New Year Tradition

New Year Tradition

As we slip into a New Year, we enjoy our annual tradition of reflecting on the past year.

We are more grateful than ever for the unwavering support of our community and all the love you send our way. Thank you for including Winterlong in your special moments, weekly rituals, events, and adventures. And big thanks to the bars and restaurants around the Yukon that carry local beer.

We are so thankful for our amazing staff, who every year keep the good beer and times flowing. Their hard work and passion are what keeps us going, and we couldn’t do what we do without each one of them.

 

Winterlong staff serving at the Haines Beer Fest in Haines, AK May 2023.

 

With breweries shuttering their doors across the country, we are thankful to be one of the lucky ones.  It’s a challenging industry to be in today, with inflation, increased interest rates, staff shortages, a changing climate, and changes in consumer preferences. It's not just craft breweries feeling the squeeze, but other small businesses, even right here in the Yukon. Thankfully we have 8 years of practice overcoming many different challenges, and we promise we are not going anywhere!

 

Highlights from 2023

  • We brewed 137 batches and made over 250,000 L of beer. We managed to produce more beer than last year even though no new tanks were procured. This was thanks to our new warehousing abilities and some new techniques to maximize our equipment.
    • Brewed 31 different beers
    • Filled 910 large kegs
    • Filled 292 small kegs
    • Filled 405,504 cans
    • Staff folded around16,500 cardboard flats

 

  • We produced 27% more solar power this year, thanks to another solar array on our new warehouse. Our total solar production was 47.8 MWh, and with our brewery operation being a pretty energy intensive process, every little bit helps.

 

  • Some new beers we got out the door included: SNAG Cold IPA (our collab with Woodcutter’s Brewing), Ice Bear Session Ale with Frozen Fresh Hops (more on this below), Shadow Dancer Cold IPA and Crush Factor Session Ale.  The session ales were our lowest ABV beers yet, at 3.8 and 3.5 %.  And don’t worry you’ll be seeing more Shadow Dancer and Crush Factor in this new year.

 

  • We brewed a record amount of Spruce Tip Pale Ale this year, thanks to a bumper crop of spruce tips this spring. Some 4-packs even made it to YLC liquor store shelves for the first time.  We are sold out now at the brewery, so look for it again in the spring!   

 

  • We sponsored a very cool Yukon project by photographer Peter Mather and Filmmaker Peter Zenkle, Kings of the North - Search for the Last Ice Bears.  We also couldn’t resist brewing a beer for the occasion, hence frozen bears met frozen hops in a one-off special Ice Bear beer.  Read more about that project and beer on our blog. Thanks to the beer and the many film screenings across the Yukon, we helped raise funds for the Pacific Salmon Foundation and the St. Elias Ski Club.

 

  • The women of Winterlong participated in our 4th annual Pink Boots Brew Day.  With the sales of our Witch Craft IPA, we were able to donate over $2,000 to three women’s organizations across the territory.

 

Pink Boots Brew Day 2023

 

  • We hosted the Happy Schnitzel Food Truck this summer two days a week!  It was great to have Harry and Yvonne serving up their famous schnitzel and spaetzle all summer, and they pulled out all the stops with special sausages for our Oktoberfest event in September.

 

  • We celebrated Yukon Pride as a festival sponsor this year in August - joining in the Whitehorse Pride Parade with our very own parade float!   With the sales of our Rainbow Brite Sour, which we also released to kick off Pride festivities, we have so far raised nearly $1,200 for Queer Yukon to support all the amazing work they do.   

 

Pride Parade Float Crew Extraordinaire!

 

  • As always we enjoy supporting some neat festivals and events throughout the year, from the inaugural Nordic Fest run by the Whitehorse XC Ski Club, to the Canadian XC Mountain Bike Race which took place in Whitehorse last fall, to our annual support of the Raven 50 ultra race, the Gravel Growler and Gritty Clash of Generations gravel bike races, the Available Light Film Fest, the Keno Music Festival and Paradise Music Festival.  Pssst - the 2024 Available Light Film Fest is coming again in February, so look for the Available Light IPA soon!

 

  • Last year we had the pleasure of sponsoring two great athletes, Nate at Northern Sharks Working Dogs, a very special dog musher, and AK Nault a young up and coming BMX MTB athlete with Olympic dreams. Give them a follow on Instagram @northernsharksworkingdogs and @yukon_ak! 

 

  • We supported many organizations with yearly fundraisers, including the Native Women’s Association of Canada (Red Dress Day for MMIWG2S+, May 5), the Orange Shirt Society & National Centre for Truth and Reconcilliation (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Sept 30), as well as Share the Spirit Yukon (Giving Tuesday, Nov 28). We love giving back to the wider community and never shy away from supporting local events, non-profit groups, sports teams, etc.

 

Into 2024, it is more important than ever to support those businesses you love and can’t live without.  We appreciate all the support and look forward to another great year doing what we love.

 

Cheers to another great year!