spinnakers
Rad Beer Festivals Coming Soon
Monday, March 15th, 2010 | Beer | No Comments
Spinnakers is hosting their Spring Cask Beer Festival this weekend, Saturday March 20th. Alas, I am too late in writing about it, for it is already sold out. It would have cost $30 for entry, souvenir glass, and three beer tickets, plus $1 for every extra beer ticket after that. It will be good times for those lucky enough to have tickets. The lineup is said to include beers from Driftwood, Phillips, Lighthouse, Vancouver Island, Central City, Elysian, Deschutes and more.
If you missed out on Spinnakers, don’t get too down because the Washington Cask Beer Festival is the following Saturday, March 27th in Seattle. For $35, this one includes twenty tastes to drink from your very own commemorative cup. I went last year and had a really good times. With so many free tastes and such a stellar beer lineup, my group had a hard time keeping it together. We had a really good time until things got out of hand. Id’ say the Washington Cask Beer Festival is the best beer event in the Northwest, so don’t miss this one.
For those of you not willing to make the trip south of the border, you’ll soon have an opportunity to party in your hometown. Vancouver Craft Beer Week is happening May 10-16, but I still haven’t heard what it will entail. That being said, I’m sure it will be super rad and something to look out for.
Cheers,
Chris
BC Beer on the Today Show
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 | Beer | 3 Comments
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
A guys trip to Victoria
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Pubs | 3 Comments
This past weekend I traveled to Victoria with twelve guys for my friend Dave’s Bachelor party. We stayed at the historic Swans Hotel, home of the excellent Swans Buckerfields Brewery. Sadly, we were too busy engaging in debauchery to have a proper taste of the great beers available at Swans. We did make our way home laden with a few excellent bottles though. We did get to both The Canoe Club and Spinnakers Brewpub, one each night for dinner and some warmup beers. It wasn’t looking good for us when we showed up to a packed Canoe on Friday night with thirteen guys. Miraculously, we managed to conjure a thirteen man table in less than twenty minutes. We achieved a similar feat at Spinnakers on Saturday, this time in less than five minutes. We are still very proud of ourselves. I really enjoyed the beer and food at Canoe and Spinnakers, but must say I preferred both at Canoe
Needless to say, our weekend was not focused on beer tasting and I have no meaningful beer related tidbits to share, besides that we had a great time at the brewpubs. Our other activities included great rounds of golf at Cordova Bay and Olympic View, neither of which I had played before. Olympic View was particularly beautiful, not to mention challenging. We were a bit rough around the edges on Saturday and were lucky to have chosen a team format for the day’s round. This applied especially to Dave, who actually tossed his club a solid sixty yards on his first full swing, unintentionally. Not fully understanding the Victoria bar scene, we had less luck with our choices in nightlife venues. We had a decent time, but were unlucky to have been involved in an altercation on the first night. Turns out I can take a beer bottle to the head. Although you won’t believe me, no I did not do anything to deserve it. The second night, when Dave went out in his hot dog suit, was much more interesting. I’ll let you guess at what might have happened.
All and all, Victoria was a decent place for a stag. We’ve got another one coming up in Seattle and we’ll need to drink some beer. I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers,
Chris
Some pictures, back to my crappy iPhone camera again:
Dave cannibalizing, you monster!
Kyle and Peter at Canoe, good times.
Jim, Dave, and Tristen at Canoe, good beer.
Upcoming Beer Travels
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | Beer | 4 Comments
I’ve got back to back weekends coming up that involve beer travel and I am pretty excited about them.
This Saturday, Erik, guest contributor Peter, and I are heading down to Seattle for the Washington Cask Beer Festival. Their mouth watering lineup includes sixty one-of-a-kind beers brewed by thirty seven of Washington State’s illustrious brewers. My obsessive compulsive nature has me wanting to try each one. I am pretty sure this won’t be possible (or healthy), but we are staying the night, so I won’t be holding back. We are also going to eat at a few brewpubs and are planning a stop at Bottleworks, where I hope to find some rare gems. Because I don’t get down to Seattle much, I am really looking forward to this. Erik and I will definitely be writing about our upcoming adventure.
The following weekend, I and twelve of my friends are heading to Victoria for guest contributor Dave’s stag. Having already done my homework, I booked us at Swans Hotel and we’ll definitely be visiting Canoe Club and Spinnakers also. A good portion of us are beer enthusiasts, but we’ll all be sampling the fresh and tasty wares of Victoria’s finest brewpubs before we paint the town red. We have rounds of golf at Cordova Bay and Olympic View booked and secured a hot dog suit for the weekend. This is as close to heaven on earth as it gets for me. Friends, beer, golf, and a hot dog suit, what more could a man want?
Cheers,
Chris
New Acquisitions
Friday, February 6th, 2009 | Beer | 3 Comments
One of my coworkers was in Victoria this past weekend with his girlfriend. I asked him if he might be stopping by any of Victoria’s great brewpubs. He didn’t think he would have time because he was supposed to be shopping (for lame stuff that is not beer). On Monday, however, he came to work with quite the haul from each of Spinnakers, Canoe, and Swans. Even better, some of them were for me! Thanks Gavin, you are my new favorite person. My wife is going to be pissed at being supplanted, but then she didn’t bring me back beer from Victoria. Courtesy of Gavin, my fridge now contains:
- Spinnakers Blue Bridge IPA
- Canoe River Rock Bitter
- Canoe Winter Gale Strong Ale
- Swans Pandora Pale Ale
- Swans Appleton Brown Ale
I also stopped by Brewery Creek at lunch today to pick up a few more bottles, not that I needed any. Sadly, I forgot to look for the Green Flash Hop Head Red that is being so famously forced out of our province! I hope there is still some left next week. Still, I did not leave empty handed, acquiring:
- Rogue Juniper Pale Ale
- Dry Hopped Saint Rogue Red Ale
- Driftwood Old Cellar Dweller Barley Wine (I had to buy this one again, it is awesome)
- Hacker-Pschorr Münchner Gold
And two for The Cellar:
- Fat Cat Old Bat Cat Barley Wine (on the recommendation of Greg Clow in Taps)
- Rogue Old Crustacean Barley Wine
I’ve got a busy week of beer drinking ahead of me and I’m pretty excited about it.
