Tag Archives: mill street

Beer Shopping and a Mill Street Update

One of my good friends Peter, of guest post fame, just took a job near Firefly.  In preparation for Sundin’s return to the centre of the universe, we did a little beer shopping on our lunch breaks.  It is always fun to introduce a friend to the glorious bounty held within Vancouver’s specialty beer stores. Both of us came home with some tasty treats:

Peter:

Chris:

This week's collective haul.

The haul this week, Leafs suck, woooo!

I recently noticed a full page Mill Street ad on the back cover of Taps and was reminded of my Mill Street quest. I’ve already sampled four of their five bottled brews, notably the Tankhouse and Stock Ales, and more recently their Coffee Porter and Belgian Wit.  I enjoyed the Coffee Porter, a Canadian Brewing Awards gold medal winner.  I was not as fond of the Wit, which I found to be too flavored by its adjuncts.  In any case, I figured I should give the Organic Lager a try.

What struck me about the Mill Street ad was their emphasis on recent awards, which include Canadian brewery of the year.  I have the utmost respect for the CBA organizers and judges, who impartially conduct blind tastings. However, I’m wondering if the beer provided by the brewers for the judges is the same bottled beer waiting for consumers on liquor store shelves?  I am not accusing any brewery of foul play (I hate the Leafs, I like Mill Street), but I’m sure the breweries see the marketing value in winning these awards.  I may be out of line, but I consider this food for thought.

Cheers,

Chris

A trip to the beer stores

Firefly Fine Wines & AlesI’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