beernesday

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: (Courtesy of Steve Parkes) Hop resins, including the bitter acids, polyphenols and essential oils, contain several compounds beneficial to the health of men and women. Some of them survive the brewing process and remain in beer. Hop compounds provide a sedative action, and help relieve stress. They may be effective at reducing hormone related cancers such as breast cancer and prostate cancer. They are useful in treating complaints related to menopause and menstrual issues. They may also be effective anti-oxidants in the blood reducing the precipitation of lipids. The antimicrobial action extends to effective antibiotic activity against certain pathogenic fungi, streptococcus, staphylococcus, herpes virus and malaria pathogens. In one study meat treated with xanthohumulol failed to produce cancer causing compounds upon cooking. Another showed the same compound to directly prevent and treat cancer tumors. obviously we should drink more ipa!...

went to stella's on cambie street the other night and because i'm not the biggest fan of the belgian beers, i had another snakebite concoction i teamed the phillips ipa with strongbow i was a little worried that the hops and cider would fight each other rather than compliment each other, but i needn't have worried - it was delicious! the hops and the citrus were made for each other it was refreshing and bracing and i wish i'd thought of it years ago! so far, this is the leader in my ultimate snake bite search

and now for the first guest post on my blog! this one is from the lovely and talented amanda: Swans Buckerfield's Brewery Berry Ale: 7%. Not extremely cloudy, unfiltered: contains malted barley, malted wheat, raspberries, hops and yeast. Brewed in Victoria, Vancouver Island.  A mid amber colour or perhaps the colouring of the raspberries??? When poured, doesn't have the biggest head, light and bubbly and light in carbonation. At 7% the label doesn't lie when it says strong beer... But not too strong. Has a very berry hay taste at first....  Very light bodied and fresh on the palate. The raspberry flavour really kicks in as an after taste. Delightful and delish.... raspberries being my favourite of the berries, I find it quite the flavoursome treat!  The hops are ever so slight, a pleasure to drink. One wee glass would be sufficient... Not a sessioner. I think the berry would become too over powering -  more citrus notes are needed!  

from today's province newspaper (see the save on foods insert): "Behold the best B.C. brews GRANVILLE ISLAND'S RASPBERRY WHEAT ALE One of the annual summer highlights from the Granville Island Brewery, the Raspberry Wheat Ale is once again available to consumers -- but only for a limited time. (Six weeks!) The GIB Raspberry Wheat Ale is a combination of malt, water, hops, yeast and Fraser Valley raspberries that -- according to brew master Vern Lambourne -- is a "perfect compliment to a fruit-filled dessert, or perhaps a grilled chicken salad." It should be noted that sales of the Raspberry Wheat Ale will aid a great cause -- 50 cents from every bottle sold goes toward the Weekend to End Women's Cancers. Visit gib. ca for more. PHILLIPS BREWERY'S BIG TIME KOLSCH This ale is quickly becoming a favourite among music festival goers in British Columbia. Phillips' Big Time Kolsch was originally brewed for attendees of the Big Day Up festival...

just to show you the good humour of the brewdog fellas, check out Tom Scott's blog about creating bargain "end of history" beer and sending it to brewdog... that brewdog is proudly linking to on their blog: http://www.tomscott.com/beer/ good times! good fun! good beer!!

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: Since it's been pointed out that "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" was never said by Ben Franklin, fewer sources for tee-shirts hawking this expression are available. Many breweries who quoted this to sell their tee shirts are offering a free swap-out for the customer to save face.

"It just makes sense that our favorite social lubricant meshes so nicely with the online phenomenon known as social media.  Good-beer lovers knew this long before anyone ever heard of social media or websites like facebook and twitter." Bryce Eddings beeradvocate #41

i went back to rogue the other night and decided to revisit my all hops all the time sampler just to see if anything had changed for me and my taste buds however, they had replaced the dogfish 60 minute ipa with the pike place ipa, so it wasn't an exact replica of the original hop-off it was still a wonderfully hoppy good time though! i think i may like the pike place better than the tree i say might, because the two beers pour exactly the same in the glass and i'm not altogether confident that my server knew for sure which was which i believe the pike place had a maltier finish than the hophead, and i found that most satisfying of course the central city esb and the rogue yellow snow ipa are delicious and delightful and that night was no exception i enjoyed them both thoroughly!

