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Checkerhead Brewing This is the story of a juggler who became a brewer. His passion for beer is evident in every hand-cr

🍁🇨🇦 A LITTLE CANADA. A LITTLE BELGIUM. A WHOLE LOT OF FRIENDSHIP. 🍺Behold! The CUTEST. LITTLE. KEG. EVER. 😂👇My good budd...
10/18/2026

🍁🇨🇦 A LITTLE CANADA. A LITTLE BELGIUM. A WHOLE LOT OF FRIENDSHIP. 🍺

Behold! The CUTEST. LITTLE. KEG. EVER. 😂👇

My good buddy Brian Wilson flew all the way from Embrun, Ontario, with this tiny keg of liquid awesomeness from his very own Back Shed Sugar Shack. 🍁🥞

Brian and I have been friends for 30+ years, done shows together, and this week we finally did something we’ve never done before… we brewed b**r together! 🍻

On Thursday, we made a Trappist-style Belgian Dubbel, using Brian’s Artisanal maple syrup instead of traditional Belgian candy sugar to crank up the ABV. 🇧🇪🤝🇨🇦 Half went into the boil, the rest goes in today!

Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn (who invented mornings?! 😵‍💫), I’m driving Brian to the airport so he can get home for his BIG 5-0 birthday celebrations with family. 🎂🥳

It’s been an absolute treat having him here. Thirty plus years of friendship, a five days of ridiculous laughter, and now a b**r we made together. ❤️

BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE! This Dubbel will snooze in a fermenter all winter while I juggle my way around the planet cruise ships. 🚢🤹‍♂️

If all goes well, it’ll be ON TAP AT CHECKERHEAD NEXT SPRING — just as Brian’s Sugar Shack gets rolling again! 🍁🍺

Maple syrup. Belgian tradition. Canadian twist. Questionable jokes. VERY GOOD FRIENDS.

Now THAT’S what I call a collaboration brew! 🍻

🍁
🇧🇪🇨🇦
😂
🤣
**R 🍺

🍓 RASPBERRY CHECKERWEIZEN: GONE. RASPBERRIED INTO OBLIVION! 🍓The last keg of Just Call Me Raspberry Checkerweizen kicked...
10/11/2026

🍓 RASPBERRY CHECKERWEIZEN: GONE. RASPBERRIED INTO OBLIVION! 🍓

The last keg of Just Call Me Raspberry Checkerweizen kicked on Friday, leaving a few hopeful souls arriving Saturday to find… NOTHING. 😭🍺

I’m amazed how quickly this one sold out! It joins the ranks of Checkerhead favourites like Minnie Maniac Coconut Blonde, Lemon • Basil • Bees Belgian Wit and Hidden Wonders Blackberry Wit. You people clearly have a thing for fruity b**r! 😂🍓🥥🍋🫐

Will they return? I sure hope so! But first, there’s some brewing mischief on the horizon:

🍁 Maple Syrup Belgian Dubbel
🌲 West Coast IPA
🫐 Black Currant Ale
🌿 All-Sterling Pilsner
🐝 Honey-powered Belgian Tripel

Some potentially EPIC b**rs! The catch? With just THREE WEEKS LEFT before I close for the season and head back to sea to entertain cruise ship passengers, these will have to wait until next year. ⚓😭

WHAT’S LEFT ON TAP? 👀🍻

1️⃣ Hop Juggler SMASH (Mosaic Edition)
2️⃣ Roger’s Rakau Pale Ale
3️⃣ Stu’s Rusty Unicycle Red Ale
4️⃣ Man of the Mountain Dark Mild
5️⃣ C&B Bitter (Collab)

Five fine b**rs, one slightly ridiculous brewery, and a brewer already plotting next year’s shenanigans! 🤹‍♂️

❤️ THANK YOU! 2026 has been an amazing year at my little brewery, and every visit, pint and bit of support means the world to me.

If you’ve been meaning to visit, now’s the time! Come enjoy a glass and help send the season out in proper Checkerhead style.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 🦃🍻









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🍻🤹 SIX TAPS, ONE VERY HAPPY JUGGLER!The glycol pump is FIXED, the b**r is flowing, and Checkerhead Brewing is back in bu...
10/09/2026

🍻🤹 SIX TAPS, ONE VERY HAPPY JUGGLER!

The glycol pump is FIXED, the b**r is flowing, and Checkerhead Brewing is back in business! 🔧🍺 After a month of pump-related shenanigans, TWO new b**rs are joining this weekend’s line-up!

