Beer will flow this weekend

Canada Cup of Beer is coming to Burnaby this weekend with 15 breweries vying to quench the city's thirst.

This year, local brewery Dead Frog will unveil an amber ale in memory of the late Colin Jack, co-founder of Just Here for the Beer and Canada Cup of Beer.

"I approached Dead Frog to come up with a beer that symbolized Colin and . they jumped right on board," said Rick Mohabir, Jack's best friend and co-founder.

Dead Frog's brewmaster Tony Dewald came up with an amber-style ale with a Caribbean twist, blending rum and amber ale and flavoured with white oak wood chips.

"It's got a very rich flavour to it, but you taste the rum on the back end of the beer," Mohabir said. "It's not overly pronounced, it (has) a very nice, smooth finish to it."

Jack's beer will be available for tasting at the event on Saturday, along with hundreds of other beers from breweries across the province.

"The Canada Cup of Beer was our largest event, so it's Vancouver's largest outdoor beer festival," he said.

The event started as a way to showcase craft beers and to show the public there's more to beer than just what the big breweries offer, Mohabir said.

"Craft beer didn't really have the reach it does now, but what we helped do was start getting that renaissance going," he said.

This year there will be 15 breweries, including Burnaby's own Steamworks at the event. Mohabir said the breweries usually bring about four different beers for guests to try out.

"There'll be a very good selection for people, especially the novices," he said. "Everything from light, crisp lagers all the way to some really beautiful, rich, dark ambers."

Craft beers allow breweries to play around with flavours and tastes, which has really helped pull in new beer drinkers, Mohabir added. Canada Cup of Beer starts at 1 p.m. and runs until 6 p.m. at Swangard Stadium, 3883 Imperial St. Tickets are available at canadacupofbeer.com.