beernesday

went back to pivo last night as it is so conveniently located right below tinseltown where i went to see "the girl who played with fire" (noomi rapace... be still my beating heart!) and had the driftwood ale again by god that is a delightful beer i am in love with it and it paired brilliantly with the blackened whitefish sandwich and mixed greens if the film hadn't had subtitles i needed to retain some sobriety to read, i would have happily had more of that ambrosia i feel a habit may be forming.... and i'm pretty darned okay with it!

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 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, ...

The Charlatan on commercial drive boasts 15 shiny taps. they say:  "The Charlatan is Commercial Drive’s best Gastro-Pub. Offering 15 fresh tap beers with 12 imports, its the best place to enjoy the perfect pint. The relaxing 80 seat south-facing patio is East Vancouver's crowning jewel. The contemporary downstairs bar is hidden away from the busy street and is ideal for relaxation, experiencing our inspired menu and a cocktail with friends." and sure, i'd say its the best gastro-pub on the drive.  the food is upscale pub grub and darned delicious (the tuna bites make me swoon).  and the beer offerings are quite sufficient and varied.  the bathrooms aren't amazing, but for the drive, they're darned good! but... lately they've got the same service issues as st. augustine's pub - uninterested and slow servers. i'm not sure if this is a terrible trend going on in the service industry right now, or if i'm just unlucky enough to keep finding th...

keep calm and carry on! "Welcome to the Cascade Room situated near the corner of Main Street and Broadway, along what was once brewery Creek, the original Vancouver Brewery which, brewed some mighty fine beers. However, nothing compared to their flagship brew "Cascade - The Beer without Peer". The Cascade Room is our nod to that fine drop, the neighbourhood we live in and to all those who came before us. Open: Monday toThursday - 5pm to 1am Friday & Saturday - 5pm to 2am Sunday: Noon to midnight" i love this place!  fabulous wall-paper, high tables in front and loungier tables in the back, great beer list and yummy food - what's not to love?  oh, and five champagne drinks! the beers on tap include:  russell cream, phillips ipa and storm scottish ale.

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?

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...

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...

again with the never having heard of a place... thank dog i have friends who are in the know and willing to drag me out to try new places! Hidden Tasting Bar and Social Lounge is located in the westin grand at 433 robson street. they say:  "Hidden Tasting Bar and Social Lounge offers something for everyone. A place to share food, and enjoy a unique beer, or glass of wine in a relaxed environment. We have simplified the eating experience by integrating global food offerings using local ingredients, with attentive service. It's undeniably approachable, comfortable, and a place where "time flies when you're having fun"." we definitely found the lounge to be welcoming.  a "nice" place, but one we didn't feel under-dressed in jeans in, nor would you feel over-dressed of you went with clubbier attire.  the space isn't large, but each table is afforded plenty of space so you feel comfortably separate yet part of the whole.  the lighting is mu...

tried so hard to upload camera phone photos during the crawl, but to no avail... then yesterday the excess excesses from the crawl hit me and i was unable to type... so my apologies that this post is so late in arriving... four beers and a funeral:  omg, i'm not sure there are words to describe the wonderousness of this event.  of course though, i'm going to use lots of them any way!  and post photos too! let me just begin however, by saying that the vancouver craft beer week crew did a fabulous job on this event in particular, and the whole week was so well run, well planned, and well imagined - i loved it!  and bought the shirt to prove it! first stop, steamworks.  amazing ginger beer, which is a limited edition, so hurry in and get yours before its gone. we were at this stop for an hour, so along with the delectable pub grub they served, we also had a second beer.  it was supposed to be ipa, but i think we got lager instead.  nothing to wri...

ah Driftwood Brewery , local brewers extraordinaire!  today's tipple is the Crooked Coast Amber Ale. yes, i know its not an ipa, sometimes i need a little more malt, and my darker beer of choice tends to be an amber ale. holy head batman!  i think perhaps the beer was a bit too chilled at the pour... operator error. from the bottle:  "Inspired by the original Alt-style beer of Dusseldorf, Crooked Coast brings together the aromas of German noble hops and Munich malt to produce a very refreshing and mellow ale that is the perfect companion on any shape of coast." at a modest 5.1% you can settle in and make this your session beer, and i suggest that you do - its malty goodness sure does refresh! and then i visited the website to see what they have to say, and they second my suggestion to make it a session beer:  "Delicate malt-hop balance is the defining trait of this quintessential session beer!" and offers these food pairing suggestions:  Celery, fen...

