Monthly Archives: April 2009

After 25 years it is finally here: Brockton IPA

The Granville Island Brewing Company turned 25 this year, and to celebrate they released a new beer titled Brockton IPA. Granville Island Brewing is one of British Columbia’s first craft brewers – all BC beer fans, even those whose tastes are not always satisfied with Granville Island’s regular offering, owe a big thank you to this brewing pioneer.

Granville Island’s non-seasonal six-pack beer is generally speaking, not brewed to please the discerning pallet of a passionate beer drinker, but that is good. Not all craft beer needs to be challenging and thought provoking. Granville Island’s beer serves as a great entry point into the world of craft beer. This brewery has done a great deal of work in developing a market for craft beer in Vancouver. Although I am no longer a diehard fan of Granville Island English Bay Pale Ale, I still have a great deal of respect for this ale. Had this mild pale ale never existed I may not have been exposed to BC’s burgeoning craft beer scene – English Bay Pale Ale was one of the first craft beers that I tasted, enjoyed and began to purchase regularly.

To please fussier beer drinkers, such as myself, Granville Island Brewing offers a good selection of creative and flavourful seasonal beers. Unlike their regular offering, which is now brewed in Kelowna, their season beer is still brewed on Granville Island. To me, the true definition of a craft brewer is not how many liters a brewery produces annually, but whether or not a selection of seasonal beer is offered. Seasonal releases are a great way for brewers to challenge their customers’ taste buds and push the boundaries a bit. Having achieved success with a previous IPA seasonal release, Granville Island Brewing decided that now was the perfect time to release a milder version of their seasonal IPA.

Because I fall into the “fussy” beer drinking category, I assumed that Brockton IPA would not be for me. My assumptions were correct – there is nothing wrong with this beer and I believe it is a great IPA for those who have never experienced the full on flavour assault of an IPA, I just prefer a bigger, bolder IPA. Knowing that Brockton IPA was not for me, I decided to invite a few friends over, all who like beer to varying degrees, to sample the beer and offer their unbiased opinions.

Here is what they thought:

Brad Wiens:

i

It is a good beer, but somewhat weak. Similar to other Granville Island Beer.

ii

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Cheryl Wiens:

I

It tastes like a pill that I tried to swallow and then coughed up

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i

Holly Wolfe:

i

It is okay, but a bit too bitter. I prefer their Winter Ale.

i

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Rachel Richardson:

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Piney tasting – Where is the citrus flavour?

i

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Chris Richardson:

Chris has already posted his comments, but to reiterate:

i

It tastes like a hoppier version of English Bay Pale Ale

i

ii

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i

No one seemed to fall in the love with Brockton IPA, but aside from Cheryl, everyone did finish their beer. Subjective opinions aside, Brockton IPA is a great introduction to hoppier, flavourful beers and I am always excited to see a brewer release a new beer. I look forward to seeing what Granville Island brews next.

Cheers,

Erik

Homebrewing for the first time

This past Saturday, Erik invited me over to brew a batch of porter with his good friend Brad.  I had never homebrewed before, so this was completely new to me.  I arrived at Erik’s house a while before Erik, who was running late, returned from Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies with the malt and hop ingredients.  Luckily, I was really on time because Holly had just finished making lunch.  I was already liking brewing by this point.

When Erik got home with the goods, the first thing we had to do was heat up some water for the first phase, mashing.  Mashing involves mixing the malted barley (the recipe of which Erik can fill you in on) into hot water.  Our malt mixture contained very little roasted chocolate malt (you could see the odd black fleck), which you might be surprised to find out is all that’s needed to give a beer that dark porter colour.  The water had to be heated up to approximately 170F on the stove to get a temperature of 152F in the mashing vessel.  How Erik knows this, I cannot tell.  We used Erik’s fancy beer making software to figure out the ideal temperature of 152F.  Apparently, anything three degrees above would lead to too many unfermentable sugers in the mash (leftover sugar means sweeter beer) and anything three degrees less would lead to too many fermentable sugars (not much leftover sugar means dry beer).  After Erik had mashed in his barley malt and was ready to let it sit in the lautering process, we were dead on at 152F.  Erik’s giant beer cosy system only loses 1F per hour, which I was pretty impressed with.  Lautering is the process of letting the mash steep, to extract the fermentable sugars that yeast turns into alcholol.

