Tag Archives: olympics

One more weekend of Vancouver 2010, check out Gastown House

I finally got into German Fan Fest earlier this week.  It was a rainy Tuesday night, the hockey game had just ended, and there was no line at all.  I still had to pay the $10 cover charge, but I made it in!  It was satisfying to accomplish a goal, but the German Fan Fest did not live up to expectations.  I’m glad I didn’t wait in line for the 2-4 hours quoted to me the past two weekends. The Köstritzer Schwarzbier was tasty, but not worth the $9 I paid for a plastic cup full.  The band was loud and the atmosphere was as good as you could expect for a tent covering plastic tables and chairs in a parking lot.  If I’d had a few (too many) and the party was in full swing, I could see myself having a lot of fun there.  I could also see myself having a lot of fun dancing with a street light.  Anyway, I won’t be trying to get in again this weekend.

This weekend I’m going to check out Gastown House, again.  Turns out I’ve been there a few times already and didn’t know it.  Gastown hasn’t seen the crowds or lines that have plagued the rest of the downtown core.  It’s true, I haven’t had much trouble getting into Cobre, Alibi Room, Irish Heather, or anywhere else in Gastown.  To get some attention on the quality food and drink available at reasonable prices, Gastown House was started.  It’s a clever ploy to get you into Gastown, but what do you have to lose by not waiting in huge lines?

Gastown House

An aside, I watched the Canada vs Russia game at Schanks Sports Grill in New Westminster.  It was packed out and the atmosphere was amazing, but guess where you sit when you don’t show up soon enough?

Schanks Sports Grill New Westminster

In a mini golf hole, that's where.

And here’s a few pictures of the inside of German Fan Fest:

German Fan Fest Steamworks Vancouver

Inside of German Fan Fest

German Fan Fest Steamworks Vancouver

More Inside German Fan Fest

German Fan Fest Steamworks Vancouver

Rachel still had fun

Cheers,

Chris

Molson Canadian Hockey House Media Preview

Inside the Molson Canadian Hockey House

If you are from Vancouver and you haven’t heard of the Molson Canadian Hockey House, then you’ve been living under a rock.  It’s a big tent between Science World, I mean Telus Sphere, and GM Place, I mean Canada Hockey Place, for people to party at during the Olympics.  Before I tell this tale, I should let you know what my stance on the Olympics is.  If I was given $7billion dollars, I wouldn’t spend it on the Olympics.  That being said, the Olympics are here and they aren’t coming back, so I’m going to try to enjoy them as much as I can.  I’m going to soak up as much of the good the Olympics has to offer and I might as well; we’ll be paying this party off for a while.

Anyway, the organizers behind the MCHH emailed me a couple weeks ago to let me know that “due to overwhelming demand for media access” I should apply for my media accreditation asap.  The funny thing was, I never asked.  I did apply for media accreditation, which for me would really just be free tickets, but I haven’t heard back yet.  I suppose somebody actually important, or maybe actually part of the media, was accredited instead.  I did, however, get an invite to the media preview that took place yesterday.

IIHF room at Molson Canadian Hockey House

Since the preview was around lunch time and close enough to my office, I walked.  It was tough to navigate through all the fencing and clueless security staff (nobody seemed to know where it was) to actually find MCHH, but I made it and nobody ever once asked me where I was going.  I had no badge and could have blow up everything had I been a terrorist.  I thought that was funny.  Nobody even asked me who I was as I entered MCHH.  I thought that was funny too, anyone could have walked in.  Inside, I didn’t expect to find much of anything impressive.  I expected a giant beer garden with picnic tables and plastic chairs, but what I found was a setup to rival some nicer nightclubs.  This tent, which is apparently the largest ever built in North America at 65000 sqft, was decked out.  I wandered around the throngs of actual media (they even had big fancy cameras, don’t they know the iPhone has a camera?) and into all of the rooms.  Yes, there are rooms.  There was the chump area for common folk, VIP rooms, an IIHF lounge, an NHLPA lounge, and a Team Canada lounge where the players and their hangers out will actually be hanging out.

Tyler Stewart on stage at MCHH

The proceedings started shortly after my wanderings and featured talks by the organizers, a speak by Hockey Canada President Bob Nicholson, and entertainment by Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies.  Stan Smyl was there and so were many scantily clad Molson girls serving beer, zoinks!  There were HD TVs and giant projection screens everywhere, a giant stage where the bands will play, and there will be famous people milling around throughout the two weeks. They have quite the set of entertainment lined up.

The whole place was quite impressive, much more impressive that my crappy pictures can show, and the preview actually made me want to go hang out there.  Sadly, the common folk tickets are sold out, but maybe I’ll get accredited as media?  One can dream.  Seriously though, it’s going to be an epic party in there, especially when Canada is playing.  The only downside to the MCHH? The beer.  All Molson all the time.  Still, go Canada go!

Cheers,

Chris

Molson Girls at MCHH

Team Canada Lounge at MCHH

GIB / Fullers Beer Exchange

Granville Island Brewing let us know last week that they will be taking part in an international beer exchange with London’s Fullers.  From January 25th to February 5th, Fullers London Pride will be available at the GIB Taproom and Lions Winter Ale will be available at the Iron Duke in London.  GIB will also be hosting a Taproom for the UK event, which is open to all comers, this Wednesday, January 27th at 6PM at the Taproom.  While I think this exchange is a cool idea, I have a feeling it has more to do with marketing than beer.  Consider the timing of the event and the participation by breweries in the next two Olympic cities. Notwithstanding that neither London Pride nor Lions Winter Ale can truly be considered world class beers, so we can’t say either brewery is really putting their best foot forward.  And while Fullers is a major international brewer and their beers are readily available in BC, I wonder if anyone in the UK has ever heard of GIB?  That isn’t a slight to GIB who are widely considered BC’s favorite brewery among non beer enthusiasts.

Granville island brewing logoFullers Brewery Logo

 

My biggest concern with the event is the quality of the beer itself.  While both Fullers London Pride and GIB Lions Winter Ale are both good beers at the best of times, the international travel these beers will undertake won’t favor the quality of the beer.  Consider that beer is best served fresh and, save for high alcohol beers stored under the right conditions, will only deteriorate over time.  Now consider that these beers were brewed 4708 miles away from each other.  The beers must each travel across a continent by truck or train), across an ocean by boat, and then be stored at a liquor distribution center until the appropriate paper work has been filed.  I’d guess the age of these beers to be at least three months since packaging, which means that they are probably starting to go stale.  I’ve experienced stale Fullers London Pride often, but, considering that I bought this beer at a BC Liquor Store, it could have been up to a year old.

I hope beyond hope that both beers were shipped expediently after they were brewed, stored in optimal conditions, and are both tasting great. What would be even better is if the beers were casked and conditioned (under optimal conditions) on the way, but that might be too hopeful.  Best of luck to both GIB and Fullers in this endeavor.  However, I’d suggest keeping future international exchanges local in the interest of freshness.  Washington and Oregon aren’t too far away.

Cheers,

Chris