Archive for January, 2009
A trip to the beer stores
Friday, January 30th, 2009 | Beer | 3 Comments
I’m lucky to work near enough to Brewery Creek and Firefly that I can pop in at lunch, which I usually do every other week. This week I set out with a purpose, to see if I could find myself some more of Mill Street’s brews. I recently wrote about my experience with a couple of Mill Street products and the honourable Rich Green was kind enough to let me know that Firefly had Mill Street Coffee Porter in stock.
I am always curious to hear what Erik, and other beer enthusiasts, purchase from these fine purveyors of beer, so I thought it might be of interest to post my recent purchases. I came back from Firefly with:
My return trip via Brewery Creek was also fruitful:
I always come back with more than I “need”, but never have a hard time finding people to share beer with. There is usually some rhyme or reason behind my purchases. I purchased the GI Porter and the Philips Stout because they are new BC seasonal releases, the Rogues on the recommendation of a co-worker I was with at the time, the Mill Street to continue my investigation, and the Pumpkin Ale because there was a big ‘new’ sign under it. I am that fickle.
A side note, I bought an extra Philips the Hammer for The Cellar. Patience not being a gift of mine, it pains me whenever I stash a beer in my ultra high tech cardboard box garage cellar. See you in a year beer.
Cheers,
Chris
A tour of Russell Brewing
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 3 Comments
A month or so back I wrote about a bad experience I had with Russell Brewing. Russell found the post a short time later and contacted me. Angie Harris, a marketing manager at Russell, invited some friends and I in for a tour of their brewery and a tasting. Living not so far away, I gladly took them up on the offer last Saturday.
We were met by Angie and her brother Paul, a brewer with Russell, at their brewery in Surrey, BC. It turns out that Russell is somewhat of a family affair, employing many of the Harris clan. It also turns out that Angie, who is on maternity leave at the moment, and Paul came into work this past Saturday specifically to meet us and give us a tour. Right off the bat they showed great commitment to their product. They were also effusively apologetic for the bad batch of Russell Cream Ale I came across. They were very nice, very passionate people who were very excited to tell us about all of the great improvements that Russell is making to their business. They admitted that they’d had some problems with their canning process a few months back. They’ve since made changes to their equipment, improved filtration, and hired one of the top quality control guys in the brewing industry. I thought it was really great of them to be so open and honest. I can tell you from first hand experience that these people love their beer and are doing their best to make it awesome, even while on maternity leave.
Paul showed us around the brewery while Angie prepared a tasting for us. It was really cool to see how a microbrewery operates. We got to see everything from Russell’s new bottling line to the latest forklift dent in the refrigerated storage area. When it came to tasting, it was refreshing for me to taste how good Russell Cream Ale really can be. I hadn’t purchased any since last summer, but will surely do so in the future. We were also able to taste Russell’s Lager, Honey Blonde Ale, and Pale Ale, as well as the Pale Ale and Dark Ale of new Manitoba partner Fort Garry Brewing. All were very simple, good quality beers. Angie was also kind enough to suit us up in some Russell t-shirts, which you’ll see us sporting in the pictures below.
Russell more than made up for their mistake in my books. I thank them very much for the tour and the tasting, which made for an excellent Saturday afternoon.
Pictures of the tour I took with my iPhone:
Paul starting the tour off.
The Mash Tun
The Brew Kettle
Conditioning Tanks
The new bottling machine
The canning machine
The canning machine up close
The super high tech can lid placer
Angie and the six pack making machine
Taps in the lunch room? Awesome.
Angie pouring us some tasters
Peter, Tristen, Dave, Chris and Erik in our new Russell shirts
Cheers,
Chris
Real Beer Can Go Bad
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 1 Comment
Last Monday I had my family over for a nontraditional, one day late Robbie Burns Supper. The evening went quite well, at least I think it did, and I was pleased with the food, except for one key element, the beer. I picked up a bottle of Jameson’s Scottish Ale from Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub last September with the intent of serving it at a Robbie Burns supper. Scotch Ale is not my favorite style of beer – I find it cloying and challenging to finish as a result. But I bought this ale anyways thinking it would be great when paired with a rich flavorful dessert – sticky toffee pudding to be precise.
