legacy liquor store

newly available at the legacy liquor store in vancouver:

A small craft brewery in Southeast Portland, Oregon inspired by European brewing tradition and Pacific Northwest ingredients, The Commons Brewery, formerly Beetje (Flemish for little) Brewery, started small in the summer of 2010 with nothing more than a single barrel nano system in Mike Wright’s garage. Jump to the summer of 2011 and The Commons Brewery has moved from the garage to a 7BBL commercial space and bottle conditioned beer. Striving to produce brews with moderate alcohol and refreshing, unique character courtesy of yeast strains originating in Europe—truly a beer lover’s paradise—these brews are sessionable and geared towards friends, family and sharing time with one another. So grab a bottle or two and gather ’round!

The Commons Brewery Urban Farmhouse – $13.75
A farmhouse ale that fits the bill after a sweltering day working the land. Hazy straw yellow in colour with baking spice, floral hops and a bit of yeast in its aroma, while more spice (coriander for instance), a touch of citrus and a lovely bittering courtesy of Willamette, Golding and Hallertauer make up the palate. Two words: nailed it.

Joel Wilson | Beer Team | Legacy Liquor Store

The Commons Brewery Flemish Kiss – $13.75
Belgian Pale Ale? Yes, please! This rusty, amber coloured beer smells delicious with appearances of funk and raspberry sweetness. Palate-wise, this particular brew shows off more Brett, strawberries, figs and cereal malt. Complex and tasty, it represents Belgian Pale Ale perfectly, and turns up the volume with a bit of funk.

Chris Bonnallie | Beer Supervisor | Legacy Liquor Store

phillips brewing

Triple-Beer-Super-Massive-Seasonal-Release!
October 22nd: We’re celebrating BC Craft Beer Month the best way we know how: with a triple-beer-super-massive-seasonal-release!

Three releases at once can be a lot to keep straight–especially once the craft connoisseur starts sampling. So to help you map your path we’ll be highlighting the beers on our website and social media channels over the next 3 days, offering background info and tasting notes for each one.

For all you Victoria-folk, we will also be hosting a tasting at the brewery on Tuesday October 23rd from 3pm-6pm where you can come on down to sample all three releases, meet some of the brewers and have an all-around great time.

But to get everyone’s engines revved up, here are some broad strokes…

Puzzler Black Belgian IPA – 9.1% 650mL – Crafted in collaboration with our friends at Great Lakes Brewing from Toronto, buckets of black malt give this beer a deep earthy-brown colour and a huge body. Generous portions of bittering hops add balance and tip the flavour profile definitively to the hoppy side of the scale, while Belgian yeast endows the collaborative brew with a slightly spicy undertone.

Eric Jourdan’s Northwest Amber Ale – 6.2% 650mL – Who says you need a brewery to make great beer? Eric Jourdan is one of the winners of CAMRA Victoria’s Home Brew Competition, and won the opportunity to come into Phillips and brew his creation in our brewhouse! His home brewed Northwest Amber Ale is a testament to brewing skill whether your brewhouse is in a brewery or a basement.

Green Reaper Fresh Hop IPA – 6.5% 650mL – Freshly harvested Willamette hops went from bine to beer in less than 24 hours in this newly minted Fresh Hop annual release. It’s a craft beer apparition sent to show you the impact that fresh hops can make as it guides your taste buds to the aftertaste.

**All of the releases are available at private craft-focused liquor stores, and only while supplies last!

rogue juniper pale ale

rogue juniper pale ale
what a great bottle
and a great looking beer!

from the bottle:  “a pale ale, saffron in color with a smooth malt balance, a floral aroma with a dry spice finish from whole juniper berries”

food pairing:  turkey
13 degrees plato
34 ibus
77 aa
3.2 degrees lovibond
100% pure rogue

yes on the malt balance
yes on the floral aroma
yes on the dry spice finish
quite refreshing
enormous head on the vigourous pour, which lasted several minutes (the head, not the pour)

from the website:  “HISTORY

The Turkey was named the official bird of the Rogue Nation in August 2007. To commemorate the momentous occasion, Rogue Juniper Pale Ale was dedicated to “the turkey in each of us.” An axe and the dedication have been added to the serigraphed 22oz bottle and Juniper Pale Ale tap stickers.

