Dunkelweizen

First Annual Whistler Brewhouse Beer Festival

Friday, May 29th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Events, Pubs | 2 Comments

The Whistler Brewhouse is an establishment that I love. I’ve been going there for many years, long before I’d even fully discovered my love of beer. Some friends and I stumbled upon it during a ski trip one winter and have been going back ever since. We found the fresh beer and food to be excellent and the atmosphere to be delightfully cozy after a day on the slopes. The Whistler Brewhouse was also where I first enjoyed many lesser known beer styles, including a cherry ale, barley wine, and dunkelweizen that I can recall. When I found out that the Whistler Brewhouse would be hosting a beer festival this year, my interest was piqued.

I heard about the festival via the CAMRA Vancouver email newsletter, but haven’t been able to find very many details online besides the image included in this post and a Facebook event. The festival is said to be happening on Saturday June 27th from 12PM to 6PM and over twenty unknown microbreweries will be on hand. Tickets are $25 ($20 for CAMRA members) and are on sale at the Brewhouse and at Dix in Vancouver. Despite the lack of official details, the mere mention of a beer festival at the Whistler Brewhouse is enough for me. Erirk and I will be heading to Whistler that weekend for the wives for what will surely be an excellent time. To all my friends who expressed interest in previous beer festivals and were less than impressed when I didn’t invite them, please feel encouraged to join us at this one. It is going to be fun.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: Barley Wine, beer festival, camra vancouver, cheery ale, Craft Beer, dix, dunkelweizen, microbrewery, whistler brewhouse

Feierabend is good German times

Monday, March 30th, 2009 | Beer | No Comments

Erik and I, as well as Peter and our wives, went down to Seattle this past weekend for the Washington Cask Beer Festival (another post to follow). For obvious reasons, we thought it a good idea to get something to eat before the festival. After scouring the internet for the most appropriate place we stumbled onto Feierabend, a German restaurant with an excellent German beer selection. Google Translate informs me that Feierabend means “closing time” or “end of work”, but we were just getting started.

We were put off by the sketchy website and the disconnected phone line, but decided to try our luck anyway. My anxiety was not assuaged after it appeared we were heading for the middle of nowhere, but were pleased to find an open Feierabend tucked away in a Yaletown like alley. We were not the least bit disappointed with our restaurant selection after we walked in. It was a well put together pub and they did indeed have many lovely taps of rare (at least for us Canadians) German beer. I was delighted with both the Spaten Helles Bock and Hacker-Pschorr Alt Munich beers I chose. Everyone else was happy with their beer also (except for Darci, who dutifully abstained). The food was merely good, attempting German authenticity. I had a bratwust sandwich with sauerkraut and spaetzle, which wasn’t overly impressive, but we couldn’t complain at such reasonable prices. I would definitely go back.

It was also at Feierabend that my wife let me know how embarrassing the photos I put on this blog are. Apparently my iPhone doesn’t cut it, not that I really minded. It is true, neither Erik nor I are much into photography, assuming we remember to take pictures in the first place. The solution? Get the wife to take the pictures, her handiwork is below.

In retrospect, consuming copious amounts of German beer before the festival may have been a mistake and surely contributed to the fiasco that followed. Stay tuned.