I served a delicious Brown Ale from Canoe Brewpub as a match to a supper of cullen skink, braised beef cross rib and of course neeps and tatties. A sticky toffee pudding was going to be served alongside a strong scotch ale as a conclusion to the meal, but disaster prevented this from happening. The beer had gone bad. The ale that was supposed to be smooth and malty was now offensively sour. I picked myself up from this great disappointment and carried on the evening by serving an oatmeal stout instead. Crisis was averted and dessert was served, but with a lingering sense of disappointment that nearly spoiled the evening.
This is not my first experience with spoiled beer from Spinnakers, this is the third time this has happened to me. Obviously Spinnakers has a problem with their bottling line that should be corrected, but in the world of small craft brewing I deem this to be somewhat of an acceptable error. This is not to say that I look forward to opening a bottle only to find sour beer waiting for me, I don’t. Small brewers operate on a tight budget and do the best with what they have – this means consistency from bottle to bottle may occasionally vary. The main reason why I can overlook this mistake is because craft beer is real beer and real beer is not pasteurized. Pasteurization is a high heat bacterial kill step that most macro brewers use to ensure their beer has a long shelf life. The intense heat of pasteurization does not help to improve beer’s flavour, if anything it destroys the delicate flavour compounds found in a proper brew. A clean brewery and proper brewing practices are all that is necessary to ensure a quality beer is reaching consumers – at least most of the time.
Opening a bottle of spoiled beer is part of the real beer experience. Of course it should be a very rare occurrence, but it will happen. Before modern science many beer drinkers would have regularly found their pint glass filled with sour beer. Without stale beer England’s famous Porter may never have existed. I am certain that the great Robbie Burns came across stale beer from time to time and I am quite happy to have a shared experience with him. Every stale beer I come across will continue to remind me that I am drinking real beer and real beer can go bad.
Erik
Beer and Meat
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 | Beer, Food and Recipes | 7 Comments
I am not much of a cook, except when it comes to meat. I am not particularly skilled at cooking meat, I just enjoy spending time with my BBQ. I asked for a meat cookbook for Christmas this year and my wife really came through for me. She bought me The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who you may recognize as the dude from the F Word who helps Gordon Ramsey raise his turkeys and his pigs. The book itself is over five hundred pages, half filled with recipes and half filled with information about meat. I have most enjoyed reading the informative chapters.
I absolutely love this book. I am obsessed with learning about farming practices, how to spot quality meat, and about all of the different cuts of meat. I was shocked and appalled at what are considered industry farming practices, which are intensive to say the least. What I found the most interesting is that healthy, happy, animals produce better quality meat that tastes better. While obviously not a vegetarian, I do love animals and have since undertaken to buy my beef from a local farm where the cows are likely to have lived good lives.
My search for local beef lead me to a few farms nearby. Sadly, like Hugh warns of in the book, it seems our culture is obsessed with lean beef, which is debatably healthier, but less tasty. The first farm I looked into was Mount Lehman’s Grass-Only Beef Farm. I spoke to a woman there who boasted of her lean beef, but also stated that her slaughtered beef was only hung for two weeks because it is so lean that it would dry out. High recommends at least three weeks of hanging time, so I kept looking.
Erik recommended we look into Painted River Farm, who advertised three weeks of hanging time. They also feed their beef organic grain as well as grass, to help fatten them up a bit. Sounded tasty to me. Erik and I decided to split a 30lb box of various beef cuts for starters, just to make sure we liked it. Our original goal was to purchase a half or quarter cow!
