SOMETHING SPECIAL’S BREWING IN CAMPBELL RIVER

At a Greenways Land Trust board meeting a couple of years ago, conversation turned—as it often does—to fishing, foraging and preserving wild foods. The topic of this conversation, specifically, was spruce. Hundreds of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), our region’s coastal spruce tree, grow at Baikie Island Nature Reserve. In the hands of an experienced brewer, the Board knew the tips of those trees could be used to make spruce beer.

Meanwhile, at Beach Fire Brewing Company, owner Darrin Finnerty was keen to try making spruce beer—if he could find a local source of spruce tips.

Greenways’ executive director, Cynthia Bendickson, reached out to Darrin about a possible partnership. It was the start of a delicious collaboration. Beach Fire Brewing served its first batch of spruce beer to rave reviews in 2018, and has been offering it seasonally every year since.

The Spruce-Tip Harvest

Greenways volunteers carefully—and sustainably—hand-harvest tips from the plentiful spruce growing at Baikie Island Nature Reserve. The tips are ready to harvest when they’re around five centimetres long, typically in early May. Approximately 50 pounds (20 kilograms) of those little evergreen needles are harvested each year, which Darrin tells us is about enough to fill a regular-sized garbage can.

“We normally have about five volunteers doing the harvesting,” Cynthia says, “but during COVID, Bruce Izard was our spruce-tip superstar volunteer and did all of the picking himself!”

Plucking the spruce tips doesn’t harm the trees and won’t affect the site’s long-term ecological recovery. Some of the spruce trees have already been marked for removal due to damage from the spruce leader weevil, a native insect that burrows into spruce trees during its larval stage. On the trees that will remain, tips are harvested from the lower branches only.

Once the site’s restoration is a bit further along, those lower branches will be removed to speed along the natural growing process. Doing so, Cynthia explains, will allow more light to reach native shrubs underneath and encourage “greater biodiversity on the site as a whole.”

A Delicious Collaboration

In return for the spruce tips, Beach Fire Brewing donates a portion of the proceeds from sales of Baikie Island Spruce Ale to Greenways.

“The proceeds from the sale go towards supporting all of Greenways’ many programs in Campbell River” Cynthia says. “We have a broad range of environmental programs, from ecological restoration, to education, trails and food security.”

“Greenways has been maintaining the Baikie Island Nature Reserve through a partnership with the City of Campbell River since 2015,” Cynthia adds. “We do a lot of work to manage the invasive species on the site, as well as some trail maintenance. We are also continuing the restoration through ongoing planting of native species. We are also planning a large restoration in the ‘Mill Pond’ area.”

Mill Pond restoration activities will include planting more eelgrass. This will, in part, help create habitat for juvenile salmon and other species.

Full Circle

Campbell River is known for is its spectacular natural setting. Our city, economy, community and environment are all connected here in the Salmon Capital of the World. Natural resources, amazing wilderness and wildlife, beautiful parks and greenspaces, abundant outdoor recreation opportunities—all of these contribute to making Campbell River a great place to live, work and play. And amenities like Baikie Island Nature Reserve help boost our city’s livability and its attractiveness to residents and tourists alike.

Collaborations like the one between Beach Fire Brewing and Greenways are good for business and the community. Beach Fire Brewing receives a distinctly local ingredient—spruce tips from Baikie Island, hand-picked by Greenways volunteers—that helps set one of its signature beers apart. In return, Greenways receives a portion of the proceeds to help fund its programs in the community, which include maintaining and restoring Baikie Island Nature Reserve. This, in turn, helps to secure a future supply of spruce needles. And the circle continues.

Cynthia’s Advice for Cultivating Successful Collaborations—Reach Out and Connect

“Don’t be afraid to reach out to people,” Cynthia advises. “Greenways can only do the work we do through collaborations and partnerships. We are so grateful for the support and for everyone who works and volunteers with us! We are at heart a community-based organization, and we truly rely on the community to support us to do the wide range of work that we do.”

 At the Brewery

Once the freshly harvested spruce tips have been delivered to the brewery, it’s time to put the kettle on.

“On brew day, we put half of these spruce tips into mesh bags that go into our boil kettle with the boiling wort (the sweet barley sugar solution that will become beer),” explains Darrin Finnerty, Beach Fire Brewing’s owner. After steeping for an hour, the wort is moved from the kettle to a fermenter.

This is where the yeast works its “magic” and transforms the mixture into beer.

“Towards the end of this fermentation, we stuff the remaining half of the spruce tips through a small port in the top of the fermenter into mesh bags, where they cold steep in the beer for up to a week before the beer is transferred over to one of our serving tanks,” Darrin says. “A few days later, the beer is carbonated and has dropped clear, and it’s ready to pour into pint glasses.”

What Does It Taste Like?

“The most obvious answer is ‘it tastes like spruce’,” Darrin jokes.

But all joking aside, Darrin describes the taste as “citrusy, bright and like the smell in the air while walking through the forest on a spring day after it’s rained.”

The carefully, sustainably harvested local spruce tips are a “unique ingredient” that provide a distinctive flavour.

“Baikie Island Spruce Ale is a truly local flavoured beer,” says Darrin. “If it were wine, we would say it has Campbell River terroir.”

Part of the ale’s appeal, Darrin adds, is the awareness that it brings to the history of Baikie Island and Greenways’ work to restore the site to its natural state.

From Baikie Island to the Brewery to Consumers—and Back Again!

Those little spruce tips pack a powerful flavour punch. Around 50 pounds (20 kilograms) of tips are used to produce a full-sized batch of beer, which is 1,200 litres at Beach Fire Brewing.

In return for the spruce tips, Beach Fire Brewing donates a portion of the proceeds—50 cents per litre—from each batch of Baikie Island Spruce Ale to Greenways. It adds up to $600 each year, which supports a variety of Greenways’ programs right here in Campbell River.

“Working with Greenways Land Trust is a natural fit, as they do so much great work for our greenspaces, where we love to be,” Darrin says. “We’re proud of our community and the potential it has to become an even greater place to live, so we like to do what we can to support the things we love most about it: community services, outdoor recreation, arts and culture. The Baikie Island Spruce Ale is one of the ways we do this.”

This year’s batch of the seasonal, limited-run Baikie Island Spruce Ale just became available. Darrin also expects that a batch of Winter Spruce Ale, made using frozen spruce tips from this spring’s harvest, will be available sometime in December. A donation will also be made to Greenways for the Winter Spruce Ale.

Darrin’s Advice for Cultivating Successful Collaborations—Find a Common Goal

“We love collaborating with local organizations and businesses. It’s part of developing a healthy community that supports each other and the place we live,” Darrin says. “Developing local collaborations shouldn’t require much effort. It should be an alignment of like-minded people with similar goals working together on something that matters to them.”

Darrin encourages readers to check out Beach Fire Brewing’s website to learn about their collaborations with other local organizations and businesses. And they’re always on the lookout for more: “If anyone out there has ideas for other great local collaborations we could support, don’t hesitate to reach out!”

Cheers to that!

Photo provided courtesy of Beach Fire Brewing Company.

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