Last night I went to the Alibi Room with my friends Peter, Dave and Gavin. Erik was going to come, but he was busy roasting a chicken, it happens. Our visit came about because of comment’s Rick Green left on Dave’s guest post, wondering what Dave might think of the Alibi Room in comparison to Original Joe’s. It didn’t take much convincing to get a group out for beers after work, considering we are always up for some good merry making. That aside, the Alibi Room has a fantastic beer selection to tempt any enthusiast.
The Alibi Room has 19 taps of fresh, relatively local draught beer, plus many more bottled options, as well as the odd cask, all of which are in constant rotation. For a beer drinker, this is heaven. Not only do they have the best beer selection in BC, but there is always something new. In fact, the owner makes special trips to the island to pick up casks and kegs himself
I had a very hard time choosing what four beers to put into my “frat bat”. I ended up going for the Swans Cask ESB, Longwood “Batch 1000″ Doppelbock, Dix Texan Brown, and Steamworks Roggenweizen. I also sampled the Swans Extra IPA and ordered a pint of the Swans Cask ESB later on. I think we all enjoyed the Cask ale the most, but I was also particularly impressed with the Longwood Doppelbock. I didn’t care too much for the Roggenweizen (too spicy) or the Texan Brown, but neither are preferred styles of mine.
Peter and Dave with empty plates/glasses at the Alibi Room
We also had some very tasty, reasonably priced food. After splitting some chicken wings and a cheese plate, we ordered two each of their roast beef sandwich special and their bison dip, which were both quite good. I planned to take some pictures of our glorious spread of beer and food, but I completely forgot until we’d pretty much finished everything to the last crumb/drop. Still, I have a picture of our empty plates and glasses, testament to the good times we shared with great food and beer at the Alibi Room. I hope we end up making this a regular after work occurrence!
Cheers.
Chris
Thanks Rick; the Alibi Room was worth the drive in from Richmond. The beer choices were excellent. My frat-bat (pictured empty above) included the Cannery Naramata Nut Brown, Rogue Chocolate Stout, Driftwood Saison, and Longwood “Batch 1000″ Doppelbock. The four represented a great mix of tastes, making it tough to pick a favourite. The nut brown was tasty and I would liken it to a fresher, more lively version of Newcastle Nut Brown The Stout was incredibly delicious, but heavy. It would be great apres-ski, so long as you don’t need to operate heavy machinery or stay awake afterwards! The Saison gave me the biggest “wow” of the bunch. Brewed with pepper, it has a very unique spice that sounds weird, but tastes awesome.
I also sampled the Swans cask ESB and found it less distinctive than I had hoped for. No complaints mond you, I just wouldn’t write home about it.
Hi Dave. Glad you and the guys enjoyed Original Nigel’s. Now that he’s got three beer engines on with a cask R&B Hoppelganger, a rotating Swans cask, and a rotating wildcard cask, there’s even more to come back for. He’s also got plans to remodel the basement for draught down there as well. You might just have to move into the city
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