beernesday

here are my notes from yesterday's beer column on cbc radio one's on the coast As we near the end of November, you may be planning a holiday party. Would you like to make it stand out? How about having a beer and cheese party?  It's pretty easy to make your party the talk of the season! Beer and cheese go together like chocolate and peanut butter! If you have ever hosted a wine and cheese party, putting together a beer and cheese party is just as straight-forward. I know wine lovers will hate me for saying so, but beer is actually a better pairing for cheese than wine is! The hops in beer, along with the carbonation, cleanse the palate between bites so you can enjoy the full flavour profile of each different food you nibble on. Also both beer and cheese have a similar origin, grass. Barley is a cereal grass used in making beer and milk is a by-product of a cow eating grass. As a result, beer and cheese complement each other by sharing some common c...

new beer offerings at legacy liquor store in vancouver: Brooklyn Brewery - Silver Anniversary Lager - $18.90 Happy Anniversary, Brooklyn, 25 years of excellent brewing and many more to come! Brewed to the strength of a dopplebock, this lager uses four different malts in addition to Cascade, Willamette, and Hallertauer Mittelfrueh and Saphir hops. Pouring dark amber in colour with notes of citrus, toasted malt and butterscotch on the nose, aromas that carry through on the palate before fading into a spicy hop finish, this brew is an excellent way to celebrate 25 years. Tree Brewing - Hop Head Black IPA - $7.85 Nestled in the BC interior, Tree Brewing consistently churns out some spectacular seasonal beers, their Hop Head continuing the trend. Five hops and six malts can be found in this dark brown, nearly black beer. Biscuits, citrus (think grapefruit) and a little pine are all found in the aroma while smoke and chocolate lead the pack on the palate followed closely by citrus and pi...

these are my beer notes from last night's beer column on cbc radio's on the coast with stephen quinn: Its dark and cold out these days - which means people are more likely to be sitting down to heartier fare like soups, stews and casseroles for dinner.  Beer makes a great addition to all of those.  Beer provides body and rich flavours to dishes.  You can make a very easy beer and cheese soup by just adding a bottle of beer to boiling stock, simmer it for an hour and then add some nice cheese just before you serve it.  For a stew or casserole, just substitute beer for some of the liquid and you've upped the flavour content.  If you're making pulled pork in the slow cooker, add beer!  Marinade your meat in beer.  Reduce the beer and use it in sauces and gravies. If you want proper recipes of how to use beer in your cooking there are plenty floating around on the internet, including on beer websites such as craftbeer.com .  They have soups, m...

new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver: Brooklyn Black Ops - $37.25 A robust stout aged in bourbon barrels for four months, bottled flat, and re-fermented with champagne yeast. This beer has chocolate and coffee notes, with highlights of vanilla-like oak notes. HUB Abominable Winter Ale - $9.75 Brewed with Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops and six organic malts. This winter ale has a complex floral, spicy and citrus hoppiness backed by the right amount of sweetness from the malt. Delirium Nocturnum - $4.45 A dark brown beer with an aroma consisting of caramel, mocha, coriander and liquorice. These aromas follow through in the flavour of the beer in addition to the traditional flavours you would find in a dark belgian beer.

my non-exhaustive gift buying guide for the beer geek in all of us: if your beer lover has a favourite beer: -check out the private liquor stores for branded glassware gift packs legacy liquor store in Olympic Village suggests:   Sam Smith’s 3 bottles plus a glass for $20, $88.50 for 6 bottles of Westvleteren plus 2 glasses,  $11.95 for 2 tall cans of Tiger and a glass,  Chimay – red, white, and blue caps with a glass $18.85, St. Ambroise Discovery pack – $14.95 2 beers and a glass, Lindemann’s -   $15.95 two beers and a glass -go online and see if the brewery has swag for sale - tshirts, bottle openers, beer cozies, etc. Dead Frog has tees, hoodies, hats, cozies, underwear and bottle openers for sale in their on-line shop and at the brewery in Aldergrove.   If   you order online in the next couple of days, there is still time to receive your order before Santa arrives. Stone Brewing in California will ship you a pub light for $50,...