here we are, several days into the inaugural Vancouver Craft Beer Week and i have yet to attend an official event. why, you might ask, why? tight pursestrings would be the easy answer.  there are so many fabulous sounding events, but each one comes with a price tag that until i win the lottery, i just can't justify paying. i would have been willing to part with cashola (or more realistically, creditcardola) for more events, but for my great fear of showing up at a beer and food pairing event that tries to feed me only meat.  you see, i'm a lacto-ovo-pescatarian (and no, i don't need medication for that) which as far as vegetarianism goes leaves me on the more flexible side of food restrictions (eggs, dairy, fish and seafood are all on my "eat it" list), which is good.... but not good enough to take the risk that some of the food on offer will fall into the above categories. so what? you may be asking, so what?  well, the menus for the craft beer and food...

we're making history here folks - vancouver's first ever craft brew week is almost upon us! more than 25 breweries participating at over 20 venues - and no crappy beer! from the website:  "Vancouver Craft Beer Week is a celebration taking place throughout metropolitan Vancouver from May 10 – 16, 2010. It aims to inspire a broader interest in all aspects of beer in order to cultivate a flourishing craft beer culture in the region. VCBW consists of a series of signature festival events and independently-organized satellite events in numerous venues around town." there are fabulous events all week long, some of which still have tickets available, or don't require tickets.  delightfully for the event, but not for those of us who don't yet have tickets, several events at this inaugural event are sold out. the night I am going to cry about missing out on because its now sold out is the women and beer night on thursday.  along with amazing food and beer pair...

i love the wax over the cap on Half Pints Brewing Company's humulus ludicrous.  it makes me feel like i just got transported back to medieval times and someone's going to challenge me to a duel at any moment... and i keep hoping a buxom bar wench will sidle up to me...   currently i'm pairing it with nachos.  and the historical anachronism to medieval times "please sir, can i have some more" comes to mind.  just go with it, i am. its got quite the head on it, and a fabulous hoppy aroma.  oh yeah, and it tastes fabulously hoppy too.  Lots of lace left on the glass as i drain it, but the initial haze is not wearing off.  lovely dark golden colour.   the bottle says:  our most ridiculously hoppy beer. i would like more on their label.  more about the brewery, more about the beer, just more personality.  but all i get is "craft brewed in winnipeg mb canada" and that its 8% apv and 100 IBUs.  delightful.  i'm a fan....

some potentially dynamic food pairings for your ipa: thai chicken kebabs with baby greens rich, creamy blue or gorgonzola cheese sashimi, shrimp, crab and other light fish roasted pork or suckling pig beef dishes buffalo wings or blackened chicken tip:  hops contrast nicely with rich dishes, with strong spicy food and with bold, sweet desserts tip:  if you're cooking with beer, any beer, don't reduce it first as the bitterness may become too much for the dish.  ipas are generally too bitter for cooking with, but if you want to experiment you could try to balance the bitterness with a touch of sweetness, salt or acidity.

Tasting Beer - an insider's guide to the world's greatest drink.  by Randy Mosher the how-to guide for properly tasting and intelligently talking about beer.  a must read if you love beer but don't know where to start finding the language to adequately express your love of beer to others.  with chapters devoted to the history of beer, the vocabulary of beer flavour, presenting beer and each of the beer styles, this text book will have you confidently throwing around terms like IBUs, attenuation and mouthfeel in no time.  and trying beer varieties you may not have heard of in mainstream advertising. "Beer really is the world's best beverage.  It may be quenching or nourishing, cooling or warming, simple or worthy of deep meditation.  It is a drink of a thousand aromas, a rainbow of color, and a range of character as diverse ad the people who brew and enjoy it.  It has ten thousand years of history, with gods, goddesses, heroes, and songs to celebra...