Go to sea. That was my grandfather’s kind but unhelpful career advice to me when I was 21.
by Peter Bailey
Grampa Gring meant well but he was a person of his time and place (aren’t we all?). Born in Lancashire, northern England, during King George V’s reign, at 21 Grampa (Frank Ormerod) took his own advice and went to sea, hiring on as an engineer aboard the SS City of Yokohama. On his first voyage in 1938, he and the Yokohama took locomotives from Germany to South Africa. With the start of the Second World War, Grampa ferried troops and refugees on the liner Orion before joining the Royal Navy. Lieutenant Ormerod spent the war on a series of fighting ships, crisscrossing the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans, from Murmansk to Mauritius, Baltimore to Bombay, finishing the war in the far east, serving on HMS Pursuer, a British aircraft carrier.
In 1946, Frank was finally on his way home to Preston, Lancashire. Riding a bus into town, he saw his wife Jane in a queue outside a butcher shop. Later he learned that Jane was in line for bones which she cooked down for fat to bake a pie for the returning hero. Frustrated with rationing and grey, gloomy postwar Britain, in 1948 my grandparents decided to emigrate to Australia. Frank took the train down to London, visited Australia House and was told that it would be many months before he could get passage by ship to Australia. Disappointed, Frank was walking down the Strand when he saw a huge sign on Canada House saying; Come to Canada, land of opportunity. Frank popped in and when he asked about moving to Canada he was told, ‘How about Saturday?’ Two weeks later Frank flew to Canada aboard a Trans-Canada Airlines North Star, refuelling in Iceland and Goose Bay before landing in Toronto. My grandmother and mum followed months later, crossing the Atlantic aboard the ship Aquitania. Frank and Jane built a happy life in Kingston, Ontario, before retiring to Sidney, B.C. I don’t think they ever looked back.
I asked Frank one time if he missed British beer. He admitted the Canadian beer he drank upon arrival in Toronto was dreadful (Black Horse Ale) but soon enough he was drinking mainstream lagers like all Canadians of the era. In 1986 I travelled to Britain and learned that while older Brits held on to their beloved traditional ales, the post-war generation turned increasingly to continental European lagers. Indeed, down the pub in Preston, a cousin my age was amused by my love of English bitter, calling it old man beer. He and his friends drank lager.
Like other newcomers to Canada, my grandparents embraced their new country and adapted, while keeping some English traditions alive. With a big, deep voice, Grampa would fill the kitchen with “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves” while carving the Sunday roast. Frank and Jane had a soft spot for Queen Elizabeth II, and would have toasted her coronation in 1953. British brewers went all out to brew special Coronation Ale, a strong golden ale, for the coronation.
This May 6 is Coronation Day once again, this time for King Charles III, something being greeted with a shrug by many Canadians. But I will raise an ale for the new monarch on Coronation Day, and again on Victoria Day weekend, in a salute to our country’s and my own British heritage and in memory of my beloved English grandparents.
Coronation six pack
Coronation Day and Victoria Day is an ideal opportunity to drink IPA, a beer perfect for Edmonton spring. The sharp whip of a hoppy IPA will wake our hibernating taste buds from winter’s slumber. Get ready palate, summer is on its way!
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Four Winds GREG West Coast IPA, Delta, BC
Nothing pleases me more than the return of classic, clear West Coast IPAs. GRED is brewed as a tribute by his sons to the late Greg Mills, co- founder of Four Winds Brewing. Mills loved the ocean and life on the BC West Coast. This IPA has the old school pine resin and grapefruit peel flavour that you’re looking for.
Yellow Dog Play Dead IPA, Port Moody, BC
Make a day trip from Vancouver and not far from the waters of the Burrard Inlet you’ll find Yellow Dog Brewing and its brewing neighbours along Brewers Row in Port Moody. Play Dead IPA is a very quaffable West Coast-style IPA, soft and nicely balanced between piney hops and biscuity malt.
Cold Garden This Must Be the IPA, Calgary
As the Talking Heads-quoting sign says in their cozy and eclectic Inglewood taproom, This Must Be the Place. And this is the beer you need: a West Coast-style IPA that is light bodied, hop forward and fruity. Cold Garden claims drinking this beer is “like running naked through the hop elds of the Paci c North West.”
Blindman May Long DIPA, Lacombe
I’ll forgive the May Long reference (Victoria is the reason for the season!) as this Double IPA is an annual delight. At 8.8 per cent ABV, this tropical juice and pine bomb is not for the faint of heart. A perfect way to usher in the changing season.
Sawback West Coast IPA, Red Deer
Central Alberta punches above its weight in beer, with great breweries in Lacombe, Red Deer, Sylvan Lake and Rimbey. Sawback has been quietly making some excellent beers in Red Deer, including this nice throw-back to West Coast-style hoppy IPAs of yore. Old-fashioned in the best way.
Growlery Turbo Prop New England IPA, Edmonton
Edmonton’s Blatchford Field, across the road from Growlery Brewing, played an important role in the Second World War, training pilots as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and staging planes on their way to the Soviet Union. The RAF roundel on this beer brings that history forward. And the beer is delicious too!