Erik Mashing in the barley malt

Erik Mashing in the barley malt

Action Shot of Mashing in the Barley Malt

Action Shot of Mashing in the Barley Malt

Lautering in the giant Beer Cosy

Lautering in the giant Beer Cosy

Now Erik would tell you that home brewing is easy, and it is fairly straight forward, but it is really only easy when you are me.  It is true that while homebrewing, you do a lot of work in bursts and then wait around for an hour or so.  Homebrewing is also fairly precise and requires a fair amount of careful sanitization, as well as a good chunk of knowledge (that Erik has and I don’t).  For me, brewing consisted of playing a lot of frisbee with Luca, Erik’s dog, and drinking a lot of beer.  Whereas Erik spent a lot of time tearing around, cleaning stuff, carefully measuring/mixing, and took part in a good deal of attentiveness.  I had a great time though, because frisbee and beer drinking are pretty fun.  We drank a lot of fantastic beers, including Mission Springs Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout, Swans Coconut Porter, Swans Berry Ale, and Anderson Valley Tripel.  We also had Paddock Wood IPA, which I thought was more of a decent pale ale than a respectable IPA, and Granville Island Brockton IPA, finally a westcoast IPA.

Luca, good frisbee player

Luca, good frisbee player

After an hour of waiting (drinking beer and playing frisbee), it was time to sparge.  After draining the wort (unfermented beer) from the mashtun (Erik’s has a filter in the bottom), we poured hot water (hotter than the first go because we need no more extraction) through the mash to get more of the sugar out.  We did this three times, stirring each time before draining more wort.

Erik draining the wort into the kettle

Erik draining the wort into the kettle

Wort going from the mashtun to the brew kettle

Wort going from the mashtun to the brew kettle

Chris stirring during sparging (one of my few tasks)

Chris stirring during sparging (one of my few tasks)

Bad, a good man

Bad, a good man

After we’d recovered the wort, it was time to fire up the brew kettle.  Erik’s kettle is a turkey fryer that he heats with a potent propane burner.  Bringing the wort to a boil was fairly challenging (mostly for Erik) because the wort wants to quickly extricate itself from the kettle.  After achieving a boil, Erik immediately added the bittering hops for the hour long boil.  After fifty minutes, the aroma hops were added.  I do not recall the types of hops we use, but I seem to recall willamette being used for aroma.  I’ll be honest, by the time the aroma hops were added I was out of beer making mode and into beer drinking mode.  After the hour long boil, Erik cooled the wort using cold water running through a coper hose.  Once cool, the wort was put into a carboy, to which yeast was added, and left to ferment for a week or so.  After further ageing in the bottle for a few more weeks, we’ll have a tasty porter.  Although, I fear my involvement may have somehow ruined this beer, but we’ll see.  Erik, thanks for letting me make beer with you and I apologize if I somehow ruined it.

The Brew Kettle

The Brew Kettle

Erik preventing extrication

Erik preventing extrication

We had a good time

We had a good time

Stirring in the bittering hops

Stirring in the bittering hops

Cooling down after the boil (cold water runs through)

Cooling down after the boil (cold water runs through)

Cheers,

Chris

Mission Springs Brewing Company

My search for the perfect pizza and beer combination continued yesterday evening at the Mission Springs Brewing Company in Mission. Mission Springs is home to a large restaurant and pub complete with an outdoor beach volleyball court, but the purpose of this visit was not to play volleyball, it was to see what they can do with their in-house wood fired pizza oven. Yes, you read correct, Mission Springs brewing company serves fresh local craft beer alongside what could potentially be the perfect pizza. Hallelujah!

