Hopapalooza

I missed the first three Hopapoloozas through a combination of being out of the country and not buying tickets in time.  I was all over buying tickets to VCBW’s top event this time around and I was not disappointed.  This is what I liked about it:

• It was at the Alibi Room and I love it there.
• There were about fifty beers available and most of them were great.
• It’s civilized for a beer festival, not too crowded, no fuss over tokens, and the crowd was congenial in general.
• It happened in the evening, so I didn’t have to start drinking beer too early.
• They handed you a glass of Tofino Spruce Tip IPA as you walked in.
• They made you eat.  Well, they didn’t make you, but delicious chilli was included and most everyone took time to eat some, which helped keep things low key.
• I was able to bask in the glory of Nigel’s beard from a distance of just two feet.

Of particular note was the Citra dry hopped Old Jalopy pale from Powell Street.  I had recently questioned their victory at the Canadian Brewing Awards, but now I get it.  If this is the beer the judges tasted, then victory was well earned.

Still have my book thingy, yay!

VCBW Festival

This year’s edition was held at the River Rock Casino, sort of.  It was actually in a tent in the parking lot, which was not what I expected, but whatever.  I felt like the overall quality of the beer on hand was higher this year than last.  As a beer nerd, there were quite a few beers I was interested in trying, lots of stuff from Washington, Portland, and the new breweries in town.  The food cart options were also greatly enhanced, plus Earls was giving out lobster sandwiches.

I also noticed that this event seemed much more mainstream versus other beer events.  There were all sorts of normal looking people there to socialize and have a good time.  Whatever floats your boat I guess…kidding, it was good to see craft beer’s widening appeal first hand.

Steamwhistle

As part of VCBW, Ontario based Steamwhistle were in town and held a few events, which they were gracious enough to invite me to.  The first was a drinks and appetizer thing at the Butcher and Bullock and the second was a dinner at the Irish Heather.  Both had copious amounts of Steamwhistle pilsner on hand and both were great events.

Here’s the thing though, I like Steamwhistle pilsner and it’s a good example of the style, but it’s not a beer I get excited about as a beer nerd.  Whenever I meet the good folks at Steamwhistle, I or somebody asks them when they are going to brew other beers.  They always say they want to be the best at this one thing.  Sadly those Czechs exist, which isn’t to say they aren’t doing something right with their business, since they are growing and doing well.  I just want more than pilsner; I’m greedy like that.

Deep Cove Brewing and Distilling

A couple weeks back I had the privilege to take a sneak peak at the new Deep Cove Brewing and Distilling in North Vancouver.  Deep Cove is founded by two young engineers who are building the brewery themselves.  They are joined by ex Coal Harbour brewer Kevin Ems and ex Central City sales lady Trish Garratt.  All four are under thirty and were present when we visited.  I was impressed by their drive and ambition. They seem like smart people who can pull this off.

The brewery itself was in total disarray when we visited, but apparently they are going to open by the end of the month.  I saw on the Facebook that they brewed their first batch on their new kit today.  They must be killing themselves to get this going.

Interesting things we learned:

• They had a ton of barrels already, all different kinds.  They’ll be barrel ageing beers as well as their spirits.
• They are going to experiment a ton, quote from Kevin Ems “If it doesn’t work out, we’ll throw it in the still.”
• I tried a Tea Saison on site and at VCBW and it was good.  Had a pale ale at VCBW that got poured out.  Neither of these were brewed on their new kit.
• They are not going to make an IPA to start because they can’t get the necessary hop varietals to make it amazing.
• They are looking into building a draft line through to neighbouring Arcteryx.
• They are going to have a tasting room and a patio on site.

I left Deep Cove feeling super impressed with their ambition and not all that confident that they’d be up and running by the end of the month.  I’m wishing them a lot of luck and I’ll definitely be trying their beers when they get released.  In the end, all that matters is how good their beer tastes.  I hope good.

Deep Cove brew kit under construction

The new tasting room bar is pretty cool

Erik amidst the barrels, which were stacked everywhere

More barrels, some branding, and a cask of tea saison

Cheers,

Chris

This is my award, I win!

