Love Good Beer

Last gasp GCBF ticket options

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 | Beer | No Comments

It is indeed the Great Canadian Beer Festival this weekend.  This will be my first GCBF and I had no idea how popular it was.  I lucked out in getting tickets by just happening to show up at the beer store to grab the last few available.  I had planned to buy tickets a few days later, but the fates tempted me out on the first day of sales.  Anyway, even though tickets are long sold out, there are still a few ways to get to GCBF:

• Volunteer
• Craigslist, here are a few of my searches
• Ask Nicely
• Win them, I saw a few contests last week, try to find them online.

If you miss out, we’ll post about how awesome it was next week so that you can feel really bad about missing it.  Maybe it’ll motivate you to get tickets nice and early next year?  Seriously though, it is going to be an awesome time.  The lineup looks wonderful and our stay at Swans includes a free tasting, and then we’ll have the excellent Canoe brewpub just down the road…

In preparation for GCBF (and to help recover from the Labour Day weekend) I am embarking on an epic four day beer fast.  Wish me luck.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: bc, Beer Advocate, Canoe Brewpub, craigslist, GCBF, great canadian beer festival, swans brewpub, swans hotel, victoria, volunteer

Gluten Free Sorghum Beer

Monday, September 7th, 2009 | Beer | 24 Comments

I tried Bard’s Gold last night, my first sorghum based beer.  Sorghum is a species of grass and its seeds can be harvested as grain to make beer, a frequent practice in Africa.  In fact, most African beers, including their locally brewed Guinness, are sorghum based.  Bard’s claim to fame is that it contains no barley, wheat, or oats and is gluten free, like that’s a good thing.  I know that there are many people who are allergic to gluten (and many people who claim to be allergic but probably aren’t), so this just might be the beer for them.  It should be noted that gluten based grains nourished and helped form human civilization, which is why I find the present day prevalence of gluten allergies a bit ludicrous, but that’s just me…

Sorghum

Anyway, I’m not sure I liked sorghum beer, or at least this sorghum beer.  I found that it tasted a bit like grass.  It was rather light and had a distinctly different taste from similarly light barley based beers.  It wasn’t really bad, but I agree with some of the Beer Advocate reviews.  If I had a non-fake gluten allergy and had to drink sorghum beer for the rest of my life, I might just quit drinking beer, supposing I couldn’t find any better options than Bard’s.  For now, I’m going to stick to the gluteny goodness of the barley, wheat, and oats people have been eating for ten thousand years.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: africa, bard's gold, Beer Advocate, gluten, gluten allergy, gluten free beer, sorghum

Maui Brewing company

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Gavin, a coworker of mine, just returned from Hawaii and was thoughtful enough to bring back some of the local beer.  Gavin is a good man.  More of my friends should learn from his shining example and bring me beer back from places.  I just finished a can (labelled as welcoming me to the microcanning revolution!) each of CoConut Porter and Big Swell IPA from Maui Brewing.  They were both quite delicious beers, even after overheating in my car yesterday in the epic Vancouver heat.  Like Erik, I am not a huge fan of fruit beers, but I really enjoy a good Coconut flavor.  The coconut adds a subtle sweetness that really rounds out a porter.  The Big Swell IPA was quite good also, full of fresh hoppy flavor.

I’d never thought of Hawaii as a beer destination and I was surprised to find that Hawaii has some really excellent craft beer.  I am going to Hawaii soon (when your Dad offers you free accommodation and you find cheap flights, you go!) and might have to make some detours to a few of the local breweries.  The BeerAdvocate BeerFly directory for Hawaii will guide me on my quest to find deliciously fresh craft beer in Hawaii.  Me, sea turtles, beer…heaven.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Beer Advocate, beerfly, big swell ipa, Coconut Porter, Craft Beer, hawaii, maui brewing, microcanning revolution

Protect your beer from the sun

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Have you ever been outside on a hot day and craved a cold beer ever so badly?  I have and I can remember finding that first sip of ice cold Corona (with a lime) gloriously refreshing.  Have you ever noticed how that same Corona doesn’t taste nearly so good a few minutes later? Note: noticing this might depend on how many Coronas you’ve already had.  I’ve noticed, but I thought it had to do with the beer warming in the sun.  Turns out I was wrong, the sun hates beer.  It is an indisputable fact of science.  Okay, I made that up, but the sun can turn a beer “skunky” in a matter of minutes.  Scientists have noted that UV light interacts with certain hop byproducts found in beer.  When UV light hits these chemicals they breakdown into the very same chemical that humans revile in the scent of actual skunks.  Who knew?  Turns out these scientists did.

Apparently humans are super sensitive to this chemical and can detect less than a milligram in a swimming pool.  This is why you might find yourself enjoying your beer a little less if you’ve been out in the sun.  I’m writing about this because I found myself turning my nose up at a glass of delicious beer this past weekend.  I was really concerned there was something wrong with me until I recalled reading about the sun’s malicious intent in a recent issue of Beer Advocate.  I figured I’d best blog about this and spread the word.  This Summer, if you plan on drinking your favorite beer out of a clear glass or drinking Corona, Sleemans, Dead Frog, Heineken, or Stella Artois out of the bottle, shield your drinking vessel from the sun to preserve the taste.

