We brewed a new beer, and surprise, it’s not an IPA, sour or strong beer over 10%… it’s a light lager!  Let us introduce you to SKEETER! 

For much of north America’s beer history, light lagers have been left in the hands of the big macro breweries (think Miller, Coors, Budweiser and Molson).  These macro brewed lagers were the disdain of beer enthusiasts as they were considered watery and boring. Naturally, when the craft beer revolution began, craft brewers aligned themselves with more bold beer styles, like hoppy IPAs, fruity pale ales, wheat beers, stouts, you name it.  Anything but boring!

Over the past few years though, more craft brewers are taking a stab at the light lager. Even while these beers are light in flavour, they still check the boxes on being sessionable and damn refreshing, while also being accessible to a wider audience.  

Even as brewers / brewery owners ourselves, we’ve been drawn to drinking lager and light lagers more and more lately.  There’s just something so appealing about a crisp, refreshing and light beer, especially when it’s ice cold.  We can’t just drink IPAs all day after all! Could this be a midlife crisis?  Or are we getting nostalgic for the beers our parents and grandparents drank in the 80s? Or is it simply to make a beer that you can call 'Skeeter' and make a cool, retro style can label?

Circa 1985 - thankfully toddlers can't actually open beers on their own. Winterlong does not condone underage drinking.

Whatever it is, SKEETER is here. It comes in at 4% ABV, brewed with Red Shed Malting Pilsner malt, flaked maize and rice; Perle hops; and NovaLager yeast.

It’s the perfect beer you could crush while fishing, camping, mowing the lawn, watching sports, playing sports, <insert activity here>.  So go ahead, we dare you, put that dimpled beer glass in the freezer, and enjoy!  Get it on tap and instore at the brewery today and it will soon be on tap at G&P on Main, Holland America Dawson City, and Diamond Tooth Gerties!

SKEETER, the perfect lawnmower beer!

We are so excited to have live bands at our 10th Anniversary celebration.  We’ll be hosting 4 local bands from 3-7 pm during our back lot party.  Tickets still available through our online store.

Each band will have a 45-minute set:

• BADGER LEGION  3 pm
• COWS GO MOO  4 pm
• BRIA ROSE n’ THORNS  5 pm
• SPEED CONTROL 6 pm

Music has always been a big influence for Winterlong. Heck, our brewery name comes from a Neil Young song!  Many of our beer names have also been inspired by an album name, a song title or simply a musical lyric.  We've even asked each band to pick a winterlong-esque song to play at the event, so listen up and see if you recognize any of our beer names sprinkled through the show. 

Read on below for a bio of each band and make sure not to miss it!

BADGER LEGION

This is for all the punk rock fans out there… kicking off the event is Whitehorse's newest band:

This band of 21st Century Digital Boys and one Modern Man, have dedicated themselves to playing punk rock from the 80s, 90s and 2000s, but with one catch… only from one band, Bad Religion.  Badger Legion plays tribute to the punk icons’ 45 years (and counting) legacy.

COWS GO MOO

Next up at 4 pm we have Whitehorse's youngest band:

Cows Go Moo is a hard-hitting youth rock band based in Whitehorse. Made up of teens aged 13–15, the band has quickly become a rising force in the northern music scene — known for delivering high-energy performances that blend youthful spirit with seasoned stage presence.

Since their formation, Cows Go Moo has played major festivals, opened for Canadian rock legend Tom Cochrane, and built a dedicated fanbase across the North and beyond. Their music draws on classic rock roots with a modern edge, showcasing original songs that reflect their unique voice and raw passion for live music.

Whether they're performing at a packed festival, a community hall, or an all-ages club, Cows Go Moo brings an unforgettable show that inspires the next generation of music lovers and proves that rock is alive and well in the North.

BRIA ROSE N' THORNS

Playing at 5 pm is Bria Rose N' Thorns, ad we can't wait to hear Bria belt it out with her rocking band!

On the wings of the north wind, Bria Rose N' Thorns (BRNT) shake the room with soulful warmth. Each story from the eyes of a Tahltan/Cree woman finding fire and empathy in the world around her. Their uplifting yet gritty sound is complete with rasp and a deep alto flavour that bridges heart and earth. BRNT is a sweet, salty ensemble that boasts positivity, playfulness, and power through a rural lens. Their debut EP, Sprout, was released May 31st 2024. The emerging stars will release their first full-length album, Bloom, April 2026. 

SPEED CONTROL

Last, but not least, we have a favourite party band to close out the show:

Hailing all the way from Ponderosa Drive in Porter Creek and the Annie lake road, Speed Control brings their super tight, riff heavy, harmony rock to Winterlong's 10th anniversary.  With a brand new album coming out soon, they're ready to ROCK!

