-Saluting a true brewmaster

West Vancouverite
John Mitchell broke
brewing menopoly

By John Moore
Contributing Writer

WHENEVER and wherever a
glass of fine micro-brewed ale is

> raised in this country, the first

a toast should always be, “John
-" Mitchell!”

‘Tt was Mitchell who, in 1981, broke
the monopoly of the big breweries by
‘getting permission for neighborhood
pubs to brew and sell their own distinc-
tive beers, offering Canadians alterisatives
to the mass-produced suds he still con-

mptuously dismisses with language too
colorful for newspaper copy.

““As-most locals. know, Mitchell was
‘then:a._parmer in The Troller Pub in
‘Horseshoe Bay. After 15 years managing

ar at the Sylvia Hotel, it was good to be
‘close to home in Copper Cove, where he
has: lived for 37. years. But the irony of
running’ a~ cosy. English-style_neighbor-

ood pub with only “ersatz fizz” on tap
unbearable to. the Singapore-born

‘Mitchell, -who ‘trained at London’s .

‘Westminster Technical Institute,” the

‘Mayfair. Hotel ‘and who knew what a
‘good glass of ale should be.

“ce, The. notoriously ‘conservative. Socred

government was still congratulating itself

hi i g taken. walk on the mild side

yy allo ple to.enjoy a drink in

nall. cal pubs that actually had win-

s when ‘Mitchell went straight to the

Consumer and Corporate Affairs

r before or since who'd have had
‘cOutage to act so decisively. Peter
Hyndman really took us out of the dark
ages,” says Mitchell |
With Hyndman expediting the legisla-
ve changes, Mitchell discovered one
chnical hitch in his plans. °: :
‘suddenly
ow. how.to make the kind of beer I want-
to make,” he admits with a rueful cackle.
Fortuitouisly, a friend gave him a copy
“of an article'in Harrowsmith Magazine in
“which a, writer ‘named Frank Appleton
igued for the creation of exactly the kind
conag brewing” industry Mitchell

When Mitchell tracked. Appleton
jlind. a. classically-trained

: 0
ish brewmaster who had resigned his

realized’ I- didn’t actually”

Position with Carling O'Keefe in disgust
at the increasingly homogenous brew he
was required to produce and retired to the
East Kootenays to suppert himself by
freelance writing, mostly about how true
ales, real beer, ought to be made. A whole
new industry, as well as a 15-year friend-
ship, was born when they shook hands.

If John Mitchell is a legend in
Canadian micro-brewing circles, Frank
Appleton’s stature is mythic. Young brew-
ers in the now flourishing industry make a
point of “dropping in” whenever they
hear Appleton is working as a consultant
on the site of a new brewery or brewpub
anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

This summer, the Sea To Sky
Highway saw heavy pilgrimage traffic as
word got around that the “A Team” of

“ This summer the
Sea-to-Sky Highway
saw heavy pilgrimage

traffic as word got

around that the ‘A-

Team’ of Mitchell and

Appleton were re-
uniting for the open-
ing of what is proba-
-bly the most ambi-

tious step in the

Canadian brewing

revolution to date... ”

Mitchell and Appleton were re-uniting
for the opening of what is probably the
most ambitious step in the Canadian
brewing revolution to date: a small
deluxe full-service character hotel with a
first class restaurant, anchored by a
micro-brewery and pub — the. Howe
Sound Inn and -Brewing Company in
downtown Squamish. .

The cedar-sheathed Howe Sound Inn,
with 20 cosy non-smoking rooms, skylit
reading lounge, superb food, dart boards
and backgammon tables in the pub and
window-filin views of the Stawamus
Chief, is the find of place. you dream of
being snowbound for h weekend. Or two.
Or three. Or. discovering on a Sunday
drive when you don’t know where you’re
going until you decide you want to stay
there forever.

The Howe Sound Inn is the result of -

years of painstaking research and devel-

_ opment by partners Stephen Shard and ~

David Fenn.

“We drank our way across the Pacific
Northwest, Engiind and most of
Europe,” Shard will tell you, brandishing
a pint of Baldwin & Cooper Best Bitter,
named for the first two climbers to scale
the Chiefs “Grand Wall.”

In fact, Shard, a former broker with
Wolverton Securities, and Fenn, a former
management consultant, knew exactly
what they wanted to build and run: a
“character inn and meeting house” whose
ancestors are the famous 18th century
London coffee houses and inns, like the
Cheshire Cheese, where Dr. Johnson
dined and presided over serious relaxation.

By building in Squamish, far enough
from Vancouver to become a “get-away
destination” without being sucked into
the terminally trendy whirlpool of
Whisder, they probably saved themselves
half the $3.5 million cost of construction.
Hiring the right chef, one not intimidat-
ed by starting a five-star kitchen from
scratch, one willing to crack the books
and write a whole menu rooted in tradi-
tional European “cuisine de biere” with
an eclectic flair, was a major coup.

They scooped Mark Livingstone, who
opened the Bear Foot Bistro at the
Whistler Listel Hotel; an ambitious
young poet of the pots and pans who
soves beer more than any other food
group and knows what to do with it,

‘om mussels steamed in ale broth to
stouted” shallots with Black Angus becf
and the nn’ signature Ale & Cheese
Soup and beer breads.

‘the key, Shard and Fenn knew, would
be great beers and to that end Shard nad
been “courting” John Mitchell out of
semi-retirement since 1992. Soured by
his experience at Spinnaker’s in Victoria
— where his parners succumbed to the
mid-"80s psychosis of greed and forgot
the product while r ying to make for-
tunes franchising the “image” of brew-
pubs — Mitchell was a hard sell.

Asa veteran bar manager, he knew that
under existing legislation, Hell woulda
freeze before a 65 seat “brew pub” could

ay off a $250,000 brewery custom built

yy Ed Ripley of Summerland, B.C.

It was Shard and Fenn’s commitment
to go the whole nine yards — hotel,
restaurant, pub and to Jet him design a
classic gravity-run “tower” brewery, com-
plete with conditioning rooms and
cellar from which truc ale could be drawn
by traditional English hand pumps — that
lured him to don his brewing boots once
more and begin making the classic beers
that came on tap in September: Garibaldi
Ale, a light pale ale for those just graduat-
ing from what the Aussies call “tins of
piss”; Britannia Mild, a slightly sweeter
dark British mild; Baldwin & Cooper, an
authentic, hoppy British bitter; and a fine
dryish Diamond Head Stout.

How many 67-ycar-olds do you know
who are happy to be back at work?

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