Love Good Beer » phillips

BC Beer on the Today Show

Chris — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:20:24 +0000

This is pretty cool, some love for BC beer on NBC’s Today Show:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Cheers,

Chris

CAMRA Vancouver Award Winners

Chris — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:00:49 +0000

The CAMRA Vancouver Award winners were announced last week. I was pleased to see many of my nominations amongst the winners. I’m extremely proud of CAMRA Vancouver and its members for rewarding true attention to and passion for craft brewing. Unlike many beer awards, these were given out by beer enthusiasts, which makes them more legitimate in my mind. The winners:

Best Local Brewpub

Gold: Central City Brewing

Silver: Steamworks

Bronze: Dix Barbecue and Brewery

Best Local Beer Cafe, Pub, or Restaurant

Gold: Alibi Room

Silver: The Whip Restaurant & Gallery

Bronze: The Railway Club

Best Local Liquor Store

Gold: Brewery Creek Liquor Store

Silver: BCL 39th & Cambie

Bronze: Firefly Fine Wines & Ales

Best Local Cask Night

Gold: Dix Cask Thursdays

Silver: The Whip Real Ale Sundays

Bronze: Yaletown Making it Real (Ale)

Best Local Beer Event

Gold: Alibi Room 100th Beer Menu Rotation

Silver: Dix X-mas X-treme

Bronze: CAMRA on a Mission to Mission

Best BC Brewery

Gold: Phillips Brewing

Silver: Driftwood Brewery, Red Racer aka Central City Brewing (tie)

Best BC Beer

Gold: Red Racer IPA

Silver: Phillips Longboat Double Chocolate Porter

Bronze: Crannog Back Hand of God Stout

Best BC Seasonal Beer

Gold: Driftwood Sartori Harvest IPA, Phillips Crooked Tooth Pumpkin Ale (tie)

Bronze: Phillips The Hammer Imperial Stout

Cheers,

Chris

Winter Beer Season in BC

Chris — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:54:41 +0000

As the seasons change, so does the availability of craft beer. I, for one, am thankful for this, especially as I regard the changing of the current season as going from bad to worse. What better way to cheer yourself up in this dreary weather than to sip a winter warmer from one of BC’s great breweries? I can think of a few things, but none so simple and effective as grabbing a winter ale (or a few) and watching the healing Canucks thrash Colorado.

Many BC breweries have already released their winter beers and a few still have barley wines on the way. Joy to the world! Here are a few BC winter brews you might consider trying:

Central City Winter Ale
Granville Island Winter Ale (lovingly referred to as choco beer by my friends)
Lighthouse Winter Ale
Vancouver Island Hermannator Ice Bock
Phillips Barley Wine (coming soon)
Phillips Instigator Doppelbock (coming soon)
Nelson Faceplant Winter Ale
Driftwood Old Cellar Dweller Barley Wine (coming soon)

Also, some other fine non BC breweries have produced tasty winter ales:

Anchor Christmas Ale (my favorite so far)
Pyramid Snowcap
Whychwood Bah Humbug
Lost Coast Winterbraun

If the rain, darkness, and cold displease you as much as they do me, I suggest one of the above as a temporary and enjoyable remedy.

Cheers,

Chris

A trip to the beer stores

Chris — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:45:12 +0000

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:

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

Brewery Creek Liquor Store is heaven on earth

Chris — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:48:16 +0000

I currently reside in the Fraser Valley and used to make most of my beer purchases at the BC Signature Liquor Store in Langley. But that was then and this is now; things have changed. I recently learned of Brewery Creek Liquor Store, which is conveniently located near my place of employment. Thank you CAMRA Vancouver newsletter for enlightening me.

Brewery Creek has the best beer selection I’ve seen in this province of ours. It was overwhelming walking in there. I wanted to buy one of everything, but managed to restrain myself. There was a great selection of west coast and belgian beers, a lot of stuff that I’d heard of but never seen in a store before. I ended up leaving with a Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve, a Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron, and a Phillips Burley Barley Wine. Visiting Brewery Creek will surely become a weekly lunch hour activity for me.

It seems that others love Brewery Creek as much as I do. It’s received glowing reviews on Beer Advocate. It also has it’s own Facebook Group. I have enjoyed the weekly Facebook message they send to tell members about new releases! The bottom line is, if you live in or around Vancouver and you love beer, then you have to visit Brewery Creek; you won’t be sorry.

Cheers,

Chris