Love Good Beer

Favourites Update

Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | Beer | No Comments

I had the pleasure of enjoying two beers this week that were new to me, Moylan’s Ryan Sullivan’s Imperial Stout and Lost Coast Brewery Raspberry Brown. Both of these beers have been patiently waiting for me for a few weeks now.

I am usually not all that fond of Imperial Stouts becayse they tend to be aggressively alcoholic, which dominates the roasted malt flavour.  The problem could be that I just have yet to find the right Imperial Stout – I am sure it is out there somewhere.  Moylan’s proved to be one of the better Imperial Stouts, but I am still not overly impressed.  However, I did find that this robust ale paired nicely with dark chocolate – the bittersweet chocolate helped to draw out the stouts deep roasted malt flavour.

I was pleasantly surprised by Lost Coast’s Raspberry Brown.  Unlike many raspberry ales that taste only of Raspberries – If I wanted raspberry juice I would simply go to the store and buy raspberry juice – this beer actually marries the raspberry flavour and the beer flavour together to create a fantastic combination of flavours.  If anyone is looking to introduce their friends to craft beer, Lost Coast Brewery Raspberry Brown would be a great starting point.

The raspberry ale will be added to the favourites page shortly, Moylan’s Imperial Stout, not so much.

Cheers,

Erik

Tags: imperial stout, Loast Coast Brewery Raspberry Brown, Moylan's Ryan Sullivan's Imperial Stout, Raspbery Ale

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:

• Mill Street Coffee Porter
• Rogue Chipotle Ale
• Rogue Smoke Ale
• Swans Pumpkin Ale

My return trip via Brewery Creek was also fruitful:

• Mill Street Belgian Wit
• 2x Philips The Hammer Imperial Stout
• Granville Island Porter

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

Tags: belgian wit, brewery creek, chipotle ale, coffee porter, firfely, granville island porter, imperial stout, mill street, phillips, rick green, rogue, smoke ale, swans pumpkin ale, The Cellar, thye hammer