For Mariner Brewing co-founder Lauren Ang, craft beer is about exploring different flavours and trying new things.
Our mottos embody this sense of exploration and adventure. We had a concept of what we wanted our brewery to represent before we eventually came up with our name.
Inspired by both traditional ship navigators and a number of NASA space probes in the 1960’s, Lauren says incorporating stars and constellations into their logo seemed like the perfect fit.
Traditionally a Mariner is someone who navigates a ship; in the past, we used stars as a mariner’s point of reference for navigation. Mariner was also the name of a number of space probes in the 60’s that NASA sent to explore uncharted territory in space.
Lauren says the freshness of their ingredients, leads their beer to be inspired by the time of year. Drawing on everything they see smell and taste, these co-founders are inspired by everything around them.
Berry season is upon us and we recently released a blueberry sour that used 1,000 lbs of Fraser Valley blueberries per batch. Several of our beer rotate depending on the season. This is our favourite part about being a small local brewery; we can regularly experiment with different flavours.
Partnering with the Glasfurd & Walker design team, Lauren says can designs evolve from discussions around key words, colours and eventually a description.
Our brewer and design team have a lot of conversations about the taste, look, and feel of each beer, as well as the ingredients, history, and inspiration for the beer. We’re very lucky to work with the amazing Glasfurd & Walker design team on our can labels and are always impressed with their work.
Mariner Brewing locally sources their variety of supplies, including hops, as much as they can. Lauren says they are lucky to live in a region that is good for growing hops but that they sometimes like to include special varieties.
We are constantly impressed by the variety our local farmers are producing each year. Some special varieties of hops are only available in Germany and Oregon and we like to include some of them to have a wide range of flavours in our beers.
Mariner Brewing has more than just beer when you stop by their brewing house. Along with exploring new flavours of beer make sure you leave room for food. Most is made in house by a fantastic kitchen staff, including their Sunday brunch, served from 11 am – 3 pm. What isn’t made in house is supplied by other local businesses such as Pasta Pollo and Creekside Coffee Factory.
We also have a dog friendly Beer Garden open 4pm to dusk during the week and all day on weekends. Every Thursday we do something called and Exploratory which is a one off keg of a new beer style, this helps up figure out what types of beer people get the most excited about. So far our Strawberry Weisse has been our most popular Exploratory Batch.
With big plans for new seasonal brews, variations on old favourites and ever developing their food and beer lineup in the tasting room, be sure to keep an eye out for what’s next for Mariner Brewing!
Right now the only thing holding us back is the amount of beer we can produce and we’re expanding and adding equipment to increase that. Like the name Mariner implies, we’re never standing still. Look out for what beer and food is next!