Phillips Brewing – 9 Donkey’s of the Hopocalypse
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 | Breweries | No Comments
Phillips Brewing Company turned nine this August and what else would any self respecting West Coast brewery do other than release a hopped up imperial strength ale? Titled 9 Donkeys of the Hopocalypse this anniversary ale is a powerful “hop bomb” brewed with 9 hop varieties including: Centennial, Chinook, Cascade, Palisade, Amerilo, Citra, Millennium, Hallertaeur and Simcoe.
As expected, this is an in your face mouthful of west coast hop bitterness. This beer is not meant to be balanced but the hopiness is somewhat offset by a pleasant malt sweetness, which helps smooth the intense almost resin like hop flavour. Just don’t drink this one straight out of the fridge – malt flavour tends to hide in the cold, making this beer too hoppy for my liking. Any hop head will be sure to enjoy this seasonal ale. Smelling the beer only produces a small aroma, which could be a result of aging. This beer was released almost a month ago and hop aroma fades fast.
Phillips has built a reputation as being one of BC’s more creative breweries and I have always enjoyed their often challenging seasonal releases. Happy belated anniversary Phillips!
Cheers,
Erik
Good Beer Guide iPhone App
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 | Beer | 2 Comments
CAMRA UK publishes a series of books called the Good Beer Guide. There is one for the UK every year and periodically for other beer countries like Belgium and Germany. Naturally I came to the UK ready to go with my Good Beer Guide, but I haven’t actually found it that useful. While it has lead me to a few cool pubs, I need it most when I’m somewhere unfamiliar. Who wants to carry a giant book around when they don’t know where to find good beer? Nobody, that’s who. On top of that, I can barely find my way around the book as it is. I have no idea where Whatheshire, Whereceister, and Cantfinditborough are and it takes me a lot of flipping to even put myself in the right section. Also, you have to admin those sound kind of like British towns.
Today I managed to solve all my problems with the Good Beer Guide. I got an iPhone 4 today and the Good Beer Guide iPhone app was one of my first purchases. It only costs £5, takes up way less space, and is way more useful and up to date than the book. Now when I want to find good beer, I just start the app, tell it to find pubs nearby, then follow the directions it gives me. With the phone’s GPS and compass, I should even be able to find pubs whilst inebriated. If only every country could have their own Good Beer Guide mobile app.
Cheers,
Chris
The Duke of Cambridge Organic Pub
Monday, August 30th, 2010 | Beer, Pubs | No Comments
The Duke of Cambridge is quickly becoming my favorite pub in our new neighbourhood of Angel Islington. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but it came highly recommended by both Yelp and Lonely Planet, so we had to check it out. I’m glad we did because I really enjoy it’s cozy atmosphere and tasty treats. It’s a completely organic pub, as in every ingredient in all the food and every drink they serve is 100% organic. I don’t particularly care about the organicness, but I do appreciate the care and attention that goes into their menu. You can taste the love and it is delicious. I’ve noticed that the majority of London pubs will have five generic European Lagers on tap and then three casks of similar not terribly exciting British ales. The Duke of Cambridge breaks the mold by serving interesting beers on tap, cask, and in bottles, with no generic macro brews to speak of. It’s rare to find stout, porter, and even English lager available in pubs here, and so I especially enjoy the Freedom Dark Lager and both the stout and porter from Pitfields. While I respect the organic stance the pub takes, what I really like is the overall quality of the food and drink. Combined with the quieter, relatively hipster free locale and the comfortable and inviting interior, the Duke is my new favorite.
Pitfields Porter at the Duke of Cambridge
Cheers,
Chris
Central City Bacon Tasting Menu
Friday, August 20th, 2010 | Events, Food and Recipes | 3 Comments
Back in the colonies one of my favorite breweries is doing something extremely rad. Central City is offering a bacon tasting menu all September using bacon cured with their own beer. The three course menu only costs $35 and features bacon and corn cakes paired with Red Racer Lager, country bacon terrine with Red Racer ESB, and maple chocolate bacon cheesecake prepared with Red Racer Stout. Can you believe that? A three course meal and beer pairings for $35 based on bacon, the world’s most delicious food (fat and salt, mmmm)! I might have to fly back for this.
