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Showing posts from October, 2012

link love

2000 km adventure for bc craft beer month the globe and mail on pumpkin beers brewmasters' dinner at hop & vine the globe and mail on beer terroir the beer wench's hallowe'en candy and beer pairings

beer bachelors

the beer wench announces her tongue-in-cheek list of the 20 most eligible bachelors of craft beer not sure where all the hot canadian boys of craft beer are on her list but if you're willing to travel for love in all the beer places, then this list is for you!

on the coast

i will be on cbc radio's on the coast this afternoon at 5:50 tonights topic is: what makes for a good beer joint? and the beer of choice: sours

bits and bobs

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another set of hallowe'en candy and beer pairings what i drank during monday night football/frankenstorm porn last night (not all by myself, i shared!): what i drank for #champagneday (also not by myself, we all shared!): champagne and champagne sake i didn't bring it, but i sure as heck was gonna try it! i didn't bring this either, but it has a cork, that counts!  

legacy liquor store

new and exciting beers: Elysian Dark O' The Moon Pumpkin Stout - $12.55 Stout brewed with pumpkin and pumpkin seeds with cinnamon added. Spookily smooth and chocolatey with a touch of cinnamon. It won 2010 GABF Silver Medal in the Field Beer category. Phillips and Great Lakes Brewery Puzzler Belgian Black IPA - $6.35 This beer is the collaborative result of two Canadian craft breweries three provinces apart coming together in Victoria to combine yeast from Belgium with hops from the Pacific Northwest in a rich Black Ale. Whistler Chestnut Ale Limited Edition - $6.50 This limited release is a true reflection of Fall. Blended robust caramel and crystal malts to give the brew deep brown amber hues, for an almost warming appearance. However it's the roasted chestnuts that impart a unique and bold nutty character, complemented by a light level of hops, for a clean yet crisp finish.

link love

livescience offers 10 interesting facts about beer beer and hallowe'en candy pairing in defence of pumpkin beer east coast breweries talk about sandy non-perishable food and beer pairings

beer geekery

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beer geekery

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#champagne day

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happy #champagne day!

take me out to the ballpark

and buy me some craft beer! you know craft beer has really arrived when cbs compares world series participants by the beers they drink ! no wonder i'm a giants fan, they have much better beer (and more choice overall) at their stadium! and now i'm jonesing for a russian river blind pig ipa thanks a lot cbs!

moo.com

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i am in love with my business cards platonically, but its true love! and they just gave me 50 more for free because moo.com is swell that way! so i'm going to promote them yup, consider this an infomercial! if you need business cards - both full size or cute little mini ones - postcards, stickers, business card holders, greeting cards, etc., etc. you might want to check them out if you do need something, use this code and get yourself 10% off your first order (and in the spirit of full disclosure, i get credit towards my next purchase if you do) http://www.moo.com/share/fbpd9n you can use your own design on their cards or choose from hundreds of fabulous stock designs you can use a different photo on each card or a combination of a few photos if you have seen my business cards you know that they are quality cards and the mini ones are fabulously cute... bad photo of really wonderful cards okay, that's enough paper product love for now

hermannator's back

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Vancouver Island Brewery OCTOBER 25, 2012 Press Release! Greetings! Our Brewmaster has been hard at work crafting our Hermannator Ice Bock seasonal brew... Brewing up a classic Hermannator Ice Bock turns 25! When Vancouver Island Brewery first brewed Hermannator in 1987 it was intended as a special winter batch for the breweries closest friends and family. It quickly became evident that this beer was something special as year after year the number of people demanding a taste of this unique brew grew after each limited release. Now 25 years and multiple world class brewing awards later, Hermannator is back on local beer retailers' shelves, ready to make a limited release appearance for its Silver Anniversary. "To be able to brew a beer for over 25 years and have loyal customers coming back each year to enjoy this beer is a very rewarding feeling" stated Jim Dodds, General Manager at Vancouver Island Brewery. "Since 1984 we have loved

red hook

red hook gets fined by OSHA over worker's death

northwest brewing news

vote, vote, vote! This being the political season, we are writing to you to urge you to vote — not just for the candidates clamoring for public office, but for something even more important: beer! Our 8th Annual Readers Choice Awards competition is underway! By visiting our website at http://www.brewingnews.com/northwest/bestofnorthwest/, you can vote for your favorite brewery, brewpub, alehouse or pub, beer store, and homebrew shop in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Northern California, and for your favorite beer and cider as well in 22 different categories. We've added nanobrewery to the list this time also. Don't delay, as our deadline is Saturday, November 10, at 12:00 noon PST. Remember, only one vote per category is allowed. This is your contest; Northwest Brewing News staff is not eligible to vote. Voter ID or proof of citizenship is not required! The winners will be announced in our December-January issue, and a special Readers' Choice Awards

monday night football

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the beers consumed at this week's monday night football fest: the rogue was from last year and was pretty sedimenty thank goodness the bc relaunch of rogue is next week and i can get some more recent juniper pale ale it was a hit with everyone, even with the sediment hope they still like it when it tastes like it should! both the lone wolf and the lucky 13 went over well so far I haven't taken anything to mnf that people hated i love having non-beer-obsessed friends willing to try whatever i bring along for them!

