beer column

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

Often released as a fall seasonal, Pumpkin Ales are quite varied. Some brewers opt to add hand-cut pumpkins and drop them in the mash, while others use puree or pumpkin flavouring.

These beers also tend to be spiced with pumpkin pie spices, like: ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice.

Pumpkin Ales are typically mild, with little to no bitterness, a malty backbone, with some spice often taking the lead.

I brought in 4 examples of local pumpkin ales, all currently available at government liquor stores in 650 ml bombers.  I served them at room temperature so that all of the spice and flavour came out.

The beers we sampled were:

#1 Phillips Crooked Tooth
Plucked from the patch, this Phillips seasonal classic combines fresh pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg with a full-bodied ale. It’s a witches brew packed full of fall harvest flavour that, like many ghostly spirits of the season, has a tendency to disappear quickly.

Alcohol 5% Size 650ml

#2 Red Racer Spiced Pumpkin Ale
is an Amber ale that combines traditional beer ingredients with spices to impart a Fall seasonal flavour profile; similar to all the usual seasonal pumpkin coffees and treats found in the marketplace at this time of year. This example by Central City is lighter, hoppier, and less malty than many of the pumpkin beers out there but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. To create this beer, Central City This mixture creates a nice, light-tasting ale that exhibits good balance, along with a pleasing mixture of warm and inviting pumpkin spices. 5% and 40 ibus

#3 Steamworks Pumpkin Ale
A malty spiced ale brewed with pumpkin pie spices & 100 lbs of local pumpkin mash. Our most popular seasonal ale. 6.5% 25 ibus
Spices:  cinnamon, clove, pumpkin, ginger, nutmeg
pale, munich and caramalt malts, magnum hops,
pumpkin from 100 lbs of local pumpkin mash

#4 Granville IslandBrewing The Pumpkining
Smells like fresh pumpkin pie. Pumpkin flavours with dashes of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves create a lingering finish.
15 ibus and 6.6%

beer column

here are my notes from yesterday’s beer column on cbc radio’s on the coast:

 

There is no absolute definition of craft beer, but most of the industry and consumers agree that craft beer is brewed with quality ingredients, by a brewery owned by people rather than other companies and that produces a smaller amount of beer annually.  The Brewers Association defines American craft brewers as “small, independentand traditional“: “small” is defined as an “annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less”; “independent” is defined as at least 75% owned or controlled by a craft brewer; and “traditional” is defined as brewing in which at least 50% of the beer’s volume consists of “traditional or innovative” ingredients.  Most people agree that craft beer is artisanal vs. mass-produced.

Crafty beer is the name beer advocates have been giving to beers that are pretending to be craft beers.  These are beer brands owned and brewed by large conglomerates with a name designed to sound like they are their own smaller brewery.  A prime example of crafty beer is Shock Top, which is owned by Anheuser Busch InBev.  Nowhere on Shock Top’s website or bottle does it say that it is owned by ABInBev, which might lead consumers to believe that it is an independent brewery. 

There are other crafty beers out there that used to be independently owned breweries producing craft beers that were sold to large conglomerates but have kept their names.  Those who aren’t aware that the brewery was sold to a conglomerate probably think that they are drinking hand crafted beers when they may be drinking mass produced beer that only somewhat resembles the original recipe.

Granville Island is one of these kinds of crafty beer breweries.  It used to be a small brewery, but got bought out by a winery who made most of the beer in Kelowna and then in 2009 it got bought out by Molson’s.  Some of their beers could be considered craft as they do brew some of their beers at the brewery on Granville Island in small batches with quality ingredients to recipes developed by brewmaster Vern Lambourne.  Their regular line is currently brewed at the Molson plant, though, enjoying the marketing machine behind a big brand like Molsons and is outside the loose definition of craft beer.  However, you will still see some restaurants including Granville Island in their “craft” beer listings.  Nowhere on their website or bottles does it say that they are brewed at the Molson plant.  The website is particularly misleading as it keeps referring to the brewery, store and taproom all being on Granville Island.  If I didn’t know better, I would think that all their beers are brewed there, and that when I took a tour of that small brewery that I was seeing the whole operation and drinking beers that had been made on-site.  I happen to very much enjoy drinking Vern’s Black Notebook series, so I’m not knocking Granville Island Brewing.  I just think they should be more transparent about who is brewing most of their beer, and where it is being brewed.

