A beer enthusiast

A beer enthusiast is what I was called; That's what they use to call me and hence forth I will adopt this title as I write on. Due  an abundantly busy I have not had a good chance to sit down and write until now. Either that or I'm too lazy. Whichever the case, on with the following post!

Parallel 49 Seed Spitter

Location: Alibi Room
Serving Type: Sleeve
Rating: 3/5
Best Suited for: BBQs

After trying this beer at the VCBW beer festival and not finding it as favourable as I'd originally thought, I decided to give it another go. Now, while I did enjoy  this beer a little more the second time around, I still found there was something lacking about this beer. The nose on the beer had hints of sour apple and the taste a complimenting sour melon taste. Still, watermelon is usually a summer treat that always delivers and this beer didn't quite hit that bench mark.

Tariq Khan's English Porter

Location: Alibi Room Cask Ale
Serving Type: Pint
Rating: 5/5
Best Suited for: Social Sit Downs

I do believe this beer is the first perfect score I've given on this blog but this beer deserved it. The nose on this beer was malty and the following taste comprised of a perfect hops, caramel and malt barley. Since this was a cask ale, the body of the beer wasn't overly carbonated which made it quite easy to sip on. What a treat!

Green Flash Trippel

Location: Firefly
Serving Type: 650mL bottle
Rating: 2/5
Best Suited for: A beer tasting

Usually I adore belgian trippels and dubbels. In the refermenting process they seem to gain a higher level of excellence and delicious flavour. So imagine my excitement when this bottle crossed my path from Green Flash brewery out of San Diego. At initial glance this beer poured well with lots of head and a nice smell of bananas and citrus. The taste however failed in comparison to other trippels I've had in the past. Had more of beer and fruit juice taste which was a definite fail in this case.

Rogue Mocha Porter

Location: Firefly
Serving Type: 650mL bottle
Rating: 4/5
Best Suited for: Social Sit Downs

This beer poured nicely with little head and dark brown colour. The flavour on it was quite nice finding a  nice blend of flavour of coffee hints and stout beer. The dark chocolate taste on the end finished the flavour off quite nicely. Fair warning though; this beer does have coffee in it and it your not a coffee drinker, it will keep you buzzing.

Whister Brewing Company Pineapple Express

Location: Firefly
Serving Type: 650mL bottle
Rating: 3/5
Best Suited for: Served cold after activity

After seeing this beer on facebook, I searched beer vendors high and low for this sweet sounding beer. Before heading off for Summer Camp last weekend, I finally managed to get my hands on it and was excited at the prospect of finally trying it. Was it worth the wait? Sadly no. The nose on the beer was that of pineapple and in the undertone of flavour, one could make out the pineapple flavour. Still though, much like the trippel, it left something lacking. In it's defense though, I think it was unfairly judged since it was mildly cool and tasted after some dark ales. One it's own, I might give it a better score.

Russell 6.26 17th Anniversary Scotch Ale

Location: Firefly
Serving Type: 650mL bottle
Rating: 5/5
Best Suited for: Anytime

For the second time in this blog, a beer is given a perfect score. With a bit of oak a vanilla on the nose, this beer went down smoothly with hints of caramel and dried fruit. Highly recommended.

Rubies and Belgians!

Well, last Friday turned into an impromptu pub crawl after meeting with DW for a post work drink. Needless to say, there turned out to be many post work drinks over the course of the afternoon. 

Red Truck Ruby Strong Ale

Location: Cascade on Main
Serving Type: Pint
Rating: 3/5
Best Suited for: Social Sit Downs

This was my second beer of the night and turned out to be a nice compliment with dinner. The smell of the beer was just like Halloween candy which was fitting since the taste was both sweet and slightly sour at the same time. The strength of the flavour made it good for conversation as the sweet/sour taste had a linger to it which gave it a unique character.

Lost Coast Belgian Triple IPA

Location: Alibi Room in Yaletown
Serving Type: Pint
Rating: 4/5
Best Suited for: Birthday Celebrations

Forewarning to anyone that tries this marvelous delight; it will knock you on your keister after one or two of these. This was my fifth and sixth beer of the night and the turning point in the night when just enough became too much. This was impossible to forsee though as this 9.5% creation of taste magic blends a unique combo of citrus grapefruit and hoppy zing. I would definitely return to the Alibi for this one, just at the beginning of the night.

Now if I could only remember the names of the other four beers I had.