shaw tv's the rush

i just taped a segment on shaw tv's "the rush" (formerly urban rush) i am not talking about beer on the segment but michael eckford does mention this blog so that makes it beer related, right?! interested? i'll be chatting with mike and fiona about the cable access show i co-host on shaw called outlooktv which just celebrated its one year anniversary check it out on shaw channel 4 at 10 and midnight tonight (also 2 a.m for the insomniacs and service industry folks) and again tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. or you can go new skool and find it on www.youtube.com/therushonshawtv tomorrow there is some sort of streaming thing too at http://new.livestream.com/therushtv/events/1580921  from noon until three daily... rewind to the 20 minute mark and you can watch me right now...

phillips brewing

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Triple-Beer-Super-Massive-Seasonal-Release! October 22nd: We're celebrating BC Craft Beer Month the best way we know how: with a triple-beer-super-massive-seasonal-release! Three releases at once can be a lot to keep straight--especially once the craft connoisseur starts sampling. So to help you map your path we'll be highlighting the beers on our website and social media channels over the next 3 days, offering background info and tasting notes for each one. For all you Victoria-folk, we will also be hosting a tasting at the brewery on Tuesday October 23rd from 3pm-6pm where you can come on down to sample all three releases, meet some of the brewers and have an all-around great time. But to get everyone's engines revved up, here are some broad strokes... Puzzler Black Belgian IPA - 9.1% 650mL - Crafted in collaboration with our friends at Great Lakes Brewing from Toronto, buckets of black malt give this beer a deep earthy-brown colour and a huge body. Generous porti

beer geekery

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beer geekery

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gigantic

well that's it for today! i'm off to the alibi room to say hi to ben love and drink his beer two new gigantic releases: black friday cda royale belgian pale ale woohoo!

#yvrbeertweetup

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look ma! i made it to three of the #yvrbeertweetup pics on facebook from the hopscotch cask night at smileys's pub on tuesday

legacy liquor store

new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver: Lech Lager - $3.15 Lech Beer is has a golden colour, light aroma, soft, light texture, lightly sweet flavours with a gently bitter finish. Magners Pear Cider - $4.45 Magners Traditional Apple Cider has been such a big hit, we couldn't resist bringing in the delicious Pear Cider made by the very same Irish producer. Porterhouse Oyster Stout - $3.55 A superbly balanced brew, smooth and rounded without being bland. More sweetness derived from fresh oysters shucked into the conditioning tank, what a way to go! But of course not suitable for vegetarians.

hopscotch

this is the hopscotch event that i won tickets to at the #yvrbeertweetup on tuesday night: VanSteenberge Belguim Brews With Jef Versele! Gulden Draak, one of the most successful beers in North America recently got a new sibling – Gulden Draak 9000 Quadruple and Jef Versele from Brouwerij VanSteenberge will be here for its Canadian debut. Join him as he guides you on a tour to taste and compare VanSteenberge’s offerings. Be the first to try Gulden Draak 9000! Jef is a 6th generation brewer at the van steenberge brewery. He creates all the new products for the brewery and oversees all the brews. Grandson of mister jozef Van Steenberge, he has been working at the VanSteenberge brewery since he was 22! What a treat to have him here for the festival. The Hopscotch Festival will purchase $5 gift cards (to Legacy Liquor Store) for each person who attends a master class. Gift card is for use on products tasted within master class and must be used within 30 minutes of m

happy beernesday!

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these are the sandwich boards from st. augustine's last week wonder if they'll have changed by tonight's beernesday celebrations?  

