Love Good Beer

Where did the flavour go – take II

Saturday, March 14th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Events, Food and Recipes, Homebrew, Pubs | No Comments

I have been battling a cold all week. For a person who loves food and beer, a cold is far more than a runny nose and a sore throat – a cold renders taste buds useless, clearly it is evil in its purest form. I have not been able to taste anything all week which has made for a somewhat mundane week. I was saddened to arrive at DIX Cask Thursday with a numbed pallet. The company at DIX was quite enjoyable, but both ales, which I am told were delicious, tasted only of bitterness. Now both Cask beers were quite hop heavy and bitterness is to be expected; however, I missed all of the subtleties and nuances that the brewer has intended for. Fortunately I am well on my way to recovery and should be in good drinking condition this Sunday for the cask at The Whip.

Prior to this cold destroying one of life’s greatest pleasures, I found a great ale house/beer bar in Everett, Washington last Sunday. This unintentional last hurrah for my taste buds took place at the poorly named Flying Pig Brewing Company. I have read that the Flying Pig was once a brewpub, but recently stopped brewing and now only serves local Northwest craft beer. Their selection of beer is quite impressive, but I do think a name change would be in good order.

After getting over the fact that no beer was brewed on site I ordered a pint of Hood Canal Oatmeal Stout. This stout has a delicious roasted malt flavour and a thick mouth feel. I had no choice but to order the pulled pork sandwich – my love for pulled pork is bordering on obsession. It wasn’t the greatest pulled pork, but nothing to complain about either. My wife order a pint of Alaskan Pale Ale, and from the sips I manage to steal, it was quite tasty. All in all it was a great place for a Sunday lunch.

I did manage to snap a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The Flying Pig Brewing Company

Hood Canal Oatmeal Stout

Holly with an Alaskan Pale Ale

Beer Selection

Pulled Pork - ignore the finger, I'm not a photographer

Erik

Tags: Alaskan Pale Ale, Cask, dix, Hood Canal Oatmeal Stout, The Flying Pig Brewing Company, the whip

Where did the flavour go?

Saturday, March 14th, 2009 | Beer | 2 Comments

I just finished witing a new post with the above title.  WordPress deleted all the content when I logged on to publish – Anger!

Erik

A cask Thursday at Dix

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Beer | No Comments

Dix BBQ and Brewery has a cask of special ale available every Thursday (that is not a game day) at 5PM.  This past Thursday, Erik and I met up with the honourable Rick Green to sample this week’s offerings and talk about beer.  This week was a bit special, not only did Dix make a cask of their own Texas Brown Ale (think brown IPA) available, but Russell Brewing was testing out a new IPA recipe of theirs.  Considering our history with Russell Brewing, I was really interested to try their IPA.  I think we both enjoyed it, or at least I did.  I hope that Russell adds this beer to their production lineup.  It would be by far their most alluring brew and a beer I could see myself purchasing.

Dix cask nights are regularly advertised in the CAMRA Vancouver weekly newsletter, always tempting me.  I was surprised to see just how many CAMRA members actually show up on a weekly basis, fifty or so by my estimation.  We had a great time talking about beer with Rick and had the pleasure to meet other CAMRA members, including local brewers, illustrious beer store owners, and friendly beer enthusiasts.  I hope I can make my attendance at Dix Cask Thursdays a more frequent occurrence.  Good fresh beer and good times.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: camra vancouver, Cask Ale, dix, rick green, russell brewing

A trip to Old Yale Brewing

Sunday, March 8th, 2009 | Breweries | 4 Comments

I attended a wedding in Chilliwack yesterday.  We had a substantial break between the ceremony and the reception, so the wife and I decided to check out Old Yale Brewing.  We arrived to find that the brewery itself is tiny.  There was little differentiation between the brewery, the beer store, and their office, which were all in one big room.  We were greeted by the brewer Brian (very friendly) and his young assistant, who were busily cleaning out the mash tun.  I chatted with Brian for a bit, he let me know that besides him and his assistant, Old Yale has only one other employee (the owner). Brian also let me know that most of their beer is sold to Vancouver “because Chilliwack is full of hicks who love their bud.”  Haha!

After inquiring about beer sales, I had my purchase rung through right beside the grain mill.  It was really cool to see such a small brewery in action, run by friendly folk producing highly regarded beer.  Old Yale brews four beers and I left with one each of their Cultus Lake Pilsner, Old Yale Pale Ale, Seargent’s IPA, and Sasquatch Stout.  I haven’t tried any of them yet, but I’m sure I’ll get find an opportunity soon enough.  Old Yale also sells party pigs (8.5L) and 20L or 60L kegs of their beer at very reasonable prices.  If you are ever out near the ‘wack and you need a wack of beer, consider stopping by.

