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!