rogue - the vancouver kitchen and wet bar, not the oregon brewery! i had the distinct pleasure of hanging out with my good buddies at rogue a couple of weeks ago - how time flies, i'm only now finding a moment to blog about it! shhh, don't tell them at rogue, but their samplers are bigger and cheaper than st. augustine's!  keep that one under your hat - we don't want them to change anything!  4 four ounce tasters for 5.99!!!  and the promise that if you don't like your food, or don't think its worth the price they're charging, you don't have to pay that price, or any price, for it.  what a concept! located right in waterfront station, its a large space divided into smaller sections to feel more intimate.  we keep sitting right by the bar, but i'm sure the other rooms are great too! and they have a fabulous selection of taps. not just beers on draught, but the pulls too! local, imports, they've got plenty of both! great decor, lov...

and more proof that i am a big beer geek:  look what we saw on the way home from the canada cup of beer: how much fun is that?

and more tasting from the canada cup of beer! last year the efes guys gave me a t-shirt.  this year they were wearing the same ones, and offering token-free beer if you could toss your token into the cup.  we all came close, but had to part with our tokens in the end. the guys were nice enough to let me have a half pour of each of the pilsner and the dark ale so that i could try them both on one token.  the pilsner is so refreshing and perfect for a hot day.  the dark was nicely malted. i'd like to find these at a local store some time to properly enjoy them. russell brewing has come out with a fabulous summer concept - a citrus twist pack!  half lemon ale and half lime lager, its the perfect summertime mixer pack.  both flavours are well filtered, crisp and refreshing.  the lemon has more citrus flavour, but both are delightful.  we strongly suggest picking some up - everyone liked these babies! then we made it over to the cariboo booth ...

brewdog has the strongest beer in the world again! unfortunately the very limited run is already sold out, so i'll not be able to try this one... and at over $700 a bottle, its not like it was all that likely anyway! this via craftbeerlocator :  http://www.asylum.com/2010/07/22/its-the-worlds-strongest-most-expensive-beer-inside-a-squi/?sms_ss=facebook and this from brewdog's blog : "This 55% beer should be drank in small servings whilst exuding an endearing pseudo vigilance and reverence for Mr Stoat. This is to be enjoyed with a weather eye on the horizon for inflatable alcohol industry Nazis, judgemental washed up neo-prohibitionists or any grandiloquent, ostentatious foxes. The End of History: The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fu...

oh brewdog!  what a fabulous thing it is that you went above and beyond and brewed the 32% tactical nuclear penguin! oh firefly!  what a fabulous thing it was to do to let a group of us taste the precious nectar that is the tactical nuclear penguin! at 32% its just dandy to share a bottle of the tnp between 13 people!  especially with a $94.75 price tag per bottle! what to say about the once-strongest beer in the world?  well, it looks and smells like sherry in the glass.  there's no carbonation and its mighty thick stuff.  a very boozy nose with definite flavour pulled from the oak barrels it aged in.  the first sip is straight booze.  on the second the chocolate notes come through.  it would make a great aperitif or dessert wine.  but make no mistake - its a beer. did i like it?  yes i did. would i buy a bottle?  probably not.  its outrageously (although justifiably) expensive and i'd want to share it between...

jumping back to the canada cup of beer... just to be different, jack daniels had a booth at the beer festival - pushing their new jack daniels pre-mixed drinks.  they had a jack and lemonade mix and a jack and cola mix.  i tried the jack and lemonade.  whoa!  definitely taste the jack!  they were only giving away 2oz pours, which judging by the boozy taste was probably a very smart thing!  they were also giving away drink cozies to anyone who parted with a token, and jack daniels hats by donation.  i got me a cozy! next up we hit the booth offering imports dab and estrella.  the rep gave me a big long spiel about the estrella, the only beer brewed (by a chef no less) with the intention of making the perfect food paired libation.  its 70% lager, 30% unfiltered wheat, with notes of coriander, licorice and citrus.  you serve it chilled in a wine glass.  "Pronounced intensity with a complex aroma.  Very fruity and floral on th...

