Love Good Beer

Great Canadian Beer Festival 2009

Monday, September 21st, 2009 | Beer | 6 Comments

Us guys went to GCBF the other weekend in Victoria for what was an epic beer festival.  We left bright and early on Saturday morning and caught the 9AM ferry to make our way downtown before noon.  We parked where we were staying at Swans Hotel, but couldn’t check in until later that afternoon, and so headed out to start our day.  After a merely adequate breakfast at John’s Place, we walked over to the Royal Athletic Park where the beer festival was to be held.  It was a very hot, very beautiful late summer day for BC, perfect weather for an outdoor beer festival.

Beautiful Swans Hotel

Now I’d heard that Saturday was the rowdier of the two beer festival days, but was still blown away by the level of rowdiness.  I figured that the stellar craft beer lineup would attract a crowd of beer enthusiasts.  However, I think its safe to say that over 90% of Saturday GCBF patrons were college age folk out for a good time.  I’d also surmise that the majority of attendees had little to no interest in the quality and craftsmanship of the beer on hand, which isn’t to say they didn’t consume it in large quantities.  I was actually quite shocked at just how much of a party atmosphere there really was.  Many groups of people made themselves beerfest costumes or uniforms running the gamut from team jerseys to spandex super hero outfits.  What with the hot weather and masses of inebriated youth, some might even suggest that far too many people were wearing inappropriately little.  In my opinion, the appropriateness of any lack of clothing depended squarely on the attractiveness of the particular person.

This band showed up and started playing

This guy made balloons, including genitalia

Big crowds at GCBF

As for the beer itself, there was a good variety of deliciousness available.  My biggest problem with the beer selection was that there were more beers on hand than were advertised in the program.  I failed to stop by at a few of my favorite breweries because it didn’t look like they had prepared anything special.  It was to my great dismay to later find I’d missed out on a few unique brews, most notably a Blackberry Lambic from Driftwood Brewery.  As for the rest, I was very intrigued by many of the Washington and Oregon brewers made the trek.  I was also disappointed with our BC brewers who merely offered their regular brews.  I’d hoped for some more interesting brews from some of my local heroes.

Chris, Erik, Holly at GCBF

There were no beer tokens included in the price of admission, which irked me a little.  Tokens cost between $1 and $2 each, depending on how many you bought at a time, and many of the tastes required two tokens.  It is for this reason that I did not try nearly as many beers as I thought I would.  I kept it mainly to unique to the area or cask conditioned brews, ignoring the draft versions of some of my favorites.  Notable standouts to me included:

• Boundary Bay cask conditioned Oatmeal Stout
• Central City cask conditioned Imperial IPA
• Crannog Back Hand of God Organic Stout
• Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
• Elysian Brewing cask conditioned The Wise ESB, Night Owl Pumpkin, and Saison Poivre
• Lagunitas Lucky 13
• Longwood Brewpub cask conditioned ESB
• Swans cask conditioned Scotch Ale

The Crannog Booth, one of my favorites

It might have been good that I tried less GCBF beers than I’d planned on because it enabled me to enjoy the rest of the evening.  We returned to Swans to check in and then went down to the pub for a few tasters.  We then spent our evening on the patio at The Canoe Club before wandering over to Spinnakers for a completely unnecessary nightcap.  We had to make our way back in the morning to pickup some of their delightful malt vinegar, which Spinnakers makes themselves.  Also, if you are ever in Victoria and in need of breakfast, head to Mole.  It was outstanding.

