link love

parallel 49 celebrates after their win at whistler village beer festival

do you want to see growler fills outside of breweries?
here’s camra’s take on why you might actually not want such a thing

need help planning your next beercation?  the travel channel can help

beermebc’s view from gcbf

pumpkin beers – love em or hate em?
i’m on the dislike side… most of them are just too pumpkin pie spice and not enough actual gourd

whistler village beer festival as seen by go-pro

molson lays off staff and blames craft beer
might be the best thing ever to be blamed for!

joe wiebe on the best of craft beer in vancouver

and more on the debate over craft beer in cans

corvallis, oregon – part 2

con’t from yesterday’s post:

After an afternoon of visiting three lovely establishments it was time to ditch the vehicle and continue on foot.  The final four places I stopped were within very easy walking distance of each other. Downtown Corvallis is not very large and boasts a number of craft beer destinations.

 

Fourth stop, Flat Tail Brewing, Corvallis, OR

This is one of the breweries mentioned in Lisa Morrison’s book.  I decided to keep going with the taster paddles and chose 8 beers.

We arrived a minute before 6:00 and our server graciously told us if we ordered quickly he could get us in under the“happy hour” wire. Realizing we hadn’t eaten at all yet, I ordered the “frickles” – fried pickles with pepper ranch dip – and pretzel sticks with beer & cheddar and honey mustard dips. The pretzels were awesome, the frickles had a bit too much breading on them, but they kept me able to drink my paddle of Kolsch, Amber 8 Man, Bitter Ryevalry, Seriously Low Budget 2xIPA, Akitu Wild, Session Sour Wheat, Big Fin Porter and Rough Cut IPA. The kolsch was incredibly drinkable, the amber was delightful, the low budget IPA disappeared before I realized it, the akitu wild was interesting, the session sour wheat tasted like a gose, the porter was satisfying and the rough cut IPA was very tasty. These were the first satisfying IPAs of my day. The bitter ryevalry smelled hoppy, but it as all bitter rye malt in the taste.

Flat Tail (reference is to a beaver, the fierce animal mascot of Oregon State) is a university hang-out, with a deep fried menu, but what other sportsbar do you know of that offers multiple sour beers?  Worth checking out if you’re in the neighbourhood (or would that be neighborhood?).

 

 

Fifth stop, Sky-High Brewing, Corvallis, OR

What a great bar!  The brewery is downstairs, then you go up one and two floors to the restaurant and bar areas. The patio apparently has a great view if you get there early enough in the day to see it, but the hotel being constructed next door will probably take most of that away.

This late in the crawl I gave up on taster paddles and just went for a single beer. I tried the Crowbeer CDA, a 7% tall, dark and hoppy offering. I really enjoyed it and would have liked to spend more time trying out the beers here. I know our bartender Tory told me why it’s called Crow Beer but I neglected to write it down in my book and cannot remember for the life of me!  Maybe it is just as simple as the write up, named after Crowbar… but I can’t remember what Crowbar is or why they love it so.  I am a bad, bad beer ambassador. 

I really enjoyed my “pint” and the atmosphere of the place.  This is a bar I would definitely visit again.
 

Sixth stop, Les Caves Bier and Kitchen, Corvallis, OR

Related to and located next to Block 15, Caves is incredible! Nicely laid out bar with comfy padded bench seating, it boasts 7 pages of beer bottles on the menu, with 21 draught taps and sours – oh the sours. So many choices, so little time. I went with the Caves 1 year anniversary blend sour, by Block 15. This 4.7%er was tart and complex and obviously the product of great brewing.

Again, I wish I had had more time to sample the offerings here. I would make this my local if I lived in Corvallis.  This place is a beer lovers heaven. Go!  And please take me with you!

My drinking companions (we grew from just two of us to six of us) went with the Kriek Boon, which I had a sip of – a very nice sweet sour – but professed to like mine better.  I love turning former non-beer lovers into sour fiends!  It is so satisfying.  They are Corvallis dwellers and have professed Caves to be their new go-to beer place based soley on its extensive sour list.
 

I had a very tiny nibble from someone else’s appy plate of cheese, bread, pickled snap peas and pickled beets. Quite delicious. I just loved the place!  They’re totally doing it right.
 