Have you seen those Corona commercials where two people are sitting on a fabulous beach with their bottles of Corona?  They are advertising skunky beer and I find that funny.  If only you could taste ads, more people might be drinking quality BC microbrew, no lime required.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Beer Advocate, corona, dead frog, Heineken, science, Skunky Beer, sleemans, stella artois, uv light

Beer Review Generator

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | Beer, Review | 8 Comments

I don’t really like beer reviews.  I find most of them unhelpful and many of them rather pretentious.  I recently read a review on Beer Advocate that suggested star fruit notes were present in the aroma of a beer.  Really?  Star fruit?  Couldn’t think of anything more obscure?  I seem to recall trying star fruit sometime when I was on vacation in Hawaii, but I can’t even remember what it looked like, much less tasted like (turns out it looks like a star).  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Beer Advocate very much for its wealth of information (BeerFly is great for traveling).  I look up almost every beer I try on BA, but usually to get a general sense of the beer and learn more about the brewery.  In fact, I am about to dive into a Tin Whistle Black Widow and happened to come across this excerpt in a recent review:

The initial sweetness soon becomes backed by a sourness that is not as easy to look past as it was on the nose. Dark pumpernickel-ish breadiness balances the sweetness (as does a touch of sour). The bitterness is low to nil. The chocolate is in the way of cocoa powder. The dark fruitiness is of plum and dates, in a mild sort of way. There’s some “wet cardboard” that is not too interfering. This has some potential if the maltiness were bigger, I suppose.

I’ll have to watch out for the pumpernickel and wet cardboard then.  I mean, do people really find this kind of stuff in tasting beer?  I’m sure there are a few odd ducks out there with super palates, but I really feel like there is a lot of BS being thrown around in the average BA beer review.  It is for this reason that I got a real kick out of this Beer Review Generator I found while blog surfing.  With a few clicks, you too can have your very own beer review.  To be honest, I can’t really distinguish the generated reviews from the typical serious reviews I read online, which I find sad.  Here is one of my generated reviews:

Pours an opalescent amber with a soft, pillowy head. Heavy lacing. Intense flowery aroma, with overtones of rosewater and orange. Lovely boozy flavor, punctuated with strawberry and chocolate. Creamy mouthfeel and long finish.

Not bad, eh?  Now I must say that I do love tasting different beers and comparing perceived flavor notes.  Discussing the characteristics and subtleties of a beer can be great fun, but you lose me when it gets to picking out specific undertones like rosewater, star fruit, pumpernickel, and wet cardboard with certainty.  You are probably losing a lot of people really, and likely not helping put forward the craft beer movement.  Beer isn’t wine, why try and elevate our prized brew to the same levels of snobbery and exclusivity?

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Beer Advocate, beer review, beer review generator, beerfly, black widow, star fruit, tin whistle

Beer Day: Brewery Creek and Yaletown Brewing

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 | Beer | No Comments

two new additions to my cellar - Phillips Burley Barley Wine and Driftwood Old Cellar Dweller Barley Wine

Yesterday was beer day. Chris and I made a trip to Brewery Creek to stock up for the New Year and stopped for lunch at Yaletown Brewing. And of course we had to stop at the Gourmet Warehouse, even though it’s a bit out of the way. If you like to cook good food, go to the Gourmet Warehouse – it is nothing short of amazing.

This was my first trip to Brewery Creek. Chris was worried that he over hyped his initial Brewery Creek experience, but it was better than I could have possibly imagined. Their beer selection is fantastic with a good range of hard to find beer from local BC brewers. It was nice to see a beer store that tucks the 12 case of Budweiser and MGD into the back corner where it belongs. This is a store for real beer drinkers.

Needless to say, we filled the trunk up with beer and I added two new barley wines to my cellar, Phillips Burley Barley Wine and Driftwood Old Cellar Dweller Barley Wine. Prior to my growing obsession with barley wine, I thought cellaring beer was ridiculous, but I have seen the light. After tasting Thor’s Hammer Barley Wine (aged for 18 months) at Central City Brewing, I can’t go back to drinking young barley wine. Well, I actually can and probably will, but that is beside the point.

Carrying a full box of beer around is exhausting work – we needed food and drink in a bad way. We drove our hungry selves to Yale Town Brewing for lunch and were thoroughly impressed. We arrived and did what most thirsty beer drinkers do – ask for a sample of the seasonal ale. Who doesn’t love free beer? Yale Town’s current seasonal is Le Nez Rouge; a Belgian style ale with a bit of a twist. This beer is impressive to say the least. It is a huge beer with an ABV of 9.5%, but is so smooth you wouldn’t know it. Unlike many Belgian ale’s, the tartness from the yeast is not overpowering, allowing for the malt flavour to show its face resulting in a well balanced beer. Le Nez Rouge has a spicy aroma and flavour with a hint of banana similar to a hefeweizen. I highly recommend this beer, even if you aren’t a fan of Belgian style ales.

After downing the seasonal sample, we ordered food and a few more drinks. I was impressed with their Brown Ale, a nice roasted malt flavour with some nuttiness and vanilla, but found their IPA to be slightly under hopped. Check out beer advocate for a full review of Yaletown’s beer. We left with full bellies and smiling faces. Who wouldn’t be smiling knowing their car trunk is full of beer.

Erik

Tags: Beer Advocate, brewery creek, Central City Brewing, Driftwood Old Cellar Dweller Barley Wine, Le Nez Rouge, Phillps Burley Barley Wine, yaletown brewing