Eirk with post GCBF tasters at Swans

It was my first trip to GCBF and I enjoyed it.  If I lived in Victoria, I would go every year.  However, having to come over on the ferry from Vancouver and requiring a hotel have me questioning future trips.  While the beer selection was good, it wasn’t outstanding enough to warrant the expensive journey.  I consider more accessible beer events like Dix Caskivals and the Washington Cask Beer Festival more enjoyable.  What would be even better is a GCBF in Vancouver too.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: 2009, bc, blackberry lambic, boundary bay brewing, canoe club, cask conditioned, central city imperial ipa, crannog back hand of god, dogfish head 60 minute ipa, elysian brewing, GCBF, great canadian beer festival, john's place, lagunitas lucky 13, longwood brewpub, mole, night owl pumkin, saison poivre, spinnakers gastropub, swans buckerfields brewery, swans hotel, the wise esb, victoria

A guys trip to Victoria

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs | 3 Comments

This past weekend I traveled to Victoria with twelve guys for my friend Dave’s Bachelor party.  We stayed at the historic Swans Hotel, home of the excellent Swans Buckerfields Brewery.  Sadly, we were too busy engaging in debauchery to have a proper taste of the great beers available at Swans.  We did make our way home laden with a few excellent bottles though.  We did get to both The Canoe Club and Spinnakers Brewpub, one each night for dinner and some warmup beers.  It wasn’t looking good for us when we showed up to a packed Canoe on Friday night with thirteen guys.  Miraculously, we managed to conjure a thirteen man table in less than twenty minutes.  We achieved a similar feat at Spinnakers on Saturday, this time in less than five minutes.  We are still very proud of ourselves.  I really enjoyed the beer and food at Canoe and Spinnakers, but must say I preferred both at Canoe

Needless to say, our weekend was not focused on beer tasting and I have no meaningful beer related tidbits to share, besides that we had a great time at the brewpubs.  Our other activities included great rounds of golf at Cordova Bay and Olympic View, neither of which I had played before.  Olympic View was particularly beautiful, not to mention challenging.  We were a bit rough around the edges on Saturday and were lucky to have chosen a team format for the day’s round.  This applied especially to Dave, who actually tossed his club a solid sixty yards on his first full swing, unintentionally.  Not fully understanding the Victoria bar scene, we had less luck with our choices in nightlife venues.  We had a decent time, but were unlucky to have been involved in an altercation on the first night.  Turns out I can take a beer bottle to the head.  Although you won’t believe me, no I did not do anything to deserve it.  The second night, when Dave went out in his hot dog suit, was much more interesting.  I’ll let you guess at what might have happened.

All and all, Victoria was a decent place for a stag.  We’ve got another one coming up in Seattle and we’ll need to drink some beer.  I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers,

Chris
Some pictures, back to my crappy iPhone camera again:

Dave cannibalizing, you monster!

Kyle and Peter at Canoe, good times.

Jim, Dave, and Tristen at Canoe, good beer.

Tags: canoe club, cordova bay, hot dog suit, olympic view, spinnakers, swans, victoria

Upcoming Beer Travels

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | Beer | 4 Comments

I’ve got back to back weekends coming up that involve beer travel and I am pretty excited about them.

This Saturday, Erik, guest contributor Peter, and I are heading down to Seattle for the Washington Cask Beer Festival.  Their mouth watering lineup includes sixty one-of-a-kind beers brewed by thirty seven of Washington State’s illustrious brewers.  My obsessive compulsive nature has me wanting to try each one.  I am pretty sure this won’t be possible (or healthy), but we are staying the night, so I won’t be holding back.  We are also going to eat at a few brewpubs and are planning a stop at Bottleworks, where I hope to find some rare gems.  Because I don’t get down to Seattle much, I am really looking forward to this.  Erik and I will definitely be writing about our upcoming adventure.

The following weekend, I and twelve of my friends are heading to Victoria for guest contributor Dave‘s stag.  Having already done my homework, I booked us at Swans Hotel and we’ll definitely be visiting Canoe Club and Spinnakers also.  A good portion of us are beer enthusiasts, but we’ll all be sampling the fresh and tasty wares of Victoria’s finest brewpubs before we paint the town red.  We have rounds of golf at Cordova Bay and Olympic View booked and secured a hot dog suit for the weekend.  This is as close to heaven on earth as it gets for me.  Friends, beer, golf, and a hot dog suit, what more could a man want?

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: bottleworks, canoe club, cordova bay, hotdog suit, olympic view, spinnakers, swans, washington cask beer festival