beernesday

more press for r and b's chef series beers day-um, is the nettle, mint and ginger ever delicious! it's another list! the 33 best beer bars in the united states i have been remiss - i have only been to two of these bars (belmont station and monk's kettle, if you're keeping track!) darn, looks like there's more beer travel the lower mainland gets another tap & barrel this one will be in north van on the waterfront signs that your glassware is dirty beer cruise south of the border in praise of the pilsner where joe wiebe thinks you should drink in vancouver this summer why you should drink organic beer (and p.s. dogwood brewing will be organic when it opens later this year) the latest brewery tour to hit vancouver is cycle vancouver a three hour bike tour of three breweries , postmark, bomber and main street it runs every second saturday from june 28 to september 20 leaving from spokes bicycles at denman and georgia and winding its way thr...

while i spend some quality time in onterrible world priding it up and visiting the famdamily i leave you these words of wisdom

these are my notes from yesterday's beer column on cbc radio's on the coast with stephen quinn wherein i waxed poetic about the (un)happy hour laws in british columbia and sipped some furious friar belgian ipa if you missed it, you can listen here (just fast-forward to 10 minutes from the end) Is the new happy hour really a happy rule change for British Columbians?  CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) says no.  And so will most beer drinkers when they do the math. Several changes were made to the province's liquor laws on June 20th.   Most are pretty much housekeeping changes and not controversial.  Those are: the ability to take a drink from one area of an establishment into another: for example from the pub side of Yaletown Brewing into the restaurant side.  Previously your server would have to carry your drinks over.  Homebrewed beer can now legally be served at family events for which you obtain a Special Occasion liquor licence; food pr...

i will be on cbc radio one's on the coast at 5:50 p.m. today chatting about the new (un)happy hour in british columbia and sipping on some dead frog furious friar with stephen quinn 88.1 fm  680 am

a master cicerone's view of the state of the craft and are we losing sight of the craft in craft beer? lagunitas chicago opens 5 tips for better ipas 14 ways to make craft beer part of your wedding (obviously a list for the slightly less beer obsessed people out there - craft beer is automatically part of everything i do...) more annoying reporting about women in beer calling them babes and broads and making it seem newsworthy that women brew beer don't get me wrong, i'm thrilled women like beer i'm thrilled women brew beer and i support any woman who wants to be in a women's beer club so she doesn't get mansplained to or hit on but c'mon people, can't we just get past gendering beer? fuggles & warlock's newest gypsy brew happy hour arrives in bc but is it really cause for celebration?

i so want this place to be my perfect bar it's close to my house it has 40 taps of beer i like (and yes i know they rotate, but c'mon 40 taps of great american beer?  of course i'm gonna like them) it has yummy food including the best beer and cheese sauce on earth but... and you knew there'd be a but! they have some work to do for my drinking pleasure, the place is too dark i can barely read the menu ambiance is one thing, dimness is another for my drinking pleasure, the music is often too loud and no, i'm not eighty years old! seriously, i don't want to be yelling at the friend next to me at the pub i am at a pub so that i can converse with my friends if i want pumping, thumping techno beats i'll go to a club honouring the $2 off parking that avanti's used to would be nice making the waffle the same size as the 'put a bird on it' at portland craft would be nice and yes, i have made all these suggestions to the very f...

freshly stocked at legacy liquor store in vancouver: Named after the Dageraadplaats, a neighbourhood square in Antwerp, Belgium, Dageraad Brewing is brewer Ben Coli’s effort to transport a small piece of the beer culture he found there home to British Columbia. Spending his youth traveling the world, Ben met three Belgians in Laos and quickly became fast friends, subsequently visiting them in Antwerp several times. Inevitably, at least once each visit, they would find themselves in the Dageraadplaats drinking the legendary beers of Belgium. It was these first encounters with Belgian beers that led Ben to try brewing them himself at home, and it was with his first Belgian-style homebrew that he fell in love. It was incredible—fruity, spicy, complex, but light and drinkable. Interest eventually grew into obsession, and a period of intensive study soon followed including brewing school and beer sabbaticals in Belgium, crisscrossing the country to visit breweries in tiny Flemish villages...

