Category: hopscotch festival

hopscotch #4

that’s right, i’m not done talking about hopscotch yet!

how about we talk about whiskey and food today?  and then throw in a little beer chat at the end, because this is afterall a beer blog!

hopscotch is known for being a great festival to try new brands of scotch, whiskey and other spirits
especially the expensive ones that perhaps you can’t afford to try other places
i stayed away from most of the hard liquors because i’d been pounding back the beer and just didn’t want to prove once again that the old adage “beer before liquor, never siquor” is totally true
but….
these guys we met and beer geeked out with totally insisted that we try an ontario whiskey
moderately priced and soooo smooth
so like the good little sheep that we are, we hustled right on over to the forty creek stall and tried us a couple of their copper pot distilled double barrel aged whiskey
the double barrel reserve with deep vanilla notes, toasted aromas of pecan and walnut was the winner for me
very moderately priced at $59 a bottle, it’s one sipping whiskey i’ll happily stock in my liquor cabinet!

now onto the food!
and yes, there was some!
what’s a booze fest without some food?
plates of cheese and crackers, mini burgers, chocolate – there was something for everyone!

chocolate shoes!
cheese and crackers
mini burger!

the chocolates were from xoxolat, and come in many beautiful designs, including shoes, and some of them have booze in them!  visit their shop at 2391 burrard street if you need a holiday gift to impress!

we also snagged several fabulous coupons in the food tent:
a free sleeve of whistler lager or pale ale at the charles
buy one scotch, get one at the blarney stone
2 for 1 sandwich at the charles
2 for 1 sandwich at pivo

and last, but certainly not least, i got several business cards while i was beer geeking out
beerthirst
carlsberg canada
deschutes brewery
afic exim (canada) corp

hopscotch #3

the wonderful, the darned good, the pretty good and the also-rans of hopscotch, according to moi

firstly, the beers i’ve had before and love, so i had them again!
efes dark
efes pilsner
rogue yellow snow
red truck limited steam
moylans double ipa
steamwhistle pilsner

the wonderful:
odell brewing ipa – 7% with simcoe and amarillo hops, out of colorado – this one has won awards, and i can see why!
caldera ipa – 6.1% with cascade hops, out of oregon
great divide double ipa – 85 ibs out of denver, colorado
stone’s ruination ipa – 7.7%, 120 ibus – the stuff of legends i tell ya, legends!
stone’s self-righteous ale – 8.7% – malty hoppy and makes you believe you could session it… but at 8.7% i think you’d hate yourself later if you did!
smuttynose ipa – their single ipa – delightful and deliciously hoppy
smuttynose big a ipa – their double ipa – just as delightful and even more hoppy… i might actually like the single better though…
ballast amber ale – perfectly hoppy – this is a non-ipa that makes me just as happy as an ipa – which makes it a thing of utter beauty!
la parcela #1 pumpkin ale – okay, not a fan of the pumpkin ales, but this one is soured!  it was fabulous – i’m a huge fan!!
kronenbourg blanc – who knew that i’d like a white beer? normally i run from them, but steve convinced me to try it, and i’m so glad i did.  nicely fruity, quite cloudy, but not wheaty at all.  i was refreshed!

the darned good:
eel river acai berry wheat – berryish and not wheat annoying to me, this is a very fine thing!
central city winter ale – apparently there is vanilla in there, but the hops balance it out so well that i couldn’t taste it – yay – for a winter ale, this stuff is marvelous – its my new fave winter ale
victory prima pilsner – out of pennsylvania – i do love me a pilsner, and this was a stellar example!
tree raspberry porter – not overly fruity, nicely malty – for a fruit beer, i like it, i like it a lot!
alaskan smoked porter – reminiscent of a chipotle beer with its smokiness, but without the bite half way down the throat!  to make this one, they take the malt and smoke it in the smokehouse where salmon get smoked, giving it the essence of bacon.  strangely enough, it pairs well with smoked salmon i’m told – i’m a fan, bridget loved it.. try it!
mill street tankhouse ale – cascade hops in this pale ale make me a happy camper

