Ides 36: Picnic

Canada’s first park was opened in 1860 — just a few kilometres from where our brewery now stands — by Edward Prince of Wales (eventually to be King), and was named for Queen Victoria. Today, the park serves mainly as a thoroughfare for university students but, at one time, citizens of our growing city used it for respite from their daily grind and for social gatherings. It’s not hard to picture this precursor to today’s park culture: civilized groups of people picnicking under the park’s many shady trees. Very likely they would have been enjoying a glass of equally civilized beer with their cucumber sandwiches and carrot sticks. This light, hazy, tart, thirst-quenching table beer with Meyer lemon juice and zest is a toast to those days and to that park: Queen’s Park.