Archive for May, 2009
First Annual Whistler Brewhouse Beer Festival
Friday, May 29th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Events, Pubs | 2 Comments
The Whistler Brewhouse is an establishment that I love. I’ve been going there for many years, long before I’d even fully discovered my love of beer. Some friends and I stumbled upon it during a ski trip one winter and have been going back ever since. We found the fresh beer and food to be excellent and the atmosphere to be delightfully cozy after a day on the slopes. The Whistler Brewhouse was also where I first enjoyed many lesser known beer styles, including a cherry ale, barley wine, and dunkelweizen that I can recall. When I found out that the Whistler Brewhouse would be hosting a beer festival this year, my interest was piqued.
I heard about the festival via the CAMRA Vancouver email newsletter, but haven’t been able to find very many details online besides the image included in this post and a Facebook event. The festival is said to be happening on Saturday June 27th from 12PM to 6PM and over twenty unknown microbreweries will be on hand. Tickets are $25 ($20 for CAMRA members) and are on sale at the Brewhouse and at Dix in Vancouver. Despite the lack of official details, the mere mention of a beer festival at the Whistler Brewhouse is enough for me. Erirk and I will be heading to Whistler that weekend for the wives for what will surely be an excellent time. To all my friends who expressed interest in previous beer festivals and were less than impressed when I didn’t invite them, please feel encouraged to join us at this one. It is going to be fun.
Cheers,
Chris
Jake’s Steakhouse and Piano Lounge
Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | Beer | 4 Comments
I went out for dinner last night with a few friends and visited one of CAMRA Vancouver’s newest corporate member’s, Jake’s Steakhouse and Piano Lounge. I found out a few weeks ago that any business can join CAMRA Vancouver as a corporate member. Dedication to quality beer is not a requirement for corporate membership, so long as the membership fee is paid they are in. But CAMRA membership is much different than CAMRA recommended, where a good beer experience can be expected.
I was a bit hesitant recommending Jake’s to our friends, an unproven restaurant in the heart of Whalley is not all that enticing. For those familiar with Vancouver’s Skytrain system, Jake’s Steakhouse is found at the Skytrain’s last stop in Surrey in the Compass Point Inn, not exactly the nicest part of town. But our friends live in Whalley, so I figured their expectations wouldn’t be too high?
I was completely blown away by Jake’s Steakhouse. Who knew a restaurant in Surrey offering a great selection of beer existed, and further yet that they make food and beer pairing suggestions. This almost makes me think that this whole craft beer thing is beginning to catch on. On top of the impressive beer list, the menu was also great, featuring an array of classic steakhouse dishes with a local and seasonal influence. Unlike many restaurants offering a seasonal vegetable side, Jake’s seasonal veg was actually seasonal, and included fiddleheads, asparagus and other early spring vegetables. Fiddleheads – in Surrey – really?
Although my steak was cooked well past medium rare and into medium territory, an almost unforgivable offense, we had a great evening. For once I was able to enjoy a steak alongside a full flavored ale – Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter to be exact. Something about Whalley makes me think of Hunter S. Thompson. Gonzo Imperial Porter, brewed as a tribute to the late Hunter S. Thompson, seemed an obvious choice.
Jake’s Beer Menu includes the following:
Draught
- Dead Frog Brewing Pale Ale
- Whistler Lager
- R&B Raven Cream Ale
- Swans Seasonal Pumpkin Ale
- Rogue Dead Guy Ale
Bottles
- Anchor Steam Liberty Ale
- Rogue American Amber
- Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale
- Pyramid Hefewiezen
- Pyramid Apricot Ale
- Propeller ESB
- Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
- Brooklyn East India Pale Ale
- Duvel
- KB Honey Brown
Standard imports and domestic beer is also available. All of the beer mentioned above comes complete with food pairing recommendations.