the pretty good:
lagunitas brown shugga’ – “sweet release” is right – its very hoppy at first, then its got a total brown sugar hit back.  enjoyable, but not sessionable
shipyard xxxx ipa – 9.25% – very drinkable, and if it was the first ipa i’d had all night, i woulda been a very happy camper, but as it was half way through the mix, it just didn’t stand up to the rest of the high performers
shipyard ipa – too much of an english style ipa for me to love it
yukon ice fog ipa – 6% – not uber hoppy and that relegates it to pretty good for me
saranac ipa – out of utica ny – its alright, but not amazing.  again, probably the company it was keeping

also ran:
r&b spirit chaser porter – maybe my palate was wrecked by the time i got to this one, but it was insipid and i just couldn’t find the coffee that allegedly is there
i must try this again some time, just to make sure…

hopscotch #2

i won’t list all the beers that were on hand at hopscotch
for that you can visit the website!
but i will say that i skipped most of the local breweries in favour of the imports that aren’t readily available here
and of course i skipped all the belgians because i am bigoted against them!!

so what did i have?
eel river acai berry wheat
alaskan smoked porter
ballast point calico amber ale
caldera ipa
moylans double ipa
odell brewing ipa
deschutes jubelale
jolly pumpkin la parcela
lagunitas brown shugga’
fx matt brewing’s saranac ipa
shipyard fuggles ipa
shipyard xxxx ipa
smuttynose big a ipa
smuttynose ipa
stone ruination ipa
stone sublimely self-righteous ale
rogue yellow snow ipa
red truck limited steam
kronenbourg blanc
red racer winter ale
efes dark
efes pilsner
mill street tankhouse ale
tree raspberry porter
victory prima pilsner
yukon ice fog ipa
r&b spirit chaser coffee porter

good lord that’s a mighty long list!
good thing i took some notes…

of them all, the only miss in the bunch was the r&b spirit chaser coffee porter
where was the coffee?
it was bland and insipid
hopefully my palate was just fried from all the ipas i’d already had and its not as bad as it seemed to me at the time
perhaps i should give it another chance sometime

the big winners for me were the odell ipa and the ballast calico
central city’s winter ale is mighty fine too, for a winter ale!

tasting notes to follow…

hopscotch #1

oh the fun that i had at hopscotch on saturday night!!
i had originally been a little bit worried that there wouldn’t be much beer on offer at a scotch, whiskey and beer festival, and that going on the last night might mean they’d have run out of the “good stuff”
but it was great!
tons of breweries well represented, but local and from afar
and people were giving us freebies all night long!

we met lots of beer reps and beer lovers,
found a bunch of beers we love,
got beer openers from steamwhistle,
stickers from rogue,
and another coaster from deshutes

quote of the day

“Microbrewing in B.C. has never been easy, but the makers of craft beer are enjoying a growing thirst for their product.  And not just beer nerds are sampling craft and cask beers at places like the Alibi Room.  Most of the events at the first Vancouver Craft Beer Week this spring sold old, as did last year’s Hopscotch whisky, scotch and beer festival in Vancouver.  Fifty-five hundred people attended Nando’s Canada Cup of Beer at the University of B.C. over two days in July where, organizers say, half the vendors were microbreweries.  And craft beer enthusiasts reportedly snapped up tickets to last weekend’s Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria in 10 minutes.”

Cheryl Rossi
Vancouver Courier
September 17, 2010

hopscotch

i’m currently trying to buy my hopscotch tickets
but alas, it is not working out for me
the email link to buy tickets isn’t working
and when i called the 1-800 number, the line was so bad that i couldn’t hear the guy on the other end after waiting 15 minutes on hold
and then he disconnected me

this can’t be a sign from the universe that i shouldn’t go to hopscotch can it?
nah – the universe can’t be that cruel!

update:  finally got the link to work on the website, only to have it boot me off before confirming my purchase!
called them back and the line was finally good, but no one available to take my call
i must REALLY want to go to this event to still be pursuing tickets!