Cheers,
Chris
Experiencing the Great British Beer Festival
Sunday, August 15th, 2010 | Beer, Events | 1 Comment
When I let my intentions to attend the 2010 Great British Beer Festival (henceforth to be referred to as GBBF) be known, numerous people let me know not to go on Saturday. Sadly, having already bought the tickets and being a Monday to Friday working man, Saturday was my only option. It turns out that most of the good beer is gone by Saturday and the crowds tend to be rather raucous. I had no problem with the latter, but the lack of quality beer was disappointing. That being said, if you enjoy people watching, Saturday is the day for you. I will not elaborate; attend next year to see for yourself.
The Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court
To give you a bit of back-story, the GBBF is held every year at Earls Court (an enormous convention center in London) the first Tuesday to Saturday of August. CAMRA UK organize GGBF, which is well attended by hundreds of brewers from around the UK who provide casks of beer. It costs £8 to get in, another refundable £3 for a tasting pint glass (yes, pint), and then beer can be purchased from various bars in 1/3, 1/2, and full pints at rather affordable prices. I was used to having my testing vessel at a beer festival come in the form of four ounce taster sized cup and was quite surprised at the full pint glasses on offer. Luckily, most British beers are lower in alcohol content than typical North American festival beers, so the full pint did not do me in.
I was quite pleased with our pints
In searching for quality beer, we did indeed find that almost half of the beer listed was sold out. We didn’t particularly enjoy what we tried of the other half. It might be that the beer was starting to spoil after five days sitting in an open cask or that only the poorer quality beer was left, but I was not particularly impressed with the overall beer quality of what I tasted. I admit that this might have been to do with me lacking in knowledge of the vast number of British brewers and I’ve vowed to do my research in the future. Next year I’m going to go earlier in the week and come prepared with a list of fine beers to try. What I am quite sure of is that the beer available at GBBF was nowhere near as adventurous or varied as what you might find at a festival in the Pacific Northwest. I’m sure the various ales on offer were chock full of subtlety, but subtlety detection seems to disappear after a couple pints.
All the good stuff sold out...
After a few disappointing pints, I stumbled upon the international bar where I found a few of my west coast favorites. I took comfort in a bottle of one of my favorite beers, Deschutes Black Butte Porter. I then went back to challenge myself with a 500ml bottle of Green Flash Double Stout. You might say this did me in. I’m once again going to complain about the propensity for festival organizers to hold events such as these during the day. I wasn’t particularly inebriated at 7PM on Saturday, but what’s a slightly inebriated person going to do post GBBF at 7PM on a Saturday? Carry on, that’s what. Needless to say, the following Sunday was one of those “I’m never drinking again” days, which usually last me a week. However, I’m in England now, so I only managed to take one day off.
Festival goers at GBBF
All and all, it was a very interesting experience and a fun time, I’ll be back. Next year, I’m going on a Wednesday night and I’m going to go prepared. This strategy will hopefully help me come up with some non useless commentary in 2011.
Cheers,
Chris
Brewdog: The End of History
Sunday, August 8th, 2010 | Beer | 1 Comment
I’ve written about Brewdog and their quest to brew the world’s strongest beer in the past. It seems they now have some competition in the race to the top and recently brewed an even stronger beer. First Tactical Nuclear Penguin came in at 32% ABV, then Sink the Bismark at 41%, and now The End of History at 55%. In case you were wondering, 55% ABV is extremely high for any alcoholic beverage, not just beer. You would probably drink very small amounts of this from snifters and it would taste something like whiskey. Only twelve bottles of End of History were made, each came in a dead squirrel and cost £500. To learn about it’s making, read here. Be sure to watch the video too, it’s quite funny.
Cheers,
Chris
The Stockholm Beer Scene
Friday, August 6th, 2010 | Beer | 1 Comment
I visited some of my gracious extended family in Stockholm last weekend. I wasn’t sure what to expect of Sweden since you don’t hear too much about it in regards to tourism. I was thoroughly impressed with Stockhom. It’s an amazingly beautiful city featuring picturesque architecture amongst the small islands that makeup the centre. It’s exceptionally clean and I didn’t see any homeless people, which I found shocking coming from the hobotowns of Vancouver and, to a lesser extent, London. And just as you may have heard, Swedish people are generally blond, tall, tanned, and athletic looking. If that’s your sort of thing, you might consider them really, really good looking. To top it all off, Sweden has its fair share of quality craft brewers. If not for the seven months a year of cold and darkness, it just might be the perfect place. It’s a bit expensive too, but then you get what you pay for.