Final stop, Block 15 Brewing, Corvallis, OR

Suggested by Lisa Morrison and the Pocket Beer Guide and they are not wrong on this one! I could only do one more beer, it had been quite a long day and night of sampling, so I went with the Space Cowboy IPA. The Pocket Beer Guide suggested I try the Figgy Pudding, Pappy’s Dark and Super Nebula Imperial Stout and Lisa Morrison had suggested trying the Alpha IPA or the Six Hop Wonder, but after a small taster of the Space Cowboy, listed as an IPA and a half, I had to have a full glass of it. Maris otter and caramel malts with apollo and eldorado hops, dry-hopped with galaxy, eldorado and apollo. 7.88% and 80 ibus. I really enjoyed that beer.  So much that I totally forgot to take a photo of it, or anything inside Block 15.
 

Featuring chalkboard table tops with plenty of chalk, it was fun times for everyone at Block 15. We ordered off the late night food menu. Not a whole lotta veggie choices so I ended up with nachos. Nothing to write home about, but probably a very necessary stomach lining for one last beer before bed.

 

Other than the lacklustre late night menu, I would totally recommend Block 15.  Next time I’m in Corvallis I will put Caves and Block 15 much earlier in my pub crawl day so as to give them proper time to fill me with really good beer.

 

 

Lisa Morrison also suggested stops at Squirrels, a tavern, and Oregon Trail Brewing, the original brewery in town. I didn’t make it to these two stops due to a lack of time. Unfortunately most places were closed on Easter Sunday so I had to get all my drinking done in just one day.

 

I did manage to visit the Corvallis Sports Park though, just after arriving in town on Friday evening. For an indoor soccer field’s attached pub, they had a great menu of craft beers, Sierra Nevada, Ninkasi, 10 Barrel, Deschutes, Lagunitas, including a long list of IPAs.  I went for the Deschutes Fresh-Squeezed IPA and the 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA.  Which paired very nicely with the extremely nutritious deep-fried cheese and tater tots that were my dinner.  God bless America!

 

corvallis and albany, oregon – part 1

You hear a lot about the breweries in Portland, but there are many other Oregon towns that offer an impressive number of breweries per capita. I had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Corvallis, about an hour and a half South of Portland. I thought there would be one or two good places for beer in a town of 50,000. Was I ever surprised when I started my research and came out with a long list of breweries and bottle shops. Not so surprising, I guess, when you take into account that Corvallis is home to Oregon State University, an international leader in the breeding and researching of hops. I couldn’t make it to all the good beer on offer, but I gave it my best shot to hit as many as I could in a day and a night.

 

Any time I am travelling, I do beer research first, and usually take along a beer book or two (as well as my beer notebook).  For this trip I took Lisa Morrison’s “Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest” as she had several entries for Albany and Corvallis.  I also consulted The Pocket Beer Guide by Stephen Beaumont and Tim Webb before I left, which mentions Block 15 in Corvallis as an “Innovative brewery with strong barrel-ageing programme”.

 

First stop, Calapooia Brewing Co., Albany, OR

Calapooia was the furthest stop from my weekend home, so we started there.  I tried a sample paddle of 8 tasters: River Dog ESB, Santiamber amber ale, Riparian IPA, Devil’s Hole Stout, Summit IPA (a seasonal), Paddle Me IPA, Hub City common ale and their Chili Ale. In her book Lisa Morrison suggests you try the Riparian IPA and the Chili ale. I found both to be solid beers, but the Santiamber and the Stout stood out for me. My drinking companion really enjoyed the Hub City, a nice session ale.

Calapooia boasts a nice-looking patio (it was raining on and off when we were there so we didn’t sit out there) and darts. The English pub style menu looked good, but we didn’t eat here – it was too soon after breakfast… The tables and chairs were not the most comfortable – kind of a country kitchen style. I can’t imagine spending a whole night drinking in them.  Then again, maybe they get more comfortable the more you drink!  Regardless, it was a solid beginning to our crawl.

 

Second stop, 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Corvallis, OR

In a more industrial area of town, the cidery is located in a strip mall which also includes Mazama Brewing.