Jake’s Steakhouse and Piano Lounge is a great restaurant where beer and wine enthusiasts can can both sit down and enjoy a well prepared meal. And if a meal is not in the cards during a visit, they also happen to have a great piano lounge to relax in. I am sure Jake’s would be happy to receive support from the local beer community. Don’t let the Whalley neighborhood or the long skytrain ride scare you away – Jake’s is a great place for great food and beer.
Cheers,
Erik
Beer in Greece
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 2 Comments
I’ve returned from our vacation in Greece and am now sufficiently recovered from jetlag to write a bit about the beer there. While in Greece I learned that hobbies of Greek people include yelling at each other, smoking, and driving their vehicles wherever they might fit. I also learned that Greeks drink macro lager. Everywhere in Greece that sells beer, and there are a lot of places in Greece that sell beer, offers Amstel, Heineken, and Mythos in bottles and cans. Literally everywhere, no matter where we were, we could count on picking up a 500ml bottle of one of these three for a euro or so. We did encounter a few different varieties of lager for sale here and there, including Alfa (the other big Greek brand) and Lowenbrau, but always lager. But as they say, when in Greece do as the Greeks do. We did enjoy some of these brews (mostly because they were cheap) while sitting on patios or watching sunsets and we did find them refreshing in the Greek heat. We also noticed that some establishments in Athens had Craft Lager on tap, Craft being the name of the brewery.
A cool Mythos at a taverna on a hot Athens day
We ventured to visit the aptly named Craft Microbrewery, the only microbrewery in Athens. I expected great things of Craft based on the glowing Beer Advocate reviews of the place, but left a bit disappointed. They certainly put the effort on presentation with shiny vats and tap handles glistening at their location, but we found their “pub” reminiscent of every other Athens cafe we’d visited. They did not manage to put forth the homey brewpub atmosphere I’d hoped for. I was impressed to be presented with a complimentary taster of their six brews upon arrival. The beers themselves consisted of a lager, a pilsner, a dark lager, a red ale, a wheat beer, and a smoked lager. I found all of the beers to be very light and hollow tasting, merely average, and was not particularly impressed. Still, I am glad I visited the only microbrewery and brewpub in all of Greece.
Craft Microbrewery Athens
Tasters at Craft Microbrewery Athens
The bottle lineup at Craft
A pint of Craft's Athens Lager
As suspected, it turns out that Greece is not much of a beer country, some great wine though. We did come across a few specialty bars and restaurants serving some interesting Belgian and German beers where I enjoyed a very expensive Paulaner Hefeweizen (could have had eight Mythos!). Other than the odd case, it was just the big three everywhere. I do have fond memories of enjoying Mythos or Amstel in some fine locations, but I think it may have had more to do with the locations. The Greek islands were lovely, but the wife has already agreed to my beer tour of central Europe for our next trip!
Enjoying the Santorini Sunset with an Amstel
Cheers,
Chris
EAT Vancouver
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | Beer, Events | No Comments
Eat Vancouver, an annual food and cooking show held at BC Place, took place weekend – I attended. The show consisted of a large number of trade booths selling or promoting food or food related products, cooking demonstrations, a beer, wine and spirits tasting area, and a smattering of restaurants, many being South Asian inspired, offering a small tasting menu.
The trade show floor was similar to last year and just not all that impressive – how many ready-made frozen curries does the world really need? But there were a few really interesting booths, including Sweet Tree Canadian Birch Syrup. If you haven’t tried birch syrup, do. Finally a natural tree syrup that West Coast Canadians can proudly boast about – move so than maple syrup. Similar to the trade show floor, the beer, wine and spirits tasting area was not overly impressive – too many distributors an not enough brewers, vintners and distillers. However, there were a few great breweries represented, Rogue, Brooklyn Brewery, R&B and Dead Frog to name a few.
The real draw this weekend was not the trade show booths or the food samples, it was the cooking demonstrations and food and beer seminars. Chefs ranging from Food Network Canada hosts to accomplished local and international kitchen veterans teach eager home cooks how to prepare their favourite dishes. The fine people at Just Here for The Beer hosted a series of seminars on beer – I was only able to attend the food and beer pairing session.
