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Burnaby brewery serves up Belgian beer in new tasting room

Belgian beer enthusiasts living in Burnaby don't have to travel far to experience the brew's complexity, thanks to the opening of a new tasting room near the Production Way-University SkyTrain station.
Dageraad
Dageraad Brewing, located at #114, 3191 Thunderbird Cres. in Burnaby, has opened a tasting room for Belgian beer enthusiasts.

Belgian beer enthusiasts living in Burnaby don't have to travel far to experience the brew's complexity, thanks to the opening of a new tasting room near the Production Way-University SkyTrain station.

Dageraad Brewing, located at #114, 3191 Thunderbird Cres., has opened the doors of its 12X12 sq ft. space.

As you walk in, three wooden stools stand up against the bar, with the menu hanging right in front. The shelves below are home to a 70's Harman Kardon receiver, some speakers and a selection of small and large growlers. To the left is a beer fridge with the brewery's signature blond and amber ales.

"It's definitely small, but traffic is picking up. It doesn't take many people coming in here for this room to get slammed," said owner Ben Coli.

The company launched the brewery earlier this year, with the plan of eventually building a tasting room.

"We knew we were going to do it in the long run, but we were figuring out how to run a brewery first," he said. "The other thing is that it's really expensive. Between the bar and the finishing, this room costs around $20,000."

Coli has made it inexpensive for customers to come in for a beer tasting, with a flight costing $6. Consumers are offered Dageraad's hoppy amber, its peppery blond, its fruity seasonal concoction and the appropriately-dubbed Burnabarian - a light and crisp beer.

Part of the reason for opening the tasting room is to attract more local business, according to Coli, who told the NOW he hasn't been able to get his product into Burnaby liquor stores and restaurants, as compared to Vancouver.

"We just haven't found a home here yet. I'd love to find a business that would keep us on regularly. We've had a lot of people tell us "Hey, we live just around the corner.'"

Coli decided to start a brewery after travelling to Belgium with some friends a few years back. He was taken to Dageraadplaats, a square filled with cafés and tables full of people drinking Belgian beer. This sparked his passion for the intertwined aromas and flavours. Upon returning, Coli bought a secondhand home-brewing kit off Craigslist and made his own version of the Belgian-style brew.

Fast-forward four years and Coli is behind the bar of his own tasting room.

"There's only three full-time employees, so we're brewers by day and bartenders by night," he laughed. "It's really fun to have our consumers right in front of us."

The Dageraad tasting room is open Thursdays and Fridays, from 4 to 8 p.m., Saturdays from noon until 8 p.m., and Sundays from noon until 6 p.m.