I tried a sample paddle of 4 tasters, the scrump, the bright cider, the recently tapped seasonal cherried away and hop & stalk, a hoppy cider made with rhubarb stalks.  I enjoyed all four of my choices (especially the hop & stalk) and can see why this cidery is so popular with the locals. They say that the taxes are too high for them to consider entering the Canadian market at this time, sadly.

My drinking companion shared her peach, bad apple and hop mead with me. The mead was too sweet for me, as I usually find meads to be. The peach didn’t taste much of peach. The bad apple was very satisfying though.  Better watch that imperial cider though – it does not taste like 10%!

The tasting room is on the small side, but warm and friendly and I could imagine myself whiling away a whole lot of time there if I lived in Corvallis – even though the picnic tables creaked and groaned in a frightening way when I sat down.

We also made friends at the communal picnic table and they offered me sips of their Pommeau 2012, a port-style cider that smells incredibly boozey, but tastes all apple juice, and Riverwood Orchard 2011 brut cider. I liked the brut so much I bought a bottle to bring home with me. I am also in love with the hop & stalk – so much so that we took a growler to go and I bought a couple of bottles to bring home with me.

 

Third stop, Mazama Brewing, Corvallis, OR

Mazama is all about the Belgians. I had a taster paddle of 4 samples, Saison d’Etre which was 6.3 % of dry, peppery saisony goodness. It had a lot of fruit on the nose, but not as much in the taste; the Grand Cru which was a very fruity beer, that I wasn’t wild about; the White Wedding, a blend of ½ wit and ½ ipa, which was very dry and bitter but not in the usual ipa-bitter way, more in a sour-wheaty way; and the Sour Sunrise, a peachy lactic subtly sour beer.  Keeping in mind that I am very slowly starting to appreciate the Belgian style beers, I thought these were solid brews.

Located right next to 2 Towns Cidery, which was totally hopping on a Saturday afternoon, I was a little bit surprised to be the only people in Mazama. Super friendly service though, so I’m not sure why it wasn’t busier. Maybe Corvallis hasn’t embraced the Belgians yet?  They should, this place is great!

Okay, enough for now!
Tomorrow I will post the other four stops of the pub crawl, but with fewer photos as I sorta forgot to take them as the day/night wore on, and I may or may not have gotten tipsy.

cbc website

and i made the cbc website again!!!

As people around the world embrace craft beer, beer travel is a growing trend. We do it for wine,  why not beer, asks Rebecca Whyman, a member of Campaign for Real Ale.

Whyman says she would love to travel more often for beer — but when going to every beer festival worldwide is not in your budget, she say you can still get some decent craft beer on your holidays.
Whyman recommends starting with some research on the Internet to find out which breweries are near your destination, and what events are taking place while you’re there. She says a recent trip of hers to Mexico produced some delicious results, and on an upcoming trip she will be going to the Las Vegas Beer Fest.

Before you arrive, you can plug into the local beer scene, and start following beer makers on social media.

Travel the world tasting beer (CBC)

 

Beer Advocate is a beer magazine and website that can help you find craft beer locales in cities throughout the U.S. and a few other countries. They also have a very extensive beer events calendar.
Ratebeer.com also has an extensive beer events calendar for the U.S. and some other countries, as well as reviews of breweries, brewpubs, bottle shops and craft beer bars.

Some of Whyman’s friends also take B.C. beer with them when they travel to share with the locals. They are often given beer in return to bring home with them. She says this is a great way to bring B.C. beer to foreign places, making you a beer ambassador.

Beer festivals

If you are actually intentionally chasing beer around the world, more planning is needed. First, you have to research beer festivals and beer-centric cities, find out when their festivals are and then plan your travel around them. One of the oldest beer destinations has been Germany’s Oktoberfest.
A few other festivals of note are the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado in October, and Montreal’s Mondiale de la Biere in June.

Rebecca Whyman asks why not travel for beer? (CBC)

 

There is a list of beer festivals world-wide on the RealBeer.com website, and a list of Canadian beer festivals on the Canadian Beer News website. Beerfestivals.org is another good site to check.

Festivals aside, beer destinations can also be about the place itself. Whyman recommends travelling to Belgium to try all those great Belgian beers right from the source. Take a tour of the monasteries to learn about the Trappist beers, and bring some of the beer only available on site home with you.
The Westvleteren brewery only sells their beer one case at a time and only by appointment at their door, says Whyman. Achel makes four different styles of beer but only sells one. The only way to try some of these beers is to travel to Belgium.

