
good indications on how
they perform.

“You're tasting a local flavour
that’s developed by mother nature,
by terroir, by the soil, by the climate,”
he said. “That's something that
you're not getting when you're all
buying ingredients from the same
distributor.”

As B.C. approaches peak season
for fresh hops, partners of the feral
hop project, like Mayich, hope to
keep the local beer conversation
alive.

“It's a cool thing that we're trying
to do here, and I hope it works out,”
Mayich said.

Library lets
down learners

College and
students not on
same page

By MARCO SHUM

tudents at Langara wish the
library was open longer.
Wyatt Orbeil, a second-
year student in the recreation stud-
ies program at the college, was
frustrated by the operating hours
and recently was told to pack up
and leave the
library while
he was work-
ing on a dead-
line.

“Many other post-
secondary institutions

considering the tuition fees that
students pay, they are not getting a
return on services.

Villela said she's made it her
mission at board meetings to advo-
cate for expanding the library hours
for students. “They did listen, and
we sometimes discussed it for a few
minutes, but it never had the rele-
vance compared to other issues,” she
said.

Debbie Schachter, interim direc-
tor of the library, said the operating
hours are based on demand. She said
the staff walk around the library at
closing time, and count the number
of students still
using it.

“It's based on
the evidence of
use,” Schachter

“It doesn't | areactuallyopen 24/7 | said.
cost a lot The Voice
to keep the for students to beableto | . -.. ally
space open work and study.” surveyed 30
and available students at
for students — WIATTORBEIL, LANGARA STUDENT the library this
longer. week on library

Instead, it creates more frustration
where many other post-secondary
institutions are actually open 24/7
for students to be able to work and
study,” Orbeil said.

The opening hours for the library
are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., from Monday
to Thursday. On Fridays, it is open
from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on week-
ends, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The
library hours have been a frequent
topic of discussion by students at the
college board of governors.

Maria Alonso Villela, an inter-
national student and student repre-
sentative on the board, said that

hours, and more than two-thirds of
those surveyed said they wanted
longer hours.

Daniela Matheu, an internet and
web technology student, said the
library is always full due to the return
of in-person teaching, after the
college campus was closed during
the pandemic.

“They can ask more students, they
will be surprised how many people
actually need to use the library in our
extended schedule,” Matheu said.
“Maybe they just didn't consider it
because they don't really know how
many people need it.”

Students inside the library, taken from outside at night. PHoTo-: marco SHUM