Beeradvocates are upset that the large breweries are trying to dupe the public with their faux-craft beers.  The craft beer movement is all about authenticity and quality.  If the beer is being mass-produced the likelihood of quality ingredients is not high.  And if they are willing to mis-lead you about who owns the brewery and the brand, what else might they be mis-leading you about?  What exactly is in these beers?

In 2011, total beer sales fell by 1.3% byvolume in the United States.Craft beer sales, however, rose by 13%.  The big breweries took a look at a statistic like that and decided to take advantage of the craft beer surge by introducing faux craft beers.  Independent brewers don’t have the dollars behind them to market their beers like the conglomerates do.  If the big breweries aren’t honest about owning the brands they are putting their marketing dollars behind, unwary consumers are easily taken in by the advertising.  The number of people who have told me they really like Shock Top craft beer have all been very surprised when I tell them that it isn’t actually craft beer and is owned by Budweiser.  They were duped, and aren’t happy about it.  It hasn’t necessarily kept them from buying Shock Top again, but at least now they know what they are buying.

From the AB InBev website I found a speechfrom Adam Oakley, their Vice-President of High-End brands from November 14, 2013 to potential investors.  He defines “high-end” beers as those priced 20% or more above Bud Light.  Shock Top is one of these high-end beers.  He goes on to state that their “research shows there are actually two types of craft beer drinkers, not one.  We categorize them as “Accessible” and “Discovery” draft drinkers.  Accessible craft consumers are influenced by advertising.  They’re image-driven, price sensitive, typically younger adults and often ‘new to craft’.  In comparison, Discovery craft drinkers are more interested in brewers’ back-stories.  They seek bolder beer styles and are more discerning about the beers they purchase and share with their friends.”  And AB InBev has a marketing scheme to tempt both kinds of drinkers over to their crafty beers – one they are backing with “significantly increasing marketing investment on each in 2014 and beyond”.  Shock Top is their product for the “Accessible” drinker.  Their logo “Living Life Unfiltered” is aimed at the 20-29 year old consumer – tempting them to live their dreams and their lives to the max.  “It means not taking yourself too seriously.”  And they assume you also won’t take your beer seriously enough to find out who makes it, or the “back-story” of the brewer.

Consumers deserve to know who made their beer and how far their beer travelled to get to their glass.  Was it made down the street?  In the next town over?  Or thousands of miles away?  Is the beer still fresh?  How easy will it be for you to visit the brewery?  Was it hand-crafted or part of a production line?  Is there a person behind the brew, or a major corporation?

Eric Wallace, of Left Hand Brewing in Colorado, explained to the Denver Post:

“The authenticity of craft brewing is one of the cool things about it,” Wallace said. “It’s one of the things attractive to people – the fact you can come down to the tasting room, and there are the guys who work here, it’s all made here, they can have a pint and rub shoulders and talk to them about what they’re doing. There is almost a sense of ownership in the community.”

Also worrisome to the craft beer industry as a whole is losing their growing market share when formerly independent breweries sell themselves to the conglomerates.

From the Denver Post March 5, 2014:
“But perhaps no bigger hurdle exists to the growth goal than the likelihood of more craft brewers selling out to Big Beer. One significant defection could take a huge chunk of market share, potentially wiping out the gains from welcoming the likes of Yuengling and other heritage breweries.

