Name: The Swan's Escaped
Brand: Backcountry Brewing
Availability: InStock

Backcountry Brewing's newest pale ale is built on Pilsner malt with oats and wheat, then dry hopped with Citra and Riwaka. The name and the can art are a nod to the escaped-swan running joke from Hot Fuzz - the brewery's own line for the release is "No luck catching them swans, then? Maybe try the Pale Ale" - but the beer itself is the main event.

The Swan's Escaped comes in at 5.0 percent ABV and 30 IBU. The grain bill is doing quiet work: Pilsner malt keeps the base pale and clean rather than bready, and the oats and wheat add the soft body and haze that a modern pale ale is expected to have. It is a platform designed to stay out of the way of the hops.

The hops are where Backcountry is making its point. Citra is the familiar half, and the brewery frames it that way, saying it brings bright orange and citrus - the same hop drinkers will recognize from Widowmaker and Trailbreaker, the brewery's hazy IPA and hazy pale ale. Riwaka is the other half, and Backcountry says it is quickly becoming one of its favourite New Zealand hops, piling on dank, powdery tropical fruit and an intense aroma.

Riwaka is a scarcer proposition than Citra. The New Zealand variety is known for low yields and limited availability, which keeps it out of most year-round recipes and makes its appearance in a standard pale ale worth noting. The brewery's stated result is a beer that is hugely aromatic and flavourful but remarkably easy drinking.

Backcountry has a long habit of naming beers after film and pop-culture references - Star Wars, Harry Potter, anime - with can art and copy built out to match. This time it's Hot Fuzz, right down to a police shoulder mic staged in the release photo, coiled around the can. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Sandford siege has apparently earned itself a permanent spot in the brewery's rotation, and a pale ale is a fitting way to mark it.

The beer is out now from the Squamish brewery.

Editor’s Take

There is a specific kind of joke that only works if you commit to it completely, and Backcountry has committed. The swan on that can is not a tasteful heraldic swan. It is a swan mid-escape, wings up, beak open, apparently yelling, with the village burning behind it - the exact energy of a bird that has evaded the Sandford police force for the entire running time of a film and intends to keep doing so. Then somebody went and put a police shoulder mic in the product photo. That is not marketing. That is a brewery entertaining itself on a Tuesday and deciding to ship the result.

And look, it's Simon Pegg. It's Hot Fuzz. If a brewery is going to name a beer after any film's running joke, this is the correct film to pick, and getting the prop right in the photo is the kind of detail that only lands with someone who has actually watched it more than once.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

The Swan's Escaped Is a Hot Fuzz Nod Built on Citra and Riwaka

Backcountry built this pale ale on Pilsner malt, oats and wheat, then dry hopped it with Citra and the scarce New Zealand variety Riwaka. The name nods to Hot Fuzz's escaped-swan running joke, with a police shoulder mic staged in the can photo to match.

Source & Editorial