Look how pretty Stockholm is
In Sweden, the liquor industry is intensely government regulated (even Absolut was owned by the Swedish government until recently), even more so than in Canada. Only beer less than 3.5% ABV can be sold in grocery stores, all other liquor is sold in government stores called Systembolaget. I went into one to check it out. There are no shelves of wine and beer for people to grab and take to the checkout. There are only showcases to let you know what they have. Once you’ve made up your mind you order from a counter where the clerk goes into the back and assembles your order for you. I’m guessing they don’t get many shoplifters. Unlike in Canada where cold beer and wine stores exist to sell you alcohol at inflated prices after the government liquor stores close, Swedes just can’t buy liquor on Sundays. This is not cool, but at least the stores have a good selection of Swedish and international beer for sale.
The counter at Systembolaget
Behind the counter at Systembolaget
The beer showcase at Systembolaget
We ended up eating dinner at a cool restaurant that had an extensive craft beer list featuring mostly Swedish beers. The restaurant was called Bakfickan and the food and beer were delightful. I don’t remember what the beer we had was called, but it was tasty. I had a really hard time with the Swedish language, reading it, pronouncing it, and remembering any instructions whatsoever. We North Americans absolutely butcher Swedish, which I feel bad about because most Swedes speak excellent English with very little accent (the Ikea commercials back home are a giant lie). If you were wondering, the food in Stockholm is like what they sell at Ikea, except that it is of much higher quality. I had meatballs with lingon berry sauce at Bafickan. We also ate a lot of cold water fish and shrimp in Sweden, often with a dill mayo type sauce. We found the food in Stockholm to be delicious in general.
Craft beer at Bakfickan
Our last stop in Stockholm was to Akkurat, a very highly rated beer bar. They had an impressive array of beer available on cask, on tap, and in bottles, including many Swedish beers and top quality stuff from around the world. We went Swedish, but again I have no idea what it was. It was good though. This place is a must stop for any beer lover passing through Stockholm.
The bar at Akkurat
Stockholm is rad; you should visit it.
Cheers,
Chris
CAMRA Vancouver Summer Beer Festival, the new Caskival?
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 | Beer | No Comments
It was a sad day for all Vancouver beer lovers when Dix Brewery closed down. I knew I’d be able to find another before hockey game spot for a burger and beer, but what about Dix Caskivals? Dix hosted both winter and summer cask beer festivals that were rather awesome. I thought a part of Vancouver beer culture might die, but it sounds like CAMRA Vancouver has stepped up to the plate with a new Summer Beer Festival to replace the beloved Caskival.
The first ever CAMRA Vancouver Summer Beer Festival is happening Saturday, August 14th at St. Augustine’s in Vancouver. I believe the event is geared towards CAMRA members, but the Evite I received indicates there are general tickets available. A ticket costs $25 and includes three tastes and a commemorative tasting glass, at past Caskivals extra tastes were available for $1. Past Caskivals also featured stellar beer lineups and I’m almost certain this festival will be no different. Here’s hoping this event becomes widely successful and remains for me to attend when I return to Vancouver.
Cheers,
Chris
Guinness Tastes Better in Dublin
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs | 10 Comments
Our extended stay across the pond was always going to involve a trip to Dublin and a visit to the Guinness Storehouse. I obviously needed to look into the widely speculated rumor/myth/fact that Guinness tastes better in Ireland. Hopefully you’ve already gathered from the title of this post that I did indeed find this to be the case (if not it’s you, not me). I also find Guinness to taste better in London than in Vancouver, and better in Dublin than in London. Why might this be? I think the answer has to be freshness.
Gate to Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, other tourists taking pictures
Beer is like food and the same principles of freshness apply (although Guinness isn’t a meal in a glass; it has the same calorie content as most other beers and it’s the nitrogen bubbles that make you feel full). The differences in flavor I tasted I would describe in terms of freshness and staleness. The Guinness over here has a deeper roasted malt flavor than the Guinness at home and just tastes fresher, where the latter might have something to do with the oils contributed by the hops not yet breaking down. Guinness in Vancouver tastes like a mere shadow of what I tasted in Dublin.
