The Yellowknife Golf Club is in the midst of celebrating 75 years of business in 2023. Along the way, there have been some commemorative items for people to get their hands on, such as a replica of the flag seen adorning all of the pins on the course.
Another one of those souvenirs involves one that can be consumed and it’s going down smoothly so far, according to Kylie Frederick, the club’s head pro and director of golf operations.
There’s a beer for sale at the club called Tee Time. It’s a blonde ale created specially for this season by the NWT Brewing Company and it’s been a popular addition to the beverage options this season, said Frederick.
The idea for the beer came after Frederick paid a visit to the PGA of Alberta’s buying show in Edmonton last October.
“I saw some breweries down there and they had designed some beer-related products for companies,” she said. “I wondered how we could get something like that up here, so I spoke with the club’s board of directors and presented the pitch.”
From there, the idea grew into getting in touch with the crew at the brewery in Old Town to see what they could come up with.
Shaun Morris, the golf club’s president, said his team worked with the brewery on a design for the can and the recipe.
“Kylie’s the expert on beer — I’m not much of a beer drinker myself, so she had a lot of input,” he said.
“I’m an avid craft beer drinker and I wanted to have a nice refreshing ale of some kind, nothing too heavy,” added Frederick. “Ales are good because they don’t take as long to brew as a lager and ales aren’t as hoppy as lagers. That’s always good.”
The can design was mostly in the hands of Morris; the original design was the specially-designed logo in honour of the club’s platinum jubilee anniversary. The new, and current, design features a silhouette of a golfer teeing off in front of the original clubhouse and pro shop from 1948, which was a hollowed-out fuselage.
That new design was unveiled during the Canadian North Midnight Classic tournament late last month.
“(Shaun) and I thought that the old photo would be a great design,” said Frederick.
As of Thursday, the club has already gone through the first batch of brew, which Morris said amounted to approximately 1,400 473-ml cans. They are on to the second batch.
“We have another order for 30 flats (720 cans) incoming, so we could come close to going into a third batch before the year is out,” he said. “The original plan was to sell it for just this season, but who knows? We may do something like this again if there’s demand for it.”
Frederick added that the beer is selling very well.
“People love the idea of it,” she said. “It’s never been done before at the club and it catches the eye. People like trying something new and the brewery did an amazing job creating a great beer. It tastes really good — I’ll attest to that.”