The first cut of beef I attempted to prepare was a rib steak on the BBQ. Upon opening the package, I was a little disappointed by the lack of marbling in the beef. I was hoping for more, but who was I to judge without tasting. The only seasoning I used was a Pride of Szeged Steak Rub. I decided to pair by first steak with a Driftwood Blackstone Porter, which may or may not go well with steak depending on your tastes. I’d usually recommend a Pale Ale or an IPA.
Sadly, I overcooked the first steak. This never happens to me, I swear! I was highly distraught and very disappointed in myself. If you are going to kill and eat an animal, you had better prepare it properly, right vegetarians? Luckily, there was a second steak, which I managed to cook well, although not as rare as I would have liked. The second one was delicious. I really thought it tasted sweeter and more beefy, which is weird to say, but that’s what beef tastes like. Talking to Erik later on, I found that he overcooked his first t-bone also. We think this beef somehow cooks faster, maybe due to the lack of fat? I’ve learned my lesson in any case.
What does all of this have to do with beer? Well, I love drinking beer with beef, or any meal for that matter. There is also a beer recipe in the book, a recipe for a stew that Hugh calls “beef in stout”, which I hope to make soon. If you are an animal lover and you want to get the most out of your meat, I really recommend The River Cottage Meat Book. It is a fascinating book.
Cheers,
Chris
Dining Out Vancouver
Monday, January 26th, 2009 | Beer | 3 Comments
It’s Dineout time in Vancouver again. Dineout Vancouver is a local tourism event where restaurants in these parts offer a three course menu at set rates, either $18, $28, or $38 for an appetizer, main, and dessert. I believe it was conceived to promote local dining in the doldrums of January, which I imagine is not a busy time for culinary institutions otherwise. For me, Dineout means heading to one or two of Vancouver’s top restaurants (by top I mean most expensive) for a dinner I couldn’t otherwise justify, affordability wise. This year I set out to make note of the beer on offer by these upper crust restaurants. I’ve often found that wine gets much more fanfare at “fancy” establishments and is often recommended in pairing with the food on offer. Why then does beer, an equally complex and satisfying beverage, not get the same amount of love?
I was very pleased to find that both restaurants I visited this year offered local craft brew on tap. However, the beer selections were dwarfed by the wine lists. The Blue Water Cafe boasts an epic 56 page wine list that requires a solid hour to study in full. We were actually seated in the wine room, which was lined wall to wall with excellent wines of varying varietal and vintage. The beer menu consisted of only:
- R&B Pale Ale (on tap)
- R&B Lager (on tap)
- Innis & Gunn (bottle)
- Asahi (bottle)
- Sleemans Honey Brown Lager (bottle)
- Stella Artois (bottle)
To be honest, it was a better selection than I expected, but only three of the six brews available I would consider craft. It was great that they had local R&B on tap and the excellent Innis & Gunn available in bottles. I just don’t understand how a restaurant that prides itself on the finest cuisine and matching that cuisine with the perfect wine would neglect the art of beer pairing.
I was also able to visit C Restaurant, which, like Blue Water, also boasted a huge wine list, just under thirty pages in length. Their beer offerings included only Lighthosue Lager, IPA, and Race Rocks Amber. I do enjoy Lighthouse beer and I appreciate that it is craft brewed and relatively local. But again, why the huge emphasis on wine, while beer is largely ignored?
I must say that both of the meals I had were delightful and very tasty. I had a great time at both restaurants. Still, it confounds me that restaurants who put such an emphasis on preparing great food made with local ingredients don’t take more of an interest in their beer, especially considering that more of the population drinks beer over wine, not to mention the growing abundance of local craft beer.
Sadly, I’m pretty sure these restaurants focus on wine because of the snobbery associated with viticulture. I mean, what “well regarded” restaurant doesn’t have an excellent wine selection? That being said, I hope that Vancouver’s restaurant scene gets wise to the great beer on offer hereabouts. I really believe they’ll be missing out otherwise.
Cheers,
Chris
Happy Robbie Burns Day!
