BSB Brewing Paradise Pale Ale

Reviewed on July 14, 2023

BSB, aka Bottle Screw Bills Pub, is a bit of a beer institution in Calgary. It opened in 1980 and has been around at the same location for 43 years. The original owners, Colleen and Stuart Allan, have retired and their kids Geoff and Jen have taken over. During covid when things were closed, Geoff and Jen decided to make some changes and converted Buzzards wine bar to BSB microbrewery.

I’ve cast my gaze on their Paradise Pale Ale, an easy drinking summer beer. It is BSB’s Brewer Ian Sinclair take on a SMASH BEER - that is an acronym for single malt and single hop. A SMASH beer is a way for brewers to try out a new hop or a new malt without a bunch of other ingredients getting in the way. It helps to get a sense of a new ingredient. The Paradise Pale Ale is almost a SMASH. Ian uses a few different malts and a little bit of wheat to make a more interesting malt profile but he chose to use a single hop from Yakima - HBC586. It is a hop that is still in the development stage so it hasn’t been given a commercial name yet.