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Showing posts from August, 2011

grilled cheese martini

yes, you read that title correctly grilled cheese martini made from grilled cheese infused vodka, double-filtered of course muddled tomatoes and tomato juice ice cubes crazy!

craft and craft

boundary bay brewing pairs craft with craft beer and art craft beer and local art a match made in heaven!

rogue dinner

its time for another wonderful rogue kitchen beer pairing dinner! september 15th rogue pairs with green flash brewery check out the menu and other details i've already signed up - come join me why dontcha?!

howe sound

this just in: Mega Destroyer available on draft at Howe Sound Brewing for a short time only!

phillips

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i NEED to find this and have some any leads on who might still have these babies in stock?? Phillips:  To celebrate 10 amazing years of crafting beer in Victoria, we are releasing a 3 Litre 10% Imperial IPA bomb! We decided to go all the way with a silkscreened label on champagne glass complete with a cork, presented in a whisky-style box. They are very limited edition so if you want one, be sure to grab it quick!! We're selling these little pieces of Phillips' history for $50. Happy Anniversary!! As always, thanks for supporting your local brewery.

cask

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there were multiple casks for me last week! tuesday night at the railway was r and b's bumbleberry east side bitter not at all heavy on the berries nicely hopped i liked it! and i raised one for jack layton raising my glass to jack layton

brewdog

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i got my brewdog share certificate!!! very much looking forward to receipt of my membership package in the weeks to come i didn't realize that brewdog owns part of anchor brewing... having gotten that anchor tattoo is looking like a better and better idea every day! have you bought your brewdog shares yet? need five good reasons why you should ?

beer popsicles

craft beer dot com has a great idea to help you finish off the rest of your fruit beer while the sun shines upon you - turn it into beer popsicles !

beer geekery

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i am also jealous of katy and graham's fridge magnet collection, a small portion of which is shown below:

art made from beer

i love when craft meets craft and wish i was in california when the artsy craftsy beer show was on (c'mon lottery tickets - win me some money!)

beer geekery

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i am very jealous of katy and graham's hops!

beerlesque!

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beerlesque was fabulous! major kudos to leah and everyone else at vcbw and to amanda and everyone else at camra vancouver (and thanks to all the brewers for showing up with great beer!) leah of vcbw the roundhouse looked amazing!  great job decorators! oh, and the folks attending looked pretty darned fabulous as well! i got to pour storm and driftwood and then sample everyone else's beer when my volunteer shift was over vancouver island brewing storm brewing driftwood 20 pounder central city brewing spinnakers and howe sound brewing phillips brewing lighthouse brewing red truck brewing $!5,000 was raised for the roundhouse community centre not shabby at all!! chris of vcbw

rogue

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beer parade for portland beer week!

rise of the ipa

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great article about the rise of the ipa in the globe & mail and yay chris for being the poster boy of hops!

beer iphone case

only from etsy, a beer iphone case ! (oh, i do love etsy!!) (have i promoted my etsy site on here yet????)

shameless self-promotion

oh yeah, more self-promotion! i have a table at the artful sunday art market at britannia community centre on commercial drive on sunday come and buy stuff!!! 12 to 5 live music fabulous local arts and crafts an excuse to play on the drive on sunday and me! what more incentive do you need? well, i'll be selling my hops sachets again drift off to sleep easily with the scent of hops!

upright

upright brewing has four new beers ! i doubt we'll get them in vancouver as they're limited editions but its fun to dream isn't it?

cask night

Tonight is Rail Ale Tuesday at The Railway Club. They will be tapping a cask of Bumbleberry East Side Bitter, from R & B Brewung. Here's what the folks at R&B have to say about it: A mix of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries stuffed into a a cask full of ESB that has been dry hopped in the conditioning tank and again with the berries in the cask. Tapped @ 5pm and facebook suggests i have a beer at 5:00 for jack layton sounds like a plan is born   i had the r&b pale ale cask at the whip on sunday afternoon dry-hopped with czech hops it tasted kinda like iced tea which on a hot and muggy afternoon was a very good thing! just had the one pint though

sadness

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mr. layton, i hope your legacy brings about a better canada you have inspired so many people my fervent hope is that they not be divisive in your absence but rather join ranks and use your example to bring about change "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."