OMG!!! I TRIED THE TACTICAL NUCLEAR PENGUIN LAST NIGHT! review and photos to come but i just had to shout from the rooftops that i got to try it!!

i love the vancouver folk music festival! it is consistently the most amazingly well run event i have had the pleasure of attending. major kudos to all involved! last year they introduced a beer garden to the festival. on principle i did not venture in to said beer garden last year.  i still don't think that a beer garden has a place at a beautiful family event like folkfest, but since having it there did not in any way take away from the festival being my happy place, i thought i'd get off my high horse and give it a try this year. sponsored by big rock brewery, the offerings were cider, traditional ale, grasshopper wheat and lime. not being the biggest fan of the big rock product, and it being a fabulously hot sunny afternoon, i decided to explore another snake bite mix. i paired the traditional ale with the cider. and it was delicious! perfect for a hot summer's day.  refreshing, sparkling, not too sweet... it hit the spot! i extolled its virtues so highly, ...

check out craft beer locator's blog for a great beer festival survival guide! http://test.craftbeerlocator.com/blog/2010/02/what-ive-learned-from-beer-festivals/

firefly on cambie has introduced a series of tasting seminars they are calling "la table commune" basically these are tastings for up to 12 people, hosted by firefly staff, and held at a long table where everyone sits and tastes and talks together - you know, a communal table! i attended one on june 29th - women's introduction to beer and have bought my ticket to another to be held on july 20th - introduction to craft beer among our beers tasted, and in no particular order as compared to the order of tasting, were Fat Cat Brewery's Old Bad Cat barleywine, R&B's Dark Star oatmeal stout, Cannery Brewing's Naramata brown ale, Morte Subite framboise, Anderson Valley's IPA, Duchy Originals ale... and Kokanee. i'd had the r&b oatmeal before, and am quite a fan i'd also had the cannery naramata brown, and like it as well the rest were new to me loved, loved, loved the anderson valley ipa, was surprised to really enjoy the mort subite as i'...

next up in the beers paul has home-brewed and let us try is his pumpkin ale. originally brewed after pumpkin harvest time, it was just too young to drink then.  now though, it has aged to a very drinkable little number. its cloudy with lots of sediment, not suprisingly.  subtle pumpkin nose with a large head and good carbonation.  its a darned tasty beer. for me, its just too yeasty to make it something i could drink more than one of at a time, but i was quite happy to settle in with my one! most noble home brew effort!

adding to my ever-growing list of ipas i must try: samuel adams latitude 48  (5.8%) eel river ipa (7.2%) uinta brewing co.'s detour double ipa (9.5%) shipyard brewing co.'s xxxx ipa (9.25%) upslope brewing co.'s ipa (7.2%) hopworks urban brewery's ace of spades (9.2%) midtfyns bryghus's ipa (7.3%) deschutes ' hop in the dark (india dark ale) (6.5%) and other styles: strangford lough brewing co.'s st. patrick's best ale (english bitter) (4.2%) sweetwater brewing co.'s happy ending (imperial stout) (9%) yakima craft brewing co.'s stout (6.3%) boulevard brewing co.'s dark truth stout (9.7%)

on my quest for the ultimate snake bite, i tried a strongbow and stanley park amber mixture the other night. i'm quite delighted by the ale's ability to jump into the lager's place and make a fabulous drink! less sweet than the usual snake bite, this one had plenty of cidery and beery goodness.  i had a second!

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: Commissioned by Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Breweries,The Guinness Book of Records was published in August 1954. One thousand copies were printed and given away. In 1979, they listed 190-proof Everclear as “the most alcoholic drink.” Ironically, Guinness has since banned all alcohol-related entries from the book.

and now for the low-down on the beers i sampled at the canada cup of beer: we began with the steamwhistle pilsner, which was a hit with everyone.  perfect beer for a hot day.  and darned friendly servers to boot.  we can see why they've taken ontario by storm.  (cindy thinks you could mix this with lemonade for even more refreshment) next up was samuel adams.  on offer was the summer ale and the boston lager.  the lager was a lovely dark lager, quite tasty.  i found the summer ale to be much like russell's lemon, which i like for its lack of yeasty cloudiness, so i was a fan of this as well.  everyone else loves the fruity beers, so they very much enjoyed the summer ale. on to natureland, the first organic brewers in canada, who just got themselves a genuine german brewmaster (who's the same guy responsible for cariboo's honey).  the nice server let us try all three of his available brews (in smaller pours) for a single token - fabul...

ay, karumba! saturday kicked me in the ass.  i blame the sudden onset of summer because i certainly did not drink to excess, yet somehow i ended up with heat exhaustion after the canada cup of beer.  not pretty. good thing i enjoyed myself at the cup and got to sample many a lovely beer first. + lots of fabulous craft brewed beers on offer + port-a-potty numbers and cleanliness ++ having hidden lounge there offering vegetarian food + yelp! offering sunscreen to attendees - drunken boys making homophobic remarks - same drunken boys giving the servers a hard time about 2 oz pours + some of the servers offering to let you try each of their offerings for a single token (in smaller pours) + band playing polka music + the weather - plastic wine glasses instead of the usual little beer steins + swag!! + good times with good friends! + have i mentioned the great beer? and my vote for the best booth goes to alexander keith's for making a whole experience out of ...