Cheers,
Chris
A beer tour of Victoria BC
Saturday, January 17th, 2009 | Beer, Breweries, Events, Pubs | No Comments
Last September, Erik and I went on a beer tour of Victoria with our fathers. Sadly, it was the weekend after the Great Canadaian Beer Festival. We were busy on GCBF weekend, but will definitely be attending next year. Nonetheless, we still had a great time in Victoria. We stayed in one of the guest houses at Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub. I would definitely stay there again, but not with a group of dudes. We found the guesthouses to be a bit on the romantic side. Spinnakers has everything going for it. In additon to a brewpub and guesthouses, Spinnakers also boasts on an onsite restaurant and bakery, plus scenic views of Victoria harbor from its oceanside plot. We awoke every morning at Spinnakers to fresh baked goods dropped off for breakfast, which was a tasty treat indeed.
At Canoe Brewpub
Our itinerary consisted of first popping into the brewpub at Spinnakers for a late dinner on Friday night. We found the food, atmosphere, and, above all, the beer to be quite satisfying. Upon learning the 11PM closing time was fast approaching, we hastened to sample as many of their beers as possible before being cutoff. Consequently drunk, we abandoned our plans for bed and decided to wander around Victoria until the wee hours of the morning. We somehow ended up at Swans Brewpub across town, enjoying further libations. Now, I can’t say I recall too much about the beer at either Spinnakers or Swans from that night, but I do recall it being rather tasty.
On Saturday, we woke up rather late and worse for wear. We had a leisurely morning enjoying our baked goods from the Spinnakers bakery before setting off for the Canoe Brewpub. I recall Canoe being the plushest and most modern of the establishments we visited. I also recall the Braised Beef Short Rib & Blue Cheese Burger I ordered as being the greatest burger I have eaten in my entire life (surely the healthiest too). The beer there was also tasty, but the rest of the days events seemed to have wiped my memory of particular details. We then ventured to Vancouver Island Brewing for a tour. The tour usually costs $5, but they waived our fee for enthusiastically showing up far too early. Had we paid the fee, it would have been well worth it for the tour and the five glasses of each VI brew we were poured. At this point in the early afternoon, we were roundly drunk, but ventured on to Hugos.
Hugos brewhouse was largely a disappointment. The beer we ordered was all well and good, but there was something off about the place. We felt as though we were sitting in a dark, empty nightclub, not the atmosphere one would expect of a brewpub on a Saturday. I was not surprised to learn later that Hugo’s was largely known as a nightclub in its last days and was closed down weeks after our visit. We then ventured to the Stickey Wicket, tired and unenthusiastic. The pub itself is very cool, convivial, busy, and featuring three floors (the top floor features an open air volleyball court). We weren’t there long as we had hit the wall. We ventured back to Spinnakers for a solid nap (the longest walk of my life, I swear). After our nap, we returned to the Spinnakers brewpub for dinner where two of us couldn’t even contemplate ordering another beer. The night ended shortly after an unrousing game of darts, when we retired rather early.
On Sunday, we awoke refreshed to more Spinnakers baked goods. I had the delivery girl drop our basket off outside “because of the no pants and whatnot”. Erik was none too pleased with my saying “whatnot”, wondering what the poor girl may have inferred. We then gathered ourselves and headed to Swans once more, to give it a fair chance in an uninebriated state. We enjoyed the beer there very much, although I again can’t recall any details. We then ventured back to the mainland, laiden with bottles, after a two day trip where we consumed beer aplenty.
At Swans Brewpub
We had an awesome time in Victoria and it is a tour we’d definitely do again. It was very cool to be able to do this with our fathers before they lose mobility. Just kidding, our Dads are on the young side and much fitter than we are. We learned a lot from this beer tour though, foremost that it is best to pace yourself to get the most out of the day. It was also a shame we didn’t get to visit any of Victoria’s other microbreweries. Before we ventured on our trip, we had planned to visit both Philips and Lighthouse Brewing. I called both breweries and asked if they did tours. They did not, but both said they would accommodate us if we stopped by, which I though was pretty cool. Sadly, our weekend trip did not coincide with the hours of operation of these two breweries. I imagine that new Victoria brewery Driftwood operates similary. I hope to visit all three the next time I’m in Victoria on a weekday.
My next trip to Victoria is already planned and we will be staying at Swans, a more suitable venue for a bachelor party, due to its lively atmosphere, than Spinnakers. It is indeed my good friend Dave’s bachelor party. This time the focus will be more on debauchery than beer. That being said, I hope to visit Spinnakers and Canoe again, and we’ll possibly do a brewery tour. This time I’m going to organize a golf game at nearby Gorge Vale on Saturday morning, to ensure we don’t hit the wall to early.
Cheers,
Chris