Kansas City-based Boulevard Brewing, the 12th largest U.S. craft brewer on the BA’s [Brewers Association] 2012 list, was acquired by Duvel Moortgat of Belgium in October and will be off the books. Same with Blue Point Brewing of Patchogue, N.Y., which was snatched up last month by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

“There are most definitely brewers that have that exit plan in mind,” said Matt Cutter, a co-founder of Upslope Brewing in Boulder. “I’m not one of them. But that’s really the only card the large domestic players have left. They’re shrinking 1 to 2 percent a year. Craft beer is growing, 13, 14, 15 percent a year. So how do they fill up the extra capacity they have in their breweries? They buy brands. They fill up the capacity and they plug it into their existing distribution network.” “

And then there’s contract brewing – when one brewery has another brew their beer for them.  Sometimes this is a brief relationship to tide the first brewery over, like when Steamworks had Dead Frog brew their bottled product for them until they got their new Burnaby brewery up and running.  Sometimes this is a way to avoid having to ship product long distances, like Double Trouble from Guelph Ontario who have Dead Frog contract brew their products for the British Columbia market.  It is a useful relationship for both the original brewery and the contract brewery.  But the jury is still out on whether it is unwaveringly good for the consumer.  But I’ll save that discussion for another column.

At the end of the day, if you really like Shock-Top, I’m not going to tell you to stop drinking it.  Heck, if Budweiser is your favourite beer, I’m not going to tell you to stop drinking that either.  I would hate to be seen as discouraging anyone from drinking beer.

I’d love it if you gave craft beer a chance and tried to support your local brewers and local economy, but as a consumer it is your choice where you put your money.  I do feel strongly that no one should be duped though.  Beers should clearly state who they are brewed by, and where they are brewed.  You, the consumer, have a right to know.

 

Beer picks:

If you like Shock Top Raspberry Wheat – Why not try Steamworks Frambozen?

If you like Granville Island’s Pale Ale – Why not try 4 Winds Pale Ale?

If you like Budweiser and Canadian – Why not try Main Street pilsner?

press

oooh, look at me!
i made it to the cbc website – on the community page!

Craft breweries have much to consider in selecting a name

On the Coast beer columnist Rebecca Whyman looks at how craft beer makers name their beers

By On the Coast, CBC NewsPosted: Mar 05, 2014 6:11 PM ETLast Updated: Mar 05, 2014 6:11 PM ET

Craft breweries have much to consider in selecting a name 7:07

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When it comes to buying beer, how much of your decision is based on the name of the beer, or the brewery? Of course, what’s in the bottle is far more important than the label on the outside, but what should a beer name tell you about what you’re drinking? These are competitive times in the craft beer business and branding is a big part of nabbing a piece of the growing market.

On the Coast’s beer columnist Rebecca Whyman, a member of Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), says breweries are often named after the proprietors. The name has to be catchy, but there’s more to it than that. It has to be authentic as well, and it helps to have a connection to the name or even the neighbourhood where the brewery is based.

Whyman says the brewers at Deep Cove and Bridge, for example, grew up in the community. If there’s a community connection, it can turn people from drinking other beer to drinking local beer.

The other factor is competition, she says. Names of beers have more flexibility, and breweries can have fun with names, like Hoparazzi by Parallel 49 or Back Hand of God stout by Crannog Ale. But what happens when there are too many beer names and the field becomes too crowded? It can be dangerous as companies will go after breweries for infringing on trademarks. Local brewer Parallel 49 was warned after it called one of its beers “Lord of the Hops.” But people are definitely having fun with beer puns, and there’s even a new CAMRA award for “Best Beer Pun.”

In the industry, some feel the irreverent naming of beers have gone too far and have suggested reverting back to naming the beer after its style — for instance, stout, ale, or pilsner. Isn’t it more fun, though, to say you’re drinking the Toques of Hazzard, instead of drinking just a plain old IPA?

This week’s beer recommendations:
Whyman draws on the long list of local winter seasonal beers for her picks this week:

• 33 Acres of Darkness (available in bottles at the liquor store or on tap at the brewery)
• Granville Island Cloak and Dagger Cascadian Dark Ale (available in 650 millilitre bombers at the liquor store and the Granville Island retail store)

Other beer notes:

• 22 casks including a special cask from Driftwood and collaboration brews are coming to the Alibi Room starting March 9th for their 500th. You can buy beer for 500 cents, and each day the Alibi Room will donate $500 to the Food Bank.
• Bomber Brewing recently opened on Adanac Street, so head over and try their ESB.

beer column

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

What’s in a name? Shakespeare tell us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But would a beer by any other name garner as much market share?