Some pictures of the brewery:

The brewery in its entirety

The brewing vessels

The fermenters

The fridge containing bottles and conditioning tanks

The end of the line: bottling and kegging

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: chilliwack, cultus lake pilsner, old yale brewing, old yale pale ale, sasquatch stout, seargents ipa

Okay, I’ll admit it – I love yeast

Saturday, March 7th, 2009 | Beer, Food and Recipes, Homebrew | 10 Comments

The world of beer aficionados is generally divided into two camps; hops heads and malt lovers.  This particular part of the world, the Pacific Northwest,  is chock full of  hop heads and rightly so – Washington State is one of the world’s greatest hop growing regions.  But as much as I enjoy  drinking an over the top Imperial IPA, I’m not a true hop head.  Neither am I a true malt lover – although I can’t image ever turning down a malty Southern Brown Ale.  So where does this leave me – will I forever be lost in this state of limbo? No, for I am a yeast lover.

Yeast is such an under-discussed and unappreciated ingredient – without yeast beer would not exist and the world would be worse for it.  Beer was brewed without hops for centuries and although beer  would not be the same without malted grain, a whole plethora of sugary ingredients are out there just begging to be added into the brewing process, but yeast cannot be replaced or substituted.  Baking Powder just will not do in this situation.

Yeast can be a completely neutral ingredient, imparting almost no flavour at all in its creation of alcohol and carbon dioxide, which is desirable in many beer styles.  On the opposite side, yeast can create esters, and phenols and many other compounds that add a  range of fruit flavours and spicy complexity to beer.  Not only can yeast create flavour, but it can also add mouthfeel and can  draw out or hide the maltiness of certain beers.

The Belgians are masters at controlling spicy, fruity, sour and almost sweet flavours that yeast can create,  Germans have brewing with neutral lager yeast down to a science, the English know how to control malt flavours with yeast, and North Americans have embraced a whole gamut of yeast strains to brew with.  Brewers understand the importance of yeast, but that understanding does not make it to the consumer often enough.

Yeast is a living, breathing organism that is responsible for the creation of beer and I think these creatures deserve a little more attention in the world of beer.  A knowledgeable beer drinker should be able to determine the different hop varieties in a beer and perhaps even the different malts, but I believe only a select few could determine the style of yeast used to ferment the sweet wort into beer.

My obsession with yeast has grown to new heights.  So far I have collected two wild yeast cultures; one for bread and one for brewing my very own authentic West Coast Lambic.  The third yeast culture was harvested from my last homebrew and is essentially an IPA flavoured Wyeast 1968 ESB yeast.  Instead of brewing with this yeast, I think I will try to make pizza dough with the yeast.  Add some heat to the pizza sauce and I would imagine the the pizza would pair perfectly with an IPA – both sharing the same yeast.

Harvested Wyeast ESB Yeast - Wild Yeast for brewing - Wild Sourdough Yeast

Wild Yeast for a Lambic experiment

If you only take away one thing from this post I hope it is this:  Yeast creates beer, and without beer where would the world be -  would happiness as we know it exist?

Cheers,

Erik

Tags: Beer, ESB, Esters, hops, Lambic, Malt, Phenols, Sourdough, Yeast

Real Trappist Beer

Friday, March 6th, 2009 | Beer | 5 Comments

I sometimes flinch when people say they do or do not like Belgian beer.  A year ago, I might have said something similar, but I’ve since learned that Belgium is country and not representative of a beer style.  In fact, Belgian beer comprises a vast and diverse collection of very delicious beer styles.  The most interesting moniker attached to a category of Belgian beer, to me at least, is Trappist.  Trappist is also not the name of a beer style, but signifies that a beer has been brewed under the control of Trappist monks.  Trappist beer is available for sale, but the monks use any proceeds to carry out their monastic lives, not for profit.  I find this pretty freaking cool, that I can drink beer made by monks in the same way they’ve been making it for hundreds of years.  Check out the Wikipedia page for more info on Trappist history.