There are plenty of great beer-centric cities to visit a little closer to home, she adds. Portland Oregon tops that list. Rebecca says she tries to get there at least twice a year as new breweries are cropping up in the city at least as frequently as in Vancouver.

Here are Rebecca’s beer picks for this week, from Belgium and Portland:

• Chimay Red, White and Blue caps are all available at specialty liquor stores. (Blue is a strong dark ale, Red is a dubbel and White is a trippel)
• Gigantic IPA is available at specialty liquor stores in 22 oz. bombers.
• Hopworks organic lager is available at specialty liquor stores in four-packs of cans.

beer column

my notes from yesterday’s beer column on beer travel
on cbc radio one’s on the coast with stephen quinn

I would love to be able to travel the world for beer! So far, Mexicoand Central Ontario are the furthest I have travelled since becoming a beer geek, and those were places I was visiting for other reasons. Those totally count as beer travel though, since I sought out all the beer I could while I was there!

There are two basic methods of beer travel. The first is to find a beer event you would like to attend, or choose a beer-centric place to visit, and then plan a vacation around the beer. The second is to research the beer options available in a place you already have plans to visit. So far my beer travel generally falls into the second category. I find all the beer I can at places I already have plans to visit. Quite often serendipity graces me with a beer festival during the very period I need to be somewhere. For instance the Washington State Cask Festival that happened to fall on the same weekend I had plans that took me to Seattle; and the upcoming Las Vegas Beer Fest that is conveniently taking place on my birthday weekend.

This method of beer travel is wonderfully simple. Once you know when and where you are travelling, you just let your fingers to the walking and see what the internet can tell you about which breweries are near your venue, which beer happenings may be taking place while you are there, and if you are very much a beer geek, you can plug into the local beer scene before you even arrive. The easiest way to do this is to research the local breweries, start following them on social media and strike up conversations.

Beer Advocate is a beer magazine and website that can help you find craft beer locales in cities throughout the US and a few other countries. They also have a very extensive beer events calendar. Ratebeer.com also has an extensive beer events calendar for the US and some other countries, as well as reviews of breweries, brewpubs, bottle shops and craft beer bars.

Friends of mine also take BC beer with them when they travel, to share with the locals. Often they are given beer in return to bring home with them. Sometimes they even share it with me! This is a great way to bring BC beer to foreign places, making you a beer ambassador, which in turn gives you an in with the local beer crowd.

More planning is required for the kind of beer travel that has you intentionally chasing beer around the globe. First you have to research beer festivals and beer-centric cities, find out when their festivals are and then plan your travel around them. One of the oldest beer destinations has been Germany’s Oktoberfest. People from around the world make the pilgrimage. I have not been, but it is definitely on my bucket list.

My beer festival travel has been limited so far to the Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria in early September. This year’s festival is September 5 and 6. But I plan to expand that in the coming years to include the Great American Beer Festival in DenverColorado in October and Montreal’s Mondiale de la Biere in June.

There is a great list of beer festivals world-wide on the RealBeer.com website, and a list of Canadian beer festivals on the Canadian Beer News website. Beerfestivals.org is another good site to check. There are so many festivals these days I don’t think anyone could make it to them all in just one lifetime!

But you don’t need a beer festival to attend. Beer destinations can also be about the place itself. Like travelling to Belgium to try all those great Belgian beers right from the source.  You can take a tour of the monasteries to learn about the trappist beers, and bring some of the beer only available on site home with you. Chimay in Belgium sells their Red, White and Blue beers all over the world. Westvleteren, on the other hand, only sells their beer one case at a time and only by appointment at their door. Achel makes four different styles of beer but only sells one. The other three are available only on tap at the monastery’s guest house. So the only way to try some of these beers is to travel to Belgium.

There are plenty of great beer centric cities to visit a little closer to home. Portland, Oregon tops that list. A mere 7 hours away by car, bus or train, it is a great long weekend getaway to non-stop beer fun. Boasting so many breweries and bottleshops, it is possible to walk around Portlandfrom brewery to brewery. If you haven’t already been, I strongly suggest you put Portland on your short-list of places to explore. I try to get there at least twice a year as new breweries are cropping up there at least as frequently as they are here in Vancouver.