Naming a brewery is no small task, and its a different process for everyone. As Aaron Jonkheere says in his blog I’m Starting a Brewery: “You see the name is always the first thing people ask about your brewery. So you want a name you are proud of and represents some aspect of what you are doing or what you stand for IMO [in my opinion].” And I think that is true for every brewery name.

Some people go with a geographical place name (Powell Street Brewing, Vancouver Island Brewing, Deep Cove Brewing), some with their own name (Russell, Hoyne, Phillips, R&B), some go with a theme that speaks to them (Green Leaf, Four Winds). Regardless of which way you choose to go though, when you are starting up a new brewery you have to have a marketable name. Especially now with so many new breweries opening up in the Lower Mainland the need to have a recognizable brand to help you stand out is integral to a successful operation – almost as important as the beer itself.

If you’ve never heard of the two beers in front of you before, odds are that the names of them will influence your choice between the two. The one with the less attractive name may be a much better beer, but if you have only the names to go on, it is less likely to be the beer you would choose. Without any other information, we do tend to judge books by their covers.

 

I had the opportunity to lead a couple of focus groups for a soon-to-be-opened brewery in Vancouver. More than just helping narrow down a list of possible names, the focus groups gave the owners insight into what people were looking for behind a brewery name. Sure it’s great to have a brewery named after your neighbourhood. But more important than that people said, was that they wanted authenticity behind choosing that name. In addition to locating the brewery in the neighbourhood, do the owners have a connection to that neighbourhood? Do they give back to the neighbourhood? Who are they and what are they about? It’s all well and good to find a catchy name and build a brand around it, but beer drinkers want to know that there is substance behind that name and branding.

It was very interesting to see how people’s reactions to certain names changed from their first impression on just hearing the name to learning the story behind choosing that name and what it meant to the owners. Some back story can go a long way in making a top ten name jump to top two on a list of potential names. I think the same is true to having a beer bottle on the shelf of a store catch your eye and then reading a mission statement on a website that gives you insight into the people who made that beer. I know I become more invested in the whole beer drinking experience the more I can feel a connection to the beer. You can hook me with the name, but you’ll only keep me with a quality product and a connection to the people behind it.

So a name has to be catchy and authentic. AND no one else has to have trademarked it or anything similar yet. It’s a tall order, but obviously one that is not slowing down the rapid growth of breweries in British Columbia!

How about naming the beers?  Do breweries need to put as much thought into those as they do naming the brewery?  It certainly helps with branding if your beer names are deliberate and closely follow the brewery name. There is a lot more wiggle room here than there is in naming a brewery though. I think brewers have a lot more fun naming their beers than they do their breweries. You can be playful in naming a beer in a way that might come off as too flippant when naming a brewery. Which is not to say that naming a beer is all fun and games. A lot of thought still has to go into the process.

 

Naming beers can be straightforward, like 33 Acres naming their beers 33 Acres of something (Life, Ocean, Darkness, Sunshine). Other breweries aren’t so literal but still keep a theme going, like Granville Island Brewing whose regular beers are all named after local places: Robson Street Hefeweisen, Brockton IPA, Cypress Honey Lager, Kitsilano Maple Cream, English Bay Pale Ale. Yet others go for a more eclectic approach, but keep their beer names in tune with the personality of the brewery, like Brassneck with their Passive Aggressive, Attention Seeker, One Trick Pony and The Geezer.

Then there are others like Parallel 49 that go all out in the fun department with puns for many of their beer names. It has become their schtick and they’re getting quite a lot of attention over it. Unfortunately, not all of it is good. They got a cease and desist letter about one of their beers that trod a little too closely on the trademark of a certain very popular movie trilogy.
 

