Victoria brewery celebrates Canada 150 by making beer from recipe dating back 150 years

A Victoria brewery is among a group of beer makers who are celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday by creating a beer that’s as old as Canada is.

4 Mile Brewing Co. is among seven microbreweries and brewpubs honouring Canada’s sesquicentennial by brewing a beer using the ingredients and methods used in breweries 150 years ago.

“It was a special recipe that was researched and it is a beer similar to what was produced back in the year of confederation, 1867,” brewmaster Douglas White said.

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The result of their hard work is Sir John’s Special Eh’le, named after Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.

All the breweries produced the beer on the same date, June 16, and used traditional open fermentation and the same brewing system.

So what does beer from 150 years ago taste like?

White said the beer is “between what we call a pale ale nowadays and a British mild.”

Brewery manager Steven Gray said that beer is “maybe not something brand-new, but something unique to this day and age.”