Category: hoppapalooza

vancouver craft beer week

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?


obviously i’m having a really rotten time
photo by Two Peas Photography
there were sixteen beers on tap
i made it through all sixteen
and still managed to have my wits about me – i do love small pours for that!


photo by Two Peas Photography
 
attendees included abe of cider riot
jamie of hopworks
gigantic ben love
base camp, upright, occidental, the commons, breakside and alameda
highlights for me were the commons madrone which i hadn’t had the pleasure of trying before and the breakside india golden ale, which i just can’t get enough of

photo by Two Peas Photography
my only complaint about this is event is the lack of a vegetarian option for dinner
i’m sure everyone else loved the pulled pork on a bun though

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

photo by Kurtis Sheldon

my liver hurts!
i would say that i’ll never drink again
but that would be a really big lie!

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!

vcbw

vcbw, quickly in a few facebook photos:




voodoo donut at portland craft opening

driftwood’s fat tug t-shirts (hehehehehe)
ready to rock out at the hop head banger’s ball in my
fabulous driftwood son of the morning concert shirt
hoppapalooza (before we got too blurry)
at the hop head banger’s ball
at the dix reunion at stackhouse
a couple of my fave beer geeks at the final tasting room

vcbw

and just like that, vancouver craft beer week is over
i think my liver is happy
and possibly my neglected family
but i’m going to miss it

i know i’m lucky that we have such a vibrant craft beer community in vancouver
and there are events every day of the week that i can go to
but there’s just something about a craft beer festival that amps it all up several notches
(perhaps even to 11)

highlights?
must i pick just one?
no, i cannot possibly do that

highlight of ticketed events – has to be hoppapalooza again this year
always a good time, nigel just keeps sourcing more fabulous brews for this event
and capping the number of tickets sold meant many disappointed people, but for those of us lucky enough to get tickets, it was nice to move freely about the space and be served quickly
oh the beers!
i cannot say enough about the casks and kegs of ambrosia that we imbibed!
41 of them i tried, forty-one
fingers crossed that my luck will hold out and i’ll be one of the chosen people again next year

highlight #1 of non-ticketed events – the dix reunion at stackhouse
packedhouse would have been a more apt name!  there was barely room for the poor servers to squeeze through with everyone’s cask and food orders
it was like a high school reunion without the awkwardness of forgetting people’s names
the casks were delicious
the mood was jovial
and the smiles were cheek-cracking
brilliant idea whoever came up with that one!

highlight #2 of non-ticketed events – the soft opening of portland craft
not quite finished its renovations, portland craft (the pub) opened its doors with 16 taps of portland (the city) brews, a price-point menu and freshly imported voodoo donuts
it was a packed house with a line up that waxed and waned but did not disappear all night long
again, the mood was jovial
there were a few hiccups, it was an opening night afterall
but no one i talked to had anything but high praise for the endeavour and its execution
huzzah!
(and who doesn’t like a portland brew or six???)

which leads me to query… is portland craft the next dix?

tired

i am thoroughly exhausted
and cranky!

stayed up last night to buy tickets to hoppapalooza
(the went on sale at midnight and were guaranteed to sell out before the morning)
only to have the vcbw ticketing site crash repeatedly
i kept trying for half an hour and then gave in and went to sleep

lucky for me one of my friends kindly stayed awake and kept on trucking until she got me my ticket
yay friends!

boo! on the ticketing people though
and vcbw for releasing tix at midnight in the first place
that was just mean
and now i’m tired and cranky and wondering if any of it was worth it

bah!
humbug!
and wah, wah, wah, first world problems

sloppy seconds

sloppy seconds, hoppy seconds, spring hop
whatever the heck it officially ended up being called
the camra members-only hopfest at the alibi room on monday night was lots of fun

the goal of the evening was to give members who missed out on tickets for hoppapalooza to try the hoppy casks and kegs leftover from hoppapalooza
so for $20 members bought themselves entry to the alibi room, a burger dinner and a pint of cask not tapped at hoppapalooza
after that pints and sleeves were on at regular price, less 10%

as i lamented in a previous post, i shoulda had half pours at hoppapalooza so that i could have made it furher through the list since there was no way i was going to finish the list at $5 sleeves

i began with the included pint of swan’s scotch ale
which was uber-sedimenty and too boozey for me
i made a concerted effort, but i just couldn’t finish the whole pint

then my new friend from edmonton bought me a pint of north coast’s acme ipa
which had an amazing nose and quite an edge to it, i’m a fan

then i moved into sleeves and had a bear’s hop rod rye, conrad’s pilsner and the ninkasi believer double red ale (to make sure i still liked it, which i did)
as it was just after 10:00 by this point i passed on finishing the sleeve of fat tug that jason bought for me
jen seemed pretty pleased to take it off my hands
and i made it to bed before 11

the social was a great opportunity to chat up a storm with brewers and appreciators alike
and trade war stories from the first three days of vancouver craft beer week
and i’m impressed that i managed to get out of there reasonably sober!
i felt like a million dollars on tuesday morning!

thanks very much to the alibi for accommodating my stupid dietary restrictions
(there were mushrooms in the veggie burger, so they very kindly grilled me some tomatoes to use on my bun instead)
and providing such great salads and condiments
the coleslaw in particular was divine!