Pollinator Ale 

By Maria Keating
City Farmer resident beer maker
2014

Here at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden we take our craft seriously. Compost is what powers us, and this year we wanted to celebrate the fruits of our labours in a ‘Home Grown Brew’ kind of way.

We acquired some locally sourced hop rhizomes and created a large container garden, which we filled with a combination of our own backyard compost, vermi-compost and municipal made compost. The beautiful lantern-like cones and the tallness of the trellised hop plants surprised visitors and they were a wonderful addition to our garden tours.

The current booming Pacific North West Craft Beer industry has made people ‘hop aware’ and excited about ‘do-it-yourself’ signature beer.

Urban honey, foraged from blooms in green spaces and yards throughout the city, is also an ingredient in our beer. We celebrate the work of our valuable bee pollinators.

By composting, growing, harvesting, drying, fermenting, bottling and beekeeping, we present City Farmer’s Cream of the Crop Pollinator Ale. It is a cream ale, nut brown in colour, with a smooth flavour that celebrates life in a growing city.

2015 Windstorm Wet Hopper Session Ale

Our beer was produced after largest power outage in BC Hydro history took down our cottonwood tree – “the widow-maker”.

Maria rescued hops from our back lot after a late summer wind storm took down the huge cottonwood tree at the corner of her garden.

2016 Rail Ale

More varieties and a bigger crop made this year’s ‘Rail Ale’ a treat. Named for the big changes that took place next to our garden; the century old railway line was pulled up. A new Greenway era begins for use by pedestrians and cyclists.