The food and beer pairings chosen for the seminar were:
- Vancouver Island Brewing Pilsner with a strong cheddar
- Russell Cream Ale with smoked salmon
- Dead Frog Nut Brown with a nut cluster
- Sapporo Dark Lager with dark(ish) chocolate
- Efes Dark Lager was also thrown in at the end to pair with the chocolate
The pairings all worked well, but I was hoping for a more creative selection- Belgian Ale, the king of food and beer parings, was nowhere to be found. That aside, Just Here for The Beer did a good job promoting beer and proved to many happy beer drinkers that wine is not the only drink that can enhance a great meal.
Cheers,
Erik
Hops from British Columbia’s Past
Thursday, May 21st, 2009 | Beer | 3 Comments
I was out shopping for heirloom tomato plants at a local nursery last weekend when I made an interesting discovery. Amongst a selection of rare ornamental plants and hard to find heirloom vegetable plants I came across four pots filled with what looked oddly similar to a young hop bine. Not a spelling mistake, the long and fast growing shoots of the hop plant are bines, not vines. It turns out the four potted plants not only looked like young hop plants, but in fact were young hop plants. One of the owners of this greenhouse quickly took notice of my wide-eyed appearance and obvious interest in this plant and approached me.
I asked the owner if he knew what variety of hops I was about to purchase. He was unsure of the exact variety, but assured me that the plant I was about to purchase would produce hop cones suitable for brewing. After talking for a few minutes, I learned that this man’s father was born in the UK and was raised in a hop growing region of the country. As a young adult this man’s father moved to Chilliwack, BC where he found himself surrounded by the familiar aroma of the hop yard. Upon the closing of BC’s last hop yard, this man’s father walked through the remnants of this dead industry and pulled up one of the few remaining rhizomes left in the field. He gave this rhizome to his son, an owner of this small greenhouse operation, who planted the last remaining rhizome in his back field. This hop plant is still growing strong year after year – the aromatic hops cones are occasionally harvested, not used as a brewing ingredient but instead serve as pleasant reminder to this man’s father of his childhood in England.
Potentially BC's oldest hops plant
The plant I purchased, believed to be a descendant of BC’s booming hops industry, is happily planted in the ground where it will rapidly grow at a speed of up to 50 cm a week. I am not expecting much as far as hop cone production goes, but in future years look forward to brewing with what could be one of BC’s last remaining hop plants from our long dead, but potentially revived, hops industry.
Cheers,
Erik
Incendio West & Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company
Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Beer, Food and Recipes | No Comments
My obsessive drive to find the perfect pizza and beer led me to two Kitsilano pizzerias – Incendio West & The Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. Both of these restaurants are situated within a stones throw of each other and have both received positive reviews, they also happen to offer a selection of craft beer in both bottles and on draft. If I was making the effort to visit one pizzeria , I figured I should make the most of the evening and visit both. If I really want to find the best pizza and beer in the Vancouver area I will have to make sacrifices. This particular sacrifice comes in the form of eating multiple dinners in one night – a sacrifice I am more than willing to make.
We started the evening at Incendio West. Incendio West belongs to the Incendio Group which operates two Italian pizza & pasta eateries and Stellas Tap and Tapas Bar. Currently one of Incendio’s pizza joints is undergoing extensive renovations after a fire caused damage to the kitchen and dinning room - after learning about the fire I was not all that surprised to discover that the word incendio means fire. Chris recommended Incendio’s Gastown location to me months ago stating that they offered great pizza and a good selection of craft beer. I was saddened when he told me the restaurant had caught fire and would be closed for quite some time, but was equally happy to find that Incendio West was in full operation.