There are currently only seven Trappist breweries remaining in the world, six in Belgium and one in the Netherlands, and all are currently attached to active monasteries.  They are Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, Achelse Kluis, and Koningshoeven (the Dutch one).  Trappist beers were traditionally brewed with greater strength to help sustain the monks during their fasts (which may or may not explain some saintly visions).  Today, Trappist ales can generally be categorized among the dubbel, tripel, Belgian pale ale, or Belgian strong ale styles.  Many confuse Belgian beers sporting the abbey label with trappist beers.  The abbey label arose around the same time that Trappist beer became popular, but abbey is only a competitive marketing term.  Abbey and Trappist beers are generally brewed in the same styles, but the abbey label does not necessarily signify that a beer was actually made by an abbey, not that it really matters.  There are many fine examples of excellent abbey beer (Unibroue in Quebec brews some of the finest belgian trappist/abbey style beer in the world), but you can be sure that authentic trappist beers are of the finest quality.

The seven Trappist Beers

I for one am excited to get into the stockpile of Westmalle, Rochefort, and Chimay authentic Trappist beers I have recently amassed.  A Belgian tasting night might be in order, complete with sasions, browns, wits, lambics and more.  If you haven’t tried any Belgian beer styles, I highly recommend you do so.  There will definitely be at least one that strikes you as lovely, and you don’t want to be missing out.

Cheers,

Chri

Tags: abbey, achelse kluis, belgian, chimay, dubbel, koningshoeven, Lambic, orval, rochefort, sasion, trappist, tripel, unibroue, westmalle, westvleteren, wit

Red Thai Curry and Hefeweizen

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 | Beer, Food and Recipes, Review | 5 Comments

Red  Thai Curry served alongside Bavarian Hefeweizen is my new favourite food and beer pairing.

I was out for lunch last Friday at Joeys with some friends from work.   Joeys is a relatively small restaurant chain where new world cuisine and a charged atmosphere melds with hip comfort. This means a globally diverse yet distinctly North American menu is creatively served in an attractive manner by even more attractive woman – and quite honesty, it works.

One of my colleagues, who happens to be a passionate Irishmen with a solid respect for good beer, recommended a pitcher of Hefeweizen – I gladly accepted.   Joeys serves a selection of house brand beer  that is brewed by none other than Whistler Brewing, better known as KB Brewing.  Once the beer was ordered my choice of food became quite simple, I had no option other than to order the Panang Prawn Curry Bowl.  Proper Hefeweizen has a subtle too strong banana flavour with a hint of cloves.  Although A Red Thai Curry uses neither banana or cloves as  ingredients, the spicy tropical flavour found in most Thai curries seemed to be a natural match with Hefeweizen.

My food was delivered by an attractive woman and was creatively platted with a large banana leaf garnish on the side.  The banana leaf suggested that I had hit a home run with my food and  beer selection.  The fork reached my mouth and in went the Thai curry -  it was delicious, pleasantly sweet with a tropical coconut flavour countered with a spicy finish.  Down went the fork and up went the glass of beer – had I been working at my job for over a month I would have jumped up and down victoriously, the pairing was a success.  I subdued my reaction to a small grin, although in my head I was doing a victory dance, and carried on savoring my lunch.

Those who say Singha and Thai food are a match made in heaven are wrong – sorry, but it is the truth.  If you ever happen to find yourself in a Thai restaurant that serves a well brewed Hefeweizen I highly recommend taking full advantage of this spectacular flavour combination.

Erik

Tags: Hefewiezen, Joeys, KB Brewing, Singha, Thai Food, thai red curry, Whister Brewing

Pregame at the Kingston

Sunday, March 1st, 2009 | Beer | No Comments

I went to the Canucks vs Lightning game on Friday.  It was not a good game, but at least the Canucks won 2-1.  Before the game, in need of a post work meal and a pregame libation, we decided to go to the Kingston Taphouse and Grille.  I’d often heard about the Kingston when listening to the TEAM 1040.  The 1040 guys regularly do their Canucks pregame shows at the Kingston, so I thought it would be a cool place to hang out.  It wasn’t bad, but I can’t say there is much to taking in a live radio show.  The place was packed out and we couldn’t even hear what Rick Ball and Don Taylor were saying.  I guess I expected some fan interaction.  Is a hug from local sports legend Don Taylor too much to ask for?

The crowded bar at the Kingston, Rick Ball of 1040 in the background

As for the Kingston itself, I can’t say I was overly impressed with their beer selection.  They had some local microbrew on tap from Granville Island, Russell, and Red Truck.  They also had the typical Canadian macro lagers, plus Guinness and Cafrey’s, but nothing that got me excited.  I also found the bar to be too crowded, but the burger I ordered was suitably tasty.  We had a decent time at the Kingston, but I much prefer the freshly brewed beer and atmosphere of Dix for my pregame warmup, which is where you’ll find me next time.

The taps and the big screen

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: canucks, dix, don taylor, granville island, kingston, red truck, russell brewing, team 1040