When Bad Tattoo Brewing made the shocking announcement in December that it would be closing almost immediately, it had craft beer lovers in the Okanagan and beyond feeling pretty blue.
Those feelings have slowly faded, although surely not disappeared for some, as the months have passed and new establishments have opened in Bad Tattoo’s Penticton and Kelowna locations.
In Penticton, Yellow Dog Brewing has taken their Port Moody success story and opened a second location where Bad Tattoo used to be. In Kelowna, the space was recently transformed into an “unconventional sports bar” called Pretty Not Bad.
But what was kind of lost in the commotion of Bad Tattoo’s closure was Counterflow Brewing, a brewery without its own brick-and-mortar location that had been making beer out of Bad Tattoo’s Penticton location since 2020.
Most who frequented Bad Tattoo or sought out great craft beers at local liquor stores will know Counterflow, a home brewing operation started by Jason Lanki and Malcolm Potts that grew significantly in scale when it partnered with Bad Tattoo.
Potts had departed Counterflow by this time, but suddenly Lanki and his crew were without a home and as their beers started to disappear from Bad Tattoo Kelowna and liquor stores, they weren’t replaced.
Until now.
Yes, all that history we just provided was a dramatic lead up to the fact that Counterflow Brewing is back with a new home for production inside the South Okanagan’s original microbrewery.
Lanki and company will now produce Counterflow beers out of Tin Whistle Brewing, and owners Timothy Scoon and Alexis Esseltine could not be happier about it.
“When we purchased Tin Whistle Brewing in the fall of 2020, we committed to respecting the history of the brewery while driving it forward in innovation of the beer and art,” Scoon explained.
“Counterflow’s origin story of passionate beer lovers being driven to develop creative beers with differentiated art by Liz Ranney definitely made it a natural fit for the Tin Whistle family.”
Ranney’s artistic labels certainly help Counterflow stand out, but it’s their against-the-grain beers that really helped establish a devoted and loyal following.
Nothing sums that up better than Counterflow’s Paradigm Shift Pink Guava Berliner Weisse, their first beer and the one that put them on the map.
Counterflow followed it up hit after hit, including the Citrus Circus Hazy IPA, Particularly Peachy Hazy Pale Ale, Don’t Knock It Till You Try It Cranberry Wheat Ale, Uncommon Grounds Coffee Lager, Sweet & Sour Cherry Gose, The Elixir Superfruit Wheat Ale, What’s Hoppin’ Dry Hopped Lager and Nutty By Nature Pecan Pie Nut Brown Ale.
For now, it appears as though the Paradigm Shift is the only beer on the menu as the beer brand gets established in its new home, but we can only hope for more of those favourites to return.
You can try Paradigm Shift for yourself on tap at the Tin Whistle taproom, Britbar in Penticton and Pretty Not Bad in Kelowna, and cans are available at Tin Whistle as well.
It’s unclear at this time whether cans of the beloved beer are available at private liquor stores yet, but hopefully we start to see Counterflow beers across the province sooner than later.
Josh Duncan is the NowMedia news director and a craft beer lover. Reach him at [email protected]. His beer column appears every Saturday afternoon in this space.
