Love Good Beer

Our own Whistler Beer Festival

Monday, June 29th, 2009 | Beer, Pubs | 2 Comments

We heard about the Whistler Beer Festival about a month ago and decided to go, only to find out it would be canceled, but not before we’d booked ourselves in Whistler for the weekend.  Long story short, we went to Whistler last weekend to not go to the Whistler Beer Festival.  There are definitely worse things in life to contend with than a weekend in Whistler, so we made the best of it and had our own beer festival.

We ended up staying at an awesome complex called Glacier’s Reach, which we booked through the rental-by-owner site alluraDirect.com for a very affordable price.  We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a hot tub on our deck(!), and we were right across from the village.  I’d definitely stay there again.  Erik and I brought up a bunch of good beer, mostly purchased from Brewery Creek, the best of which (besides Erik’s homebrew) being Coney Island Lager and Coney Island Human Blockhead, two very flavorful lagers.  We stayed in the first night to make our own pizza and enjoy our tasty beers.  The next day, our attempt at being active consisted of a walk through the village and around lost lake.  Then the rains came, signaling it was time to head to the Brewhouse.

The Whistler Brewhouse was very apologetic and immediately refunded our beer festival tickets, a wise move by them because we swiftly gave our money right back.  While the wives went shopping (blah), Erik and I sat at the bar, where we were treated to a few complimentary pints and a locals discount on the rest of our bill.  The Brewhouse had two seasonal’s, a smoked porter and a Belgian wit.  I found the wit a bit dull and the smoked porter a bit too smokey, but their Wolf Creek Bitter and Grizlly Brown Ale were as delicious as ever.  The wives later joined us for dinner after, thankfully not having bought too much stuff.  In the end, I think I was there for almost five hours.  I had a great time because the bar their is as close to heaven on earth as it gets for me.  Beer, chicken wings, sports on HDTV…done.

Man Heaven - the bar at Whistler Brewhouse

Holly and her sampler

We may have continued drinking beer that night.  We may have drank too much.  We may have wandered the village and purchased hotdogs unnecesarily, who can tell these things?  Whatever we got up to, it was all in the past by the next morning because we had more work to do.  We drove down to Squamish and to the Howe Sound Brewing Company for lunch.  Erik and I both ordered the sampler there, but decided not to double down when we saw the size of the first one.  Ten generous samples!  A bit much considering I still had to navigate the remainder of the Sea to Die Highway.  Sadly, we found the beer a bit underwhelming.  My personal favorite was the Father Johns winter ale, which reminded me of gingerbread.  We also enjoyed the Blonde Ale, the Mettleman Copper Ale, and the Diamond Head Oatmeal Stout.  Also, I had the half roast chicken for lunch and it was delicious.

Erik and the epic Howe Sound Sampler

This was indeed a very good weekend.  It would have been better if we’d had some more activities to do, but the rain held us at bay.  Next Winter, head to the Whistler Brewpub for a warming apres ski pint.  On the way home, skip the Tim Horton’s when you get hungry and head to the pub at Howe Sound for a tasty lunch.  You won’t regret either decision.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: alluradirect, belgian wit, big wolf bitter, brewery creek, coney island human blockhead, coney island lager, diamond head oatmeal stout, father john's winter ale, glacier's reach, grizzly brown ale, howe sound brewing, lost lake, mettkemen copper ale, smoked porter, squamish, whistler, whistler beer festival, whistler brewhouse

Whistler Beer Festival Canceled

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | Beer | 1 Comment

Yep, the first annual Whistler Beer Festival will take place next year at the earliest.  Apparently their brewmaster, who was organizing the whole thing, almost died in a mountain biking accident.  Godspeed on your recovery sir.  Get well soon.  I found out today when I asked Gerry at Brewery Creek if he was going.  He told me about the accident, but implored me to ask the honourable Rick Green for more info.  Rick confirmed the bad news.  I’m pretty choked because Rick had already posted the proposed beer lineup on the now removed Facebook event.  It was stacked with mouthwatering beer offerings that I was excited to try.

What to do now?  Well, we already booked ourselves in Whistler, so we are going anyway.  A weekend in Whistler isn’t the worst thing in the world to suffer through, so don’t feel too sorry for us.  I called the Whistler Brewhouse today and was please to find them very apologetic.  We’ll be redeeming our tickets for fresh beer, which I hope they won’t be out of by the time we make it up there!  Their Wolf Creek Bitter and Grizzly Brown Ale are killer, plus they usually have a solid seasonal or two.  We might also amuse ourselves by checking out some of the trails, lakes, and nightlife.  And a stop at Howe Sound Brewing on the way back down might provide a fitting end to our weekend.  I guess we’ll be all right.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: beer festival, brewery creek, howe sound brewing, rick green, whistler, whistler brewhouse

Phillips Accusation Ale Tasting

Monday, June 1st, 2009 | Beer, Breweries | 1 Comment

Phillips used to produce a beer called Blue Truck, which was a tasty pale ale.  It was a popular beer on Vancouver Island and growing in popularity on the mainland when the Mark James Group sued Phillips Brewing for trademark infringement. They thought that people would confuse Blue Truck with their Red Truck brand.  Phillips, being a small brewery, relented and changed the name of their pale ale to Blue Buck.  It was shortly after this time that Phillips began producing their cleverly named Accusation Ale, an Extra Special Bitter style ale.  I received a hilarious email from Phillips today announcing a preview tasting of this year’s first batch of Accusation Ale:

I hope you can read the invitation because it is really quite clever.  I would gladly attend the tasting if I was in Victoria, but alas, I will have to wait until it arrives at Brewery Creek.  ESB is one of my favorite styles and I’m really looking forward to this one.  I suppose I have the Mark James Group to thank for Accusation Ale, but I really think what they did was stupid.  In my opinion, the craft beer scene in BC isn’t big enough for lawsuits.  But MJG has felt the repercussions, incurring the angst of many Vancouver Island beer drinkers.  If the individual MJG pubs like Dix, Yaletown, Whistler, Taylors Crossing, and Big Ridge weren’t some of the very fine few options for fresh beer hereabouts, I’d probably show them a little angst myself.  I do believe the brewers at these establishments had nothing to do with the lawsuit, and so their beer remains morally pure:)

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: accusation ale, big ridge brewing, blue truck, brewery creek, dix bbq and brewery, ESB, extra special bitter, mark james group, phillips brewing, red track, whistler, yaletown brewing