Stir Pairing: Mixed-media, spy-thriller beer, and killer hot dogs in Mount Pleasant
This East Vancouver outing brings together Western Front, Main St. Brewing, and Sausageland
Lex Brown, still from Communication (2021). Courtesy of the artist and Deli Gallery.
Main St. Brewing’s Double or Nothing DIPA. Photo by Paul Connors
Sausageland’s American Ballpark Dog.
Every week, Stir Pairing suggests BC drink and food to go with a local arts event.
The event
Broadcasts from Here at Western Front to April 16.
The drink
Main St. Brewing’s Spy-Themed beer series.
The food
Sausageland franks.
The lowdown
Broadcasting–and the way it has shifted from a technical method of sending transmissions to a way of being in the modern world–is the jumping-off point for multidisciplinary artists Lex Brown and Geo Wyeth in Broadcasts from Here, curated by Becket MWN and Susan Gibb now on at Western Front.
Brown is a Philadelphia-based artist who teaches as a media fellow in art, film, and visual studies as well as theatre, dance and media at Harvard University. The host of the podcast 1-800-POWERS, “uses poetry and science-fiction to create an index for our psychological and emotional experiences as organic beings in a rapidly technologized world”, Western Front notes.
In her 30-minute 2021 video, Communication, Brown plays multiple characters as parodic renderings of a telecommunications company, Omnesia, and its next residential target for development, New Greater Framingham. The work explores ways that we are drawn, cajoled, and coerced into “the future” at the expense of what and who exists in the here and now.
Wyeth is a “Swampy Pessimist Yearning (S.P.Y.)” artist and educator based in Rotterdam, where they coounded the queer social space Tender Center, who works in music, performance, narrative sculpture, and video. Their site-specific Muck Studies Department exhibition “merges inherited Black Atlantic American funk and folk poetics with techniques of investigative journalism, and connects mud, water, metal, gas, ass, rocks, coins, extractive industry, deep coloniality, and sensual expression of belonging”, featuring stories, poetic performances, and sound works.
The drink
Since we’re in the neighbourhood…
Tucked into a heritage building that was once in the heart of the city’s brewing scene in the 1800s, Main St. Brewing has been producing unconventional beers since it was first opened in 2014. With a retail store, tasting room, and patio, it recently launched the final two beers in its Spy-Themed Series, a collection of four styles taking inspiration from the latest James Bond movie. The No Time to Die-sparked collection kicked off last fall, introducing beer lovers to IPAgent Holly Hoppington, a fictional character pitted against evil henchmen and nefarious villains in a variety of European locales as she raced against time to secure secret recipes and essential ingredients
First came Trouble Weighs a ’Tun Export India Porter, followed by Norwegian Rendezvous Nordic IPA.
Now available in limited quantities, the third beer in the series is the Double or Nothing DIPA (8.8 percent ABV). Made with a blend of Ekuanot Incognito, Hallertau Blanc, and Cryo M-20 hops, it has bold, juicy notes of pineapple, citrus, and gooseberries. Coming in mid-February is the lineup’s fourth and final beer: That Sinking Feeling Italian Pilsner (5.1 percent ABV). It has a honeyed and melon-like sweetness thanks to the Venetian Eraclea malt and lemony German Saphir and floral French Barbe Rouge hops.
The pairing
A while back, we told you the story of Burgerland Smash Up, which grew out of Bodhi Valentine’s obsession with burger culture. Valentine has since added links to his lineup with Sausageland, which offers ethical-meat, vegetarian, and vegan-friendly sausages as well as beer chilis and pork-and-duck beer terrine, all made with Main St. brews. There’s also a selection of charcuterie, cheese boards, customized baked potatoes, and then some.
Try either of the Spy-Themed beers with a German Brat Bun (beer bratwurst, sauerkraut, and hot mustard); Italian Sausage Bun (with mild Italian beer sausage, Parmesan cheese, and garlic aioli); or American Ballpark Dog (Hebrew National Kosher all-beef frank, raw onion, mustard, and relish), each served on a Martin's Top-Sliced Potato Roll.
Sausageland is available exclusively in the Main St. Brewing tap room and for pickup from noon to 8 pm Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and on Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 10 pm.
Main St. Brewing head brewer Azlan Graves.
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