#yvrbeertweetup

instead of going home after my cbc gig last night like i should have done and been a responsible human i went to smiley's pub and had me some wonderful cask ale like an interesting and beer-engaged human #yvrbeertweetup was having a hopscotch festival precursor there were five casks on offer, all with whisk(e)y in them that is a recipe for an intoxicating evening! two casks were pumpkin ales, two were stouts the fifth was an ipa i know we're all very shocked here, but i went with the ipa! lighthouse provided a marmalade imperial whiskey ipa using quince and citrus and i can't remember what all else fruits and a whole 26er of whiskey, that 9% fruity ipa went down far too easily delicious! i coulda drunk that all night but fortunately for my head this morning, it ran out pretty quickly! they're doing the whole thing over again tonight with different casks at the bimini in kits i have my regular beernesday group tonight so i won't be making it ou

harrison beer festival

no plans for hallowe'en weekend? why not head to harrison?? October is craft beer month and Harrison Hot Springs is celebrating with its own beer festival. On October 26 and 27, Tourism Harrison will host the Harrison Beer Festival , bringing breweries from around BC to the shores of Harrison Lake. As the first major beer festival in the Fraser Valley region, this event will provide an opportunity for BC’s finest craft breweries to showcase their wares in a region rich in hop growing history. This weekend-long celebration has three not-to-be-missed events: Friday October 26: Cask Night – Three of the best local breweries in the region will present a cask of their finest one-of-a-kind brews. A friendly competition will see which brewery’s cask can be finished first. With a warm and friendly British pub feel, complete with Irish stew and bread pudding, this will be a fun night of song and games. Saturday October 27: The main event, Harrison Beer Festival – Armed with your comp

on the coast

tune in to cbc radio one's on the coast on right now! and at 5:50 hear me chat about seasonal beers

monday night football

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and for last night's monday night football to pair with fish tacos (with tons of awesome guacamole):

link love

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randy shore's take on the bc beer awards barley mowat ranks vancouver craft beer bars maybe they should call it craft beer village instead of olympic village huge new craft beer pub to open in the salt building accross the street from both tap & barrel and legacy liquor store and "hops" is now a professional sports team name the hillsboro hops will play baseball next season in oregon APOCALYPSE OMEN RELEASE PARTY Sunday, October 21 :: 12-3PM @ Elysian Capitol Hill It's the end of the world as we know it! Come celebrate with us as we release the tenth of our 12 BEERS OF THE APOCALYPSE :: OMEN Belgian Raspberry Stout. Omen will be available on draft, cask and in bottles with labels featuring the artwork of comic artist Charles Burns from his weirdly apocalyptic Black Hole series. NOON - Official tapping of OMEN Belgian Raspberry Stout 1:30PM - Survival Demo by Bryan & Co. NOON - 3PM - Special Guest CHARLES BURNS in the House! and T

bc beer awards

urban diner has the list of all the winners at the 2012 bc beer awards: Best of Show – Steamworks Pilsner -Conrad Gmoser of Steamworks Brewing Company Lager/Pilsner – 22 Beers 1.) Steamworks Pilsner – Conrad Gmoser of Steamworks Brewing Company 2.) Beach Blonde Lager – Stefan Buhl of Tree Brewing Company 3.) Kelowna Pilsner – Stefan Buhl of Tree Brewing Company Special Lager – 8 Beers 1.) Brewmaster’s Black – Stefan Tobler of Okanagan Spring Brewery 2.) Hermann’s Dark Lager – Ralf Pittroff of Vancouver Island Brewery 3.) Iron Plow Harvest Marzen – Ralf Pittroff of Vancouver Island Brewery Session – 17 Beers 1.) High Country Kolsch -Bart Larson of Mt. Begbie Brewing Company 2.) Seadog Amber Ale – Ralf Pittroff of Vancouver Island Brewery 3.) Begbie Cream Ale -Bart Larson of Mt. Begbie Brewing Company Wheat/Rye – 22 Beers 1.) Belgian White – Dean Mcleod of Lighthouse Brewing Company 2.) King Heffy Imperial Hefeweizen – Paul Wilson and Franco Corno of Howe Sound Brewing Com

cask

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thursday's cask at the yaletown brewpub was grapefruit ipa so nice i had to have it twice...

bc beer awards

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i had far too much fun at the bc beer awards yesterday so i'm taking full advantage of the horrible weather to make today a stay at home day! i only took two photos yesterday... must have been too busy drinking the lovely beers! dave varga is a funny guy!  derrick wins gold in the ipa category high mountain brewing chapel arts was a great venue for the camra harvestfest and bc beer awards the beers were tasty, the crowd was well-behaved despite the torrential downpours outside, it was all coming up sunshine and roses inside!

beer geekery

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beer geekery

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the oatmeal

the oatmeal's 20 things worth knowing about beer

legacy liquor store

new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver: Russel Brewing Nectar of the Gods - $11.55 Matured in Tennessee Whiskey barrels for over four months this Wheat Wine Ale delivers multiple layers of flavour complexity. Comprised of 50% What Malt plus a combination of Pilsner and Munich Malts. Limited Edition, do not miss out! Swan's Pumpkin Ale - $6.95 A fantastic brewery from Victoria, BC, Swans has produced a Pumpkin Ale to stand up to the other top-hitters around town. A simple recipe for a clean, flavourful beer: Water, Malted Barley, Hops, Yeast, Pumpkin and Spices. Porterhouse Brewing Company Hop Head Beyond the Pale - $3.55 A fulsome, winsome strong ale. A deep copper tinged brew for the true aficionado, longer fermentation and thrice hopping bring about a complex soft bitterness allied to a malt induced sweetness with the characteristic oily Fuggles hop perfume. Not just for students. Once "stuffed" savour the flavour of a glass as a digestif..