But Chris, why are you being so mean to the beer awards?  Let me state that I have a lot of respect for the CBAs, held this year in Victoria, BC for the first time.  It seems like a great party/conference for brewers and beer industry professionals.  I have no doubt that they use qualified BJCP tasters who conduct blind tastings with all sorts of integrity.  Again, my problem with these awards is that they are misleadingly used by marketers to sway public opinion.  I mean, just look at the winners in the eight lager categories this year, does that seem right to you?

Let’s get into the nitty gritty, lifted in part from last year’s rant:

1. Brewers pay to enter - An entry usually costs $100 per beer.  This means that only brewers willing to pay up (say $500 to a $1000 per product line per event) are actually judged.
2. Who actually entered?  – Almost no beer awards list all of the entrants in each category, only the winners.  The gold medal for best IPA doesn’t mean much if only a handful of beers were actually entered.  This past year, the BC Beer Awards listed the number of entrants per category, a big step forward, but they still wouldn’t tell me everyone who entered.
3. There are too many categories - Most events have 30+ categories.  The CBAs had 38 categories, that’s 114 medallists.  BANANAS!  Consider that breweries are more likely to enter if they think they can win and that awards events have an economic interest in soliciting as many entries as possible.  Making everyone a winner seems like a pretty good deal for all involved.  Again, I like that the BC Beer Awards only had fourteen categories.
4. Beer is judged on style, not taste - If a beer most closely matches the style guidelines of its designation, it wins gold in that category.  Maybe this is the only way to judge beer, but I’d much prefer an award based on taste.  A lesser tasting beer that is very exemplary of a style beats a very good tasting beer, wtf?
5. What beer was actually served? - Breweries are responsible for sending in their own products.  There’s no way to tell if what won is actually what you can expect on the shelf.  I sincerely doubt the Moosehead that won this year is going to taste like what I can buy at the store.  If you were a brewer, wouldn’t you put a little extra love into your awards batch?
6. There are a lot of awards -  There are so many awards events and so many categories that everyone wins, rendering the whole idea of awards pretty useless. It’s like primary school sports day all over again, here’s your (Pabst) blue ribbon!

Let’s look at some of this year’s results:

• I can only really speak to BC beers, which I try all of.
• Gold medallist Barking Squirrel Amber Lager is not a good beer at all.  I only ever drank it because they sent me free ones.  The lager categories mostly make me sad.
• Lord of the Hops beat Fat Tug and Red Racer for NA IPA, that’s assuming the latter two were entered, who knows?  Lord of the Hops is good beer that I like pouring into my face, but is it even top five in BC?
• Red Racer ESB is the best amber in Canada yay!  Wait, what?
• Was Steamworks Pilsner, allegedly best beer in all of BC, entered?  If so, why no win?
• The Light and Gluten-free categories make me want to shoot myself in the face with a bow and arrow, which would be really hard to do, but I would still do it because that’s how the existence of these categories makes me feel.
• Awards I really agree with and enjoy seeing, gold for Central City Imperial IPA and for Yaletown Oud Bruin.
• Does Dieu du Ciel enter?
• Okay, I love Powell Street, but Old Jalopy is the best Pale Ale and beer in Canada?

I will probably be stoned to death for even suggesting anything slightly negative about Powell Street, nano darlings of Vancouver.  (Another thing that’s bothering me is how effusively positive BC beer commentary is right now.  I mean, everything can’t be great and people need to hear the truth to improve, but that’s another post.)  Like I said, I love Powell Street.  I love how they built their small brewery in their spare time with their bare hands, just because they wanted to.  I really like their beer too, but I’m going to go ahead and say that I don’t think Old Jalopy is in the upper echelon of beers.  I’ve had it when it’s been really good and I’ve had it when it’s been merely average and I like to put it in my face, but it’s not even top twenty in BC for me, much less Canada.

But that’s how beer awards work.  On that day, Old Jalopy was judged to have been the closest to a described style.  You know what?  Somebody had to win, and I’m glad it was Powell Street. They work hard and they brew good beer, hopefully this award will propel them higher.

