beernesday

woohoo! i'm off to winterpeg for grey cup! i'm very interested in seeing what passes for "craft beer" at the sports bar in my hotel and at the "craft beer concert series" the city is running each night seeing as there are only two craft breweries in the whole province, i'm expecting some imports (fort garry and half pints) please, please, please, please let them be actual craft and not crafty! still, if they manage to serve actual craft beer in a province that only has two craft breweries, they will put vancouver to shame we have a zillion craft breweries (113 according to the craft brewers guild) and yet couldn't manage to offer any of them at grey cup events last year so, my fingers are crossed inside several pairs of mittens, but crossed! update: just looking at the beer list for the 150 taps at barley brothers stadium locatio n not the greatest list, but it has more options than i have hours to drink there, so i'll be fine ...

off the rail is almost ready ! some westender love for the donnelly group there's gonna be a new brewery in victoria town soon beer bribery, pay to play, whatever you call it, it is considered a pretty evil practice by most craft beer loving folks here are some wise words about the concept from half pints in winnipeg pretty things' twitter war from esquire.com from westcoaster blog this is hardly a new phenomenon, nor is is just happening in north america check out this 2010 article about chicago and this 2010 article about baltimore and this one from the uk does it happen in vancouver? i have no concrete proof that it does, but c'mon, why else would so many bars tie themselves to so many taps of crappy beer?  loyalty and swill-drinking clientele can only account for part of the phenomenon.  and frankly, brewery reps for a few local breweries have mentioned to me that they've been asked what they can offer an establishment or two around town - noth...

last night i needed nachos it was imperative that i have some and who does better nachos on the drive than st. augustine's? no one! and what goes down better with nachos than ipa? nothing! so i had a tin whistle scorpion double ipa for double the fun 8% - "loaded with citra hops and a huge malt backbone. brewed in small batches" they weren't kidding about that huge malt backbone it was teetering awfully close to the 'too much' precipice i could have used a little less but then i do like my ipas bitter(er) darker in colour, dense head, clear as the day is long its a fine beer for sure its not going to crack my top ten list though and... i'll be making a brief appearance at st. augustine's again this evening its the beerthirst half pints re-launch in bc i hear there will be swag as well as good beer!

from the beer thirst newsletter: So believe it or not, summer is almost over. Luckily, the Great Canadian Beer Festival is this weekend, which will be plenty of craft beer fun under the sun. But before you head out to Victoria for 2 days of craft beer madness, you're gonna need a little "warm up." So instead of scaring the s@%t out of your liver on Friday, ease your way into GCBF. Join us the night before at St. Augustine's for the Half Pints relaunch party on Thursday September 6th ! The party starts at 6pm, and St. Augustine's will be serving the Humulus Ludicrous, Little Scraper IPA, and Noche De Los Alebrijes. Half Pints co-owner, Nicole Barry, will be in attendance, and we'll be giving away plenty of Half Pints swag! The first 7 people to order a Half Pints beer and tell the server "Together We Can Fight The Evil Spread Of Lite Beer" will win a Half Pints shirt or a $50 Gift Certificate to St. Augustine's! For those of you who don'...

joe wiebe on coal harbour brewing beer acquisition syndrome, from which i will admit i suffer... james bond swaps martini for heineken

more on the theme of beer gifts halfpint's gift giving guide for beer knurds

and for your reading pleasure today, a guest post by ryan: Rebecca has asked me to guest post for a little while now and last Thursday at Yaletown I agreed to write about my most recent beer tasting this past July long weekend. Back in March I came back from Europe with beers from Germany, France and the UK and finally had some people over to give them a try. These were the consensus picks of the day: Germany Ok, probably not the best start to a beer blog post but we poured a Erdinger alcohol free lager that tasted surprisingly good. My colleague bought it for me while i was there as an example of what well made beer can taste like, amazing! It went perfect with the goat cheese and Masala Vista Doro my guests brought, mmm. The Victory Prima Pils in the photo is not a German beer but a gift from the Half Pints brewer that we had to have as it was going bad. I've never had such a hoppy Pilsner before! It would have been even better fresh. I digress... Next up was was a...

