belgian wit
Our own Whistler Beer Festival
Monday, June 29th, 2009 | Beer, Pubs | 1 Comment
We heard about the Whistler Beer Festival about a month ago and decided to go, only to find out it would be canceled, but not before we’d booked ourselves in Whistler for the weekend. Long story short, we went to Whistler last weekend to not go to the Whistler Beer Festival. There are definitely worse things in life to contend with than a weekend in Whistler, so we made the best of it and had our own beer festival.
We ended up staying at an awesome complex called Glacier’s Reach, which we booked through the rental-by-owner site alluraDirect.com for a very affordable price. We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a hot tub on our deck(!), and we were right across from the village. I’d definitely stay there again. Erik and I brought up a bunch of good beer, mostly purchased from Brewery Creek, the best of which (besides Erik’s homebrew) being Coney Island Lager and Coney Island Human Blockhead, two very flavorful lagers. We stayed in the first night to make our own pizza and enjoy our tasty beers. The next day, our attempt at being active consisted of a walk through the village and around lost lake. Then the rains came, signaling it was time to head to the Brewhouse.
The Whistler Brewhouse was very apologetic and immediately refunded our beer festival tickets, a wise move by them because we swiftly gave our money right back. While the wives went shopping (blah), Erik and I sat at the bar, where we were treated to a few complimentary pints and a locals discount on the rest of our bill. The Brewhouse had two seasonal’s, a smoked porter and a Belgian wit. I found the wit a bit dull and the smoked porter a bit too smokey, but their Wolf Creek Bitter and Grizlly Brown Ale were as delicious as ever. The wives later joined us for dinner after, thankfully not having bought too much stuff. In the end, I think I was there for almost five hours. I had a great time because the bar their is as close to heaven on earth as it gets for me. Beer, chicken wings, sports on HDTV…done.
Man Heaven - the bar at Whistler Brewhouse
Holly and her sampler
We may have continued drinking beer that night. We may have drank too much. We may have wandered the village and purchased hotdogs unnecesarily, who can tell these things? Whatever we got up to, it was all in the past by the next morning because we had more work to do. We drove down to Squamish and to the Howe Sound Brewing Company for lunch. Erik and I both ordered the sampler there, but decided not to double down when we saw the size of the first one. Ten generous samples! A bit much considering I still had to navigate the remainder of the Sea to Die Highway. Sadly, we found the beer a bit underwhelming. My personal favorite was the Father Johns winter ale, which reminded me of gingerbread. We also enjoyed the Blonde Ale, the Mettleman Copper Ale, and the Diamond Head Oatmeal Stout. Also, I had the half roast chicken for lunch and it was delicious.
Erik and the epic Howe Sound Sampler
This was indeed a very good weekend. It would have been better if we’d had some more activities to do, but the rain held us at bay. Next Winter, head to the Whistler Brewpub for a warming apres ski pint. On the way home, skip the Tim Horton’s when you get hungry and head to the pub at Howe Sound for a tasty lunch. You won’t regret either decision.
Cheers,
Chris
Bud Light Lime is an abomination
Monday, June 15th, 2009 | Beer | 40 Comments
Recently added to the list of things that decrease my faith in humanity, a list that includes America’s Next Top Model, Paris Hilton, Gary Bettman, the US Republican Party, Hummers, and most rap music, is Bud Light Lime. I mean really, if you want some lime flavor with your watery beverage, why not drink vodka water with a splash of lime? Why pretend that this is even beer at all?
Bud Light Lime also comes in a clear bottle, perfect for soaking up some summer skunkiness. What compelling reason would somebody have to drink this beer, other than it is probably really cheap? I can’t think of any besides marketing. It really bothers me that a giant corporation can just repackage crap, hire an agency to rattle off a marketing blitz, and have a winner, especially when there are many small time brewers pouring their hearts and souls into superior products.
I understand the need for a cold, light refreshing beer in the hot hot heat of summer, but there are plenty of non crappy ones out there. If it is a bit of citrus you’re after, why not drop a lemon wedge into a German Hefeweizen or a Belgian Wit? I should note that the act of adding a lemon or lime wedge to a beer was popularized in North American to mask two things, one being bad tasting beer and the other being our own general beer wussiness. If you find a wheat beer to flavorful for you, there are many fine local lagers out there too. I have assembled a list of wonderful, light summer beers that most anyone would enjoy:
- Mt. Begbie High Country Kolsch
- Swans Old Towne Lager
- Old Yale Pale Ale
- Red Canoe Lager
- Central City Springboard Lager
- Howe Sound Garibaldi Honey Pale Ale
- Mission Springs Brewery Bombshell Blonde Ale
- Phillips Phoenix Gold Lager
- Granville Island Belgian Wit
- Driftwood Farmhand Ale
- Tin Whistle Peach Cream Ale
Every time I see somebody drinnking a Bud Light Lime I die a little bit on the inside. When you reach for a cold one this summer, why not grab something from the list above?