Sunday, January 25th, 2009 | Events | No Comments
Gude Ale Keeps The Heart Aboon
Chorus-O gude ale comes and gude ale goes;
Gude ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon-
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon!
I had sax owsen in a pleugh,
And they drew a’ weel eneugh:
I sell’d them a’ just ane by ane-
Gude ale keeps the heart aboon!
O gude ale comes, &c.
Gude ale hauds me bare and busy,
Gars me moop wi’ the servant hizzie,
Stand i’ the stool when I hae done-
Gude ale keeps the heart aboon!
O gude ale comes, &c.
Robert Burns
The fuss about Mill Street Brewing
Saturday, January 24th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Review | 8 Comments
In a previous post, I accused Taps Magazine, “Canada’s Beer Magazine”, of focusing overly on Ontario brewers. One fellow from Taps was kind enough to comment on our blog and let us know that Taps will increasingly be spreading its coverage throughout Canada. I think what Taps is doing is great and I understand that, as a young magazine focusing on a niche subject, it might be hard to cover our vast nation coast to coast, especially when based in Ontario. All that aside, I found that I read an awful lot about Mill Street Brewing and their greatness in early Taps issues. Their prevalence in Taps coupled with their great success at the Canadian Brewing Awards got me rather curious. Is Mill Street really Canada’s best brewery? Or are they Canada’s best brewery like the Leafs are Canada’s best hockey team (because they are from Toronto)?
To answer this question, I set out to try as many of Mill Street’s brews as possible, which turned out to be rather challenging. Nowhere in BC can any Mill Street products be found in draught form, but I did manage to track down bottles at a few places. Brewery Creek carries their Belgian Wit and used to carry their Stock Ale, until I bought the last six pack. The Irish Heather also carries bottles of the Belgian Wit, as well as their much heralded Tankhouse Ale. I made a special trip to the Irish Heather just to taste the Tankhouse Ale. I have now tasted both the Stock Ale and the Tankhouse Ale, both gold medal winners at the Canadian Brewing Awards.
As for the beers themselves, I first tried the Stock Ale in the comfort of my own home. My first impression of the Stock Ale was nothing whatsoever. I don’t think I noticed taking a sip. It really reminded me of macro brewed lager. I was really expecting great things, and was disappointed as such, but I can’t say that this was bad beer. It’s just everybody beer. You’d serve this beer to people who don’t like beer or you’d drink this beer if you wanted to drink 15 beers in one sitting. I suppose it was true to style, but I expected a touch of genius.
I next tried the Tankhouse Ale at the Irish Heather. Now this is Mill Street’s flagship beer, and having read so much about it, I was really expecting the greatest beer of all time. I think it was only the build up that had me disappointed, because I really did enjoy the Tankhouse Ale. I found it to be good pale ale and I would gladly buy it again. It has an amber colour, is a little spicy, and a bit hoppy. I found it to be very well balanced. I read on Mill Street’s website that they use Cascade hops to brew this one. This got me thinking, most Pacific Northwest brewers use Cascade, which were originally cultivated in Oregon, in a good portion of their brews. The Tankhouse Ale was quite good, but it is of similar quality to the pale ales I regularly get hereabouts (Phillips Blue Buck for example).
Tasting two beers probably wasn’t a fair assessment of Mill Street (I bet they have some great seasonal and draught beers), but I wasn’t particularly impressed with Mill Street. I held off originally on the Belgian Wit (not my favorite style), but I will endeavor to try some the next chance I get. What I find more alluring of what the East Coast has to offer is Dieu du Ciel. I’ve had three of the six varieties I’ve purchased so far and each one has been an experience. I plan to do a write up of my Dieu du Ciel experiences in the near future, but I definitely recommend trying any that you come across in the mean time.