The beer menu at Incendio West is made up of bottled domestic and international beer – mostly light lager. Their draft selection includes R&B wheat ale and pale ale, Shaftebury Cream Ale , Okanagan Spring 1516 and Pale Ale and Stella Artois. Having never tasted R&B Sun God Wheat I decided to give it a try – it turned out to be a mild wheat ale and was not impressive. R&B Red Devil Pale Ale proved to have a much greater depth in flavour, which paired nicely with a Incendio’s pizza.
I originally thought that Incendio West baked their pizza in a wood fired oven – I was wrong, they use gas. I have no evidence to support that a wood fired oven creates a better pizza than gas, but my preference leans towards the wood fired option. Gas may be capable of creating enough heat to properly bake a pizza, but gas will never have the same authentic charm that a wood burning oven does. The pizza at Incendio’s was good – well topped with an appropriate amount of sauce and cheese. My only complaint was the soggy crust, a sign of an undercooked pizza. Looking around at other tables I found that almost all of the pizza lacked a slightly charred crust, which is a sign of a well cooked pizza. Proper pizza cookery requires enough bravery to leave a pizza in a hot oven long enough to fully cook the crust, even if the pizza is starting to char around the edges.
After feasting at Incendio West and a taking quick walk through the neighborhood and along Kits beach we arrived at The Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company. After spending an hour walking with hopes of burning off at least one slice of pizza, still none of us were hungry enough to sit down for a second meal, so we opted for takeout instead. Takeout would give me a chance to enjoy a fresh slice of their pizza while saving the remainder for the next day. Waiting for the pizza gave me enough time to poke around the restaurant to see if they used a wood fired oven and to also take a look at their beer selection. I am happy to confirm that Rocky Mountain bakes their pizza in a wood fired oven. Their beer selection is quite impressive as well, offering beer from Howe Sound Brewing in both 1 liter bottles and on draft – R&B Beer was also offered on draft. Seeing a table with a 1 liter bottle of Howe Sound made me wonder why more restaurants don’t offer 650 ml bomber bottles. A bomber is the prefect size for sharing and does not require the restaurant owner to commit to a full keg. The pizza at Rocky Mountain was good, but although the crust was fully cooked, it was noticeably inferior to Incendio’s Crust.
I have many places still to visit in my pursuit of finding the greatest pizza and beer in Vancouver. By the end of this summer I hope to conclude my search – I gladly welcome any recommendations for places to visit.
Cheers,
Erik
Favourites Update
Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | Beer | No Comments
I had the pleasure of enjoying two beers this week that were new to me, Moylan’s Ryan Sullivan’s Imperial Stout and Lost Coast Brewery Raspberry Brown. Both of these beers have been patiently waiting for me for a few weeks now.
I am usually not all that fond of Imperial Stouts becayse they tend to be aggressively alcoholic, which dominates the roasted malt flavour. The problem could be that I just have yet to find the right Imperial Stout – I am sure it is out there somewhere. Moylan’s proved to be one of the better Imperial Stouts, but I am still not overly impressed. However, I did find that this robust ale paired nicely with dark chocolate – the bittersweet chocolate helped to draw out the stouts deep roasted malt flavour.
I was pleasantly surprised by Lost Coast’s Raspberry Brown. Unlike many raspberry ales that taste only of Raspberries – If I wanted raspberry juice I would simply go to the store and buy raspberry juice – this beer actually marries the raspberry flavour and the beer flavour together to create a fantastic combination of flavours. If anyone is looking to introduce their friends to craft beer, Lost Coast Brewery Raspberry Brown would be a great starting point.
The raspberry ale will be added to the favourites page shortly, Moylan’s Imperial Stout, not so much.
Cheers,
Erik
Current Events & Beer
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment
Two major events have taken place in the past two days that has effected and will continue to effect the lives of all British Columbians; The Vancouver Canucks failure to advance onto round three of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the BC Provincial Election, polling stations will be closing in less than one hour from now. In Chris’s absence I feel it is my duty to point out that although the Canucks were prematurely knocked out of the Stanley Cup race, they still made much it farther than the Toronto Maple Leafs did. These two events will drastically effect British Columbia’s beer industry, although it may not be obvious to all.