last week's cask at the yaletown was the downtown brown ale dry-hopped with uk goldings! deeeeelicious! last week also saw us get to taste imported beers ryan brought back two from his trip to winnipeg one, from half pints, tasted exactly like apple crumble! he also traded a growler of yaletown with the half pints guys for a bottle out of their cellar collection the 3 musketeers grand cuvee doppelbock holy divinely fabulously delicious batman! no one got the chocolate from this one at first but after we visited a couple of other beers and revisited it everyone got the chocolate notes funny... iain then raided his cellar and produced a couple of belgians for us i translate this one as ringing bell i do not speak flemish or any related language, so i'm totally making it up! and i'm having too much fun with my invented translation to look up what it actually means not all of us are belgian fans (yay, so nice to have company on that one!) but we...

entering into the debate about being able to sell smaller measures of beer sometimes known as half pints is the half pints blog ! i think its an idea whose time has definitely come and along with lower alcohol beers can only aid in stopping folks from dangerously drinking and driving oh yeah, and you get to try more varieties of beer!!

for the most recent half pints and upright brewing's blogposts regina ales club homebrew competition post from half pints gonna be in winnipeg on may 26th? wanna go to a beer pairing dinner? click here to check out upright's spring line-up, check here

an april fool's day blog from half pints ( clicky herey ) and a great online sale at rogue!

the half pints blog sounds off about carbonation

the latest half pints brewing blog is all about dumping a bad batch and putting brewing dates on the good stuff its a shame when a batch has to be dumped does it count as a sacrifice to the beer gods?

brewer's association changes the definition of craft brewed:  click here therapy in a glass:  ode to festive ales:  click here red racer beer:  Our Winter Ale is now on tap at Romers Burger Bar. This beer should go great with their excellent selection of burgers. central city brewing company:  We've got a special Pale Ale on today. Instead of the usual multiple hop styles in the brew Gary used citra hops all they way through the brewing process. This should provide a nice twist on our Pale Ale for you all to enjoy. half pints brewer's blog, click here rogue outsells sapporo and kirin

so many great beer stories out there! hopworks brings out their abominable ale - click here for the link happy birthday to the president of howe sound brewing - click here for the blog post central city is in it for the love of beer, and that's why they're a success!  click here for the link to the province article click here for an ode to a beer cellar and last, but certainly not least, half pints releases the british bulldog amber ale.  click here for the link to all the details.

half pints took the show on the road! click here for the blog post and photos.

got to try half pint 's little scrapper ipa at st. augustine's the other week its very sedimenty - guess that's what happens with a dry-hopped unfiltered beer! it looks quite pretty though, the sediment hanging throughout the glass like constellations in the night sky light caramel colour, almost yellow 50 ibus 6% amarillo and cascade hops tastes delightful nice hop bitterness balanced with a malty finish i could make this a session beer very easily! "citrus hop aromas with a toasted malt finish" also currently available by the bottle at st. augustine's: north coast brewing's acme pale ale anderson valley's poleeko gold pale ale north coast brewing's acme ipa green flash west coast ipa anderson valley hop ottin' ipa north coast brewing's old rasputin imperial stout yukon brewing's midnight sun espresso stout cannery brewing's wildfire ipa

i love the wax over the cap on Half Pints Brewing Company's humulus ludicrous.  it makes me feel like i just got transported back to medieval times and someone's going to challenge me to a duel at any moment... and i keep hoping a buxom bar wench will sidle up to me...   currently i'm pairing it with nachos.  and the historical anachronism to medieval times "please sir, can i have some more" comes to mind.  just go with it, i am. its got quite the head on it, and a fabulous hoppy aroma.  oh yeah, and it tastes fabulously hoppy too.  Lots of lace left on the glass as i drain it, but the initial haze is not wearing off.  lovely dark golden colour.   the bottle says:  our most ridiculously hoppy beer. i would like more on their label.  more about the brewery, more about the beer, just more personality.  but all i get is "craft brewed in winnipeg mb canada" and that its 8% apv and 100 IBUs.  delightful.  i'm a fan....