For our 10th anniversary we wanted to celebrate with not one, not two, but three special beer releases!   Each beer will be on tap and available in 4-packs to go on May 31st.

DECADE

We pulled out all the stops on this beer, drawing inspiration from a few different sources to make a fantastic barrel-aged margarita style sour.  The recipe base was an imperial gose, aka an amped up version of a sour German-wheat beer.  It was brewed with dried limes, dried black limes, lime juice, coriander seed, and smoked salt. After souring and fermentation, the beer was aged in freshly dumped tequila barrels for 4 months! For our first barrel-aged sour, we are really happy with how it has turned out.

The result is very nice blend of tequila and oak notes, lime, salt and tartness.  It comes in at 7% ABV.

Featured on the can art is the Mourning Cloak butterfly one of the Yukon’s most common butterflies.  The butterfly imagery also ties in nicely with our metamorphosis from basement homebrewers to nano-brewers, and now to your beloved local micro brewery. 

GLORIOUS & FREE IPA (aka IPEh)

This beer came about as part of a trans-Canada brewery collaboration, conceived by the lovely folks at Dominion City Brewing Co in Ottawa (Read More on our Blog).  The goal was to brew Dominion City’s IPA with 100% Canadian-sourced ingredients:

• Hops (Centennial, Chinook and Comet) and from Topps Hops in BC,
• Malt (Wheat, Barley and Oats)  from Red Shed Malting in AB, and
• Yeast from Escarpment Labs in ON!  

It’s kind of a mashup of west coast meets east coast IPA.  It’s got east coast hazy vibes and classic west coast citrus and floral hop notes.

Another goal of the trans-Canada collaboration was to ensure a portion of beer sales go to a non-profit that helps to build a tighter knit Canada.  We’ll be donating $2 from every 4-pack to Egale, a non-profit whose mission is to improve the lives of 2SLGBTQI people in Canada and enhance the global response to 2SLGBTQI issues. 

It comes in at 6.5% ABV.  A limited amount of T-shirts have also been printed, ready for release day.

DREAM MACHINE

We’re bringing this beer back from the dead!  It was first brewed 5 years ago, for draught only, and we’ve been looking for an excuse to bring it back.  We dusted off the recipe and gave it a whole new identity, in can format.  The psychedelic porcupine that Mary (our designer) brought to life, fit the bill perfectly.

This beer is made with 100% Nelson Sauvin hops in the whirlpool and dry hop additions.   Nelson is an awesome hop from New Zealand, featuring white wine-like aromatics along with heaps of tropical and dank notes.   We threw in a generous helping of biscuit malt from Red Shed Malting, to give you a bit more to chew on.

It comes in at 6% ABV.

Back in March, we announced our participation in GLORIOUS & FREE: A Trans-Canada Brewery Collaboration.  This brewery collaboration project was conceived by Dominion City Brewing Co (Ottawa, ON), with the goal of harnessing the power of local beer to build a stronger country at a hinge moment in Canada’s history.

Josh at Dominion City, reached out to us directly in the hopes that we would be a beacon for the project in the north.  They wanted to ensure they had breweries on board from as many regions of Canada.  We didn’t hesitate in throwing ourselves into this project, to join independent breweries from coast to coast to coast to create a truly Canadian beer.   

The goal of the collaboration is to brew our own version of Dominion City’s Glorious & Free IPA recipe using 100% Canadian-sourced ingredients and to donate a portion of the net proceeds to a non-profit or charitable organization that supports at least one of the campaign’s core causes (connecting land and people, welcoming communities, getting together, or for generations). 

We worked with the following suppliers to source 100% Canadian ingredients for this recipe:

• Topp’s Hops in British Columbia to source BC grown Centennial, Chinook and Comet hops;
• Red Shed Malting in Alberta to souce AB grown barley, wheat and oats; and,
• Escarpment Laboratories in Ontario to source ON grown yeast!

This special beer is now fermenting in a tank in preparation for its release on our 10th Anniversary, May 31st!  You can expect a mash up between a hazy east coast and a hoppy west coast IPA.

Showcasing 100% Canadian Ingredients in this brew.

But pssst, a few small kegs will make it to Haines, Alaska for the beer festival May 24th.  We weren’t sure if we were going to attend this year due to all the crazy stuff that is going on in the US. But we thought this could be our cheeky, Canadian way of being in the states, serving Glorious & Free IPEh to our friends and neighbours in the states!

As part of this trans-Canada collaboration we have chosen to donate $2 dollars from every 4-pack to support Egale, a national organization, in their mission to improve the lives of 2SLGBTQI people in Canada and enhance the global response to 2SLGBTQI issues.