Beer Review post Vegas

Greetings all,

The lack of posts lately has been due to high course load, work and a trip to Vegas. None the less I'm back with a four beers to post about. Included are:

Driftwood Fat Tug IPA
Townsite 'Zunga' Blonde Ale
Shock Top Belgian White
Fernie huckleberry wheat ale

Driftwood Fat Tug IPA

Location: New Oxford in Yaletown
Serving Type: Pint
Rating: 4/5
Best Suited for: Social Sit Downs

I'd first had this beer as a Christmas gift this past season and while I'm not usually fond of hoppy beers, I was quite pleased with it's taste. Until now though I chose not to post about it as I could not put a descriptor on the taste. That all changed recently though after having an epiphany at the Nex Oxford sipping on this fine craft once again. The taste on the palette was quite strong and while that made for slow sipping, the taste of grapefruit and hopps in unison keeps you quite pleased in the long haul. 

Townsite 'Zunga' Blonde Ale

Location: New Oxford in Yaletown
Serving Type: Pint
Rating: 3/5
Best Suited for: BBQs

Townsite is a relatively new brewery (as far as I know) based out of powell river. I'd seen this beer previously at the VCBW beer festival but didn't try it in favour of their limited release at the event. I saw this once again at the New Oxford and based on the fact that they are one of only TWO bars to have it on tap in Vancouver, I thought I'd give it a try. The nose on the beer had a light fruity smell and the body was lightly coloured. The taste of the beer was VERY mild and almost favoured a pilsner. Since I'm one who likes suttle flavours on beer, I did not favour this beer at all.

Fernie Huckleberry Wheat Ale

Location: Lennox at City Square
Serving Type: 650mL bottle
Rating: 4.5/5
Best Suited for: BBQs

And cue a wonderfly subtle flavoured beer out of Fernie BC. I've seen this beer in stores for a while but have never purchased it since the label leaves something to be desired. However, after learning about Fernie beers at the VCBW, I decided to give it a shot. This beer is one of the best wheat ales I've had in a long time. The body was nice a cloudy and the smell had a whiff of berry fields. The taste matched the body colour and smell perfectly. The taste of light 'hefe' was smooth and light and the undertone of berry flavour, versus the typical citrus, made for a wonderful compliment. Highly recommended!

Shock Top Belgian White

Location: Monte Carlo in Vegas
Serving Type: 341mL bottle
Rating: 3.0/5
Best Suited for: BBQs

Had a chance to taste this beer while playing Texas Holdem at the Monte Carlo in Vegas. Not a bad sipping beer for the price. Lightly coloured with a taste of citrus. Probably the best macro micro belgian you could get for the price.

Vancouver Craft Beer Festival

Well, strangely, I'm working on this post for the second time as blogger seems to have pitched my first copy. Ridiculous. Below is a summary of the Vancouver Craft Beer Festival as best I can remember.

Upright Brewing De Glazen (Portland, OR): A nice saison to start of the days event. I found it quite refreshing while DW wasn't a fan. 4/5
Townsite Belgian Ale (Powell River, BC): Well bodied fruity beer with cloudy texture. 8% and event the sampler knocked me on my ass. 3.5/5
Fernie Brown Ale (Fernie, BC): A nice nutty brown ale. 3/5
Cannery Brewing Squire Scotch Ale (Pentincton, BC): Not as good as R and B Wee Angry but still not bad. Good body with a hint of caramel sweetness. 3/5
Red Truck Limited Ruby Da Dog (North Van, BC): Sour beer. Almost like lemonade meets beer. Strangely refreshing though. DW was not a fan of sour beers. 4/5
Parallel 49 Watermelon Wit (Vancouver, BC) Not as good as the name made it sound. Might be because it followed the sour beer. Points though for being the most unique. 4/5
Yukon Red, Amber Ale (Whitehorse, BC) Best beer of the night. Easy on the palette beer with a touch of honey. 5/5
Philips Cask Ale (Victoria, BC): I can't remember what this was! ?/5
Duchesse de Bourgogne (Vichte, Belgium): Slightly sour fruit belgian ale. Good but not worth two tokens. 3.5/5.

Overall, I had quite the great time at this even and can't wait to do it again next year!

A Taste of Beer 2 Results

Well strangely, not a huge turnout for a Taste of Beer but that's okay as it gave me a better chance to get to know those who were here and prevented me from likely overdrinking. While we didn't follow the rating system I'd set up, here's a synopsis of the three beers we had:

Swan's Riley Scotch Ale

Location: Brewery Creek Liquor Store (Main St)
Serving Type: 650 mL Bottle
Rating: 3/5
Best Suited for: Compliment to a Dinner Meal

This ale was quite nice. The body on it was lighter than the previous Russell Wee Angry Scotch Ale that I'd had before. None the less, this was still quite good and almost like a lighter bodied guinness

Spinnakers Uber Blonde

Location: Brewery Creek Liquor Store (Main St)
Serving Type: 650 mL Bottle
Rating: 4/5
Best Suited for: Cooking on the BBQ

This beer was a nice compromise between a hefeweizen and traditional ale with a hint of sweetness on it. Seemed like it'd be perfect after a tough day as it went down quite smoothly. At 8.2% I'd avoid too many of these though as the smoothness lead to quite a punch after a pint's worth.