further evidence that it is good to be me a lot of the time (please see the above as an exercise in appreciation, not better-than-thouing): i attended a lovely soirée at the new steamworks brewery in burnaby on tuesday evening just two blocks east of boundary road, it's almost in vancouver! the new brewery has been cranking out beer for a while now and the tasting room has been serving up growlers and tasters for a couple of weeks but it doesn't feel officially opened until there's a party, right? on offer were tasters of four steamworks beers paired with appies incorporating the beer into the recipe: pilsner with shrimp and corn on potatoes jasmine ipa with pork steam buns wheat with duck confit and frambozen with cream puffs plus tours of the brewery (i got to lay eyes on all the pretty tanks and the centrifuge) it sure is pretty in there - both the brewery and the tasting room just check out this lovely wall in the tasting room:   not dest...

another example in the "it's good to be me" showcase: while i was at eat! vancouver a couple of weeks ago (a show that i love to attend every year, because who doesn't want to spend a whole day eating and drinking fabulous things?) i got to talking with the lovely people over at habibi's mediterranean did i blog about anything other than beer, they asked well, i said, you know what goes really well with beer?  food! so they handed me a whole bag full of their yummy hummus and chips and sent me off to find beers to pair with them okay, i don't know about you but i do not spend allll my time drinking beer so, this is going to be an ongoing project i mean, i guess i could just have a hummus and beer party and go through it all at once but i fear that no one will pay attention to the pairings after the first beer or two - even if we're just drinking taster sized servings of beer so i am taking this one for the team yup, all by myself i am eating...

5 must try beers from vcbw i second the storm basil ipa nomination! the history of bottle openers best nor-cal breweries jan zeschky's take on this year's vcbw 5 cardinal sins of beer service chicago women say there is no such thing as "girly" beer and how much longer are articles like this going to be written? when can it just be a beverage most people enjoy? summer beer picks of san diego beer experts most of which aren't available in yvr, but hey, maybe you're travelling this summer and can pick some up (and if you do, bring one back for me!) when good beer goes bad or, when it is okay to send your beer back hops canary's must do list for portland ready for some beer trivia? actually, it's more like a 'how well do you know beer' quiz a beer drinker's guide to the world cup maybe a bit too much on the macro side, but still interesting port moody gets two new craft breweries

quietly opening on commercial drive last week, stateside craft is the newest craft beer bar in the city portland craft's younger, over-achieving sister will officially open on july 4th but until then, they are soft launching and you can stop in for some wonderful brews and yummy food located in the former avanti's pub in il mercato mall at gravely and commercial it is a whole lot prettier inside than the former pub the female-identified bathroom is 8 million times nicer (thank dog!) bright (or as bright as a place with only a couple of windows can be), polished, open and airy this ain't avanti's, that's for sure and i couldn't be happier now, don't get me wrong, avanti's did me right for many years but their refusal to get any craft beer on tap led me to move my commercial drive beer drinking to st. augustine's as soon as that alternative presented itself now that st. a's has line-ups all the time, i've been jonesing for anoth...

freshly stocked at legacy liquor store in vancouver: It all began in 1997 when Bryan and Sayuri Baird quit their jobs and headed to the Pacific Northwest, ground zero for the U.S. craft beer renaissance, to study brewing. Enter 2000, and the Numazu Fishmarket Taproom opens in Tokyo with no customers, just workers, and after six months of local indifference they knew they needed more money to survive. Baird Brewing Company was then incorporated with seed money from friends and family, and in 2003 began to expand the brewery in order to service the thirsty Tokyo market, installing a 250-litre brewing system on the first floor. This marked the dawn of their brand artwork, developed by graphic designer Eiko Nishida, who continues to this day to passionately craft each piece. The inaugural brew at the new facility was poured on January 1, 2006, coinciding with the 5-year anniversary of the debut of Baird Beer at the Fishmarket Taproom. Baird eventually began exporting in 2008, shipping to...