There are also more and more cease and desist letters being written between breweries as beer names start to tread on each others’ trademarks. One beer writer (in Beer Advocate magazine) has called for a return to style names to combat this issue. So instead of it being, say, “33 Acres of Life”, the name would be “33 Acres California Common”; instead of Crannog’s “Backhand of God”, it would be “Crannog Stout”. Some breweries such as Four Winds and Central City already follow this model for naming most of their beers.  

I can see Andy Crouch’s point, it sure would clear up a lot of confusion for the consumer and preclude a lot of lawsuits, not to mention being a whole lot easier to keep track of who brewed which beer. Going with style names for beer would also remove the chance that consumers could find your beer name offensive. 

 

But, but, but I think life would be just a little less fun if my beers all just had style names. I love a good beer pun – and a bad one! And clever names do make me more likely to try that beer over the one next to it on the shelf if I haven’t heard of either of them. However, where will brewers go to name their beers as more product floods the market and they try to stand out? I keep saying that I think we’re still a ways off from hitting the saturation in the local beer market, but I think we’re much closer to reaching a very awkward point of just too many beer names. I am already having trouble keeping track of them all. I am interested to see how the situation develops over the next couple of years. And in the meantime I look forward to hearing Parallel 49’s next beer pun.

Beer Picks:

 

Before all the Spring seasonals hit the market, I suggest taking the opportunity to drink winter seasonals before they’re gone.

 

Like 33 Acres of Darkness, available in bottles at the liquor store or on tap at the brewery

 

Granville Island Cloak & Dagger Cascadian Dark Ale, available in 650ml bombers at the liquor store and the Granville Island retail store
 

 

Events:

 

East Side Beer Fest at the WISE Hall, Wednesday March 5, 2014

this event is now sold out

 

Hot Glass Cold Beer at the Terminal City Glass Coop, Friday March 7, 2014

there are still tickets available for this event, but only with a logo glass

blown glass stein tickets are sold out

 

Alibi 500 Beer List at the Alibi Room

Sunday March 9, 2014 2:00 – close

Monday March 10 – Thursday March 13 5:00 – close

No tickets. First come, first sat.

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.

legacy liquor store

new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver:

#BitterAllies Urban Legend IPA – $7.45

This collaboration brew from those clever minds at Granville Island Brewery and Joey (yes, the restaurant) is definitely no urban legend. Brewed beneath the Granville Street Bridge in the light of the Cascadian moon, this robust India Pale Ale is all about the hop with zingy citrus notes on both the nose and the palate. Northwest hops and a long, lingering finish make this limited release one worth investigating.

Evan Doan | Beer Team | Legacy Liquor Store

New Belgium Lips of Faith Series Le Terroir – $11.75

Barrel-aged for two to three years (depending on where you’re getting your information) followed by a generous dry hopping, this brew pours a beautiful shade of amber in the glass with sweet malt, hops, oak and sour notes coming together to provide everything you could ever want in a bouquet. As for the palate, all those aromas pull through and make their presence known to create a beer of sheer beauty, a well-rounded sour that will knock your socks off.

Chris Bonnallie | Beer Supervisor | Legacy Liquor Store

Jolly Pumpkin Bam Bière – $13.85

Another treasure from those sneaky brewers at Jolly Pumpkin, this bottle-conditioned Farmhouse Ale pours a hazy golden colour with all sorts of rich notes of lemon zest, coriander and spice. Dry pineapple, golden apple and more coriander are found on the palate of a medium body that is tart, crisp and dry. Refresh and rejuvenate with a seriously quaffable saison boasting the complexity to keep it interesting.

Joel Wilson | Beer Team | Legacy Liquor Store

beer column

these are my notes from yesterday’s beer column on cbc radio’s on the coast:

Oh, look at that, its October – and that can mean only one thing… it’s time to talk about B.C. Craft Beer Month! 