My internet research only took me to one actual beer travel agency… in France.  But there are plenty of companies around that offer beer tours and beer travel packages.  Because isn’t it nice to have someone else getting you to and from the breweries?

Beertrips.com is an American company that offers beer travel packages in Belgium, Germany, Quebec, the Czech Republic, Scotland, Italy… you get yourself there and they take care of the rest.  They aren’t cheap tours, but they are small groups escorted by beer experts so they’re probably worth every penny! 

In Vancouveralone there are multiple tour offering short tours to get you from point A to point B to point C.  Some of them even feed you!

Vancouver Brewery Tours will take you on a three hour tour.  Leaving from Waterfront Station they take you to three breweries, for behind the scenes tours and intro to the brewing process, plus samples!  You also get a souvenir pint glass to take home with you.  They offer public tours for $69 per person and private tours starting at $600 for up to 13 people.

The Tour Guys host a spring and summer walking tour called Beer Makes History Better that will walk you around Gastown, stopping at 3 pubs along the way.  This 2.5 hour tour costs $49, and will be starting up again for the season in June.

The Original Vancouver Food Tour also offers a 3 hour walking Gastown beer tour, called Craft Beer n’ Bites Tour that takes you to three establishments for food and drink, for $75 per person.

And Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours has an upcoming one-off beer tour in conjunction with Vancouver Craft Beer Week:  4 incredible craft beers, 3 breweries, 2 hours, 1 murder.
Select a team of your most able friends. Get ready to sample some of our city’s finest craft beers. And blaze a trail through Mount Pleasant on a mission to discover … who killed Kraft Bier???
A 2 – 3 hour adventure through Mount Pleasant:
• Sample four incredible local craft beers.
• Visit two of Vancouver’s best craft breweries.
• Enjoy exploring Vancouver’s historic ‘Brewery Creek’ area.
• Learn the true history of craft brewing in Vancouver.
• Prove you have the wits and guile to solve an infamous murder.

The shocking murder of Kraft Bier is long famed as Vancouver’s most notorious unsolved crime. Honest hard-working brewery man Kraft was found floating face down in a vat of cheap lager, more bloated and soggy than the commercial beer industry itself. But who would want poor Krafty dead? Was it hot shot lawyer and future Mayor Gerry McGeer? Showgirl Pat La Belle? Arch-villain Shui Moy? With puzzles, clues and riddles strewn across Mount Pleasant, this is a case for only the most-hardened detectives. But beware, there’s more to the murder of Kraft Bier than meets the eye…
Tickets on sale April 28. More information coming soon.

If this tour proves popular, it could become a regularly scheduled tour.

 

Following along with the beer travel theme, my beer picks for this week are from Belgium and Portland:

Chimay Red, White and Blue caps are all available at specialty liquor stores.

(Blue is a strong dark ale, Red is a dubbel and White is a trippel)

Gigantic IPA is available at specialty liquor stores in 22 oz bombers.

Hopworks organic lager is available at specialty liquor stores in 4-packs of cans.

on the coast

i will be on cbc radio one’s on the coast with stephen quinn at 5:50
talking about beer travel
88.1 fm in vancouver

link love

beer and travel

the tyee on craft beer alliances

walmart looking to double their liquor sales
am i the only one who thinks walmart is the evil empire and will think less of any craft breweries who agree to sell their products there?

upcycling at its best – turning a beer can into a camp stove

new zealand cancels two beer festivals, starts up another

what’s new at the port of vancouver?  apparently it’s craft beer
but the princeton pub may be cutting its nose off to spite its face over the whole thing

brewdog loves dieu du ciel!

women who brew

some love for no-longer nano bridge brewing

beer bachelors

the beer wench announces her tongue-in-cheek list of the 20 most eligible bachelors of craft beer
not sure where all the hot canadian boys of craft beer are on her list
but if you’re willing to travel for love in all the beer places, then this list is for you!

link love

a take on east van’s brewery district by thebeergeek

a blog all about pairing sandwiches and beer

and those scamps over at brewdog offer an anti-food pairing blog post listing some of the foods that even craft beer can’t improve