🌿 HOP JUGGLER SMASH (MOSAIC EDITION) — Huge thanks to Wes Douglas for the kilo of whole-leaf Mosaic hops. This one turned out AMAZING! 🙌

🇳🇿 ROGER’S RAKAU PALE ALE — New Zealand hops for a b**r with a special Kiwi connection to my Dad, Roger. ❤️

🚨 RASPBERRY ALERT! 🍓 Just Call Me Raspberry Checkerweizen is down to its LAST KEG and might sell out TODAY (Friday). You’ve been warned!

🍺 ON TAP THIS THANKSGIVING WEEKEND:
1️⃣ Hop Juggler SMASH (Mosaic Edition)
2️⃣ Roger’s Rakau Pale Ale
3️⃣ Just Call Me Raspberry Checkerweizen
4️⃣ Stu’s Rusty Unicycle Red Ale
5️⃣ Man of the Mountain Dark Mild
6️⃣ C&B Bitter (Collab)

Plus craft kombucha, Bubly, free popcorn, games, and the usual Checkerhead shenanigans! 🍿🤹

Much to be thankful for this weekend — especially YOU lovely people who support my little brewery in Shirley. ❤️

📍 Checkerhead Brewing, Shirley, BC
🕑 Friday 2–8 | Sat/Sun/Holiday Monday noon–6

Shirley, we have B**R! 🍻









**R

SIX. HOUR. BOIL. 🍺🤪At one time, brewing a regular batch felt like a ridiculous amount of work. So naturally, when Iain W...
10/09/2026

SIX. HOUR. BOIL. 🍺🤪

At one time, brewing a regular batch felt like a ridiculous amount of work. So naturally, when Iain Warren asked if I fancied driving to Chemainus to brew an English Barleywine with a SIX-HOUR BOIL, I said YES.

Because apparently, I’m not busy enough.

But that’s the magic of brewing collaborations. You spend a day with another fermentation-obsessed lunatic, learn a bunch of new things, challenge what you thought you knew, and bring all that delicious brewing knowledge back to Checkerhead Brewing.

I feel ridiculously lucky to be part of a brewing community so willing to share, experiment and help each other get better. Every pint I pour owes a little something to the brewers who’ve shared their wisdom along the way.

NEVER STOP LEARNING. NEVER STOP EXPERIMENTING. AND NEVER TRUST A BREWER WHO THINKS THEY KNOW IT ALL.

Huge congratulations to Iain Warren on his success at the Canada B**r Cup! 🏆 What an absolute pleasure to be part of this collaboration.

Cheers, you magnificent fermentation nerd! 🍻



**r





🍺 PUMP UP THE JAM! 🍺I like to tell our boys — who are now men — that if time and money can solve a problem, it’s not rea...
10/04/2026

🍺 PUMP UP THE JAM! 🍺

I like to tell our boys — who are now men — that if time and money can solve a problem, it’s not really a problem… it’s an inconvenience. 😎

When the glycol recirculation pump in my little brewery crapped out over a month ago, it was indeed a BIG inconvenience. 😬

No glycol flowing = no cold crashing = no processing of b**rs in fermenters
No glycol flowing = chilling of wort after a brew day = no brewing.
No brewing = watching the tap list shrink from 8 b**rs to 4. 😳🍺

Thankfully, Rick and Mike from Rick & Ben Ackinclose came to the rescue and installed the new pump last Tuesday.

Then we turned it on…

POP! 💥 DOH!

Breaker tripped. Electrical gremlins. Wednesday’s brew day with Dan Hedekar postponed. DOUBLE DOH! 🤦‍♂️

Thankfully, an electrician came Friday, discovered the pump was wired for 120V instead of the 240V my brewery needs, did some wire-juggling wizardry ⚡️🧙‍♂️ and…

PURRRRRRRR! 🐈‍⬛

WE HAVE GLYCOL! ❄️🍺🎉

Huge thanks to Rick, Mike and everyone who helped get this little brewery back in business. Now it’s time to crash some tanks, carbonate some b**r and BREW ALL THE THINGS!

So ‘cool’ to be back. 😎❄️🍻





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**R

With any luck, by the end of today, Rick from Rick & Ben Ackinclose will have swapped out my broken glycol recirculation...
09/29/2026

With any luck, by the end of today, Rick from Rick & Ben Ackinclose will have swapped out my broken glycol recirculation pump for a shiny new one. 🤞

My fingers are VERY crossed right now.

I discovered the original pump had crapped out on August 23rd, just before heading off to a cruise ship gig aboard Sapphire Princess. Thankfully, my friend Nathan Wilson helped me diagnose the problem:

Power to the pump? ✅
Is it turning on? ❌
Must be the pump. 🤷‍♂️

A new one was ordered, and it’s finally scheduled to be installed today. And the timing couldn’t be better, because tomorrow Dan Hedekar and I are hoping to brew a Chocolate Raspberry Porter. Without that recirculation pump, that brew day simply isn’t happening.