That being said, nobody, not marketers, not brewers, and especially not the drinking public, should put too much stock in beer awards.

Cheers.

Chris

Cheers,

Chris

Since the whole cascadia affair blew up last year, I haven’t noticed any new beers coming out using cascadia in either the brand name or descriptor.  As we know, Steamworks has a trademark on Cascadia Cream Ale, which they feel means that no other brewery can use Cascadia as part of their beer brand name.  However, I spoke to Steamworks president Walter Cosman, who let me know that Steamworks had no problem with breweries using cascadian as a style descriptor.  He also indicated that the trademark and it’s protection had a lot to do with fending off the big boys, like Molson.

Interesting that now Molson backed Granville Island is the first brewery to come out and use the descriptor cascadian dark ale on the bottle.  As far as I know, this is cool with Steamworks, but then Molson is the big enemy.  It’ll be worth watching this situation to see if there’s any reaction from Steamworks; do they dare tangle with the legal might of Molson?

More importantly, I hope Cloak and Dagger is really good and that lots of people drink it.  Last year’s version was quite good.  Notably, it was just called Cascadian Dark Ale, whereas this year it has a brand name.

Cheers,

Chris

I had a chance to sit down with Derrick Smith and Chris Landsman of Dead Frog Brewery this week. We chatted about what Dead Frog has been up to and what they have planned for the future. They were even generous enough to share some of the new brews that they’ve been working on. I gained a new perspective on Langley’s only brewery while chatting with Derrick and Chris. The team at Dead Frog know that craft beer drinkers love to hate light lime lager; they know their beer line up may not have been up to par in the past, and they are fully aware they have very little craft beer street cred these days. But the story doesn’t end there. Dead Frog is making some changes – they care about their beer, a lot, and they are working hard to re-invent themselves.

Here are a few things that many beer drinkers in BC may not know about Dead Frog:

• They have a lot of new beers in the works, and some of their more recent seasonal releases have shown dramatic improvement.

• Dead Frog has a rock star Brewmaster, literally (former drummer for Deja Voodoo), with an impressive pedigree including stints at Quebec’s famed Dieu du Çiel and Vancouver’s much loved Dix. Brewmaster Tony Dewald has been given carte blanche to create beer that he loves, and beer drinkers can expect a noticeable product improvement in the near future. An Imperial Stout, a Northwest Style Red Ale and possibly a Vienna lager will be hitting the market soon. I expect their riff on an imperial stout will be well received by many beer lovers – it is a well brewed beer.

• They want to build a better relationship with the Vancouver craft beer community. Derrick and Chris know that this will take patience and hard work, but they seem to be embracing the challenge.

• Dead Frog is going to ditch their clear bottles, opting for the much preferred brown bottle.

Their appearance on CBC’s The Big Decision certainly caused concern about the viability of their business, and the fact that they began contract brewing for Steamworks didn’t help ease this concern. But having chatted with ownership and management, it appears that their business is doing just fine. Keep in mind that reality TV is not objective. It is entertainment driven and sometimes the truth just isn’t exciting enough.

Dead Frog still has a long way to go. But having tasted some of their upcoming releases, which were noticeably better than previous offerings, and seeing their drive to improve first hand, I think they have a real chance at turning things around. So far they are doing the right things and I wish them great success.

Cheers,
Erik

I recently bought 6 stanley park noble pilsners.
Most of the bottles have whitish debris or flakes in the bottom.  I unfortunately drank most of one before my wife pointed out the yuck in the bottle.
For your info.  I assume i just send them back to the lcb.
Thought you would like to know.

This is most of what we get, complaints about the beer.  We also get a lot of inquires about availability, opening hours, and surprisingly many job applications.  I usually respond informing people that we are just a blog and that they are probably looking for the brewery, then I point them to the brewery website.  Most people, especially the job applicants, are a bit embarrassed, but appreciate the note.