most days it is pretty darned good to be me tuesday was no exception i got to attend the launch for central city brewing's red racer copper ale they beered us and appy'd us at joey's on broadway and gary lohin himself told us all about the copper ale then there were samples of the I-5 amarillo ale and swag bags to take home the copper ale is a beautiful copper colour - thank you munich malts! not as hop-forward as the rest of the red racer beers this is a much more malty offering based on a recipe gary used to brew at central city and hoping to capture the not-so-hop-loving segment of the population (can you say conversion beer?!) it fills a gap in the red racer line up oh, and it's a very tasty number! easy drinking with lots of malty goodness definitely a departure from the rest of the line-up, but still the quality beer we've come to expect from central city central city is also taking this opportunity to introduce a 500 ml can hoping to get mo...

my notes from yesterday's on the coast beer column on cbc radio one, with stephen quinn wherein we drank driftwood's pilsner doehnel and chatted about beer gear The craft beer boom is having quite the trickle down effect.  Sure there are new breweries opening up every day, but brewers aren't the only ones benefitting from the attention on craft beer these days.  Everyone associated with the industry is booming.  And with a boom come innovations!   Beer Gear: The rising number of breweries with tasting lounges and growler filling stations mean that more growlers are being produced. Everyone has their own branded ones, including breweries and groups like CAMRA. There are more than just glass growlers available however. 33 Acres carries ceramic growlers when they can keep them in stock and Hyrdoflask makes double walled, vacuum sealed, insulated stainless steel growlers, which will keep liquids cold for up to 24 hours or hot for up to 12. That's right, it'...

wheee! i will be on cbc radio one with stephen quinn at 5:50 today chatting about innovations in beer gear and sipping on some driftwood pilsner doehnel 88.1 fm 690 am

no gmos at ninkasi new beers from bomber brewing: MÄRZEN ATTACKS! NICE BEER, WE'LL TAKE IT! BOMBER MÄRZEN, Amber Lager : Märzen means "March" beer but you may prefer to enjoy this august, medium-bodied German lager all year round. A smooth maltiness and clean, dry finish make this the perfect bier for all occasions - any time of year!   About Bomber Märzen Amber Lager: Aroma: A slight toasted malt aroma, underpinned by the very German presence of Munich malt. Appearance: Orange-red in colour. Clear and bright. Flavour: An early sweet maltiness precedes a soft, dry finish. 'Dark Munich' provides a slight toasted character. Moderate noble hop bitterness. Mouthfeel: Smooth and creamy with a light to medium body. ABV = 5.5% Original Gravity = 1.055 Bitterness = 20 IBU Colour = 9 SRM Bomber Märzen Amber Lager is available now in kegs, 650ml bottles, & on tap in the Bomber Brewing tasting room. About ...

my liver is happy that vcbw is over for another year the rest of me is a little relieved too - so many good times and good beers, but a person's gotta sleep! i may have only made it to a few events but those events were of the all you can drink persuasion and i do take the list as a personal challenge to complete i have already given my low-down on the business of craft beer so i will begin my vcbw list with the opening night last friday i was volunteering, so there wasn't much drinking at all for me holding this event at a nightclub (gossip) was great from a couple of standpoints:  the performance space was in the same room so there was no need for anyone to have to choose between beer and the show; all the breweries were pouring their beers from an actual bar with access to water so there was no running out of rinse water; and the club provided plenty of different areas, including several with seating, to get away from the fray somehow though, it still manage...

newly stocked at legacy liquor store in vancouver: The minds behind Chuckanut Brewery have quite a history when it comes to beer, establishing breweries and brewpubs across the world. Mari and Will Kempers moved to Mexico in the late 90s to start the first two Sierra Madre Brewpubs in Monterrey, and in 2001 left for Istanbul to start Turkey’s first brewpub, “Taps”. The Kempers were then asked to return to Istanbul several years later to build Turkey’s first small craft brewery. While overseas, they traveled extensively throughout England, Belgium and Germany, visiting breweries and attending several trade shows and conferences, gaining new information that they now share with their Northwest Washington community. Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen is passionate about being a sustainable member of their community and taking care of the environment. Since opening their doors in late July 2008 a movement towards Zero Waste has been implemented, recycling spent grains with local farmers, an...

carlos mendes, aka @bcbeerlaw and i snapped at the bc business "the business of craft beer" event last week you can check out the rest of the photos here