So I’ve said another quiet prayer to the Brewing Gods that everything goes smoothly today. 🍺🙏

Being out of commission for a month sounds pretty rough—and believe me, I’m more than ready to get back at it—but I’ve managed to put the downtime to good use.

🌿 The hops got picked and processed.
🍯 The honey got harvested from the apiary.
🍎 The apples have been picked—and now they’re getting juiced.

If we don’t strip our apple tree, the bears will happily do the job for us. 🐻 So we picked everything last week, and now my little juice press is working overtime turning apple chunks into the juice I’ll be using for some fun small-batch deliciousness.

I’ve still got about seven five-gallon buckets of apples to get through, but fingers crossed 🤞 I’ll have that job finished by the end of the week.

And, hopefully, tomorrow brings a brew day.

COME ON, GLYCOL PUMP. 😂🍺









One of the coolest things about running Checkerhead Brewing has been the brewers who’ve wandered through the door.Someti...
09/24/2026

One of the coolest things about running Checkerhead Brewing has been the brewers who’ve wandered through the door.

Sometimes I know who they are. Sometimes I really don’t. 😂 But almost inevitably, by the time they leave, we’ve gone from “Hey, nice to meet you!” to “When are we brewing together?”

When Tristan Fetherston came out to Checkerhead with his partner Alexa this summer, I had no idea he was a fellow brewer. That changed when he floated the idea of a collaboration brew day.

His reasoning? He was working on a Circus/Carnival-themed b**r and thought I’d be the perfect person to team up with.

Well… I was flattered. 🎪🍺

Flash forward a couple of months and I had the absolute pleasure of heading over to Beacon Brewing Ltd for a brew day.

The b**r? Imagine Cracker Jack in b**r form. 🥜🍿

The team? That’s Tristan up on the ladder, Jake beside him, and yours truly front and centre for the obligatory selfie. 😁

I had an absolute blast talking b**r, brewing process, business, and everything in between — while getting to spend a day working on a completely different brewing system than the one I’m used to.

And then there’s the whimsy.

Any brewery that calls their steam evacuation pipe Snuffleupagus and is considering naming their fermenters after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is exactly the kind of brewery I want to hang out with. 😂

Because brewing is serious business… but it doesn’t always have to take itself seriously.

SUCH A GREAT DAY!

The b**r will be called Jack of All Trades — a fitting name for brewers, because apparently we need to know how to do a little bit of everything.

It’s coming out in October as a limited bottle release, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what the artwork looks like.

Huge thanks to Tristan, Jake and everyone at Beacon Brewing Ltd for letting me be part of the fun.

B**r. Circus. Friendship. And a healthy amount of ridiculousness.

I’m in. 🍺🎪🤹‍♂️

🎭🤹‍♂️ FROM CRUISE SHIPS… TO SOOKE! 🤹‍♂️🎭When Andrew Harris, Events Manager at the Prestige Oceanfront Resort Sooke, reac...
09/18/2026

🎭🤹‍♂️ FROM CRUISE SHIPS… TO SOOKE! 🤹‍♂️🎭

When Andrew Harris, Events Manager at the Prestige Oceanfront Resort Sooke, reached out to ask if I’d bring my comedy juggling show to the banquet room of this beautiful hotel, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect…

Then we met in person and discovered that Andrew and I have something pretty unusual in common: he used to perform on cruise ships too! 🚢😂

What started as a meeting about a show quickly turned into a flood of cruise-ship stories, ridiculous memories, “you won’t believe this happened…” moments, and the universal language of people who have spent way too much time living in floating hotels. 😆🛳️

Emiko and I left that meeting both saying the same thing:

“The Prestige is pretty darn lucky to have Andrew!” ❤️

Fast forward to yesterday, and Andrew sends me this poster they’re using to promote my upcoming show on Friday, November 6th! 🎉

I’ve done surprisingly little performing locally over the years. I’m quite happy travelling the world and performing on beautiful cruise-ship stages 🌎🚢… but when an opportunity like this comes along, with someone I’ve connected with so well, how could I resist?

Who knows… maybe this is the gateway to a whole new chapter of local variety entertainment! 🤹‍♂️🎪

And yes… the poster was made with AI. 🤖

But I can promise you one thing:

The show will be 100% Human-Powered. 💪😂

No artificial intelligence.
No digital juggling.
No ChatGPT catching the clubs when I drop them.

Just one human, a bunch of ridiculous props, and hopefully a LOT of laughter! 🤣👏

Here’s to an evening of comedy, juggling, memories, and fun at the Prestige! 🥂🎭🤹‍♂️

Friday, November 6th — Sooke!









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10602 Sherburne Drive
Sooke, BC
V9Z1G8

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