Stanley Park beer is not brewed here, definitely not since 1897

How are these people finding us and not what they’re actually looking for?  It’s the Google.  They are searching for these breweries, usually with an extra adjective or keyword, that we’ve written abut in the past.  For some reason, we’re beating the actual breweries at internet.  We most commonly hear from people looking for Stanley Park and Bowen Island breweries, specifically coming from these posts:

• Turning Point Brewery – the inside scoop
• Stanley Park 1897 Amber
• Update: Bowen Island Brewing, KB Brewing and Whistler Brewing
• Review: Bowen Island Brewing

It’s weird, these brands (because they aren’t really breweries) are backed by substantial businesses, and yet their customers are contacting us directly.  Why aren’t people going right to the source?  I have one theory, and it’s that these brands are so inauthentic that it’s nearly impossible for them to build legitimate online communities.

Stanley Park is brewed by Turning Point on Annacis Island (right by the sewage treatment plant) and Bowen Island is brewed by KB Brewing in Kamloops.  Both advertise heritage and try to capitalize on iconic BC locations, but both are relatively new brands in their current form.  While you can trick people into thinking your beer is brewed somewhere it’s not, you can’t trick people into caring enough to talk about it online.

In the interest of both improving beer in BC and in not having to reply to anymore of these misdirected emails, we at this blog would be happy to talk to the marketing people at either of these companies with some internet tips.  Why talk to us?  Because we’re already ranked higher on the internet.

Cheers,

Chris

Sometimes the simple things in life are the most enjoyable, and stew is just that. Something as simple as meat braised in a flavourful liquid, when served with the right drink, can make the winter months more than bearable – with the right stew, winter is almost a delight. Stick-to-your-ribs hearty fare is winter at its best.  Most of us enjoy the luxuries of modern life, which includes central heating, but we still crave warming slow-cooked foods during these dreary months.  I will endure the cold wet misery that is a west coast winter as long as there is a stew on the table.  If I haven’t made my point clear enough – I love stew.

Carbonnade à la Flamande (Flemish Beef Stew), which is beef slowly simmered in a mixture of onions and dark Belgian ale, is a simple dish by modern culinary standards.  But do not confuse simple with bland or boring, this Belgian staple is proof that there is beauty in survival.  How so few ingredients can turn into something so fantastic amazes me.

Stew has a very pragmatic lineage – meat, bones, vegetables and whatever else is available was slowly simmered on the hearth until hungry workers returned home for their evening meal.  This meal did not just nourish the body, it was a source of pleasure and joy – it tastes that good.  We do not feed like animals; we take pleasure in what we eat, we dine, making sure even the simple taste good.

Very little culinary talent is required to make a proper stew and neither are exotic or hard to find ingredients – time is the only requirement.  I enjoy making stew, just about as much as I do eating it.  Food that takes more time than skill to prepare has always been my preference.  I believe every meal should be enjoyed to the fullest and that we can all make great food – life is too short for bad food.

The interweb is full of great Carbonnade à la Flamande recipes and I do not wish to add to the noise.  For a few good recipes please go here, here, or just Google it. People have been simmering and braising cheap cuts of meat for centuries and the basics of this stew are very simple: pour beer over beef and a chopped onion, add heat, wait three hours, eat.  You will need three hours as a minimum if you want to do this right.  If you do not have time in your schedule to make a proper stew, you may be living life wrong.

If you plan on making this Belgian dish, here are a few small tips that will help make your meal that much better.

1. Buy the right meat.  Stewing beef is cheap and more flavourful than tender quick cook cuts (steak).  Premium cuts are tender and take little time to prepare, but as a result they offer less in the flavour department.  In a world short on time, we value meat that is tender when cooked quickly.  Heavily worked muscles develop collagen, which makes meat tough, but also adds flavour and body.  When beef is slowly cooked, collagen breaks down, meat becomes tender and the cooking liquid is fortified with a rich flavour and an enhanced mouth feel.  Brisket, Chuck, Shank and Short Rib are all good stewing cuts.  Ask your butcher and they will steer you in the right direction.

2. Sear your meat hard.  Use more heat that you think necessary.  Meat needs colour, so don’t worry about burning it – be brave!  As meat browns the sugars caramelize and the maillard reaction also takes place.  Both of these processes add flavour.  So be bold, don’t worry if it looks too dark, it will be fine.

