beernesday

happy canadian thanksgiving!! best beer vacations: BEST BEER VACATIONS There are so many unique beer destinations across this great land! Whether it’s that farmhouse brewery in the middle of the country, a burgeoning beer city miles away, or a brand new brewery in your own state, we can show you where to find the best beer, coolest locations, and an awesome craft-beer culture with like-minded folks. Download this FREE Best Beer Vacations Guide and discover 5 of the best places to visit with craft beer in mind. craft year craft beer - this one's about me! ab inbev and sab miller NOT merging men's journal's 2015 100 best beers in the world craft beer in the philippines 10 best states to work in a brewery lynne went to austin texas - and drank beer uh oh, the buy-outs are starting in canada mill street blues, anyone? collective arts and nickel brook to open in time for me to visit them over christmas!

happy birthday to my mommy! here she is enjoying a pint of mill street organic lager she has to use two hands these days but i love that she can still down a pint with lunch!

yesterday's beer fest was fun it's not the biggest beer festival around and there were not many beers being offered that i hadn't had before but it's a well-run festival and a great introduction to beer festivals for a newbie or a relaxing beer festival for an old hand caveat:  tourism harrison paid for me to stay two nights at the lovely harrison beach hotel, and entry for me and my guest to all three beer fest events.  i'm not going to lie to you about my impressions of the festival, but i may have had rose-coloured glasses on due to the sheer joy of a mostly-free weekend away at a beer festival in adorable harrison. i brought a newbie with me to the festival so while i spent my time pouring over the list for beers that i needed to cross off my "drank it" list i was also looking for beers i thought she would want to try for those who follow me, you'll know that i have one hold-out on full conversion to craft beer well, no longer! bri...

i hate the pressure of having to give gifts at a prescribed time i much prefer finding something perfect and just giving it for no reason but, shallow creature that i am, i love getting gifts! birthday and christmas are the perfect time to be a beer geek because it gives people a really easy target for finding you a gift so you're more likely a) to actually get a gift and b) to actually like it my beer haul so far: phillips amnesiac double ipa brassin d'hiver from france mill street beers and coasters stout jelly and one of those really cool glasses made from a beer bottle (also mill street cuz the guy making them was a toronto artiste at the circle craft fair) i hope the world doesn't end before i can get to drinking them...

new and exciting beers at legacy liquor store in vancouver: Brasserie Trois Dames Pasionaria 2011 Vintage Double IPA from the great land of Switzerland. 9% alc/vol, fans of the IPA revolution will want to try this one out. Brasserie Trois Dames Fraicheur Du Soir 2011 Another great beer from the Swiss, this is a Blanche Double Malt that sits at 7%. Just look for the beautifully illustrated labels. Mill Street Autumn Harvest 6-pack This split 6-pack is perfect for getting into the Autumn mood. 3 Oktoberfest Beers + 3 Nightmare on Mill Street Pumpkin Ales, what could be a better fit!

at last night's beernesday the number of beers i needed to try was overwhelming that is why i thank dog every day that the taster paddle was invented! the star of the night for me was the two beers brewing evolutionary ipa elysian brewing rapture heather ale - 7.6%  a pound per barrel of high country heather tips in both the mash and toward the end of the boil give rapture floral and piney notes very floral, but oh so drinkable, definitely get some before its gone! elysian brewing idiot sauvin ipa - 6.3%  an ipa both fiercely fruity and floral, made with new zealand nelson sauvin hops. strong citrus and passion fruit aroma and flavor it is very floral, and bitter, and i'm just not sure how i feel about it.  possibly love, possibly indifference.  i look forward to trying a whole bottle of this brew to decide! two beers brewing evolutionary ipa - 6.2%  a dry hopped, deep copper coloured ipa brewed with yakima valley simcoe, amarillo and centennial hops...

malones is going crafty! yup, its true they're in the process of putting in oodles of taps and filling them with craft beer currently, there are 22 different beer flavours on tap and their bottle list is a gooder too! ryan told us about it, so bridget and i stopped in there on saturday afternoon to check it out and we were not disappointed i had an acme ipa and bridget tried this little number and we got our drinks on the house because the bar tender said that anyone who was taking photos of the menus and taps was a friend of his! finally this whole beer blogging thing pays a dividend!! it is really great to see another pub embracing craft beer so fiercely! good job and you know i'll be back...

the wonderful, the darned good, the pretty good and the also-rans of hopscotch, according to moi firstly, the beers i've had before and love, so i had them again! efes dark efes pilsner rogue yellow snow red truck limited steam moylans double ipa steamwhistle pilsner the wonderful: odell brewing ipa - 7% with simcoe and amarillo hops, out of colorado - this one has won awards, and i can see why! caldera ipa - 6.1% with cascade hops, out of oregon great divide double ipa - 85 ibs out of denver, colorado stone's ruination ipa - 7.7%, 120 ibus - the stuff of legends i tell ya, legends! stone's self-righteous ale - 8.7% - malty hoppy and makes you believe you could session it... but at 8.7% i think you'd hate yourself later if you did! smuttynose ipa - their single ipa - delightful and deliciously hoppy smuttynose big a ipa - their double ipa - just as delightful and even more hoppy... i might actually like the single better though... ballast amber ale - p...

the tasting notes from this week's beernesday at st. augustine's and i had help this week, from both lara and ananda - thanks friends! i started my night with a sampler, as always mill street brewery original organic lager:  4.2%  100% organic.  brewed with imported malt and hops, this german pilser offers a light, crisp and refreshing flavour with a clean finish. rogue ales brutal bitter:  6.2%  an imperial bitter with exotic traditional floor malts, citrusy, hoppy flavor, stupendous hop aroma. salt spring ales whaletail ale:  5%  an altbier that is amber coloured and packed with flavour. pike brewing xxxxx stout:  7%  full-bodied velvety malt texture with hints of chocolate, licorice, and espresso on the palate. amanda hated the mill street when she tried it a few weeks earlier (and since i didn't see it on the intervening beer lists, perhaps this is from a different keg) so i thought i'd see if i agreed with her!  brave of me...