The Nanaimo Craft Beer Society, in collaboration with Longwood Brewery and Bayview Brewing Company (opening soon), will honour all of the healthcare workers for their dedication and courage to help battle the pandemic over the last 20 months. As a token of their appreciation, 7 Belles Saison, a spicy dry ale, was released last month.

The beer started as a “black box” challenge, where homebrewers created their own beer recipes using the supplies found in the kits provided for the contest.

“It was our idea to do it, but we’re not a brewery. We’re a non-profit,” said Stuart Setch, Nanaimo Craft Beer Society director.

The recipe submitted by Alfred Elviss, of Bayview Brewing Company, took the win at the Island Brewers Union home-brewing competition back in early fall. The prize was to have the winner collaborate on a commercial scale with Longwood Brewery.

“Nanaimo Craft Beer Society, about a year ago, partnered with the home-brewing community to give them a bit more organization and a bit more validation,” said Setch. “Home brewing is, kind of, the heart and soul of craft beer. Every commercial craft brewery started out as a craft beer, so that was sort of the idea with the society, is to try to bring that community up within Nanaimo.”

“The name we hadn’t thought of, but the whole project was always geared toward health-care workers and a shout-out to them,” said Harley Smith, Longwood Brewery partner.

The name was created in collaboration with the “7” representing the 7 p.m. tradition of giving a cheer to health-care workers, and Belle Saison is the name of the yeast used in the ale’s brewing process.

“The idea was [to have] a morale boost for health-care workers,” Setch said. “We tried to replicate that with the beer. So, as opposed to clanging pots and pans, it’s cracking a beer and cheers-ing them. It’s a way of saying, you’re seen and you’re loved.”

“We have been getting traction online with people uploading photos and videos and tagging health-care friends,” he said. “I’ve taken a few four-packs to my doctor buddy, to my nurse buddy. It’s just a kind of way to get that going. So, that’s the whole idea is to just get some social momentum.”

“So we all got together and said… ‘Let’s just do something,’ so we formed a non-profit society,” he said. “We are primarily an event-driven organization. We were doing Nanaimo Craft Beer Week every year, which was very popular, but obviously COVID shut [it] down.”

Photo courtesy of Chris Bush/News Bulletin