Year three brings a few new events and the return of some favourite province-wide events – for the whole list, see the website at www.craftbeermonth.ca. Some of the local highlights are:

On Thursday evening there’s the Beer Battle Royale at Doolin’s pub – this is where four breweries battle it out to have their keg drained first. Winner gets bragging rights and their beer featured on tap for the month of November. Battling this year are Four Winds, Granville Island, R&B and Steamworks;

There will be a brewmaster dinner at the Pumphouse in Richmond this Friday, and one at Hop and Vine in Vancouver on Friday, October 25th;

There will be a women and beer dinner at Darby’s pub on Monday, October 21st;

New this year, there will be an already sold-out beer festival in Steveston this Saturday night;

And if you feel like travelling outside of the city, there’s the Harrison Beer Festival on October 25 and 26. I will be attending this weekend of events, starting with a cask night on the Friday night, followed by a beer festival on Saturday afternoon and ending with an Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday night. I’m very much looking forward to attending, and I plan to dress up for Oktoberfest!

There are also Oktoberfests in PowellRiver (sold out), Fernie and Penticton;

And last, but not least on this don’t-miss list, there’s the BC Beer Awards and Festival on October 19th, hosted by none other than On the Coast’s Stephen Quinn!

I volunteer each year at the BC Beer Awards and Festival, pouring some delicious beers to thirsty festival-goers. Tickets are on sale now, and I would jump on them as this event does tend to sell out every year. Tickets are $35 which gets you in the door, plus you get a keepsake taster glass and four drink tokens.

This year is the 4th annual and will be held a larger venue than in years past, the CroatianCultural Centerat 3250 Commercial Drive in Vancouver. The awards ceremony and beer festival is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

The beer festival begins at 1:00 and continues on until closing at 6:00 p.m. Attendees wander around from station to station trying cask, kegged and bottled beers from participating BC brewers. Later in the afternoon the BC Beer Awards will be given out – that will be Stephen’s part of the festivities! The trophies are awarded by beer style to first, second and third place in each category, and then a ‘best in show’ is awarded at the end.

The beers have already been judged, by accredited judges in a blind taste test to ensure impartiality. There are a couple of things to keep in mind, though about these awards, the first of which is that a beer has to be entered in order to be judged. This is generally true of all beer awards. It costs only $20 to enter a beer into the judging at the BC Beer Awards, but not every brewery in the Province participates, and not all participating breweries enter all of their beers. Why is this? I don’t think there is one hard and fast answer, you’d have to ask each brewery why they do or do not enter, but as there were no fewer than 20 beers entered in the IPA category this year, there is definitely some fierce competition!

The other thing to keep in mind is that the beers are judged by style guidelines as outlined by the Internationally-recognized Beer Judging Certification Program (BJCP). This means that the winning entry for each style category is going to be the beer that most strictly keeps to the guidelines and exemplifies the style. So a beer that strays too far from the style guidelines will not win in its category, even if it is the most delicious beer in the world. Hold on a minute, you might be thinking, then how do we know the winner of best beer in BC is actually the best beer in BC? The short answer is you don’t, but then again, are we really all going to agree on the best beer anyway? Its really far too subjective to take all the beers in BC and compare them to each other. By using the style guidelines, the accredited Judges can compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges and pick the best in each category. Then from those winners they choose the best in show, and that beer gets the bragging rights of being the best beer in BC this year. And that’s how a lowly pilsner won best beer in BC last year (Steamworks Pilsner brewed by Conrad Gmoser, now of Brassneck Brewing) over arguably more popular styles like IPAs or stouts. That beer was the stand-out for being both delicious AND well-brewed according to its style guidelines to exemplify the style.

So where do all those crazy beers that don’t follow a style guideline get judged? Besides at the cash register when you buy them, there are categories at the BC Beer Awards for them. Like the “Special Lager” category that was won last year by a black lager from Okanagan Spring, or the “Specialty” category that was won by Kevin Emms, then of Coal Harbour Brewing, with an Imperial Smoked Ale.

I will go out on a limb and say that, provided it was entered, I think that Powell Street’s Old Jalopy Pale Ale will win the pale ale category, and possibly even best in show, cementing its win for best beer in Canada at the Canadian Brewing Awards. Again, provided they entered, I also expect other new kids on the block, Four Winds, to pick up an award or two.

