This episode we sit down with one of the longest standing team members at Wild Rose, the head brewer at the AF23 taproom, Mark Kerrigan. As a 15 year veteran and employee #6, Mark has a lot of insight into how the brewery has evolved and gives us an inside look at what’s changed during that time at the brewery and in Calgary’s beer scene at large.
Mark’s career in the beer industry started in London Ontario on the packaging line for Labatt’s as a summer job. After finishing up his degree Mark tossed in a resume and was asked to come learn how to brew. Mark would later meet his wife, a Calgarian, on a trip to Europe and follow her back to Calgary. At the time there wasn’t much for breweries to work at, but Wild Rose would make him a job offer over the phone and in the decade and a half since then Mark has been able to watch the brewery and the team grow.
In those 15 years a lot of things have changed, but many other things have stayed the same. Walking in as Wild Rose’s sixth employee the core lineup of beers we know today was already in place, although the recipes have changed a little as the palates of Calgarians changed throughout the craft beer boom of the last decade. Mark remembers bringing Velvet Fog to parties and having to explain that there was in fact nothing wrong with this cloudy beer, or having people turned off by the IPA which at the time was much less hoppy than the IPA today, and WAY less hoppy than many other IPAs available throughout the city.
With expanding palates comes the opportunity to push boundaries in brewing and Mark tells us about the weirdest beer he’s ever made on the brewery’s 30 litre test system… a dill pickle beer. If you’ve been watching Wild Rose’s Instagram account you’ll know that this experiment inspired by a twist on a traditional gose ended up on the Brewer’s Tap, and was such a big hit it was gone in just a single day.
After we chat with Mark we’ve got questions for Mama T that were submitted by listeners like you! This time around we find out she would take to a deserted island, her beauty tips for stranded people, and how to catch fish with an axe and a surfboard.
Join us at the Wild Rose Taproom for 20oz of your own
Have a question for Mama T? A story from the bottom of a beer can? Send it in to canfessionals@wildrosebrewery.com and we’ll share it anonymously on air!
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