Cheers to connection and sticking together Canada.

Wow, what can we say. It feels crazy to reach this milestone. To some it may sound like nothing, but to us, 10 years feels like a lot. It has been a whirlwind, and we’ve finally come into our own.

HOW IT STARTED

We were just two homebrewing, high school sweethearts that eventually decided to take the leap and open a little brewery.  We simply wanted to make the kind of beer that we wanted to drink and be able to share that with others.

After 10 years of homebrewing, we took the plunge. We navigated all the red tape, permitting, business planning, equipment purchase, recipe development and building, all while maintaining full time jobs. 

The original 'to do' list on what is needed to open a brewery.

Fianlly, in the spring of 2015 we became the 2nd brewery in the Yukon!  Once approved, we got to brewing on our 3 bbl brewhouse. This was a big step up from brewing on a little 10 gallon homebrew setup.  Our first batches were High Noon Hefeweizen and Pingo Pale Ale. 

Brewing our first IPA, Weekend Warrior!

We opened on a Friday of the May long weekend back in 2015, filling our first growlers for customers. Who remembers our little storefront with nano-brewery in the front room?

Our opening day, May Long Weekend, circa 2015.

Our first keg sale, went to our friends at Woodcutter’s Blanket, who had Batch #1, High Noon Hefeweizen on tap!  And we even travelled to Haines, Alaska with our first beers for the annual Haines Beer Festival/Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival.

Within our first few weeks of operation, we realized this was a bigger endeavour than we thought and quickly hired our first employee!  Yes, we were a bit naïve to think we could do it all on our own on the side of our full-time jobs.

HOW IT WENT

Since those early days, we have grown little by little. As money came in, we always put it back into more equipment so we could brew more beer. Within 6 months of opening we doubled our brewing capacity and bought a very manual bottling machine to get our beers on liquor store shelves.  Anyone still holding onto some bomber bottles?

Bottles just in time for holiday season, Winter 2015.

Eventually after a year and a half, we were able to expand from our 800 sq ft space to take over the entire 7,000 sq ft building.  We upgraded to a 7 bbl brewhouse and orderd more fermentation and brite tanks.  This meant we could build a Tasting Room in the front room.  But first we had to work with the Yukon Liquor Corporation to change the regulations so that breweries could serve pints. Before 2016, breweries were only allowed to offer free tasters and beer to go.

Moving the brewery to the back building.

Pioneering the first Tasting Room in the Yukon.

We’ve since bought the building, upgraded to a canning line, built a beautiful beer garden, and installed solar panels on our buildings, among a bunch of other improvements and efficiencies over the years.

We’ve been blessed with amazing staff the past 10 years, some of which have been with us for upwards of 9 years, nearly from the beginning!  Our staff have helped us build Winterlong into what it is today, and our success and longevity is a testament to them.  We are also incredibly grateful to our community and awesome customers, who have always supported us.

Crew shot from 2020, COVID times.

WHERE IT’S GOING

We are now at a great place in our business where we don't need to grow anymore. Our brewery is at a good size now where we can supply the Yukon with delicious craft beer, while also sending small shipments out to other provinces here and there. We’ve never been about 'growing for growth's sake' or making more money just because we can.  

This doesn't mean we're just going to be standing still, of course!  We will still be making changes to constantly improve and make things more efficient and more sustainable. We will continue to make great beer and stretch our creative muscles with new offerings.  We’ll keep being a force for good in our community with fundraising efforts and supporting your events and causes.

If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in 10 years, it’s our love of craft beer and the Yukon, and we hope that shows!

NOW LET’S PARTY!!!

This will be our biggest party yet!  We’ve been in planning mode for the past 6 months with the help of Raven Events, and you are all in for a treat.

The celebration is on Saturday, May 31st from 12- 7 pm.  What's in store:

• 3 SPECIAL BEER RELEASES —> Info Here
• 3 FOOD TRUCKS on site all day (Happy Schnitzel by Harry and Yvonne, Out of the Blue Wood-Fired Pizza and Smoke and Sow).
• BACK LOT PARTY w/ all day beer garden and lawn games
  • 12-3 pm Lawn Games, Bouncy Castle, Cotton Candy, Face Painting, Kids Crafts
  • 3-7 pm Live Music (4 Bands: Badger Legion, Cows Go Moo, Bria Rose N’ Thorns, and Speed Control) -> Band Profiles Here
  • TICKETS REQUIRED ($10 on our website, but free entry for people under 19 years of age)
• Front Tasting Room & Beer Garden open as usual (no tickets required), with access to our anniversary beers and the food trucks!

Stay tuned to our Facebook Event page for updates (if you're on the socials).

You won't want to miss it!