Brew Kettle in the Guinness Storehouse
When you consider that Guinness is brewed in Dublin and is widely consumed in the British Isles (meaning kegs don’t sit around for long), it makes sense that the majority of the Guinness consumed here is fresh as can be. Whereas Guinness in Vancouver has taken a boat trip across the Atlantic, a train trip across Canada, and then sat in a BC Liquor Cartel warehouse or shelf for a while. Had I any foresight whatsoever, I might have brought a can of Guinness over here to consume along side a fresh pint from the Storehouse in direct comparison. In addition to being fresher, Guinness over here is much better taken care of. Bars carrying Guinness have Guinness representatives coming into clean their keg lines quite frequently. Bars are supposed to clean their lines regularly anyway, but most don’t. Dirty lines can sully a good beer, but no Guinness in Ireland is subjected to such shame.
Barrels in the Guinness Storehouse, they show you the whole industrial beer making process
This past year we were contacted by Guinness’ PR firm in Canada and asked to write about why Guinness was so remarkable for it’s 250th birthday. I wasn’t so sure Guinness was that remarkable, from a beer perspective at least. Now, having visited the Guinness Storehouse, I know why Guinness has thrived for 250 years, marketing and branding. The Storehouse itself is all part of the experience and the most impressive piece of beer tourism I’ve ever seen. You are ushered through five floors of Guinness history, from how it’s made to Guinness adverts of ages gone by. And what happens at the end? A free pint of fresh Guinness in the rooftop bar with panorama city views of Dublin. The Guinness Storehouse is a must see for anyone, not just beer lovers. You will surely feel more affection for Guinness having completed the tour, sheer marketing brilliance.
The bar on top of the Guinness Storehouse, pouring Guinness is an art
There’s more to Dublin that just Guinness though, and we made a point of checking out one of Dublin’s microbreweries. We actually ended up at Porterhouse Brewing Company’s Temple Bar location more than once. This maze like pub spanning several floors was packed out on both Friday and Saturday nights. They had the most amazing Guitar player on Friday night too (he put my Guitar Hero dominance on medium to shame). The beer was phenomenal too, way better than Guinness, we’re talking top quality microbrewery stuff. I particularly enjoyed their Oyster Stout and the Temple Brau lager. This is a great pub and another must visit.
Do you remember when lying was okay in advertising? Oh wait, it's still okay.
We also did a Literary Pub Crawl of Dublin. It was really fun, not for the beer, but for the story telling and literary history. Turns out every famous Irish writer was a massive drunk. But we were only in Dublin for two days and did our fair share of drinking, so who are we to judge?
Cheers,
Chris
Canada Day in Trafalgar Square
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 | Events | 1 Comment
Turns out there is a giant Canada Day celebration in Trafalgar Square every year. It’s an all day event featuring a road hockey tournament during the day and a raucous concert in the evening. They even had Canadian beer! What beer did they choose to represent all of Canada to London? Sleeman‘s honey brown and genuine draft. Not what I would have chosen, but probably the most popular beer available nation wide in Canada. It was all gone by the time I showed up anyway and I had to drink Carlsberg, gross. Also on hand was Tim Horton‘s coffee and doughnuts, Mission Hill wine, and Bison burgers. This was no slouch of a party either, the concert featured Jully Black and the Hawksley Workman, among others. It was one of the better Canada Day celebrations I’ve ever been to, which is a bit sad. As a nation, we’re more interested in the day off than truly celebrating our nation. We’re just too polite to make a scene…
Canada Day in Trafalgar Square
The most amazing part of the evening for me involved one of the Canadians we were meeting turning up in a circa 1994 Gino Odjick Canuck jersey. There were thousands of drunk Canadians in Trafalgar Square that night and a good portion of them, most of the ones from BC at least, all stopped by to hug, pose with, or otherwise worship the Gino jersey. The first incident I saw involved an extremely attractive woman practically throwing herself at the Gino jersey. If you are a young single Canadian, I recommend showing up next year in a Gino (or suitable 1994 Canuck hero, Linden, Ronning, Mclean, Momesso, Adams, Babych and others not including Bure might do the trick) because you’ll be the toast of the town. I always knew the 1994 Canuck run was a big deal, but it pretty much defines my generation. If nothing else, we have that in common. It’s a bit embarassing though, what with us not even winning. Ginooo!
The Power of Gino is immense
After the celebration we decided to go to the Maple Leaf, the one Canadian bar in London. Guess what? So did everyone else and we didn’t get in. I’ve yet to check out the Maple Leaf, but I’ll get there and let you know how it goes.
Cheers,
Chris