The Pilgrims were ale drinkers and most likely enjoyed beer at the first Thanksgiving. Juniper Pale Ale, like all Rogue products preserves water by using more ingredients, contains no chemicals, additives or preservatives and uses Free Range Coastal Water.”

i don’t actually know what juniper berries taste like, but i’m told they’re piney and bitter

so i think i was expecting this beer to be more piney and bitter

or to smell like gin!

but it doesn’t and it isn’t

yes there’s floral notes in there

but they’re not bitter or overwhelming

they’re simply delicious!

i heart rogue

and i heart this beer

i gotta get me another couple of bottles while its in season!

rogue news

southern tier iniquity black ale

and now for “the antithesis of unearthly“
from southern tier, its the imperial iniquity black ale

pours up thick and black with a compact creamy head
malty, malty, malty
definitely some hops
definitely different than an ipa
a taste bridget is happy to acquire!
and i like it too

much like (and yet totally not even similar at all to) the snakebite i made with ipa and worried that it would be too clashy, this is a pairing that could be disastrous, but instead ends up complimentary and supportive
its like therapy in a glass!
hops and de-bittered chocolatey malts are a match made in heaven!

9%
21 degrees plato
2 row pale malt, debittered black malt
kettle hops:  chinook, cascade
hop back:  willamette
dry hops:  cascade, centennial
serve chilled in a southern tier tulip glass

from the bottle:  “The hexagram talisman has been used around the world for centuries to invoke magic and good luck.  The six-point star is also the customary symbol of brewing, representing the essential pure ingredients of the craft:  water, hops, grain, malt, yeast, and of course, the brewer.  Wishes of good fortune often collaborate with the brewer’s creativity to yield dramatic results.  We carefully chose the name for this imperial IBA, Iniquity – a word opposing goodness.  Why?  This beer is contrary to what one may expect from an IPA; this is an ale as black as night.  It is the antithesis of Unearthly.  Some may consider it an immoral act to blacken an ale.  We suggest they don’t rely on conventional standards.  Allow the darkness to consume you.  Cheers!”

fun glassware southern tier has on offer:

pike ipa

pike brewing’s pike ipa is next up for a tasting
i love a tasting!

fairly leapt out of the bottle when i popped the top
but the head settled quite quickly into a manageable half inch of creaminess
cloudy on the vigourous pour
not a lot of nose
60 ibus
6.3%
first sip is very malty
so is the second
and the aftertaste

the bottle says nothing…

the website says:
og 1.062
malt varieties:  pale, crystal, munich, carapils
hops varieties:  columbus, willamette, chinook, goldings, amarillo
color:  amber
yeast:  english ale
flavor profile:  powerful malt backbone is balanced with aromatic herbal hop character
history:  highly hopped to retain freshness on the voyages from england to india

(not so impressed by their website actually…)

definitely a more malty brew than i’ve been craving lately
but the further i get into it, the more i’m enjoying the maltiness contrasting with the hoppiness
not gonna become my favourite, but i’m not gonna never have it again either!
quite sedimenty at the bottom of the glass

Rogue’s Brutal Bitter

while at hidden the other night, my tastebuds were tingled by Rogue Brewery’s Brutal Bitter.

it pours with an awful lot of head, and stays a bit hazy even after it warms up a little.  offered in 650mL bottles, it didn’t say what its alcohol volume was, but judging by our lack of addle-brainedness, we figured it wasn’t outrageously high!  15 degrees plato, 59 IBUs, 14.2 degrees Lovibond and just 7 ingredients:  100% floor-malted maris otter, cara vienna, cara wheat malts; crystal and rogue farm willamette hops, free range coastal waters and top fermenting pacman yeast.  no chemicals, preservatives or additives.  suggested food pairings are beef and bbq.

they say:  “Dedicated to Justin Fisch, the “Shade Man”.  An imperial style bitter using exotic traditional floor malts, a hoppy citrus flavor with a stupendous hop aroma.  Hedonistic!”

definitely has a hop aroma, its smooth and very easy-drinking.  not particularly bitter and makes a great session beer.  we like it, we really like it!

“that’s a fine summer beer”, says alison
“its better to be brutal”, says i

the website says: 

“2007 World Beer Championships—Gold

2006 World Beer Championships—Gold

2005 World Beer Championships—Gold

 

HISTORY

Dedicated to Justin Fisch, the Shade Man, and the official beer of the Rogue Nation. Brutal combines Oregon hops with English Malts. The Oregon grown Crystal hop is a triploid variety developed from the German Hallertau aroma hop variety with contributions from Cascade, Brewers Gold, and Early Green. Crystal is the only hop used in brewing Brutal and it provides a massive amount of aroma without dry-hopping.”

i love the rogue brewery!
it may actually be the first craft brew i ever tried, before i knew what craft brewing even was.  i was in texas and got taken to the larger than imaginable local grocery store, where they had an entire aisle of hot sauce and two aisles of beer – it was heaven!  the dead guy label caught my eye and was the only memorable beer among the mixed six-pack i picked out.
since that day i have never been disappointed by a rogue beer.

and the brutal bitter was just what the doctor ordered the other night (well, okay, it was me who ordered it, my doctor doesn’t actually approve of my beer drinking, but you know what i mean…) to wash all my cares away.  subtle, delicious, refreshing.  thumbs way, way up!