Canadian Homebrew Day is held on the first Saturday in June in Canada. Home brewers are asked to all use the same beer recipe, but one group did something different to honour their colleague and friend.True Grist member Christina Burbadge won a homebrew competition at Stack Brewery in 2019. In March, she passed away from a battle with cancer. To honour her and raise money for charity, the True Grist Homebrew Club decided to sell kits of an English Mild beer she made that won her that competition.

Ryan Dunlop became friends with Burbadge back at the University of Guelph and remembers her not caring much for beer in the beginning.

“It was kind of unfortunate because for our work, we got to travel to places like Germany a lot and she never really appreciated the beer that we were drinking while we were there,” said Dunlop. Over time, Burbadge discovered she did like certain beers, like ones that were sour or hoppy. As her interest in beer grew, so did her interest in homebrewing.

“And so she just like got into it and started asking us a bunch of questions and we taught her and she just was passionate about it,” he said.

Burbadge and Dunlop brewed a batch of the English Mild at the same time on their own brewing systems. He says she decided to enter her version into a competition at Stack Brewery in Sudbury in 2019, which she won.

For the full story, click here.

Photos courtesy of Instagram/@TrueGrist HomebrewClub