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

When we arrived at the busy Taproom, we were asked whether we were with the press or from the liquor board.  We were press!  I suppose I should be less excited about that, but I had never been referred to as press before.  If press are commonly treated as well as we were last night, I wouldn’t mind being with the press more often.  We were given three pints of IPA, an excellent spread of food provided by a nearby culinary school, and a complimentary cab ride home.  Also, Almira of Jive Communications, who invited us, recognized Erik right away (not hard, he is a behemoth of a man and extremely good looking) and gave us a thorough welcome.

We were also lucky to meet Vern Lambourne, the brewer at Granville Island.  Vern perfects Granville Island’s recipes before sending them up North to Kelowna for production.  More importantly, Vern brews all of Granville Island’s seasonal beers on Granville Island.  I especially enjoyed his Porter and eagerly await next week’s release of GI Bitter.  Last month’s Ginger beer, although not to my tastes, was very popular and sold out fast.  Vern let us into the brewery for a quick peek and a picture, and also invited us back for a tour another day.  It is always awesome to meet brewers, not only because they make the delicious beverage we enjoy, but because they are always such nice, humble guys.  Cheers Vern, thanks for showing us around.

We also ran into the honorable Rick Green, who is always a pleasure to chat with.  Rick is the king of BC beer and always has the inside scoop.  He introduced us to Crystal Henrickson of Yelp, who is their sole Vancouver employee.  She is trying to build a Yelp Community in Vancouver and I hope she succeeds.  Yelp is a great site when it is well populated with reviews.  I’ve found it really helpful when visiting US cities, but Vancouver is still catching up on volume.  Crystal convinced me to go beyond consuming other people’s reviews and make some of my own.  I’ve now signed up and rated a few of my favorite places.

The launch of Brockton IPA was surely an experience, one which I enjoyed.  If any other breweries, or even restaurants, would like to wine and dine us press at future launch parties, we’d be more than happy to oblige.

The crowded Taproom

Erik with a Brockton IPA

Me with a Brockton IPA

Vern in his brewery with his latest creation

Cheers,

Chris