Craft Beer Locator Beer Fact of the Day: Wiki estimates 1,500 gallons of beer is consumed during a major league baseball game. Multiple that by 2,430 games each year and you've poured 3,645,000 gallons of beer. This does not count playoffs or World Series or beer consumption at home from fans watching the game on TV. i wonder how much gets poured at bc lions games...  hopefully more this week than last when they add more taps at empire stadium to feed the thirsty football masses!!

oooh, beer and cheese is a better pairing than wine and cheese!  yay! from rogue 's wire service: "Portland, OR, July 6, 2010 -- Fred Eckhardt, author of "The Essentials of Beer Style," says that the combination of wine and cheese leads to a "train wreck in the mouth." On July 20, Eckhardt will make the case that beer is the superior pairing with cheese at the 19th Annual Beer & Cheese tasting event at the Rogue Public House and Distillery in Portland's Pearl District. During the event, Eckhardt will lead participants through a decadent multi-course tasting featuring predominantly Oregon hand-crafted beers and cheeses. Eckhardt's Beer & Cheese tasting is part of Oregon Craft Beer Month and the perfect prelude to the Oregon Brewers Festival, which begins on July 22."

from rogue's wire service: 21 Beers for 21 Years Portland, OR, June 21, 2010 -- Rogue Brewmaster John Maier has brewed 21 different beers for the 21 years of the Oregon Brewers Fest. To honor the OBF and John's "21er", John brewed a one-time batch of an Olde Ale, called 21 Ale. 21 Ale will be available in black ceramic 750ml bottles in limited quantities and 21 kegs of 21 Ale will be celebrated by 21 of the Rogue Nation's most loyal, long time beer emporiums across the country. To kick off 21 Ale, a premier pour event will be held at the Horse Brass Pub in Portland on July 21st. The list of beers John has made for OBF is below, although there are two "mystery" years that we cannot remember. The Rogue Nation Historian is offering 4 bottles of 21 Ale and 427 Hopoes (the official currency of the Rogue Nation) to anyone that can tell us which beers we poured at OBF in 1992 and 1993. 21 Ale is dedicated to Art Larrance and Teddy Peetz, the founde...

from Men's Health : 31 things to do with beer besides drink it: 1.  Bathe in it 2.  Put out a fire 3.  Marinate meat 4.  Polish pots 5.  Make beer BBQ sauce 6.  Shampoo hair 7.  Loosen rusty bolts 8.  Clear up brown spots on your lawn 9.  Steam clams or mussels 10.  Pass a kidney stone 11.  Boil shrimp 12.  Kill slugs 13.  Find due North 14.  Soothe tired feet 15.  Make a beer slide 16.  Lower blood pressure 17.  Trick a cheap landlord 18.  Bake beer bread 19.  Catch mice 20.  Tie a fly 21.  Cure insomnia 22.  Massage yourself 23.  Calm an upset stomach 24.  Build your next home 25.  Cook rice 26.  Stop snoring 27.  Build a plane 28.  Roast chicken 29.  Ice a hamstring 30.  Tame wild hair 31.  Scale fish instructions are included on the website, as are recipes. some of these are just plain silly, ...

paul's irish red ale thank f'ing christ that we have friends who not only home brew, but willingly part with a bottle or two for us to try.  they rock! last night's tipple was fabulously red, nicely heady, not too sedimenty and quite effervescent. quite drinkable. for me though, i can't handle the live yeast.  i just can't. its there, every sip.  if it weren't for it, this would be an amazing session beer for me... damn, i hate not being able to handle the yeast!

rather than sampling too many beers in one night, tippling at st. augustine's the other night featured a few bottle or pint choices after a single sampler each. the thought was to try four beers we weren't sure we'd want a whole pint of, or were already in love with.  then follow those with choices we were sure we'd want a whole pint (or bottle) of.  and it turned out to be a sound plan! alison was the smartest about this method - she got them to let her have a sip of her choices first, then ordered the pints.  she had the r&b red devil ale and the tin whistle killer bee dark honey ale.  she's in love with both of these so much that she went to the beer store last night to buy herself bottles for home!  of the red devil she said:  "nice hop - really not sweet... great depth.  keeps on going."  of the killer bee she said "i'm a killer bee!" (yes, we were a bit tipsy by this point in the evening) and inspired by the mohammed ali docume...