Driftwod White Bark Wheat Ale

Location: Lennox Liquor Store
Serving Type: 650 mL Bottle
Rating: 2.5/5
Best Suited for: Sausage Dinner

I think out of the three beers we tried, this was my least favourite. I was initially drawn to it as looks like it was crafted to be like a traditional Bavarian Hefeweizen with included unfiltered hefe left in the bottle. Driftwood also produces their Farmhand ale which is quite nice. While this beer had a good flavour to it, it simply did not follow on the excellence of the previous two and seem to have a little aftertaste. The aftertase might be why they call it white bark. Whichever the case, it did not earn high points on the growing list of craft brews.

A Taste of Beer 2

Last year at this time, Vancouver launched its first ever Vancouver Craft Brewery Week which featured a selection of events highlighting craft beers. From the onset I was on board with the theme and hosted my own event which I aptly titled a Taste of Beer. This year, I've decided to host a second event with the same title. The beers I've bought this year that shall be featured include:

Granville Island Imperial Chocolate Porter (ft. flavours from Rogers Chocolate)
Fernie Buckleberry Wheat Ale
Swan's Riley Scotch Ale
Spinnakers Uber Blonde Ale
White Bark Wheat Ale
VCBW Cascadian Brown Ale (VCBW ft ale!!)
Howe Sound Megadestroyer Stout

Just for fun, I will have people rate their beers based on some simple criteria:

Type of Taste
Strength of Flavour
'Newness' of Flavour
Overall Rating

Screw the cigars! Bring on the crafty goodness!

Cheakamus Chai Maple Ale

Location: Lennox Liquor Store at City Square
Serving Type: 650 mL Bottle
Rating: 4/5
Best Suited for: Casual Conversations with Friends

While perusing one of the local Vancouver publishings whose name currently escapes me, I saw an add for this beer stating that it would be released April 9th. Almost instantaneously I started lashing my lips at the thought of sampling this beer as the professed combination of chai and maple in some type of awesome harmony sounded too good to be true. With high hopes though, I made routine visits for the local beer store to see if it had arrived and while it did not make it there for the April 9th date previously announced, I did find it about three weeks later.

Now, because I'd waited so long to actually get my hands on this beer, I wanted to save its opening and savouring until a special occasion. That day came yesterday after a hellacious Spartan Run, I decided to celebrate my accomplishment with this ale. Initially I was a little hesitant since my precious encounter with Cannery Maple Stout left me with dissatisfaction of maple beers. But, much as I'd hope, this beer was great. The initial taste on the palette was very strong as I'd been having Granville Island Pale Ale until that point and the sharp flavour of chai and maple were less than casual in terms of strength. After letting it sit though and giving it more sips, I must say that this beer lived up to the expectations I'd set out for it. Kudos Whister Brewing Company; You've outdone yourself!

Philips Ginger Beer

Hello? Anyone still using this space?

Mayhaps it's time that I dust this space off and make use of my one useful bit of wisdom to blog about our favourite thing in the world... Beer! As many of you know, I'm a bit of a craft beer fanatic and as long as time allows, I'm going to post reviews in this space of beers that I have come across and how well they went over.

Philips Ginger Beer

Location: Speakeasy on Broadway
Serving Type: Draft
Rating: 3.5/5
Best Suited for: Dad

When I was younger, and every year since, every Christmas season my dad would brew ginger beer. Over the years the formula changed quite a bit with changing flavours over time. Two things always remained constant about it though. One was that you would always taste the ginger on this drink to the point where you'd be nursing a glass for at least an hour. The second was that upon drinking completion you'd be warm on the inside for the rest of the night. Needless to say that through the years, I developed a love/hate relationship with ginger beer.

At a post work social, Philips incarnation of this drink crossed my path and I was keen to try it. The flavour on the palette overall was well bodied. The ginger in the beer could not be tasted but the flavour of a well bodied ale was still there. What I did like, that had me going back for a second, was the pleasant warm feel the lingered while sipping on the beer. No, it wasn't the esophagus piercing sting that my Dad might call for but it definitely highlighted the ginger. Overall quite nice and much better that the Granville Island counterpart that I've had before. Recommended to all.