Chapter 1

   The earliest relevant event in the history of the Bushwakker was probably a conference in Prague, in what was then the country of Czechoslovakia, around 1975. We arrived late and hungry. I rushed to a pre-conference evening reception that was just winding down. But first I needed to find a bathroom. I knew that the most common international phrase for bathroom in Europe was the German “WC”, pronounced “vay say”, but I was exhausted from many hours of air travel, and I forgot. Instead I used every English euphemism that I could think of, washroom, outhouse, loo, toilet, lavatory, water closet, etc.

   The volunteers from the local university, The Czechoslovakian Agricultural University of Prague, had obviously been warned that they would be dealing with voracious North Americans, spoiled with obscene overconsumption. The visitors would eat everything in site and ask for more. My request for a place to take a leak was met every time with a clearly rehearsed chorus of “It has all been eaten!”

   But this being one of the world’s four great brewing nations, there was still a supply of beer available. (Other great brewing nations are Germany, Belgium and Great Britain.) I still remember my first reaction to drinking real Czech beer. It was simply too different from the watery North American product to which I had become accustomed. It’s difficult to confess now, but I drank wine.

   Some people adapt to the full flavour of traditional beer styles when they first try a sample of one. Bushwakker brewer Mitch is in that group, but I needed some intermediate beer styles before I was ready for the bigger beer flavours of Europe. That is why the Bushwakker offers intermediate or “cross-over” beers, like Northern Lights Lager, Cheryl’s Blond Ale, Last Mountain Lager and Dungarvon Irish Red Ale.

   The food issue did not go away. The cafeteria food was mostly starch. Meat was rarely available and when it was it was nearly inedible. The only thing approaching vegetables or fruit on the menu was a vinegar cucumber salad, served with every lunch and dinner.

   The conference was ten-days long, and had a break in the middle. The conferees were treated to a full-day trip and an extended picnic at a beautiful castle and its lush grounds a few hours south of Prague. The conference dealt with new developments in the calculation techniques and software used in my research, which is crystallography. At that time Canada punched above its weight in crystallographic computing, and Canada, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, and the United States had nearly equivalent and strong representation at the conference.

   A group of younger scientists formed at the picnic from those four nationalities and we drank beer and wine together. With the assistance of the locals, we talked one of the buss drivers into staying behind with his bus and we caroused and shared stories into the early hours.

   Our co-opted bus eventually made its way back to the University through downtown Prague. As it happened, the popular movement to free Prague from Russian control and the dead weight of communism was already seeded. In the west, folk songs were being inspired by the civil-rights movement, and to our great surprise we discovered that some of these protest songs had become anthems of rebellion against their oppressors with our Czech friends. The bus became a drunken chorus of songs of protest.

   I will never forget our bus rolling through Wenceslas Square in central Prague at 3:00 AM, with everyone singing as loud as they could, the then popular civil-rights folksong “If I had a Hammer”, written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, and made popular by the group “Peter Paul and Mary”. ( HYPERLINK "http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/hammer-song.shtml" www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/hammer-song.shtml) We knew the consequences of attracting attention from the police and we were ready to accept them.

   As a side note, several people who had been eating carp livers together at the picnic, including my wife Elaine and Herb Hauptman and Jerry Karl, both Nobel Laureates, woke up next morning with a case of food poisoning. They all recovered.

   We left Czechoslovakia by train through Nürnberg, Germany. The entire group of North Americans had spent ten days together on what was for them a severely restricted diet. We literally ran from the Nürnberger train station to an adjacent fruit market that anticipated our precise cravings. The owners had seen the reaction to fresh fruit of other people returning from the east block and had set up their business to serve them. Oranges never tasted so good!

   In 1976/77 the Robertson family (myself, Elaine, son and original Bushwakker brewer, Scott, and daughter and current Bushwakker General Manager, Kelly) spent a sabbatical year in Stuttgart, southern Germany. I quickly developed a strong appreciation for German beer and moved from the more familiar styles, like Helles and Vienna, to the full-flavored premium southern German Pilsners. I eventually wrangled an invitation to speak at a University in Prague and this time my palate was ready to enjoy the wonderful traditional beers of Czechoslovakia. I would never go back to Canadian or Blue, except when required to, as a professional beer judge.