beernesday

my first article for the growler , back in July 2017: DOES BEER HAVE TERROIR? REBECCA WHYMAN •  JULY 13, 2017 iStock photo The concept of terroir and its influence are enthusiastically debated in the wine world. Very few of the beer geeks I asked cared one whit about terroir, and hadn’t even given it a thought before I asked. After some debate, they decided that although it was an interesting philosophical question, terroir didn’t matter to their beer drinking experience or influence their beer purchases. The casual beer drinker isn’t interested in the minutiae of which malts or hops are chosen for the beer, let alone where they’re grown. They just care that the final product tastes good. So there you have it. The beer world doesn’t care about terroir. Enter Harley Smith and Tracy McLean of Longwood Brewing. They care. They care a lot. But before we get to why they care, and why you mi...

Summer is finally here, and there’s no better time for a BC road-trip! Some of my vacations come about because of beer, and some fit beer in along the way.  With breweries popping up around every corner, it is easy to include stopping in to check out the vibe and sample the wares any time I find myself travelling.  If a locale has a large concentration of breweries, I’ll visit based on that alone - and discover the other wonderful things it has to offer along the way. I know not everyone is as craft beer obsessed as my friends and I are, but if you like beer, even a little, it is really easy to include brewery stops on your vacation – or to use visiting breweries as an excuse to take a vacation! It’s easy!  You don’t even need a travel agent!  If your vacation destination is in BC, there is a great planning tool available online – the BC Ale Trail .  It is a website that offers sample itineraries for self-guided tours in many areas around the Prov...

new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver (i will be tasting the gluten-free harvester pale ale (compliments of beerthirst) with stephen quinn on cbc radio's on the coast on august 6th.  buy a bottle and taste along with us!) Longwood Brewery - Berried Alive - $4.15 A tasty craft beer from Vancouver Island but with a twist, coming to us from Nanaimo as opposed to the craft beer kingdom that is Victoria, our province’s great capital. Dark red in colour, this beer boasts a nose of tart raspberry and mild malts, while on the palate that tart raspberry is backed up by more malt to create a refreshing fruit brew. Chris Bonnallie | Beer Supervisor | Legacy Liquor Store Lighthouse Brewing - Numbskull Imperial IPA - $7.55 Gems from Vancouver Island just keep on coming! Fresh from the tanks of Lighthouse Brewing comes Numbskull, an Imperial IPA that pours a beautiful amber with a small white head. Tons of pine, citrus and grapefruit are found on the nose, while o...

last week at beernesday i began my night with a sampler i went with darker beers, it being winter and all rogue's hazelnut brown nectar:  5.6%  a nutty twist to a traditional european brown ale.  dark brown in color with a hazelnut aroma, a rich nutty flavor and a malty finish. longwood's scottish ale:  6.5%  scottish ale, little brother to the "wee heavy", is a soft, full bodied, malty ale, nicely balanced by subtle hopping. storm's scottish highland cream ale:  5%  this creamy, nutty, malty, dark ale is true to its scottish origins and is caramelized as the kettle is being filled. central city's red racer oatmeal stout:  6.5%  this irish-style stout is deep, dark, smooth and creamy.  the use of oatmeal adds a silkiness to the texture and body of this ale. the hazelnut was some nutty goodness maybe a bit too malty on the finish for me, just a sampler did me fine the longwood scottish ale was the big hit of the night bridget...

okay, so i'm just gonna admit it right from the top of the post i got pretty darned drunk at beernesday this past week not that i don't usually get somewhat drunk, but this was a bit beyond the norm people were doing beer shots from the divet of my clavicle... it was one of those kinda nights so, my tasting notes are even worse than usual but let me give you what little i can! began and ended with a pint of the rogue dry hopped st. rogue red:  5.2% named the world's best pale ale at the world beer awards.  reddish copper in colour, a roasty malty flavor, with a hoppy-spruce finish. i love this beer! it makes me happy - must be all them hops i can see why its the world's best ale its a maltier darker ipa... divine, simply divine my sampler was supposed to be an ode to hops in various styles but it ended up being rather disappointing... paddock wood 606 pale ale:  5.4%  featuring a blend of cascade, amarillo and willamette hops on top of a solid malt ...

my tasting notes, such as they are, from october 27ths beernesday: in my sampler i had: longwood brewpub copperbock:  7.2%  in keeping with german tradition, this fest beer is a smooth, creamy seasonal lager well balanced with little hop aroma. red truck limited steam beer:  5%  a hybrid beer style brewing using lager yeast fermented at ale temperatures.  the result is a full flavoured, yet surprisingly crisp beer. craig street brewpub arbutus pale ale:  5%  a british style ale with a craft west coast attitude, light in body with a subtle lingering hop character. storm brewing 12 year black current lambic:  7%  not for the timid!  this beer is INTENSELY sour, dry and complex. i found the copperbock to be very clear and coppery in my glass, not too carbonated, smooth and malty, nice, but nothing to write home about i love the steam.  it just keeps surprising me with how much i am in love with it - which is why i keep putting...

i missed beernesday last week, as i was at the nba game i drank overpriced rickard's red at the stadium (what the heck do we call it now that it's not the garage any more?) and warmed up at pivo with a pitcher of the delicious driftwood ale, which is till on tap there for a mere $3.50 a pint and $13.50 a pitcher the game was a stinker, but drinking with my friends is always a great time!! finished the night back at pivo, this time with a phillips hop circle (i had a choice of tree's hophead, acme's ipa and the hop circle - i just had to go with the hop circle - its hoptastic!) just cuz i missed the night at st. augustine's doesn't mean i don't have tasting notes though amanda made me some from the samplers she and bridget had thanks friends! central city red racer pumpkin ale:  they were not fans, found it had a soapy aftertaste and was too lightly spiced red truck limited steam beer:  crisp and citrusy, no distinct ale taste to the hybrid, more ...

i rounded out my sampler at st. augustine's last night with rogue's yellow snow ipa, cannery's squire scotch ale and longwood's russian imperial stout. i love the rogue, and the yellow snow is no exception.  i add it to my sampler somewhat regularly out of an abundance of caution.  i had a bottle of it once that must have been quite off because it was one of the worst things i've ever tasted.  as that was my first yellow snow experience i thought maybe it was just a bad beer.  luckily i trusted in rogue and tried it again on tap.  and loved it.  so i tried it again on tap.  and loved it.  and now i'm caught in the cycle of having to check back in with it from time to time just to make sure that first bottle was off... the scotch ale had lovely smoky malty notes in it, balancing nicely with hoppity hops.  i quite enjoyed it.  but like several of the more novelty beers, the smoky flavour didn't particularly make me want to have more ...