beernesday

yay!  beeradvocate issue #41 arrived in my mailbox the other day! i love mail. i love beer. mail about beer is really a fabulous thing! and there's an article by BrewDog about their philosophy.  i love BrewDog! check it out my friends, check it out! And from the beer advocate website, this age-old question rears its enquiring head: "A proper snakebite? A friend of mine turned me onto snakebites a few months ago, and I've been looking for a good combination of beer and cider to mix together. Last weekend I gave Narragansett and Strongbow a try, which was pretty tasty, but I think I can do better. The liquor store I work at only has Woodchuck, Strongbow and Magners, but we've quite a good selection of imported and domestic beers, so I figured I'd ask BA what a good combo would be." wow, i never thought of experimenting with the snakebite.  i just happily lap up whatever the pub gives me.  no more!  i shall experiment everywhere strongbow ...

sometimes people just say it so well, you have to quote them! even if it may be a bit weird to repost a facebook comment from craft beer locator ... "I've liked everything I've ever had from DFH. Not that it's always "THE BEST" but it is always at least a little different. I don't drink DFH to try to compare to something else. It's an easy adventure. It's production level mad scientist homebrew. Sometimes I think of something difficult and unpredictable and check to see if there's already a DFH beer like that. Sometimes there already is. If I'm too busy or too lazy to brew it up, I can try theirs instead. They have their niche in the brewing world and in my cellar." Thomas Ale Johnson

Mt. Begbie Brewing Co.'s Nasty Habit is some fabulous hoppy goodness! unfortunately, their website is down as i type this, so the only information i have is what's on the bottle (and my take on what's inside the bottle!) ipa, 6%, good head, hoppy nose, citrusy, well balanced, and hot damn do i ever like the label! "Allow yourself to be seduced by our Nasty Habit.  A generously hopped IPA, balanced by a diabolical blend of rich specialty malts and pure mountain water.  A wicked ale that leaves you lusting for more!" and it did. i want another. and i want to know why their website is down.

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the second best-selling craft beer in the United States, behind the Boston Beer Company's Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

beer advocate wants you to celebrate local beer week from august 20-29. what does that entail?  well it can go any one of many different ways:  you could organize a beer week in your city, you could only drink locally brewed beer that week, you could only patronize pubs that serve regional beer, you could get on your soapbox and urge pubs, restaurants, friends and family to drink/serve local beers.  check out the website http://www.localbeerweek.com/ me, i loved vancouver craft beer week, so i'm very happy to drink local beers that week.  that's the easy way out though... i'm going to have to think about possibly doing something else.  afterall, its easy to drink local beers in vancouver, we've got an amazing crop of them!

what goes well with beer? hot, sunny days... cold, wintery days... smoking... parties... socializing... acting like an ass... pontificating... inappropriate flirting... but best of all is food! if you're a vancouverite, i suggest you check out some local food blogs to find out where to get your feed on!  such as food and tell , the fabulous jonathan's equally fabulous blog.  gastronomical delights galore.  man can live on beer alone, but why limit yourself?

fabulous new tees from rogue brewery! i want the dead guy one, and the 100% rogue one how many beer tees is it appropriate to have in one's wardrobe?  is there a limit? you can buy these tees, and other lovely rogue products here . for now, i shall just covet these tees.  $US30 plus shipping is a little rich for my blood.  perhaps a road trip is in order...

empire stadium - the tradition continues that's the motto for the newly resurrected football stadium i very much enjoyed the first lions game to be played outdoors since 1982, even if the leos did fall to edmonton in the dying seconds of the game - bah! its only exhibition! the outdoor stadium is only about half the size of BC Place, but that just meant that it was full for a pre-season game, and my seats are half the distance from the field at Empire than they are at BC Place - that's a big plus!  i shouldn't suffer too much if i forget my darned glasses this season! the minuses:  its gonna be wet and cold sitting outside!  my seats are not covered by the roof, so it might get miserable later in the season. most tragically, the only beer on offer is budweiser.  never my favourite beer, i did go through a period of drinking it regularly when we had two players on our softball team allergic to wheat, making rice-based bud the beer everyone could dr...

i need to try howe sound's Total Eclipse of the Hops not just because it is an ipa and hoppy hoppy goodness, but also because i am totally in love with the name!  yes, i am that shallow, and i'm okay with it. bastards have their site on flash though, so i can't copy all their bons mots over here. suffice it to say that this hoppy beast is 90 ibus and 8% - right up my alley.  brewed with 100% barley, six kinds of hops... but only brewed in limited quantities. i must get my hands on some, and soon!

the reef is my softball team's sponsor and we love them very much for their support. i also love them for their amazing caribbean food and fabulous (albeit smallish) beer menu. many a happy post-softball hour or two has been spent quaffing the Race Rocks Amber and reliving every last brilliant play we made! and many a happy brunch has been spent fueling up for the finals of a tournament.

