beernesday

oh gcbf! oh the good times! oh the good beers! oh thank dog there were no cameras at certain after-parties! first of all, let me extole the virtues of flying from vancouver to victoria so quick, so easy, so fun! (caveat:  i would not want to be on that tiny plane if there was ANY turbulence though - that would be very, very, very frightening) i left from my office at 5:45 on friday evening and i was in victoria by 7:00 for the start of the copper & theory tap takeover at the guild so civilized! watching the pre-flight safety film on an ipad the guild was a fun venue although, as nigel from the alibi room ironically pointed out, it was a hard place to socialize properly as you had to be seated to be served - darned restaurant licenses! i had hoped to have some beer & cheddar soup or welsh rarebit, but alas they don't do either of them vegetarian instead i ate other people's curry & chips as for beer, i stuck with the gigantic ipa because gosh darn...

bc craft beer month is in full swing! the belle of the ball so far is driftwood's sartori harvest ale, a fresh-hopped ipa sold out of stores the same day it arrived in them it is the star of several cask nights around vancouver and one beer-pairing dinner st. augustine's had a cask of the elusive sartori that sold out in 24 minutes that was monday tuesday there was a cask at the cascade room thursday there was a cask at the alibi room neither of those casks beat the 24 minute record, but neither lasted very long either missed out on the sartori both in the bottle and on cask? well, you've got three more opportunities that i am aware of to get yourself some: if you're a camra member and you have a ticket for the now sold out harvest fest / bc beer awards at chapel arts on saturday the 13th, you can have some of the members only cask that will be available there the whip has a cask of sartori on sunday the 14th tapping at 4, i expect this one will be gon...

and just like that, vancouver craft beer week is over i think my liver is happy and possibly my neglected family but i'm going to miss it i know i'm lucky that we have such a vibrant craft beer community in vancouver and there are events every day of the week that i can go to but there's just something about a craft beer festival that amps it all up several notches (perhaps even to 11) highlights? must i pick just one? no, i cannot possibly do that highlight of ticketed events - has to be hoppapalooza again this year always a good time, nigel just keeps sourcing more fabulous brews for this event and capping the number of tickets sold meant many disappointed people, but for those of us lucky enough to get tickets, it was nice to move freely about the space and be served quickly oh the beers! i cannot say enough about the casks and kegs of ambrosia that we imbibed! 41 of them i tried, forty-one fingers crossed that my luck will hold out and i'll be on...

lots of beer-related news today! the vancouver sun's 100 anniversary beer nigel springthorpe, the wine guy's beer guy women = sustainability in the brewing industry british columbia's best microbreweries

for brewed awakening's ode to the alibi room, click here

"Brands like Red Racer, Driftwood, who are totally thinking outside of the box... they're the next wave... All liquor distribution, liquor control issues aside, I think there's something festering that's about to totally happen in this province as far as brewing.  I think we'll see a handful of new breweries happen, real small, that'll be really innovative and great." Nigel Springthorpe co-owner of the Alibi Room quoted in the Vancouver Courier September 17, 2010