Category: centennial

cask night

the cask last monday night at st. augustine’s was a dry-hopped esb from red racer
(the hops were centennial)
i think i must have had the bottom of the cask because it was chock-full of hop sediment
and just a bitter little fiend
i didn’t enjoy it at all
making my second pint the deschutes hop in the dark
so happy the hop in the dark hit a tap near me!

tuesday’s cask at the railway club was a dry-hopped ipa from central city brewing
(the hops were amarillo)
it was a hit right outta the park!
deliciously bitter!
i had to have me a second one

and yes, that is sun streaming in the window
i like sun – i would like us to be having a whole lot more of it in vancouver
you know, like an actual summer…

update

update #1:
the centennial hops have been moved to their new new home
three of the rhizomes are now in bridget’s vegetable garden with tomato wires protecting them from the curious cats
the fourth is in a container on my balcony
they were looking so perky…
hopefully being moved before they managed to put down many roots
and right before a rainy night
will treat them well enough for us to get some tasty hops in the fall!

update #2
dead frog got back to me about hosting a bloggers tour and tasting
unfortunately the brewers are only there on weekdays
too many of the beer bloggers have pesky day jobs during the week
and the whole thing has just fallen apart
sadness

update #3
go canucks go!

centennial hops

check out my hops!

i was fortunate enough to get gifted with four rhizomes of centennial hops, and bridget has a garden in which to plant them!  yay!

unfortunately i am going to have to move them very shortly – her neighbours just informed her that they are taking out the chainlink fence and replacing it with a cedar one.  pretty, but i fear they will step on my rhizomes while putting the fence up… and the cedar will be solid and block about half of the days worth of sun… dammit!

casks

i managed to hit two cask nights this week
and both of them were ipas!!

first up, monday at st. augustine’s
russell brewing’s ip’eh dry-hopped with tomahawk:

not too surprisingly it was sedimenty as heck
the nose was amazingly hoppy
but it was pretty thin in the glass
more the idea of hops than the actual bitterness

secondly, thursday at yaletown brewpub
iain hill’s brick and beam ipa with centennial hops:

again, dry-hopping gave it an amazing citrus hop nose
but the glass contents were a little less robust than that nose
very enjoyable, don’t get me wrong
but darnit, i want it to taste like it smells!

however, if you float some of the stout on it, its a brilliant cascadian dark ale!
thanks rod for coming up with that one!

i had been looking forward to having a pint of the seasonal ufg pilsner (which i enjoyed so much on the vcbw pub crawl) but they had just run out at the game on wednesday night
bummer for me, but a sign that vancouverites are drinking better beer during the finals!

cask nights make me happy!
looking forward to hitting both the railway and yaletown next week!

dogfish head

i want this beer!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 1, 2011
The official press release….

Dogfish Celebrates100th Birthday of Mississippi Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson with “Hellhound On My Ale”

Legacy Recordings Releasing ‘Robert Johnson: The Centennial Collection’ on Tuesday, April 26, 2011
* * * * *
May 8, 2011 marks the 100th birthday of singer/songwriter/guitarist Robert Johnson — the archetypal Mississippi Delta bluesman who purportedly sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of Highway 61 and Highway 49 in exchange for uncanny musical prowess. In honor of the Robert Johnson centennial, Delaware’s Dogfish Head Craft Brewery has created “Hellhound On My Ale,” a super-hoppy brew inspired by the otherworldly soul and complexity of Johnson’s music.

Produced in a small-quantity-limited run, “Hellhound On My Ale,” is 100% dry-hopped with Centennial Hops with sublime citrus notes courtesy of dried organic lemon peel and flesh added pre-fermentation (a taste-bud tribute to Johnson’s musical mentor, Blind Lemon Jefferson). “Just as Johnson’s unique style was a hybrid of Delta blues, country and even vaudeville,” said Dogfish founder and president Sam Calagione, “Centennial Hops are a recently developed variety that is a hybrid of Brewer’s Gold, Golding, and Fuggles hop varieties. Centennial Hops grow in the Northwest United States and have wonderful floral and citrus notes.” Rounding off the centennial spirit of the ale, Hellhound is brewed at 10.0 abv.

Coming in early May, Dogfish Head’s “Hellhound” will be available in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

The newly crafted Robert Johnson ale was created, according to Calagione, as a way to “celebrate his artistry and his centennial simultaneously. Johnson’s playing was so complex and full that his one guitar sounded like two. His voice and lyrics were as distinct as his guitar playing, and stood out as distinct beyond the other blues musicians of the day. Beyond that you have the legend of Johnson selling his soul to the devil in return for mastery of the guitar. We wanted to make an ale that paid tribute to all that.”

“Robert Johnson is an American treasure,” said Adam Block, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Legacy Recordings, “and his musical legacy and remarkable folklore are well worth celebrating. In this spirit, Sam and Dogfish Head have brewed an appropriately wonderful and delicious tribute to Johnson and his music.”

Dogfish Head and its “off-centered ales for off-centered people” were the subject of “A Better Brew,” an article in The New Yorker (Nov. 24, 2008) examining the rise of extreme beer. “Beer has lagged well behind wine and organic produce in the ongoing reinvention of American cuisine. Yet the change over the past twenty years has been startling,” wrote Burkhard Bilger. “Dogfish is something of a mascot for this unruly movement. In the thirteen years since Calagione founded the brewery, it has gone from being the smallest in the country to the thirty-eighth largest. Calagione makes more beer with at least ten per cent alcohol than any other brewer, and his odd ingredients are often drawn from ancient or obscure beer traditions. It is to Budweiser what a bouillabaisse is to fish stock.”

Now sixteen years old, Dogfish Head has grown to become the country’s 24th biggest brewery.

Dogfish Head first partnered with Legacy Recordings in 2010 in the creation of a limited edition “Bitch’s Brew” celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Miles Davis’s fusion-jazz masterpiece.

tofino

from the camra vancouver newsletter:

Tofino Brewing Company opened their doors to the public on Saturday April 16th, selling growlers of their first beer, Tuff Session Ale, a west coast style pale ale. Tofino Brewing brewmaster Dave Woodward (formerly of Brew House at Whistler), writes in to say the local response has been overwhelming, with Tofino residents consuming more than 300 growlers over the past week in addition to Tofino draught accounts. Hoppin Cretin IPA, Dave’s next beer, will be on sale at the brewery this week. Dave describes this as a northwest IPA, well hopped with Columbus, Centennial, and Citra. 6.5%, 60 IBUs. Here’s hoping we see some of this on our side of the Strait!