Grant me purity and self-restraint... but not yet. - Saint Augustine

had many a beer with the regular suspects at st. augustine's the other night. still love how many taps they have, and all the delightful craft beers to choose from but... and you knew there had to be a but!  the service there is not up to snuff.  yes, we were a larger group, and there were several other large groups there, but i still feel that if you have the capacity to seat all of us, you should have the staff available to serve all of us in a timely fashion.  jackie's food came before her beer for crying out loud! there was a run on sampler glasses later in the night and this adversely affected how quickly the beers were coming.  but even before the glass shortage there was slow service on the beer front.  shame, really. will i go back?  of course i will!  i love the choice, the sampler option and the food. i just want faster service, that's all! i went with two samplers to try all the beers i hadn't yet tasted, and then switched to pints...

some of these beer facts i can relate to more than others... this one makes me think that we should take to the streets more often to protest rising prices... oh, and hst... but let's skip the fatalities, 'kay? Craft Beer Locator   Beer Fact of the Day:  In 1848 Citizens of Munich took to the streets and rioted after a 1-cent price increase was announced on beer. Several fatalities were recorded as a result of the fighting which followed.

Craft Beer Locator   Beer Fact of the Day:  The herbal plant 'St. John’s wort' is known for its antidepressant effects. Its name has roots in beer making as it was added to the wort during the process of making beer before the use of hops.

a thing of beauty, and a joy to behold - i give you the humble hop: i sure do love me some hops!

it is more than half way through june where is summer in vancouver this year? i cleaned out the beer fridge the other day. and by cleaned out unfortunately i mean washed it, not drank it dry. the beer fridge lives outside on my balcony.  it is a source of great joy to me on a warm evening when i don't have to go inside every time i need a fresh cold beer. usually the fridge gets cleaned out and plugged in in march or april in anticipation of warm beer drinking evenings. that i didn't clean it out until late june this year is a tragedy. a travesty of justice, even. where are my warm evenings? a full beer fridge is a sight that warms my heart.  this is what it looked like last spring before the softball team put a serious dent in its contents! usually the team has been over multiple times to use me for the fridge and balcony that can in fact seat 20 people who all like each other. not this year. not once has it been nice enough out at 8:15 to want to si...

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: To pour a pint of Guinness in "Guinness Time" appx. 3/4 of the pint is pulled then left to settle. Once the head has fully formed, the glass is then topped up. This convention is often disregarded outside Ireland, which is one reason why people think Guinness tastes better in Ireland.

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: In 1976 what some call the true renaissance of American craft brewing emerged with the founding of The New Albion Brewery in Sonoma, California by a homebrew enthusiast. While this brewery went out of business after about 6 years, there were hundreds of homebrewers that were inspired and followed in their footsteps and started breweries in the early-1980s.

Red Truck Beer is almost sold out of Limited release pilsner....get it while you can! (Alibi, Flying Tiger, Village Taphouse, Central Bistro, Mis Trucos)

from canadian living magazine: "Cooking with beer Father’s Day and beer – the two seem to go hand-in-hand. They conjure up images of Dad barbecuing in the backyard with a nearby brew, serving the dual purpose of quenching thirst and extinguishing rogue flare-ups on the grill. In honour of Father’s Day on June 20th, here’s our salute to Dads everywhere with quick & easy recipes using (what else?) beer. Caramelized Beer Onions are a unique and delectable topping for thinly sliced beef-on-a-bun (with the beef prepared a day ahead), peameal bacon sandwiches, or any burger. Flavour accents of orange rind and coriander in Wheat Beer-Steamed Mussels (seen in image above) are perfect for dining al fresco on an early summer’s eve. If serving as a main course, plan on one pound (500 g) of mussels per person and accompany with plenty of crusty bread for dipping. Feeling adventurous? Beer-Battered Pickerel with oven-baked Sweet Potato Fries with Curry Mayonnaise are a home...