In Canada, hockey games draw excited sports fans to pubs, bars, restaurants and other drinking establishments wallpapered with LCD televisions, playoff games draw an even larger crowd. During an average Canucks playoff game, pubs in the Vancouver area experience up to a 70% increase in beer sales – big money is to be had in the playoffs. Now that the Canucks are no longer vying for the prized Stanley Cup, bars will cease to be filled with passionate hockey fans guzzling beer upon beer. In addition to the decline in draught beer sales, I would not be surprised if liquor stores also experience somewhat of a decrease in beer sales. Generally speaking the season finale of House is not an event that friends gather over and drink beer.
But Vancouver’s loss to the Chicago Blackhawks is not all bad news. Dix BBQ, located next door to the Canucks’ home stadium, GM Place, will no longer have an excuse for canceling their weekly cask beer event held every Thursday. The weekly cask event was regularly superseded by Canucks home games to make room for hockey fans. I am a bigger beer fan than I am a hockey fan – so don’t hate me when I say that I’m not all that upset over the loss.
The BC Provincial Election, which the results of should be tabulated shortly, may also change BC’s beer industry. Carole James, the leader of BC’s NDP, has gone on record as saying that if the NDP are elected the price of an average six-pack at a private liquor store could jump as much as three dollars. I am not entirely sure where the Liberal or Green parties stand on this price increase, but from my limited understanding of BC politics I don’t think either party has any plans that would result in more expensive beer. British Colombian’s are already heavily taxed on alcohol sales – please don’t increase beer prices. This new pricing is somewhat reminiscent of North America’s short lived temperance movement that succeeded in total prohibition – it also comes across as a “sin tax”. Beer is part of a healthy diet and should not be priced at a level where the general public is discouraged from enjoying a beer as part of their day to day diet.
This is a big week for British Columbia. Die hard Canucks fans; I am sorry for your loss, there is always next year. Empowered voters; if the election does not go your way, four years isn’t that long.
Cheers,
Erik
Off to Greece
Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | Beer | No Comments
I’m off to Greece today until May 24th and I hope to not be blogging during that time. Erik will keep the blog train going when I’m gone. I previously wrote about the lack of Greek beer, but I do hope to visit the one craft brewery Greece has to offer. At the very least there will by Mythos, which I tasted at a Greek restaurant in Kamloops last week. I hadn’t heard many good things about it, but I found Mythos to be a simple, enjoyable lager. Who knows, I may have to drink a lot of Greek wine when I’m there? My life is so hard.
Cheers,
Chris
Sampling some Utah brews
Friday, May 8th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 1 Comment
A great thing about having a beer blog is that my friends know it and are often willing to bring me back some beer from their travels. My friend Tristen was just in Moab, Utah on a dirt biking trip. Before he left, he offered to bring me back some beer. I was a little skeptical because I’d heard that in Utah, what with the whole Mormon abstinence thing, beer could be a bit scarce. Tristen managed to find and bring back beer from a couple of the very few brewpubs in Utah. We drank it last night after work, while watching the Canucks lose, and it was delicious. Thanks Tristen, you are a good man.
Utah brews, imported by Tristen
We sampled Provo Girl Pilsner and Full Suspension Pale Ale from Squatters Brew Pub, as well as 1st Amendment Lager and Polygamy Porter from Wasatch Brew Pub. I’m not sure what I expected, but I found all four beers to be quite good. In fact, I wish more BC brew pubs bottled their beers for general consumption. I got an especial kick out of the Polygamy Porter slogan, why have just one? The beer itself was a nice roasty, chocolaty porter. I also really enjoyed the Full Suspension Pale Ale, which had a tremendously hoppy floral aroma while not tasting particularly bitter at all. It is good to know that the citizens of Utah can turn to these brews in times of need.
Cheers,
Chris
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