Five years ago this Saturday the very first glass of Dageraad beer was poured at the Tangent Café on Commercial Drive and to celebrate, the award-winning Burnaby brewery is having a kick-ass party, of course.
Dageraad Brewing is going all out to celebrate its continued “stubborn existence” with an anniversary party from 2–8pm this Saturday, May 11. They’ll be tapping 20 different beers throughout the day including some old favourites you thought you’d never see again, and two brand-new beers that nobody’s ever had. The Fat Duck Truck will be on hand to feed the masses, with live music from the New Shackletons.
Owner/brewer Ben Coli says while the brewery struggled initially—notably butting heads with the City of Burnaby, facing cost overruns and overzealous safety regulators before the first pint was ever pulled—it’s only made this milestone all the more significant.
“Focusing a brewery on Belgian-style beers was never a smart business decision,” he admits. “While the rest of the world was going crazy about IPAs, we were asking consumers to educate themselves on obscure styles and pay attention to nuanced, complex beer. I can say without exaggeration that we nearly didn’t make it to our first anniversary. I remember some particularly grim conversations with my wife in September of that first year.”
But Dageraad pulled through, and today it’s doing better than ever. It was even named the Canadian Brewery of the Year at the 2018 Canadian Brewery Awards. And its beers are amazing. But you already knew that.
Dageraad will also be launching a special limited edition beer at the event: FIVE Saison.
Here’s what the brewery has to say about it:
FIVE is the liquid symbol of Dageraad’s five years of stubborn existence.
Five years ago you’d have to have rocks in your head to start a brewery dedicated to Belgian-style beers, and that’s even more true today. Most beer drinkers don’t know anything about Belgian beer! But who cares? We’re not brewing for most people! We’re brewing for ourselves, and for a small group of beer drinkers who know what’s up. You’ve stuck by us and we’ll stick by you.
They say that saison isn’t sexy anymore. When has that ever stopped us? We love saison, so we made it to celebrate our fifth anniversary.
FIVE is dry (as saison should be), dry-hopped (as saison should be), and bottle-conditioned (as saison should be).
Dageraad is located at #114–3191 Thunderbird Crescent in Burnaby. Make sure you leave your car at home as Dageraad is just a five-minute walk from the Production Way SkyTrain station, and for the cycling-inclined, the folks at Bike Valet will be there to secure your bicycles.
