Love Good Beer

Stanley Park 1897Amber

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 20 Comments

Two weeks ago I went out for dinner at The Vault in Cloverdale.  I have promoted this restaurant with vigor before, but it is truly a great restaurant with consistently good food and great atmosphere and is worthy of strong support.  Every time I visit the beer menu seems to grow, often with a number of local craft beers.  On this past visit the server mentioned they had Stanley Park Amber Ale on draught – I immediately asked who brewed this unknown mystery ale.  Our server, somewhat confused that anyone would care about beer to such a level as to ask who brewed one certain beer, responded with “Stanley Park brewing… I think”.  I, embarrassed that I had never heard of said brewery, sheepishly replied “thanks,” and ordered the ale.

The beer turned out to be an impressive well rounded amber ale.  Immediately upon arriving at home I took to the internet with haste – in pursuit of learning more about this new brewery found in my own back yard.  Sadly, not much was to be found about this mystery ale.  After quite some time of searching I came a across Turning Point Brewing Company – the brewers of Stanley Park 1897 Amber Ale.  Their website is lacking and I couldn’t find very much information about Turning Point.  All I know is that Turning Point is a new brewery (or possibly a brand) built around sustainability, which is quite a trendy work these days, and that they have a wind generator.

I would love to learn more about Turning Point Brewing Company and their beer; if any of you have any info I would love to know more.

Cheers,

Erik

Tags: Cloverdale, Stanley Park Amber Ale, Sustainble Brewing, The Vault, Turning Point Brewing Company

BC Pumpkin Ales Tasted

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Last week I posted about some of the pumpkin ales recently released by our esteemed BC brewers.  I’m pleased to say that I’ve now had the chance to try most of them.  Erik and I enjoyed a pumpkin feast and pumpkin ale tasting this past weekend.  Below are my rankings and impressions of the four beers we tasted side by side.  It should be noted that we were drinking full glasses of each beer, which may have affected the quality of our tasting notes.

1. Swans Pumpkin Ale – This was my favorite pumpkin ale.  I found it pleasantly sweet and nicely balanced with spice.  Tasting note: “Tastes like pumpkin pie in a good way.”
2. Central City Red Racer Pumpkin Ale – This was the most drinkable of the bunch, meaning that you could easily drink a few of these.  The pumpkin ale taste was not overwhelming and there was no detectable spice. Tasting note: “Reminds me of their pale ale with added pumpkin.”
3. Phillips Crooked Tooth Pumpkin Ale – I found this one good, but not great.  It had more pumpkin flavor that the Granville Island version and also reminded me of pumpkin pie, but not in as pleasant a way as the Swans version.  Tasting note: “Tastes like turkey dinner in a glass.”
4. Granville Island Pumpkin Ale – The most underwhelming of the bunch with very little pumpkin taste, but plenty of spice.  We guessed they may have used a Belgian yeast because it had that funky aroma.  Erik  wondered whether the bottle we had might have oxidized a little bit.  Tasting note: “Tastes Belgiany.”

It should be noted that all of the above beers were reddish brown in color, none deviating very far from the other.  It should also be noted that the Howe Sound Pumpkineater I tried at the Alibi Room would likely rank high on this list, but I was unable to procure any for this tasting session.

Swans was my favorite pumpkin ale of the season

For those of you who might be interested in knowing what we ate at our pumpkin feast, Rachel made pumpkin soup, roasted vegetables including pumpkin, pumpkin gnocchi, and a baked pumpkin pastry dessert.  I wish I’d taken a picture of the spread because it looked as wonderful as it tasted.  I don’t think I’d eaten roasted pumpkin before, but if I had then I forgot that it tastes very much like roasted sweet potatoes or yams.  Why don’t we eat roasted pumpkin more often?

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: bc, central city red racer pumpkin ale, granville island pumpkin ale, howe sound pumpkineater imperial pumpkin ale, phillips crooked tooth pumpkin ale, pumpkin ale, pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin, swans pumpkin ale

Lighthouse’ First Seasonal: Winter Ale

Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Victoria’s Lighthouse Brewing is releasing its first ever seasonal limited release beer, a winter ale.  It’s going to be an English style winter warmer, a malty sweet beer that can sometimes taste a bit spicy, although no spice was actually added to this one.  It will be available on draught and in bottles starting tomorrow, Monday November 2nd.  There are only 2000 six packs of bottles being released, so make sure to grab a box if you can.  Lighthouse generally brews good beer and I imagine that their winter ale won’t disappoint.

What might be more significant than the launch of a tasty new beer is that this is Lighthouse’ first ever seasonal release.  They credit their new bottling line as giving them the capability to release small batch beers in an affordable way.  I hope this is the first of many seasonal releases for them.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: lighthouse brewing, seasonal, victoria, winter ale, winter warmer