Love Good Beer

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

Tags: brewery creek, coney island lager, ESB, extra special bitter, Favorites, firefly, innis and gunn canadian cask edition, phillips accusation ale, shmaltz brewing

Our own Whistler Beer Festival

Monday, June 29th, 2009 | Beer, Pubs | 2 Comments

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

Tags: alluradirect, belgian wit, big wolf bitter, brewery creek, coney island human blockhead, coney island lager, diamond head oatmeal stout, father john's winter ale, glacier's reach, grizzly brown ale, howe sound brewing, lost lake, mettkemen copper ale, smoked porter, squamish, whistler, whistler beer festival, whistler brewhouse