Cheers,
Chris
A trip to the beer stores
Friday, January 30th, 2009 | Beer | 3 Comments
I’m lucky to work near enough to Brewery Creek and Firefly that I can pop in at lunch, which I usually do every other week. This week I set out with a purpose, to see if I could find myself some more of Mill Street’s brews. I recently wrote about my experience with a couple of Mill Street products and the honourable Rich Green was kind enough to let me know that Firefly had Mill Street Coffee Porter in stock.
I am always curious to hear what Erik, and other beer enthusiasts, purchase from these fine purveyors of beer, so I thought it might be of interest to post my recent purchases. I came back from Firefly with:
My return trip via Brewery Creek was also fruitful:
I always come back with more than I “need”, but never have a hard time finding people to share beer with. There is usually some rhyme or reason behind my purchases. I purchased the GI Porter and the Philips Stout because they are new BC seasonal releases, the Rogues on the recommendation of a co-worker I was with at the time, the Mill Street to continue my investigation, and the Pumpkin Ale because there was a big ‘new’ sign under it. I am that fickle.
A side note, I bought an extra Philips the Hammer for The Cellar. Patience not being a gift of mine, it pains me whenever I stash a beer in my ultra high tech cardboard box garage cellar. See you in a year beer.
Cheers,
Chris
The fuss about Mill Street Brewing
Saturday, January 24th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Review | 8 Comments
In a previous post, I accused Taps Magazine, “Canada’s Beer Magazine”, of focusing overly on Ontario brewers. One fellow from Taps was kind enough to comment on our blog and let us know that Taps will increasingly be spreading its coverage throughout Canada. I think what Taps is doing is great and I understand that, as a young magazine focusing on a niche subject, it might be hard to cover our vast nation coast to coast, especially when based in Ontario. All that aside, I found that I read an awful lot about Mill Street Brewing and their greatness in early Taps issues. Their prevalence in Taps coupled with their great success at the Canadian Brewing Awards got me rather curious. Is Mill Street really Canada’s best brewery? Or are they Canada’s best brewery like the Leafs are Canada’s best hockey team (because they are from Toronto)?
To answer this question, I set out to try as many of Mill Street’s brews as possible, which turned out to be rather challenging. Nowhere in BC can any Mill Street products be found in draught form, but I did manage to track down bottles at a few places. Brewery Creek carries their Belgian Wit and used to carry their Stock Ale, until I bought the last six pack. The Irish Heather also carries bottles of the Belgian Wit, as well as their much heralded Tankhouse Ale. I made a special trip to the Irish Heather just to taste the Tankhouse Ale. I have now tasted both the Stock Ale and the Tankhouse Ale, both gold medal winners at the Canadian Brewing Awards.
As for the beers themselves, I first tried the Stock Ale in the comfort of my own home. My first impression of the Stock Ale was nothing whatsoever. I don’t think I noticed taking a sip. It really reminded me of macro brewed lager. I was really expecting great things, and was disappointed as such, but I can’t say that this was bad beer. It’s just everybody beer. You’d serve this beer to people who don’t like beer or you’d drink this beer if you wanted to drink 15 beers in one sitting. I suppose it was true to style, but I expected a touch of genius.
I next tried the Tankhouse Ale at the Irish Heather. Now this is Mill Street’s flagship beer, and having read so much about it, I was really expecting the greatest beer of all time. I think it was only the build up that had me disappointed, because I really did enjoy the Tankhouse Ale. I found it to be good pale ale and I would gladly buy it again. It has an amber colour, is a little spicy, and a bit hoppy. I found it to be very well balanced. I read on Mill Street’s website that they use Cascade hops to brew this one. This got me thinking, most Pacific Northwest brewers use Cascade, which were originally cultivated in Oregon, in a good portion of their brews. The Tankhouse Ale was quite good, but it is of similar quality to the pale ales I regularly get hereabouts (Phillips Blue Buck for example).
Tasting two beers probably wasn’t a fair assessment of Mill Street (I bet they have some great seasonal and draught beers), but I wasn’t particularly impressed with Mill Street. I held off originally on the Belgian Wit (not my favorite style), but I will endeavor to try some the next chance I get. What I find more alluring of what the East Coast has to offer is Dieu du Ciel. I’ve had three of the six varieties I’ve purchased so far and each one has been an experience. I plan to do a write up of my Dieu du Ciel experiences in the near future, but I definitely recommend trying any that you come across in the mean time.
To sum up, I think I’ve decided that Mill Street is the best brewery in Canada in the same way that Luke Schenn is the second coming of Bobby Orr (it’s the Toronto factor). Ontario is always going to get more attention at the national level and I can deal with that (especially when the Leafs are losing). I’m just happy to be living out West where there is an abundance of great beer, right here in BC and coming up from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
Cheers,
Chris