3. Use a sour Belgian ale.  The stew is meant to have a sweet and sour flavour.  An Oud Bruin or a Flanders Red Ale would be best.  If this isn’t possible, cheat and add vinegar and sugar, but be sure to add both in small increments as too much of either could ruin your meal.   Some recipes may call for Stout or even light beer, but just don’t do it, it’s not right.

4. Salt! Salt! Salt!  Food needs salt to taste good.  Taste your stew, if it seems timid, add more salt.  Continue this process, adding salt in small increments until your meal reaches maximum flavour.

5. Serve with beer.  Again, an Oud Bruin or Flanders Red Ale would be the best and also the most traditional pairing, but anything dark and Belgian will do just fine.

Cheers,

Erik

Lucky for me, one of my beer buddies made a reservation for 4pm on the first day and made a seat available, thanks Gerry.  Sure enough, at 4pm a largish crowd of beer nerds assembled and the Alibi Room quickly filled up.  It was so busy, in fact, that it took forty five minutes to get our first beer(s).  Our whole table ordered one of each Cantillon right off the bat.  I have to say, I love Cantillon, but drinking three glasses of lambic in a row is a bit much.  I preferred the Gilloise to the Gueze to the Kriek, though all were good.

Me and Cantillon and happiness

Next up was the Tofino Spruce Tip IPA I so fondly remembered, which I didn’t find as delightfully sprucy as last year’s version.  I’ve heard that collecting spruce tips is an arduous task, so maybe they skimped a bit this time around?  What followed was a collaboration by Graham of P49 and Tak of Steamworks called, and I’m not kidding, Besties with Testis, an IPA fermented solely with brettanomyces.  I hazily recall it being great, hopefully the first and last time I enjoy putting testis in my mouth.

Here’s the full list of beers that I did gone and drunk, in order:

• Cantillon Gilloise
• Cantillon Gueze
• Cantillon Kriek
• Tofino Spruce Tip Aged Hoppin Cretin’ IPA
• P49 + Steamworks “Besties with Testis” 100% Brett fermented IPA
• Central City Citra hopped Imperial IPA
• P49 Lord of the Hops IPA
• Upright Bourbon Sour blended Stout

Central City imperial IPA is always great, but I set myself up poorly for P49 Lord of the Hops.  I believe P49 is going for the session crowd with this one, meaning I found it severely lacking in hops and almost cloyingly sweet. I need to give it another shot though, since I drank the CC and P49 IPAs in the wrong order.  I finished strong with the Upright Stout, which was just fantastic.

I’m heading back tomorrow to enjoy a few of the other beers I missed out on.  That’s what’s great about this 400th celebration, I didn’t have to over indulge because it’s one night only.  Sure, some of the more popular beers were consumed immediately, but Nigel staggered the list such that some excellent brews will be coming on at the halfway point.  I was worried I was going to have to wait in a giant line, buy a ticket, or fight someone to get in, but instead I’ve found myself pleasantly surprised at the civility of this celebration.

If you have time, read the forward Nigel wrote in the beer menu.  If more businesses appreciated their customers this much, people would give them more of their money.  I would personally like to thank Nigel and the Alibi Room for all their hard work in taking the BC beer scene to the next level. See you guys again tomorrow.

Cheers,

Chris

Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij Celler – Brussels

A number of years ago I put together a post about ageing beer. This post grew, as did our cellars, and eventually the post turned into a dedicated cellar page. At the time, Chris and I were each starting to develop our own cellars and we didn’t know what to expect as our collections grew older. Not being a patient person makes stocking a beer cellar a challenge, but a number of bottles remained untouched in a cool dark location for a number of years. Having raided most of my cellar, I have come to a realization – ageing beer may not be all it is cracked up to be

The idea of ageing beer was exciting when we first started, and it still is to some extent. It is a gratifying feeling to have the patience to let organic chemistry change and develop a bottle of Old Cellar Dweller, prior to consuming it years later.  Over the past year I watched my cellar peak and decline. And let me tell you, the decline of a beer cellar is the better of the two slopes.  Sure, the way up is filled with excitement and mystery, but the way down is alcohol fuelled.