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: Brewers, until Louis Pasteur settled the question in 1876, made beer for thousands of years without a concrete knowledge of yeast and its role in fermentation. Many thought magic was involved or it was a gift from God.

Just when commercial brewing started is not clear, though it goes back to the very roots of civilization and appears to have been independently invented across many cultures in almost every part of the world. Remarkably, beer is perhaps twice as old as mankind’s most powerful enabling technology - the wheel. Beer, and its cousin, bread, were fundamental to the development of civilization and by virtue of the development of basic machinery to grind grain for the production of both bread and beer, may have even contributed to the evolution of the wheel. gizmag.com

5% alchol by volume?  pah! 9%?  a drop in the bucket beers are topping 40% these days.  check these big boys out: i'm not sure anything over 15% is necessary, but judging by how quickly a couple of 9 - 14% bottles put me on my ass, i'd like to have a babysitter when i am lucky enough to try anything stronger! the gizmag article is long, but worth a read (i'd skip down to the part that is about extreme beer though!). also on this topic is a letter in issue #40 of beeradvocate magazine.

got my first installment of my Beeradvocate subscription last week!  yay!  (their 40th issue, my first) haven't had nearly enough time to peruse it as i would like, but the joy of a magazine is that you get to read it on your own time, even if that time is not right now. so far so good, i'm glad i subscribed! and i look forward to the day when i have enough time to read this lovely magazine from cover to cover. i mean, what more could you ask for?  articles on beer, recipes using beer, beer style profiles, and of course, beer reviews.  beer, beer, beer, and for good measure, beer.  all my favourites!

" I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer. " -Homer Simpson " All right, brain, I don't like you and you don't like me - so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer. " -Homer Simpson

i'm not really going to weigh in on the "is beer really so bad out of a can" battle.  that would be silly.  i've got nothing earth-shattering to add to the debate. i will say though, that i like the option of beer in a can.  i find it very handy for excursions such as camping, hiking, dining al fresco and the like.  cans are lighter than bottles or kegs, and crush up really small when you stomp on them after emptying them.  and if you happen to be by a source of cold water, they chill much faster than bottles.  i haven't carried a keg around with me, so must reserve judgment on their ability to chill as fast as cans. on my most recent camping trip i decided to take my can appreciation a step further and go with the cheapest cans i could palate.  did you know you can get six Hell's Gate Pale Ale for a mere $7.99 at government stores?  they're practically giving it away!  and its a perfectly drinkable little pale ale. [i chatted up the re...

first in the series of bad beer shirts: the only excuse we can offer is that we were on vacation and it seemed like a good idea at the time...

Discover the World of Beer: Women Only! We are all familiar with the marketing campaigns of the major breweries that routinely target young males. Unfortunately, females young and old are being neglected by the beer industry and interest from this demographic is steadily decreasing. We at Firefly Fine Wines and Ales would like to change your perception about beer at our first women-only beer seminar. You will get the opportunity to taste different brewing styles, learn about the history of beer and discover which beers go best with food. The world of beer is complex and intriguing and, with a just little knowledge, can be immensely rewarding. Date: Tue 29th June Time: 7pm - 9pm Cost: $35 This seminar is limited to 12 seats and is a first come, first served basis. Email jbashford@fireflyfinewinesandales.com with your name, address, phone number and number of tickets you wish to purchase. Alternatively you can call 604.875.3325  or purchase ti ckets in person at the stor...

stepping away from the ipas for a moment, my beer swilling at hidden the other night included a couple of amber ales. alison went with Vancouver Island Brewery's Sea Dog, and i tried Yukon Brewing Company's Yukon Red.  i won in alcohol volume at 5.5%, alison's was close behind at 5.2%. unfortunately for both of these fine brews, we had tried a brilliant ipa beforehand and were so wowed by it, it took us most of a glass to get into the finer points of these amber ales. both poured with a good head and were wonderfully clear and amber coloured.  both were quite drinkable.  alison was not wowed by the sea dog (it wasn't depthy enough for her), and a bit put off by the angry red-haired man on the label (presumably a proud sailor).  i liked the northern images on my yukon red's label, and would happily have drunk more of it had i not had the amazing ipa to get back to. sea dog's label says:  "Ready, Aye, Ready!  We're proud that our brewery's ho...

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: Beer accounts for about 87 percent of total alcohol beverage consumption.

“Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire." – David Wallace