Getting strait to the point, the pizza was well below average and quite disappointing. The crust was completely dry and tough – offering none of the tender, crispy and chewy quality’s that a good pizza crust should have. Over topping, a common mistake made by many pizza chefs, made for a soggy, greasy pizza experience. However, not all was bad, as shown below the pizza arrived at our table in an oblong shape – this is a good thing. There is no reason for pizza to be perfectly round – a slightly misshapen pizza pie is a clear sign that caring human hands were involved in the pizza making process. An off-round pizza has far more charm and character than a perfectly round, and lifeless, pizza.

The not so perfect imperfect pizza shape

The perfect imperfect pizza shape

Aside from the pizza disappointment, my wife and I had a great evening and were able to enjoy some great local beer. Mission Springs’ current seasonal is a Red Ginger Ale (the ginger is actually very mild in this particular beer). The beer was served far too cold and was at first dominated by a spicy earthiness, after reaching a more appropriate ale temperature, a pleasing fruitiness became noticeable making for an enjoyable experience. My wife ordered not one, but two pints of the Bombshell Blonde Ale over the course of the evening, which she kindly allowed me to steal a taste of. Mission Springs’ Blonde Ale is one of my current favourite light craft beers, and is a great introductory beer to those not yet exposed to the craft beer world.

The real highlight of the evening was the gravity defying Black and Tan. Breaking the laws of physics and all things science this exclusive pub-only beer consisted of a rich Oatmeal Stout floating inexplicably atop a bed of well balanced India Pale Ale. The Black and Tan was equally impressive to the eyes as it was to the taste buds and stomach. A proper black and tan is a beer experience worth celebrating.

Black and Tan

Black and Tan

This was not my first visit to the Mission Springs Brewing Company,and nor will it be my last. They may not know how to make the perfect pizza, but the unique country-bar atmosphere and simple yet delicious beer offerings help to make up for their erroneous pizza pie.

Erik

Where’s the Greek Beer?

The wife and I are heading to Greece in May and I am pretty excited about it.  We plan to start in Athens and then head to a few of the islands.  Naturally, I’ve been searching the intertubes for Greece’s best beer.  It turns out beer doesn’t have much of a presence in Greece, beyond the lagers of major international brands like Heineken and Amstel.  Greece is more of a wine country (I’ll manage), but they do have a few breweries on the side.  Mythos is one such brewery, although they do not fair to well on BeerAdvocate.  Searching for craft and microbrews I found only one establishment in the entire country, the aptly named Craft Microbrewery.  At least I won’t have to make any choices, right?  Actually, all the reviews I’ve read for Craft have been glowing, so we’ll definitely be stopping by when in Athens for our one beer related excursion.

Cheers,

Chris

Beer Wars: The Movie

I came across Beer Wars on the intertubes a while back, but immediately forgot about it because I just assumed I would be reminded when it came out in theaters.  Turns out I was foolishly mistaken, Beer Wars was shown across the USA for one day only, which happened to be last Thursday.  How then, do I watch this movie in Canada?  I wouldn’t dare download it illegally (yes, I would), so I’ll have to wait until it is available on some form of recordable media.

Anyway, from what I gather, Beer Wars is about the craft brewing industry’s uphill battle against the international beer conglomerates that rule the North American beerscape (new word I just made up, no big deal).  I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t learn much from this movie, having already given my support to the little guys and their delicious beer, but I still want to watch this movie anyway.  I think this movie would be good for the macro swilling uninitiated, who could learn a thing or two about the brewing industry.  One key point I hope comes through is that there are many tastier beers out there than the standard lager offerings from brands like Budweiser, Miller, Coors, and Molson.

Check out the trailer:

Cheers,

Chris