The most enjoyable aged ale experience was a vertical tasting of Fuller’s Vintage Ale.  I managed to stow away a bottle of Fuller Vintage Ale each year starting with 2007.  Chris was gifted a bottle of Fuller’s 2006 to finish off the collection from 2006 to 2012.  My patience got the best of me, an the impending sale of my current residence rushed the tasting from what should have been during the cold of winter to the heat of summer.  The group of tasters, Gavin, Chris, Me, and the women that come attached to us, got together to work our way through the Fullers collection last August.  The tasting itself was a great experience, but I would be hard pressed to say that the 2007 was better than the 2012.  Not that the bottle of ’07 was off, in fact it was very enjoyable, but it also wasn’t stand-out-excellent.  Age didn’t seem to make the beer any better, it just made it different.

Does old beer taste better?  No one really knows this, but I do not believe beer gets better with time, it just changes.  The effect time has on beer still remains somewhat a mystery as the idea of laying down a bottle of beer (or sitting upright on a shelf) for an extended period of time is new.   The market for old beer is small, but growing, and very little research on the topic is available.  Most research is focused on how to slow the ageing process in an attempt to keep beer fresh longer.  As beer ages it goes stale and it turns out some of these stale flavours are enjoyable.

When beer ages, existing molecules and flavour compounds that give beer its fresh taste degrade and other new compounds are created.  With time, organic compounds within a bottle of beer slowly react with one another, changing the beer’s overall flavour profile and to some extent mouth feel.  Many of these reactions are oxidative, and the general consensus is that too much oxidation will result in the development of cardboard like flavours.  Keeping a bottle cool slows the development of assertive off flavours, such as the previously mentioned wet cardboard taste.  While many stale beer flavours can be nasty, age does have the potential to improve the overall beer experience.

Organic molecules within beer are developed during the brewing and malting process.  Poorly brewed beer will stale prematurely and is not a great cellar candidate.  The off flavours found in poorly made beer will age-out, but during the ageing process many of these unwanted tastes will convert into an even more unpleasant off-flavour.  Well made beer will fair much better as it ages, as will beer with a higher alcohol content and an assertive flavour profile.  Big beers are typically cellared for two reasons: their bold flavour profile will help hide the inevitable development of off-flavours during a lengthy maturation period, and the intense, often imbalanced young flavours will dissipate as the flavour compounds degrade.  The degradation of key flavour compounds is why aged beer is often times described as mellow or smooth.  As beer ages, big flavours will fade away and subtle flavours, both pre-existing and newly created, will shine that much more.

My cellar is now very small and my mindset on ageing beer is far more short-term than before.  I like fresh, hoppy, and assertive beer, all of which are not characteristics of matured beer.  Aside from bottles with Brettanomyces, which is yeast that remains active for years, my cellar is quite small.  A few bottles of big beer will sit for a few months in my cellar, but anything beyond this and I find the flavour degrades more than it improves.

There is a certain romance behind ageing beer that appeals to many dedicated craft beer drinkers. The mystery, uncertainty and the required patience makes many beer drinkers overly positive when it comes time to crack open a bottle.  After a hard day of physical labour, even a poorly made sandwich will taste like heaven – effort makes the reward that much sweeter.  The same may be true of aged beer.  I believe that age kills most good beer.  Very few bottles, even when stored correctly, benefit from an extended maturation period.  However, this is the opinion of just one beer drinker.  Ageing beer is still a mystery, it’s a new thing.  So please, continue to age beer and see if you enjoy the outcome.  Drinking beer should be fun, and if ageing beer is just that, please carry on.

Cheers,

Erik

Shameless plug, you may have seen Gavin’s work elsewhere around the web.  He did the websites for Bridge Brewing, Tofino Brewing, and BC Craft Beer Month.  He also did the labels for Powell Street Brewing and is nearing completion on their new website.  If you need web design or development done, you should probably hire Gavin to do it.

See how pretty?

Cheers,

Chris