beernesday

Got a beer lover or two on your gift list? Lucky you! They're so easy to shop for! But if you're stumped, here are some ideas: Best Default Gifts for Beer Lovers : Gift packs from breweries! Most local breweries have swag and gift certificates available. Some also have gift packs – such as: Central City’s Thor’s Hammer Barley Wine Gift Pack, a combo-pack that includes a 2014 bottle-conditioned Thor’s Hammer, which won Gold at this year’s 2016 BC Beer Awards, and a 2014 Bourbon barrel-aged Thor’s Hammer, which won Bronze. Four Winds has a gift pack of Pomona and Pequeno Cabo, with 2 branded crystal Spiegelau beer tulips (to drink them out of, natch) and gift cards, all in a beautiful wooden box.  $75.  Please grab one of these for me! Strange Fellows has a gift pack of a bottle of Krampus, and a glass to drink it from. Moody Ales has a build your own gift pack – with prices ranging from $25 to $110, you start with a gift card and then add in additional swag. ...

as my self-imposed month of cleansing comes to a close i have some thoughts on trying to be a beer person and live without beer for 31 days first off, let me admit that i didn't make it to 31 days i chose to have drinks on the 14th and the 15th, then tried to go back on the wagon for the rest of the month but alas, once you open that darned pandora's box, it's soooo darned easy to find another good reason to drink! my motives for drinking on the 14th and 15th were pure the ones since then have not been on the 14th i went to an about-to-open brewery and tried a sample of each of their beers this was an opportunity that i didn't feel i could miss out on that i would be cutting off my nose to spite my face if i was to be stubborn and refuse the time-sensitive offer just because it was january i had quite a bit of internal debate about the matter it was not an easy decision to make in the end, i went with my gut and drank the beers two weeks later, i have no ...

10 stark truths (and we're not talking game of thrones here) about dating a beer nerd breakside brewery liquid nitrogen frozen fresh hop beers and a reminder that breakside and the commons are having a tap takeover at portland craft on september 18th (aka thursday) a sneak peek at steel toad the strait loves stateside craft also, a very happy birthday to one of my oldest friends today oldest in time known, not age! not that she reads my blog, but whatever, happy birthday goog!

sad day - beer pioneer ed mcnally dies whether you're a fan of big rock beers or not, raise a glass to this man, who in the 80s took a leap of faith and went up against the big boys every year at the vancouver folk fest i sure do enjoy me a snake bite made of half traditional ale and half cider cheers, ed! signs you're a beer aficionado east bay brewery boom lynne mcilwee aka hops canary writes open letter to bc place suggesting they are losing $690k a year in beer sales by not offering craft beer i was gifted with a bottle of dead frog's new release, big stump it is a spruce golden ale and it is delicious! sweet and smooth, golden and nicely balanced with a fruity spruce hint but don't just take my word for it, jan zeschky agrees ! more on craft beer in mexico independents take on the giants

beer geek life lessons "Beer is an affordable luxury, and the dividends it pays in flavor and camaraderie are worth the (ever-expanding) expenditures. " joe wiebe on canadian food bloggers reviewing fat tug and full nelson ipas camra president reports that the gov't is slowly realizing it needs to rework the new "unhappy hour" minimum pricing - pitchers can now be priced at $0.20 per ounce and paddy treavor's take on the new pitcher pricing "They cannot really believe we are that stupid to believe this small, token change fixes the EPIC FAIL that is our new minimum drink price standards." i don't think he's impressed i have my ticket to the inaugural vancouver craft brew cruise (8:00 p.m. session) do you?  tix still available for te 11:00 a.m. cruise

i will be spending a fair bit of time this weekend at bc place tonight to watch the lions beat the pants off the roughriders sunday to watch the whitecaps and timbers battle it out it will be delightful but but what the heck am i going to drink? there is no good beer at bc place there is not even half decent beer at bc place there is no good cider at bc place there is passably drinkable cider at bc place maybe i will watch the games sober it has been suggested that i bring hop oil with me and make an ipl out of what's available to me maybe... but i am not gonna drink from the taps no way, no how - gross! file this under first world beer geek problems

powell street brewing to expand beyond its nano size which would have been necessary even before they won beer of the year camra craft beer calendar review of dead frog's new seasonal antidisestablishmentarianism amber ale a beer to memorialize colin jack want some help faking being a beer geek? the la times provides four words that will make you sound knowledgeable about craft beer dry-hopped, cask, mosaic and gueuze public invited to help bc liquor laws get with the 20th century (expecting the 21st may be a little too much) and the province weighs in on the possible new liquor laws "Buying locally brewed beer at a farmers' market? Sipping a glass of wine at the spa? Or enjoying lunch at your favourite pub with your teens?" those all sound like reasonable changes to me listen to paddy treavor on bc almanac oncbc radio last week bacon and beer in sf on august 25th enjoy them both along with the beer wench and a who's who of san fran...

confession time i drank non-craft beer this past weekend and so my friends felt compelled to take photos to commemorate this weird occasion how i really felt about it   how they made me pretend to feel about it i find it quite amusing that me showing up with a non-craft beer in my hand causes so many of my friends (beer geeks and otherwise) such mirth i like quality beer i like tasty beer but sometimes what i would prefer to drink isn't available and i just want to have a beer you know? so i did, and it wasn't that bad i only had the one though... i still have craft beer cred though, right?!? (to put it all in context, i also painted my nails neon green and this caused as much photographing as the kokanee did)

it is one of my cbc radio tuesdays! i will be on radio one with stephen quinn at 5:50 today talking about craft beer and #IPAday on the coast then i will be going to the railway club to avail myself of the cask of driftwood naughty hildegard esb with mosaic hops if that sounds like fun to you, you could go in time to listen to the show my fan club (aka beer geek friends) have a listening party in the back room join them!  so long as they have craft beer in front of them, they do not bite (the cask at tap and barrel also sounds good... might have to try to hit both places! tree brewing blend of 2/3 hophead ipa and 1/3 black ipa)

its one of the tuesdays that i will be on the air with stephen quinn on cbc radio's on the coast, the #1 rated afternoon show! i'll be on at 5:50 p.m. talking about the north shore growler 10k and converting non beer drinkers into beer geeks!

we all knew it was true, drinking beer makes you smarter new beer festival in toronto features some local favourites yankee stadium pressured into removing craft beer sign on beer stand that was not selling craft beer seen as a win by some, as proof that yankee stadium needs craft beer by others 14 geekiest beers on the market 3 gateway beer styles to convert mass market drinkers to craft merely a sip of beer starts the good feelings - go dopamine! (however, this is probably bad news for alcoholics)

here are some other people's bons mots about beer: time magazine on the craft vs. 'crafty' catfight the difference between beer geeks and beer snobs and the related article from kegworks: 10 signs you might be a beer snob and my favourite, the national post on why beer is good for you: its in the hops yup, people backing up my theory that hops are the best thing ever!

i hate the pressure of having to give gifts at a prescribed time i much prefer finding something perfect and just giving it for no reason but, shallow creature that i am, i love getting gifts! birthday and christmas are the perfect time to be a beer geek because it gives people a really easy target for finding you a gift so you're more likely a) to actually get a gift and b) to actually like it my beer haul so far: phillips amnesiac double ipa brassin d'hiver from france mill street beers and coasters stout jelly and one of those really cool glasses made from a beer bottle (also mill street cuz the guy making them was a toronto artiste at the circle craft fair) i hope the world doesn't end before i can get to drinking them...