yaletown brewpub’s cask festival was good times
so many good beers
so many fun people to drink with
my favourite beer of the afternoon?
pretty hard to choose as there were so many good ones
but since you’re making me choose, i’ll go with the central city collaboration cask with gigantic, parallel 49 and ninkasi
imperial ipa – some matured in cognac barrels, some matured in bourbon barrels, then blended and dry-hopped
so very, very, very, very delicious
(see how i did that four verys there?)
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Stateside Tap Takeover
Thursday Sept 11th!
We’re at Stateside with Ninkasi Brewing and Gigantic Brewing Company pouring 7, that’s right SEVEN beers from EACH brewery.
It’s going to be amazing.
Gigantic will be featuring Pipewrench, their gin-barrel aged IPA, an 8-wired Collaboration, and a Jenever Pale in addition to their seaonsal and regular line up.
Ninkasi will be featuring Critical Hit, Jarrylo Single Hop beer, Imperiale, Vanilla Oatis and few others.
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the sign of having a really good time is the serious lack of photos taken
because you were too busy having the good time to record it
so… the only photo on my phone from this year’s gcbf:
i also managed to only get one from the gigantic/cider riot tap takeover at canoe pub on friday night:
the tap takeover was more of an exposition of bare chests as it turns out than it was of gigantic beers or cider riot ciders.
don’t get me wrong, the beers and ciders were great, as was the music from the mcgillicuddys, it’s just that there weren’t many taps taken over
canoe is a brewpub, so i guess taking over any taps at all is impressive
i was just looking for more than four drink choices other than canoe’s home brand
(that said, four drinks was enough to have me more than tipsy thanks to the 20oz pours!)
what was there was:
gigantic saison
gigantic india pale lager
cider riot everybody pogo hoppy cider
cider riot cask of berry cider
and it was all very happy-making indeed
what did i drink at the festival?
my aim was for cask ales, breweries i haven’t tried before, and new to me beers from those i have
i managed to sample at least 17 beers
i did actually check things off on my list, so most of what i drank is listed below
and i think i can remember which ones impressed me the most…
33 acres belgian tripel – top notch
barkerville 18 karat amber ale – really, really nice
brassneck raspberry sour cask – totally awesome
cider riot never give an inch blackberry cider – so delicious
crannog spawning sockeye ale – very interesting amber
dageraad amber – i didn’t like it
four mile powder keg ipa – really nice
moon under water raspberry berliner weisse – so darned refreshing
muskoka brewery detour isa – tremendous
steel & oak dry hopped esb – really enjoyed it
three ranges sacrifice red ale – superb
three ranges tail slap ipa – it was a nice ipa
tofino tuff session pale ale – i didn’t like it, and i normally do
wolf brewing golden honey ale – just lovely
yellow dog play dead ipa – a very nice ipa
dogfish head sixty-one – incredibly delicious
kulshan brewing bastard kat ipa – really great ipa
there were plenty of other beers on my wish list
but i simply ran out of brain cells to pickle and time to do it in
i really enjoy gcbf
i like wandering around a big field sampling beer with my fellow beer geek
and i love how many brewers make the trek over to represent their handiwork
survival tip: make sure you arrive with a few tokens
otherwise you line up for forever to get in the gates
then another forever to get tokens
all before you get to have your first beer
gcbf approacheth!
september 5 and 6, 2014, victoria, bc
if you haven’t bought your ticket yet, you’re outta luck for saturday, but there are still a few friday tickets left
and the parties are starting to be announced
oooh, parties!
me, i have a pesky day job that i must be at on friday so i will be ferrying over after that and attending the gigantic and cider riot tap takeover at canoe brewpub
and then attending the festival on saturday
hopefully followed by after parties if i can stay hydrated enough to keep going!
my liver is happy that vcbw is over for another year
the rest of me is a little relieved too – so many good times and good beers, but a person’s gotta sleep!
i may have only made it to a few events
but those events were of the all you can drink persuasion
and i do take the list as a personal challenge to complete
i have already given my low-down on the business of craft beer
so i will begin my vcbw list with the opening night last friday
i was volunteering, so there wasn’t much drinking at all for me
holding this event at a nightclub (gossip) was great from a couple of standpoints: the performance space was in the same room so there was no need for anyone to have to choose between beer and the show; all the breweries were pouring their beers from an actual bar with access to water so there was no running out of rinse water; and the club provided plenty of different areas, including several with seating, to get away from the fray
somehow though, it still managed to be crowded
i think if they hold opening night at gossip again next year i’ll give it a miss
sunday found me at my favourite event of the year, the alibi room’s hoppapalooza
it felt like there were fewer people there this year
which was a very good thing – no crowding, short lines for beer and chili and none of the beers ran dry
nigel opened up the cellar and brought out some vintage sours, barleywines and imperial stouts
such a great way to spend an evening
it was over far too quickly!
on wednesday i went to pdx love at portland craft
this is quickly becoming one of my favourite events of the year
where else can i find all my favourite portland people in one place at the same time, without having to travel?
