Breweries and distilleries across the province are helping to do good while serving up beverages for the summer. From local pollinators to salmon to desert ecosystems, these businesses are providing customers the opportunity to help the planet.
Vancouver Island Brewing
Vancouver Island Brewing has partnered with the Pacific Salmon Foundation on their 2021 Pod Pack – a collaborative sampler pack designed to raise awareness of the health of B.C.’s Chinook salmon run which is instrumental in feeding resident killer whales.
Funds from each Pod Pack will support the Pacific Salmon Foundation which funds community groups that actively restore salmon streams across B.C. and operate small conservation hatcheries. Sales will also support critical marine research and data management to better understand the decline of salmon population in the Salish Sea which is the primary hunting grounds for Southern Vancouver Island residents during the summer months.
Wayward Distillery
Wayward Distillery – Canada’s first distillery to primarily use BC honey to produce its sinfully sippable spirits – has pledged to donate one per cent of all spirit sales to Pollinator Partnership Canada (P2C), a registered charity dedicated to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems.
Pollinators are critical to the reproductive system of flowering plants responsible for producing our produce and nuts, preventing soil erosion and increasing carbon sequestration. P2C researches pollinators and promotes conservation techniques that support healthy pollinator populations.
To encourage boosted sales, the distillery has introduced three new products paying homage to pollinators: Juneberry Amaro, Cortes Island Apple Brandy and Rose Petals Bee’s Knees Liquer.
Tin Whistle Brewing
Tin Whistle Brewing, Penticton’s founding craft brewery, has recently released their Queen of Tart sour beer made with over 250 pounds of the prickly pear cactus fruit. In conjunction with this release they have partnered with the Osoyoos Desert Centre to support their conservation and restoration of one of Canada’s most rare, fragile and endangered ecosystems – Canada’s Pocket Desert.
Located in the semi-arid, antelope-brush ecosystem, Osoyoos is home to one of the highest concentrations of rare and at-risk species in Canada. Over 70 percent of this habitat has been lost forever. Five cents from every can of Queen of Tart sold will be donated to the Osoyoos Desert Centre.