To sum up, I think I’ve decided that Mill Street is the best brewery in Canada in the same way that Luke Schenn is the second coming of Bobby Orr (it’s the Toronto factor). Ontario is always going to get more attention at the national level and I can deal with that (especially when the Leafs are losing). I’m just happy to be living out West where there is an abundance of great beer, right here in BC and coming up from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
Cheers,
Chris
Great Beer Moments of 2009
Friday, January 23rd, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs | 2 Comments
Spending yesterday afternoon in search of great beer was a pleasant reminder to me about why I love beer. Now I know we are only 23 days into this year, but I strongly believe yesterday will easily finish in my top five beer moments of 2009. There was no one particular beer that made yesterday so memorable; it was the combination of great beer, great places, great food and great company that made yesterday shine through the dreariness of BC’s foggy start to 2009.
The afternoon started by meeting my good friend Brad in Burnaby, on route to Brewery Creek. For those of us who live in the Fraser Valley, a trip out to Brewery Creek is not a weekly occurrence and is a noteworthy event. Until yesterday Brad was a Brewery Creek virgin – I was excited to show him the bounty that is Brewery Creek, and he was excited to spend his entire beer budget in one fell swoop. With grins on our faces we perused through the shelves slowly filling our carts with beer. For those who haven’t been, Brewery Creek is like a candy store for adults, only the candy doesn’t cost 5 cents. Brad loaded up on barley wine and I rounded out my collection with beer from Oregon, Washington, BC and Belgium. Had the day ended here it would have already been great – but it continued on.
We still had plenty of time in the afternoon and I had not yet satisfied my desire for new beer, so we decided to head to Firefly. This was my first visit to Firefly, and with a parking spot left open beside the store it was meant to be. Firefly has an impressive beer and wine selection, but I can’t say standing in a fridge while shopping for beer is ideal. Nonetheless, I added a few more bottles to my collection and headed on out; Brad had already overspent his budget and had to go without. I will be updating The Cellar shortly with my most recent additions, although most of my purchases will end up in my belly before they make it to the cellar.
By this time it was quarter to five and hunger was setting in. Yesterday was Thursday, and DIX Brewery has cask ale on Thursdays – good news! We headed over to DIX for an early dinner and to enjoy this week’s cask ale – a Rye IPA better know as Jack the RIPA. The cask ale was fantastic, with hints of spice from the rye, a warming malt flavour, and a great hop kick. One was all it took yesterday – sometimes simplicity and moderation (I can’t believe I am writing this) is a good thing. The food at DIX was equally impressive, I ordered the BBQ Brisket Sandwich and Brad decided on a burger. DIX was the perfect way to end an afternoon beer hunt.
I love beer because it is more than just nourishment to our bodies and a means for drunkenness. Good beer, like good food, becomes exponentially better when enjoyed with good friends, and yesterday’s beer tasted pretty fantastic.
Erik
Big Ridge Brewing Company
Friday, January 23rd, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs, Review | 9 Comments
A second guest post in two days! This latest contribution to the Love Good Beer fold is written by Peter Chandler, a good friend of mine and a stellar human being. A technical writer by trade and a seasoned beer traveler, he spins a good yarn. ~ Chris
Mats Sundin’s debut with the Canucks earlier this month was a special occasion for all Vancouverites. Like many of the team’s supporters, I decided that this night was a momentous enough occasion–either that or it was just a good enough excuse for my wife–to trek out to my local Big Ridge Brewing Company to enjoy the game with a few friends and a few pints.
For starters, I ordered their seasonal offering, an Espresso Stout, which sounded like it would be awesome, with a side of poutine (that turned out to be the best poutine west of the Rockies). Unfortunately, to me the seasonal tasted like a melted 7-Eleven Slurpuccino filtered through a dirty ashtray. Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh; the pint probably wasn’t that bad. After all, I was able to finish it, though I certainly didn’t order another one. For seconds, I grabbed a Black and Tan, which was more suited to my palate and more flavourful than the bottle of Bud that the guy beside me was drinking. The Black and Tan blended fairly quickly, tasted very smooth, and quickly cleansed my memory of the previous pint. I guess that is why I love Big Ridge. Within their small selection of microbrews there is enough flavour and variety for everyone–everyone except for that dude who was drinking a bottle of Bud–to find something to their liking. It is that process, the quest for the perfect pint, which I enjoy the most.