cask

from yaletown: Cask Night! At 4pm we tap a cask of our Brick and Beam IPA with grapefruit! DRINK FRESH BEER

central city

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the cask last night at the railway club was central city's simcoe dry-hopped ipa damn that simcoe is a tasty hop!

randy shore

randy shore has two articles in the vancouver sun about local beers the fall beer line-up, with tasting notes bc craft brewers investing in a heady future

beer geekery

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beer geekery

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beer geekery

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bc craft beer month

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its only the first week of craft beer week and maybe its because i'm getting over my man-cold but i feel like its been all beer all the time for me so far! monday i skipped the craziness of st. augustine's sartori cask night for the calm of monday night football at a friend's house, with me supplying the beers which included an ipa homebrewed by matt, rod and ryan's that was needing to be drunk before it lost all its hoppy goodness, a true northwest ipa that went down far too well! tuesday i went to two cask nights the railway club had a lovely r&b ipa cask very satisfyingly delicious rogue broadway had their very first cask night, also with an r&b cask blueberry cranberry esb, which their front office person, lundy dale, who is also the president of camra bc, helped to brew and was thrilled to unveil at the start of bc craft beer month wednesday was my usual beernesday club night at st. augustine's omg, the cheese stromboli currently on their

driftwood sartori

bc craft beer month is in full swing! the belle of the ball so far is driftwood's sartori harvest ale, a fresh-hopped ipa sold out of stores the same day it arrived in them it is the star of several cask nights around vancouver and one beer-pairing dinner st. augustine's had a cask of the elusive sartori that sold out in 24 minutes that was monday tuesday there was a cask at the cascade room thursday there was a cask at the alibi room neither of those casks beat the 24 minute record, but neither lasted very long either missed out on the sartori both in the bottle and on cask? well, you've got three more opportunities that i am aware of to get yourself some: if you're a camra member and you have a ticket for the now sold out harvest fest / bc beer awards at chapel arts on saturday the 13th, you can have some of the members only cask that will be available there the whip has a cask of sartori on sunday the 14th tapping at 4, i expect this one will be gon

dr. funk dunkel

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Dr. Funk Struts His Way Back to Your Liquor Store October 3rd, 2012: The Doctor is in! Our favourite funkadelic dark lager is back from his summer vacation and just jonesin' to set the tone for your next fondue party. A deep earthy-brown colour and well-rounded malt flavours provide the backbone to this copacetic craft brew, with roasted aromas and hints of coffee stylin' things up as only the doctor can. Dr. Funk Dunkel is groovin' his way to your local craft beer store now, so if you want to feel tha Funk then boogie on down! Ya dig?

legacy liquor store

new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver (and yes, they have been sold out of sartori for like a hundred years now!) Mendocino Brewing Company White Hawk IPA - $6.35 A traditional India Pale Ale. We've blended American West Coast Cascade Hops with a very generous dose of English Fuggle Hops. This combination makes for a very aromatic character, as well as a truly authentic English flavor which you must taste to believe. "Hopheads" will love this brew!   Tuatara APA Aotearoa Pale Ale - $9.05 Tuatara APA was developed after Head Brewer Carl Vasta returned from attending the World Beer Cup in Chicago this year. A blend of three American grown hop varieties, Cascade, Amarillo and Simcoe were used over a solid English malt backbone of Marris Otter Pale and low colour Crystal malts. Pouring a rich shade of light amber, APA throws up aromas of grapefruit, tropical fruit, pine resin and biscuity malt, in the mouth the beer has a complex range of zesty

i'm sick

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its true, i'm ill which is slowing me right down boo but, i will be on cbc's on the coast tomorrow at 5:40 p.m. talking about bc craft beer month which (yay!) started today! in the meantime vote for your favourite beneficiary for the phillips benefit brew Benefit Brew Nominations Open! October 1st, 2012: Nominations are now open for our 4th annual Benefit Brew! We will be partnering with one non-profit organization to produce a special beer with full proceeds going to the cause. Which cause will it be? That's up to you! Nominate your favourite BC-based non-profit organization at www.phillipsbeer.com/benefitbrew . A public vote will follow and determine the winner. All BC-based non-profits are encouraged to throw their hat in the ring, but unfortunately due to alcohol-related issues we will be unable to accept nominations for children-related charities. For a more thourough rundown of how the project works, please head HERE , and to nominate click HERE .