Tag Archives: spinnakers

Rad Beer Festivals Coming Soon

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

A guys trip to Victoria

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!

Dave cannibalizing, you monster!

Kyle and Peter at Canoe, good times.

Kyle and Peter at Canoe, good times.

Jim, Dave, and Tristen at Canoe, good beer.

Jim, Dave, and Tristen at Canoe, good beer.

Upcoming Beer Travels

I’ve got back to back weekends coming up that involve beer travel and I am pretty excited about them.

Washington Cask Beer FestivalThis 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

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:

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:

And two for The Cellar:

I’ve got a busy week of beer drinking ahead of me and I’m pretty excited about it.

Cheers,

Chris