And for as long as they last, at your local liquor store you can find BC Craft beer taster packs. These come in 12-packs of cans and bottles and feature a variety of BC craft beers. Picking up a couple of these would be a great start to a tasting party. And a great way to introduce yourself to a new favourite BC craft beer.

The bottle pack includes 2 bottles each of:

Steamworks Pale Ale
WhistlerChestnut Ale
Vancouver IslandStorm Watcher Winter Lager
Dead FrogBold Belgian Pale Ale
Russell Blood Alley Bitter
LighthouseSwitchback IPA

The can pack contains 2 cans each of:

Nelson After Dark
Tree Groove Session Ale
Phillips Bottle Rocket ISA
Howe SoundLager
Cannery Naramata Nut Brown
Fernie Griz Pale Ale

Both packs are available now at select BC Liquoroutlets and private liquor stores throughout BC, retailing for $24.95 each.

beer column

my notes from last evening’s beer column with stephen quinn on the coast:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for hop-heads! It’s hop harvest time, and to beer geeks that can mean only one thing: fresh-hopped beers. 

Fresh-hopping, also referred to as wet-hopping, is the process of using fresh hops to bitter the beer. Hops are ready for harvest at the end of August or the beginning of September in this part of the world. Growers know they are ready when the cone is plump and the lupulin is at a maximum. If you look at a hop flower, the lupulin is the yellow stuff between the green bits. This is where the oils come from that impart the bitterness and flavour to beer. Despite looking hardy, hops are actually quite delicate. They don’t survive long after being cut. To preserve the oils and resins they need to be dried right away.. Most of the hops harvested are dried right after picking and then frozen, or ground into pellets. These are then sold to brewers and used all year long. Fresh hops follow a different process. They are harvested and then immediately scooped up by brewers and put into a brew within hours of being picked. Hence the namesfresh-hop.

You can only get fresh-hopped beers at harvest time, so they’re rare commodities. You also get a slightly different hop flavour in a fresh-hopped beer. A little green or herbal perhaps. The base notes are the same, floral, bitter, tangy, but there’s less intensity – instead they are delicate, bright and vibrant. Its hard to describe really, so you should definitely try a fresh-hopped beer this season! Keep in mind, these are beers that will not cellar, the oils break down over time and the flavour changes. You have to drink a fresh-hopped beer right away. And that is a large part of the hype around fresh-hopped beers. They represent a moment in time in your local terroir.

 

Let’s look at how Driftwood brews its Sartori Harvest IPA – probably the most well-known fresh-hopped beer in BC. It is comparable to a pilgrimage to make this beer. The brewers travel from Victoria to the Sartori Cedar Ranch in Chilliwack, load their truck with fresh hops and then drive back to Victoria the same day. The batch gets brewed first thing the next morning, with additions of fresh Centennial hops at multiple points during the brewing process to highlight the bittering and the flavouring elements of the hops, and then the final product goes out to stores a few weeks later. That’s when the fun for the consumer starts – this is a very sought after beer, so if you don’t get your hands on some the day it is released, you may be out of luck to try it at all. People use social media to announce where they got theirs – and to beg others to share the wealth.

 

The good news is that Driftwood Brewing finally has enough tank space to brew a double batch of the Sartori this year – which should make it a little easier to come by than past years. But if you get a bottle, make sure to drink it right away. No storing a fresh-hopped beer, not even for a month! It really does need to be drunk right away. Driftwood Sartori Harvest IPA will be in stores next Monday – that’s September 23rd.

For this list of fresh-hopped beers in BC I need to give a shout-out to Joe Wiebe who wrote an article for the current edition of the BC Craft Beer News all about fresh-hopping and which beers to be on the look-out for.

Vern Lambourne of Granville Island Brewing is making a fresh-hopped ESB (extra special bitter). This year’s concoction will be called Mad Dash, and will also use hops from the Sartori ranch.

Tin Whistle Brewing in Penticton will have a fresh-hopped Harvest Honey Pale Ale made from fresh hops from a farm in Grand Forks and honey from Cawston. This will weigh in at around 30 ibus and use mostly Cascade hops.

