Favorites
CAMRA Vancouver Award Winners
Monday, January 25th, 2010 | Beer, Events, Favorites | No Comments
The CAMRA Vancouver Award winners were announced last week. I was pleased to see many of my nominations amongst the winners. I’m extremely proud of CAMRA Vancouver and its members for rewarding true attention to and passion for craft brewing. Unlike many beer awards, these were given out by beer enthusiasts, which makes them more legitimate in my mind. The winners:
Best Local Brewpub
Gold: Central City Brewing
Silver: Steamworks
Bronze: Dix Barbecue and Brewery
Best Local Beer Cafe, Pub, or Restaurant
Gold: Alibi Room
Silver: The Whip Restaurant & Gallery
Bronze: The Railway Club
Best Local Liquor Store
Gold: Brewery Creek Liquor Store
Silver: BCL 39th & Cambie
Bronze: Firefly Fine Wines & Ales
Best Local Cask Night
Gold: Dix Cask Thursdays
Silver: The Whip Real Ale Sundays
Bronze: Yaletown Making it Real (Ale)
Best Local Beer Event
Gold: Alibi Room 100th Beer Menu Rotation
Silver: Dix X-mas X-treme
Bronze: CAMRA on a Mission to Mission
Best BC Brewery
Gold: Phillips Brewing
Silver: Driftwood Brewery, Red Racer aka Central City Brewing (tie)
Best BC Beer
Gold: Red Racer IPA
Silver: Phillips Longboat Double Chocolate Porter
Bronze: Crannog Back Hand of God Stout
Best BC Seasonal Beer
Gold: Driftwood Sartori Harvest IPA, Phillips Crooked Tooth Pumpkin Ale (tie)
Bronze: Phillips The Hammer Imperial Stout
Cheers,
Chris
BC lacks Porter
Monday, August 24th, 2009 | Beer, Favorites | 2 Comments
I love porter; it is one of my favorite beer styles. I find porter to be quite easy and enjoyable to drink, which might be due to the moderate alcohol levels and pleasant roasty and chocolate flavors one finds in porter. What I don’t like about porter is its relative scarcity in these parts. I can’t think of one BC brewer that regularly sells six packs of porter. You’ll sometimes find 650ml bottles of porter from BC craft brewers available in BC Liquor Stores, but these examples are often brewed with an additional element such as chocolate, coffee, coconut, or other fruit. While I definitely like these beers, what I’d really like to see is a widely available six pack of quality porter from one of BC’s many fine brewers. In the mean time, Deschutes has recently made its way into BC. Thank heaven for their Black Butte Porter, which is definitely one of my favorite beers! I picked some up from Brewery Creek last week and, with a few friends, made quick work of them. With craft brewing gaining ground in BC, I can only hope that a widely available porter is on the horizon. I’d suck one, or six.
Cheers,
Chris
Some New Favorites
Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | Favorites | 1 Comment
This week, I found three more beers to add to my favorites. The first is Phillips Accusation ale, which I’ve written about before. I’d had it a few weeks previously, but I decided to buy it again because I love a good Extra Special Bitter (ESB). I love ESBs because they are generally more flavorful, with a little more hop bitterness than your typical pale ale, but not as bitter and hoppy as an IPA. I also love India Pale Ale’s, but they can be a bit much sometimes. What puts Accusation Ale over the top for me is the great story behind it. Read my previous post to learn more about what happened with Phillips, as it says on the bottle: “sometimes bitterness comes from frivolous trademark disputes”.
In honor of Canada Day last Wednesday, Innis and Gunn released a special Canadian version of their whiskey barrel aged ale, also now one of my favorites. The Canadian Cask edition was aged for seventy one days in Canadian oak whiskey barrels imported to Scotland. This beer is a strong ale, full of rich malty flavors, and I loved it. This is a seasonal beer, so pick it up at BC Liquor stores and give it a try while it is still available.
Lastly, Brewery Creek recently started carrying Coney Island Lager from the Shmaltz brewery (famous for their He’brew ‘the chosen beer’ brand). This is not your run of the mill lager, it is amber in color and full of flavor. They use eight different malts and six different hops to brew this beer, and the complexity really comes through. I loved this beer and highly recommend it. It is only available at finer purveyors of beer such as Brewery Creek or Firefly and may not be in steady supply, so buy it if see it.
I hope you get a chance to try these beers. Phillips Accusation is also only available at the better stores. It’s a seasonal too, so grab it quick! If you don’t think you’ll enjoy my suggestions, I suggest chatting with the fine people at the better beer stores who’ll surely be able to help you find what you’re after.
Cheers,
Chris
What is your favorite beer?
Saturday, March 28th, 2009 | Beer, Favorites | No Comments
When people find out we are into beer we inevitably get asked one question, that being “what’s your favorite beer?” The trouble is, we never know what to say. It’s a tall task to pick one favorite from all of the great beers out there.
I have a really hard time picking favorites. I worry that I’ll be judged harshly for picking one beer above all others. I never want a friend to buy a beer I recommend and be put off, because everybody has their own tastes. There are many factors that go into choosing the right beer for an occasion and so many styles to choose from, how do I pick just one?
If anyone ventures to take our tastes seriously, I’ve created a new Favorites page where we’ll periodically list some of our favorite beers. This may come in handy when purchasing gifts for us, which you should feel free to do at any time.
Just this past week I drank the Old Yale Pale Ale I picked up when I stopped by Old Yale in Chilliwack earlier this month. It is one of the best pale ales I’ve ever had and has made its way onto my favorite list. Old Yale is a small brewery that I find is largely ignored, but I feel like BC beer drinkers should be giving it a lot more attention.
If you have a favorite beer that you think we should try, please let us know. We’d love to try it.
Cheers,
Chris