link love

stone’s ruination ipa 10th anniversary

parallel 49 – vancouver’s newest brewery

and this interesting news from beerthirst:

For years we’ve been saying that it’s an acquired taste. That the floral, piney, bitter, fruity goodness of an IPA is an acquired taste, and that most people probably won’t enjoy it. Well, perhaps we were wrong all along. People everywhere are falling in love with this exotic style of beer, and more and more establishments are beginning to serve IPAs. And as of May 27th, so did the Cactus Club Cafe.

Yes! The Immortal IPA by Elysian Brewing is now available at 6 different locations! Cactus Club on English Bay, Burrard, Yaletown, Broadway and Ash, Granville and Broadway, and South Point in White Rock, all serve the Immortal IPA on draft.

We are very thrilled for obvious reasons, but we’re also excited because an establishment like Cactus Club to be on board to serve a Pacific Northwest-style IPA shows how far the craft beer industry has come. It’s come a long way, and this goes to show that it’s going to keep growing, and people are beginning to take craft beer as serious as wine.

We hope all you craft beer aficionados will help us spread the word, and recommend to your friends and family to try this great beer. Because the more locations begin to carry the IPA on draft, the more it’ll help the Vancouver craft beer scene grow.

round two!

last weekend i had the opportunity to try a couple of beers again – yay!

as part of anna’s and my tasting afternoon on friday, we went with the tin whistle black widow ale
i thought this would be a good one since anna likes the dark beers, but not the terribly hoppy ones
i already knew i liked it, would it be a good choice for anna?
you better believe it – she liked it too!

black as night and opaque as treacle
this truly is a mild ale
very nicely roasty malty
not much on the hop side, nor the thick and creamy side
this one is just a very drinkable black ale
i could drink it all day i tell ya!
on saturday night at timbre
while everyone else was eating the elk and playing with the kangaroo balls bottle opener,
i had the elysian immortal ipa again
its not the hoppiest ipa on the block but it is quite a lovely brew
floral and aromatic and bitter
delicious!

i must admit that I did happily move on to the red racer ipa to finish the night though

i am a very happy camper that the gib on tap has made way for the central city goodness!

ode to the ipa

at this past week’s beernesday i had an ode to the ipa sort of evening
it seemed like it hurt my head too much to come up with beers for a sampler
and i knew they had some great ipas on tap…
so i just went with four pints of four different ipas
(and didn’t love myself as much as usual on thursday morning when i woke up…)

howe sound’s total eclipse of the hops:  8%  a supremely well balanced and drinkable imperial ipa weighing in at 90 ibus and 8% alcohol.
you know i love this one!
so happy to see it back in the rotation at st. augustine’s
its a damned fine day when a seasonal that you thought was all sold out comes back to let you savour it again!

driftwood’s fat tug ipa:  7%  a northwest style india pale ale that is characterized by an intense hop aroma
i do love this brew
very aromatic hop nose
not quite as balanced as the howe sound
but oh, so delightful to drink!

hopworks ipa:  6.6%  rich and resinous flavours of citrus fruit and pine.  the finest organic pilsner malts and then bring balance to your new fave beer.
anna, who is not a big ipa fan, loves this beer so much she gestured too vehemently with her arms and spilled beer all over me
fortunately it wasn’t the hopworks she spilled, and also fortunately they gave her another pint of her pilsner
(and yay for me, i dried before i had to make the long trek home in the snow!)
delicious and delightful
such a great ipa

elysian’s the immortal ipa:  6.3%  golden copper in color and loaded with new world hop flavor and aroma.  lively aromas of citrus and pine greet the nose while tastes of bready and sweet caramel malts beautifully balance the hop bitterness
i don’t taste breadiness, which is a good thing as its not my favourite hop balancer
what a great fourth ipa to round out my crazy ipa-fest

anna let me try her salt spring ales fireside ale:  7%  with a rich ruby colour, and a complex fruity nose.  low hop bitterness allows notes of fresh fruit to come through backed by flavourful malt
which neither one of us particularly liked
for me, it was too fruity and malty

so she switched to the paddock wood czech mate pilsner:  5.4%  made with european pilsner malt, czech hops, and water as soft as that of pilsen itself
much better choice
this is a mighty tasty pilsner
delicious!

i do have one question for st. augustine’s though, and that is:  how long does it take to reno a bathroom?  seems like the bathroom destruction has been taking forever to move into any sort of renovation…