By the way, I love Big Ridge, so much so that I went there on my wedding day. Chris (a key member of my wedding party) showcased his usual creative frugality, proclaiming, “This guy is getting married”, while pointing at me, “do we get any free stuff?” The waitress, preparing to make a quick escape from our table, raised her right eyebrow, tilted her head and replied without giving Chris an answer, “This is the saddest stag I have ever seen”.
Fair enough, if that really was my bachelor party, I, too, would have been underwhelmed. Incidentally, my stag was a legendary affair. Sun-soaked Osoyoos, bathwater-soaked hotel room, golf, wine touring and the epic Sage pub. But this is not a tale of debauchery and hooliganism, this is a story about fresh, delicious beer, pleasant surroundings, and good times. I’ll leave that story for another time.
Peter
Review: Lost Coast Brewery Winterbraun
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | Beer, Review | 3 Comments
We are currently working on creating a base of guest writers for this site. This will help bring diversity to our writing while helping to generate a regular stream of content. It brings me great pleasure to introduce our first guest post, written by one of my closest friends, Brad Wiens. Brad has a growing passion for beer and has an impressively straight forward approach to beer – if it tastes good, it is good. Brad will hopefully become a semi-regular contributor to Love Good Beer. Without further ado, I present to you, Brad Wiens. – Erik
Since this is my first post and also my first beer review , I will give you a little bit of background about me and my beer history. Sadly, when I was a young lad I did not enjoy beer, it tasted awful. I managed to drink a few pints to not seem like a wuss in front of my friends, but my stomach hated me for it. It wasn’t until my cousin ordered me a Rickard’s Red that I tasted the difference in beer. Previously I had only tried beer such as Molson Canadian and Bud Light because when I was “younger” that was all that was available at parties (at least from my experience). Rickard’s Red was a whole different kind of beer to me, it had flavor and guts. My taste buds and my stomach instantly said “more please”.
For a long time my beer of choice was Rickard’s Red, until my good friend Erik started to branch out from standard beer. Over the past few years I have started to develop a friendship with beer, and now I am madly in love with it. Erik’s homebrew has frequented my fridge and I always look forward to his next creation, and helping out with the rather messy but fun homebrew process. Well, enough about me and onto the beer review.
Winterbraun is a slightly richer, stronger version of Lost Coast Brewery’s Downtown Brown, classed as an English Brown Ale. At first glance while looking at the bottle, I thought Winterbraun would have been a tad darker than it was. I poured a small amount into a clear glass to get a good look at the color, it was reddish brown. It smelt warm and inviting, and tickled my nose with a slight caramel smell. I poured the rest into my beer stein, which is what all my beer is drunk out of. The Winterbraun is quite mild, but it has a great taste to it. I thought of a Newcastle Brown Ale with more of a kick near the end. The first half was nice, slightly sharp but with as smooth lingering aftertaste. After about halfway through, the beer’s sharpness went away and I could taste the full body of the beer. I think after warming up, the beer began to open up and taste better.
I tend to think of foods that go well with the beer that I drink. I thought for awhile about what I would like to eat while drinking Winterbraun. Surprisingly I could think of no food that would go extremely well and enhance the flavor. I thought this was rather odd at first, but later on realized that this was a beer that I could drink alone. No food, no snacks, nothing but a beer. Of course it would go with a nice BBQ, but I think this is a beer I would tend to drink by itself.
Overall I am quite pleased with the Winterbraun. It is a nice mild mannered beer that I will definitely be purchasing again. With a nice color and a surprisingly warm feel, I recommend this beer to anyone looking to sit down on a couch and enjoy a beer, a beer that goes well with a second Winterbraun.
Brad