quote of the day

jack handy stolen from a friend's facebook wall: “Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes & dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, 'It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than to be selfish and worry about my liver.' ”

cask

well, for a not-so-beery week, i still managed to knock a few back! wednesday night i hit pivo before and between queer film festival movies had me the phillips hop circle thursday night before the centrepiece queer film festival movie i managed to swing by yaletown brewpub for some of iain hill's ipa dry-hopped with sorachi ace i am not sure there are words to describe it besides hop heaven!! delicious! delightful! divine! the hop nose carried through to the body i would have happily taken a growler to go if i had any time to get through one this weekend! if i could be more than one place tonight i would be at both pivo for their second anniversary and at beerlesque at the roundhouse but i can't be at both, so i'll be doing my duty to my fellow craft beer lovers by pouring libations at beerlesque!

beer culture

mother jones on the big boys versus the microbreweries , statistics-wise

beer label

local ipa beer label wins award and it has an anchor on it! i love anchors...

organic beer and bacon pairing

i also wish i was heading down to portland this weekend for portland beer week but alas, i am not... and its not like i could attend this particular event anyway but i am all over the idea of organic beer paired with bacon seven types of bacon! among the organic beers are hopworks and crannog - yay!

ska brewing

ska brewing is turning 16 and i really want to be in colorado to join in on the festivities c'mon lottery, pick my numbers tonight!! i especially want to see the nuns of brixton ! i love the clash...

shot with a beer back

craft beer backing good spirits - the next hipster cocktail?

vancouver brewpubs

inside vancouver rates the best vancouver brewpubs  for the summer season

beer events - vancouver

too many beer events on friday night yay for first world problems! tofino brewing's debut will be at abigail's party on friday night pivo's second anniversary is on friday night and vcbw / camra vancouver's beerlesque is at the roundhouse on friday night our beer steins runneth over!

beer recipe

i love fish tacos!! fish tacos made with beer sounds like perfection

red truck

managed to sneak in a quick beer between vqff movies last night it was the red truck limited release ipa at st. augustine's deeelicious!

how green is your beer?

obviously an ontario-centred article in the globe and mail about how green (or not) breweries are where is the mention of crannog?? still, kudos to steamwhistle for their greener initiatives and thanks to the big boys for committing some money to enviro programs even if none of those go as far as wasting less water, using fewer adjuncts etc. etc.

VQFF

there is just no time for beer this week well, not no time, just very little time why this week? well its the vancouver queer film festival august 11 to 21 and i'm spending nine of those 11 days involved with the festival mostly watching films but also three nights of volunteering what a saint i am! the two days in my calendar not taken up with the festival are today and next saturday today i get to go join the vanbrewers and sample their wonderful brews before i hit the bc lions game next week i get to go see two wonderful friends get married and they promise me there will be kegs of craft beer at the reception! (of course i would have gone even without that promise) what does this mean in general? not much to anyone but me and my nearest and dearest really but its my excuse to any of y'all who are reading this for the very light content on the blog over this period! and speaking of volunteering, i'll be pouring at beerlesque next friday night (at th

beer geekery

stolen from facebook, from chicks for beer: If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today! If you purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG, you would have $33.00. But, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer, drank all the beer, turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have $214.00. Therefore the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It's called the 401-Keg Plan.

red truck

i hit up a birthday celebration at st. augustine's on wednesday evening and got to try the red truck limited release ipa! ( as featured in scout magazine ) when i first got to st. a's the staff were not aware of the ipa being on the premises after i told them it had been tweeted about they searched around and asked enough boss-type people until the keg was unearthed and hooked up yay! during that time i consoled myself with a deschutes inversion defintely my go-to ipa and a staunch member of my revolving evolving top ten beers list i am very happy that the red truck ipa was found! the juxtaposition of malts and hops, sweetness and bitterness was like a perfect tango on my tongue i really hope there is some left in the keg on sunday when i next get to stop by st. a's couldn't remember if i'd had the lagunita's lucky 13 before so i ordered me one "plenty of light roasted malt to keep it rich and mega-dosed with loads of hoppy - sweet and sp

shameless self-promotion

pssst! hey you! yeah, you wanna see all the episodes of outgames tv? sure you do! check them out on youtube: Pre-game Magazine Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g-Nb46IBJs Opening http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiMawXfh_90 Wed Magazine Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t6zjyqoh4s Thursdays Magazine Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7f-9k__PsQ Friday Magazine show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Un787Qrunc Closing Ceremonies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFkzTv9VjG0 see me with make-up on c'mon you know you wanna...

cask night

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made it to cask night at the railway club on tuesday it was a dry-hopped with tomahawk pale ale by russell brewing i honestly have no idea how i feel about this cask definitely drinkable some haze, nice head, amazing nose tastes like a pale ale that has been dry-hopped you know, hoppy and malty but there's just something about it that i can't make up my mind about do i love it? do i hate it?  am i indifferent to it? i have no idea how's that for a review? that's what i'm here for folks - clarity and articulation yup, umm hmm but all was not lost i kept drinking i thought that was the best way to deal with my weird taste buds had a phillips hop circle at the railway then lagunitas ipa and acme ipa at malones followed by central city red racer at rogue (sounds a bit like the pub crawl for ipa day doesn't it? but nope, just any old tuesday night in vancouver...) my palate recalibrated itself and all was right in my world thank dog! 