all i can say is "you're welcome"! beer cupcake recipe :  dark beer chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel frosting (this recipe has been reprinted on several blogs and beer websites, but i think the link above is to the original recipe... if not, i apologize profusely) Cake: 1 cup flavorful dark beer– I used Rogue Mocha Porter but Lagunitas Cappucino Stout and Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (hometown love!) are also faves. Ask your favorite beer geek for a recommendation. 1/2 cup unsalted butter 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa 2 cups dark brown sugar 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder 3/4 cup sour cream 2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 2 cups flour 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda Combine the beer and butter in a large sauce pan and heat to melt. Remove from heat; whisk in the cocoa, sugar, and espresso. In a bowl, whisk the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla, then whisk into the beer mixture. Sift together the flour and baking soda, and fold into the batter. Pour into...

the poor beleagured hops we're growing in bridget's back yard got moved again! these poor little troopers have been moved three times now (rhizomes culled from an east van garden, planted at bridget's by the fence a week before the neighbours tell her they're going to put in a new fence, moved to the garden patch where they spent a year before being moved to their current home in the new raised bed) the hops had a hard time growing last year - crappy soil, not enough sun so a major work party happened this weekend to fix that situation! woo hoo, i got to drill! we built a raised garden bed and filled it with 2 yards of stinky soil (i used power tools!! bridget and the viking did the heavy work) the garden frame filled to the brim with stinky soil the hops in their new home and what did we drink while doing all this yard work? central city ipa and pale ale it does a body good! what did we drink after doing all the yard work and resting on ou...

from last week's beernesday at st. augustine's: i began my night with a sampler dead frog's christmas beeracle!  5%  a festive, rich, warm amber ale with a medley of spices including cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. cannery's no jail pale ale:  3.05% a lower-alcohol beer with an authentic ale taste!  a clean, crisp ale with a bright hop finish and about 40% less alcohol than conventional beer salt spring's golden spike ale:  5%  voted "best golden ale" at the canadian brewing awards paddock wood's london porter:  5.3%  a dark ale based on a recipe from 1850 which lets chocolate malt take the lead.  smoother than stout, but still holds a deep roast profile i very much liked the christmas beeracle! gingery goodness (reminiscent of the steamworks ginger from last spring) and no vanilla!! i would definitely have this one again and i don't say that about many christmas or winter ales bridget liked it a lot too! the no jail was a little...

i attended the "evolution of the ipa" tasting at firefly last week i was so excited that they were having a whole night of ipas! and i wasn't disappointed there were only two ipas on the list that i hadn't yet tried (one because its limited release and the other because it was only just released) but that meant that i could focus more easily on comparing and contrasting the hops varieties, strengths and malt balances between the beers we got lots of great hand-outs a hops profile chart, a beer evaluation sheet, the history of ipas and a beer aroma wheel not to mention all the great information our fearless leaders had to impart i feel like i got a lot more than just a tasting we began the night with samuel smith's india ale (5%) from england this is one that i had tried just the night before and not liked i found it had a biscuity nose and felt kind of belgian but the further i got down my taster glass of this semi-traditional british ipa, the more ...

i have been remiss i just found my tasting notes from beernesday back on september 29th bad, bad beer blogger! i had two samplers 1. brooklyn brewery post road pumpkin ale:  5%  subtly spied, orange-amber color, warm pumpkin aroma, biscuity malt center, and a crisp finish 1. hopworks uban brewery ipa: 6.6%  100% organic. rich and resinous flavours of citrus fruit and pine.  the finest organic canadian pilsner malt and organic munich and caramel malts then bring balance to your new favorite beer 1. old yale brewing sergreant's ipa: 5.5%  uses special pale and crystal malts and loads of golding hops 1. storm brewing 12 year black current lambic: 7%  not for the timid! this beer is INTENSELY sour, dry and complex 2. red truck limited steam beer: 5%  a hybrid beer style brewing using ale yeast fermented at lager temperatures. the result is a full flavoured, yet surprisingly crisp beer 2. mt. begbie nasty habit ipa: 6%  a perfect balance bet...

and the list grows ever longer (and will continue to do so until i make a concerted effort to start checking beers off the darned list!) brooklyn detonation ale:  "copper-coloured pale ale with british malt character, american hop ebullience, brooklyn attitude and disturbing drinkability.  its mighty tasty.  it probably even gives you fresher breath and whiter teeth, but we can't prove that part." cigar city jai alai ipa:  ""i was shooting for something in between a west coast style and an east coast style" ... hopped with six different varieties, with each hop addition having a different blend.  the result is floral and bitter, but it also lets a slight caramel edge cut through." shmaltz 's r.i.p.a. on rye:  "year round barrel aged versions of our award winning bittersweet lenny's rye double ipa