Salt Spring Island Ales has a hop farm located quite close to the brewery, which will make it quite easy for them to brew a fresh-hop version of one of their regular styles. From bine to boil is so much easier when the hops are local.

Hoyne Brewing plans to crowd-source hops from backyard growers in the Victoria area for its fresh-hopped brew.

Lighthouse Brewing is brewing its first fresh-hopped batch this year. Their brewer, Dean McLeod says it is an American brown ale with Chinook and Zeus hops from a farm in Cedar on Vancouver Island. The brewery shut down for a day, the staff all travelled to Cedar to pick the hops.

Townsite Brewing will have their Time Warp Pale Ale with hops from Powell River and Texada Island.

Parallel 49 is brewing a Bohemian Pilsner with Sartori hops.

I suggest you follow social media and the CAMRA website for announcements of when these beers have hit store shelves, and also for cask nights featuring fresh-hopped beers.

vcbw – so far

well, i’m alive
and still making it to work every day
so vancouver craft beer week has not yet totally kicked my ass or any of my major organs!

opening night on friday was a really great event
they used the roundhouse to its utmost
new breweries were on one side, with the lone cider stall
lots of space in the middle for stage and oyster bar and mingling
then all the old stand-bys on the other side
it was packed, but not so full that it took too long to get a beer or from one side to the other
and there were oysters!
i made it to the yaletown for a pint after the event…
which may or may not have been a good idea!

saturday i attended the four winds open house out in the boonies
no really, its out somewhere that required bridges and tunnels to get to
but the beer was good,
we were greeted with a casked fir tip ipa sample,
growlers and bostons were already filled so no need to wait for yours,
the brewery was open for a tour or just wandering around and checking out all the shiny new equipment,
it was a really great open house / launch
kudos for pulling that off during the craziness that is vcbw
(i filled my boston with ipa)

sunday i went to the morning session of hoppapalooza
which lived up to my every expectation
of course
(with a little help from my friends i managed to sample all of the casks and all of the ipas… with a couple of ventures into the barleywines)
and then i went to the dix reunion at the whip
which i kind of remember… vaguely…
there are photos though, so i know i was there!
(i had derrick’s ipa and a fat tug after the casks ran out)

last evening i attended joe wiebe’s book launch at the yaletown brewpub
which was a whole schwack of fun
the place was packed, the three casks were drained within a couple of hours
iain hill introduced joe, joe was charming, everyone was smiling
(casks:  r&b cucumber mint ale, granville island low alcohol esb, iain’s passionfruit ipa
i am not going to admit to you just how many of those passionfruit ipas i had, thank the beer gods that the esb was only 3.6%…)

it has been an amazing week so far
now, i’m off to the railway for some cask!

legacy

oh, my, [insert diety of your choice here]
i went for a run this morning for the first time in (obviously) far too long
this clean livin’ is gonna kill me!
that, after i sat through a beernesday at st. augustine’s without drinking any of the fabulous beers on tap
my virtuousness is nauseating, i know
(day 17, 14 to go)

anyway, the new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver:

Granville Island Brewing Barley Wine – $10.35

The folks down at GIB have decided to turn up the heat with this barley wine. Aged in bourbon barrels, this particular brew has caramel malt character, vanilla and oak flavours and a dose of Pacific Northwest hop.

Parallel 49 Russian Imperial Stout – $13.75

Brewed dark and strong just like they did it in the 18th century, this Russian Imperial Stout is whiskey barrel-aged with flavours of smoke, vanilla and dried fruits. Pick up a bottle and drink like a czar.

Phillips The Hammer Barrel Aged Imperial Stout – $7.85

The boys at Phillips know what they’re doing when it comes to beer. Their Imperial Stout has been barrel-aged in bourbon-soaked American oak and boasts rich roasted caramel warmth.

happy beernesday!

these are the sandwich boards from st. augustine’s last week
wonder if they’ll have changed by tonight’s beernesday celebrations?