#IPADay check-ins

untappd kept track of their stats from the beer wench's social media ipa day on august 4th i'm not on untappd, so my stats aren't included but still interesting to see who checks in and what they're drinking

newsletters

latest newsletter from spinnakers pub in victoria latest newsletter from craftbeer.com and leo's interview of iain hill of yaletown brewpub

#IPADay

and still more about ipa day! ryan and i made the camra newsletter because of the pub crawl - yay!! guess this means we really should plan something for stout day... another pub crawl? a room at a pub with stouts on cask? a beer pairing dinner?

#IPADay

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i know ipa day was last week but i'm a bit slow on the photo upload, okay?! here is the fabulous ryan and myself in the shirts we made for our pub crawl adorable aren't we? first stop of the crawl was yaletown brewpub where we enjoyed iain hill's dry-hopped with simcoe cask of brick & beam ipa yaletown hosts a cask night every thursday, tapping at 4  yaletown brewpub we also had the extra treats made for us by lundy and ryan lundy made ipa bread with deschutes inversion ryan made his now famous ipa peanut brittle, this batch with hopworks ace of spades lundy and the ipa bread ryan and the ipa peanut brittle second stop was the railway club where they had specials on bottles of howe sound devil's elbow ipa, russell ip'eh and r&b hoppelganger... and phillips hop circle on tap i had the hop circle the railway also celebrated international beer day on august 5th with bands and many beer specials and has a weekly cask nigh

laugh

because everyone needs a good laugh (its good for your health!) check out these funny sites (even though they are completely non-beer related) pointless flyers gay marriage signs bizarre disclaimers facebook misspellings suddenly i'm so much happier about a grey wednesday morning at the office! this last one isn't funny so much as it is just brilliant saving neo-nazis one t-shirt at a time

beer geekery

got this facebook message from a friend: As soon as I saw you pop up in the news feed today it reminded me of my dream last night: You were riding a Big Wheel trike, pulling a cart full of beer in New York City. Meaning? Who knows but it was fun! i like it!

50 book challenge

finally getting another beer book into the line-up! currently reading jon c stott's beer quest west AUGUST Khaled Hosseini - A Thousand Splendid Suns JULY Kelley Armstrong – The Reckoning Kelley Armstrong – The Summoning Kelley Armstrong - The Awakening Michelle Moran – Cleopatra’s Daughter Michelle Moran – The Heretic Queen Kelley Armstrong – Frostbitten Michelle Moran – Nefertiti Kim Harrison – Early to Death, Early to Rise Charlaine Harris – Dead in the Family JUNE Michael V. Smith: Progress Michael Connelly: Angels Flight Jilly Cooper: Jump! MAY: Rachel York: Chasing Lightning Guy Gavriel Kay: Under Heaven Kim Harrison: Black Magic Sanction APRIL: Preston & Child: Fever Dream Nicholas Pashley: Cheers! An Intemperate History of Beer in Canada MARCH: Louise Welsh – Naming the Bones Jack Whyte – Order in Chaos Noah Boyd – The Bricklayer FEBRUARY: Christopher Moore – Coyote Blue Christopher Moore – Island of the Sequined Love Nun Jeff

red truck ipa

from Red Truck Beer: IPA launches today at Romers in Kits, The Alibi Room and Boneta, It's 6.9% and delicious...

keg art

murals painted on kegs ? interesting new artistic medium

canadian ipas

my favourite beer style gets a nice write up in macleans magazine if macleans is writing about it, maybe my mom will try an ipa!

yoga and beer

ska brewing  is brilliant (have you tried the modus hoperandi?) they're offering a yoga class with a beer to follow for $10 that would make me try yoga!! Happy Hour Yoga tonight at Ska...come get your yoga on (THEN your beer!!) 5:30-6:30!! $10 includes one-hour class and a beer! Cheers

umami explained

charlie papazian, the all-knowing beer guru explains umami and how it is the product of the pairing not the pairing itself that excites us

cask night

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i made it out to the railway club's cask night on tuesday where i imbibed in a couple of pints of the fresh-hopped granville island esb it was fragrant and delicious and a definite crowd-pleaser i decided to follow it up with a mixing experiment phillips ginger ale mixed with russell lemon ale it was a refreshing summer brew i highly recommend it!