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| obviously i’m having a really rotten time photo by Two Peas Photography |
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| photo by Two Peas Photography |
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| photo by Two Peas Photography |
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| how everyone will be wearing their beard next season photo by Ben Love |
thursday my oregon love continued at brothers in hop (or bros in hip-hop this year) at the butcher and bullock
plenty of delicious food, including oysters and crab cakes, accompanied the beers by parallel 49, central city, gigantic and ninkasi
there were some service issues at the beginning of the night, but as it wore on the hard-working staff ironed out the kinks and brought the beer faster than i could drink it
i think i made it through the list again
which, even though it was a bit shorter of a list, was an accomplishment because they were bringing sleeves of many of the beers rather than all taster sized pours
the highlight of the night was gigantic’s too much coffee man, which i had not had tried before
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| photo by Kurtis Sheldon |
my liver hurts!
i would say that i’ll never drink again
but that would be a really big lie!
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.
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.
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.
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:
my notes from yesterday’s beer column on beer travel
on cbc radio one’s on the coast with stephen quinn
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.
(Blue is a strong dark ale, Red is a dubbel and White is a trippel)
following on my naming a brewery bit for cbc radio, read about how ben coli came up with the name for his brewery and what it means to him in this first part of nine in scout magazine about opening up his own belgian-inspired brewery
23 american beers to try before you die
20 belgian beers to try before you die
the ultimate top five list – the top 5 beers in the world
brewdog takes all the angst out of deciding which beer to drink tonight
provided of course it’s brewdog beer you’re craving
video of beer pairings for st. paddy’s day
interactive chart helps you pick your next beer
(and note in the comments how many people hate pumpkin ales!)
craftbeer.com is calling all west virginians to lobby the gov’t
7 craft beer professionals named james beard award semi-finalists
gigantic ben love video – innovative and tasty beer
from camra vancouver:
Hear ye hear ye! Alibi Room has announced the date for their 500 tap rotation celebration!
Alibi 500th starts 2pm on March 9th. No tickets. First come, first sat. Rich Hope as always. Then Mon-Thurs 5pm-close. More details…
12oz Sleeves of ALL beers will be 500cents 9th-13th…
They will be donating $500 per day to the food bank for the 5 days…
Brassneck Brewing has brewed 4 collaboration beers w/ Gigantic Brewing Company , Four Winds Brewing Co. , Occidental Brewing Company, Parallel 49 Brewing Company specially for the event! Plus 8 casks filled with Portland’s finest and a very special cask from Driftwood.
oh gcbf!
oh the good times!
oh the good beers!
oh thank dog there were no cameras at certain after-parties!
first of all, let me extole the virtues of flying from vancouver to victoria
so quick, so easy, so fun!
(caveat: i would not want to be on that tiny plane if there was ANY turbulence though – that would be very, very, very frightening)
i left from my office at 5:45 on friday evening
and i was in victoria by 7:00 for the start of the copper & theory tap takeover at the guild
so civilized!
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| watching the pre-flight safety film on an ipad |
the guild was a fun venue
although, as nigel from the alibi room ironically pointed out, it was a hard place to socialize properly as you had to be seated to be served – darned restaurant licenses!
i had hoped to have some beer & cheddar soup or welsh rarebit, but alas they don’t do either of them vegetarian
instead i ate other people’s curry & chips
as for beer, i stuck with the gigantic ipa because gosh darnit, that’s what i was in the mood for
i did sample all the uprights that passed by me though
for quality assurance purposes of course
saturday dawned rainy and coolish
after an enormous breakfast at spoons we hit the park
it brightened up as we drank our way through remaining casks and never-tried-befores
for the run-down on those though, you’ll have to wait, cuz i’m outta time right now
Beck's Beer Blog - test 