Category: pivo public house

news

quickly, a few lovely newsy items for y’all:

cbc radio’s on the coast is going to have a beer segment!
currently there is a biweekly wine column…
which will soon be alternating with a beer column
i’m not sure when the beer segment will begin, but as soon as i do, i’ll post it here

#ipaday has a venue!
woohoo!
more on this later, but we’ll be upstairs at portland craft on august 2nd from 7:00 p.m. onwards
thanks chris for making this happen!

pivo’s third anniversary approacheth
check it out on august 17th
and also, they offer 25% off food if you bring in your movie ticket stub from cineplex upstairs
(for the nights you aren’t just having popcorn for dinner)

casks tonight and party tomorrow

from camra vancouver:

Tonight is Sunset Grill’s first weekly cask! They’ve got a cask of Driftwood Brewery Blackstone Porter. 6pm.

Thursday means Yaletown Brewing is Making It Real (Ale). They will tap a cask of BRick and Beam IPA with Columbus hops, 4pm.

me, i’ll be at the yaletown as usual!
but that blackstone porter in the cask is very delicious stuff – try some if you have the chance!

and a party tomorrow:

Pivo’s Christmas Party is tomorrow at 6pm. Come down for free snacks & Whistler lager plus enter to win Canucks tickets!

cask

well, for a not-so-beery week, i still managed to knock a few back!
wednesday night i hit pivo before and between queer film festival movies
had me the phillips hop circle

thursday night before the centrepiece queer film festival movie
i managed to swing by yaletown brewpub for some of iain hill’s ipa dry-hopped with sorachi ace
i am not sure there are words to describe it
besides hop heaven!!
delicious! delightful! divine!
the hop nose carried through to the body
i would have happily taken a growler to go if i had any time to get through one this weekend!

if i could be more than one place tonight i would be at both pivo for their second anniversary
and at beerlesque at the roundhouse
but i can’t be at both, so i’ll be doing my duty to my fellow craft beer lovers by pouring libations at beerlesque!

beer events – vancouver

too many beer events on friday night
yay for first world problems!

tofino brewing’s debut will be at abigail’s party on friday night
pivo’s second anniversary is on friday night
and vcbw / camra vancouver’s beerlesque is at the roundhouse on friday night

our beer steins runneth over!

the charles

i took advantage of my free beer coupon last week
and visited the charles
its quite a swank new pub in the woodwards building
not sure if its owned by the same folks as pivo, but they’re related somehow

the food menu looks amazing
not that i tried any of it, my visit was strictly a beer occasion
but i sure was tempted

the beer list is nothing to write home about
and certainly not as good as pivo’s
but it was decent and we enjoyed our free pints of the whistler pale ale
heck, we even had a pitcher after we drank our freebies!

love the bathrooms!
they are all single stall affairs with contained sink
four of them i believe, down a hallway
half marked for women, half for men
and boy, were they ever nice!

lots of big screen televisions
great lighting and comfy seating
i might just go there again!

oh, and the woodwards original w is just outside the door!

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

beernesday

i missed beernesday last week, as i was at the nba game
i drank overpriced rickard’s red at the stadium (what the heck do we call it now that it’s not the garage any more?)
and warmed up at pivo with a pitcher of the delicious driftwood ale, which is till on tap there for a mere $3.50 a pint and $13.50 a pitcher
the game was a stinker, but drinking with my friends is always a great time!!
finished the night back at pivo, this time with a phillips hop circle
(i had a choice of tree’s hophead, acme’s ipa and the hop circle – i just had to go with the hop circle – its hoptastic!)

just cuz i missed the night at st. augustine’s doesn’t mean i don’t have tasting notes though
amanda made me some from the samplers she and bridget had
thanks friends!

central city red racer pumpkin ale:  they were not fans, found it had a soapy aftertaste and was too lightly spiced
red truck limited steam beer:  crisp and citrusy, no distinct ale taste to the hybrid, more lagery they found, but they liked it!
st. augustine’s pilsner:  zesty and citrusy, a good mellow beer
mill street brewery original organic lager:  they hated it, thought it tasted like water with yellow food colouring (wow, way to sock it to the beer… maybe i need to try this one this week just to weigh in on the issue!)
driftwood brewery ale:  a crowd pleaser and our favourite from pivo, lightly hopped, amanda finds it a really great transition beer from her hefeweisen loving ways into the world of hoppy goodness – her palate is definitely changing!
longwood brew pub russian imperial stout:  dark as the night, molasses taste, bridget says its very malty, amanda finds the roasted barley tastes like burnt espresso beans or a dry soy nut flavour, but likes the initial chocolate notes

i hope to remember to bring along their notes tonight and perhaps try some of the beers they tasted last week and see what i think of them
unless of course i find too many more exciting beers to try…
you never know what’s gonna be on tap at st. auggies!