beer labels

i still think stillwater ales has the best beer bottle labels ever but these other ten are pretty good too! (especially the 21st amendment ones...)

question

craftbeer.us tweeted this the other day and i think its a great question!! Here's the situation. You are allowed 3 specific beers to have on a desert island forever (in unlimited quantities). What are they? Go. hmmmm today i would pick central city red racer ipa deschutes hop in the dark and..... can i have a rotating tap for #3? i can't make up my mind which is third this is a hard question!!

sorry boys

sorry to all the boy type people on the pub crawl last night apparently all those ipas were not good for you oh, they were very good for me and all the other girl type people imbibing them but not for you nope bummer hope you won't hold it against me! the pub crawl was a success! people came, they drank ipa, they laughed, they made me laugh it was good times!!!

pub crawl

finally today is just about over talk about one of the longest days everrrr i just wanna hop on the ipa day pub crawl wagon and worship the hops! t minus 25 minutes until i fly outta work and into a hoppy ipa!

san francisco

oh how i wish i was going to be in san francisco on august 8th i want to go to the stillwater / evil twin dinner at monk's kettle it sounds like a once in a lifetime confluence of awesome The Menu Reception:  The Debut of the "Debutante" - Stillwater - Saison - 5.8% ABV First - Bellweather Farms ricotta gnocchi, with Maine lobster butter and chervil Paired With - "Ryan & the Beaster Bunny" - Evil Twin - Saison - 7.0% ABV Second - Roasted & pickled summer roots with celery root and tasso gratin Paired With - "Stateside" Saison - Stillwater - 6.8% ABV Third - Pan seared veal sweetbreads, with plum butter, preserved grapes and bee pollen Paired With - "A Saison Darkly" - Stillwater (Brewed at Sint Canarus) - Dark Saison - 8.0% ABV Fourth - Grilled rib-eye of Bison, with bintje potatoes and chestnut purée in a spruce demi-glace Paired With - "Before, During & After Christmas" - Evil Twin - Imperial IPA - 8.0% AB

ipa day in victoria

if you'll be in victoria today... spinnakers is celebrating ipa day !

#IPADay

happy international ipa day! really hope to see you on the crawl tonight!! 4 - 5:45 at yaletown brewpub (with a cask of iain's ipa dry-hopped with simcoe) 6 - 6:45 at railway club (with ipa on special) 7 - 7:45 at malones (with ipa specials and an appetizer for the group) 8 - 8:45 at steamworks 9 onwards at rogue wetbar (with ipa specials on crannog insurrection, mooylan’s ipa, central city ipa and driftwood fat tug) just show up at the venue(s) at the appointed time and join in on the ipa adoration hop aboard, they're expecting us!

#IPADay

despite snags in my efforts to make #IPADay t-shirts for tomorrow i'm very excited about the vancouver pub crawl tomorrow!!!!!!

pivo 2 year anniversary

pivo is celebrating two years of good beer in a rough neighbourhood august 19, 6 - 10 p.m. whistler beer is on tap and free!

tuna tartare

oooh, this recipe sounds fabulous i love tuna tartare, and i love deschutes beer

spinnakers

in case you'll be in victoria on thursday you know, for #IPADay hit up spinnakers - they'll be celebrating!

yay california

oh good job california on making it easier for brewers to hold beer tastings ! let's get everyone else on board!

#900

wow, this is my 900th post i sure am chatty! only two days away from international ipa day please, if you're in vancouver come join in on the pub crawl!!! 4 - 5:45 at yaletown brewpub (with a cask of iain's ipa dry-hopped with simcoe) 6 - 6:45 at railway club (with ipa on special) 7 - 7:45 at malones (with ipa specials and an appetizer for the group) 8 - 8:45 at steamworks 9 onwards at rogue wetbar (with ipa specials on crannog insurrection, moylan’s ipa, central city ipa and driftwood fat tug) no tickets no muss, no fuss just show up at the venue(s) at the appointed time and join in on the ipa adoration hop aboard, they're expecting us! let's make this an event to remember

brewdog

so inconvenient it is to me that brewdog is in the uk and i am in canadia i want to be a member of the abstrakt addict club but alas and alack, delivery is only to uk addresses le sigh

brewskee-ball

omg, can we please get this league in vancouver??? i want to play brewskee-ball !