beernesday

Beau's Brewing Co. is located in Ontario.  I'm in BC.  So while I'd love to say that I got to sit down at the brewery with the lovely Beau's folks for this interview, I did not.  We went the new-fangled cyberspace way and conducted it over email. But!  But, I will get a chance to talk to Jennifer Beauchesne and brewer Brian O'Donnell in a few short weeks when they travel all the way across the country to attend the Great Canadian Beer Festival - and all I have to do is hop a ferry over to Victoria! (Full disclosure here:  the lovely Beau's folks sent me some beer samples, I get a media pass to attend GCBF because, well, I am a beer blogger you know, and I contributed to the Rwanda kickstarter.  Now you know.) I'm sure everyone's heard of Beau's, even way out on the Left Coast, but just in case you're hazy on the details:  Beau's is an organic brewery, established by the Beauchesne family in 2006 in Vankleek Hill Ontario (which i...

from central city brewers: Maple Syrup + Smoky Bacon Flavour + Red Racer Craft Beer = Awesome Jeff O’Neil Show Red Racer Maple Bacon Ale: a collaborative beer from Central City and CFOX’s Jeff O’Neil Show launches in 2015 for a repeat performance   Surrey, B.C. – What do you get when you combine maple syrup, bacon and Red Racer beer? The best-selling, limited release  Jeff O’Neil Show Red Racer Maple Bacon Ale  - a tasty collaboration beer between Central City Brewers + Distillers and CFOX’s Jeff O’Neil Show. Because everything tastes better with bacon! “We had tremendous success with last year’s release and were sold out within a couple of weeks,” says Tim Barnes, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Central City. “We had a blast working with CFOX and the Jeff O’Neil team so we’re bringing back this limited release because fans just couldn’t get enough of this beer! I mean, what doesn’t...

my notes from yesterday's beer column on cbc radio's on the coast with stephen quinn (and the link to the audio ): 2014 was an incredible year for craft beer in BC.   So many new breweries opened (21) and none have gone under yet.   I’m not sure 2015 can match that kind of growth, but I do know that three breweries are poised to open in Vancouver in the first three months of 2015. Dogwood Brewing with Claire Wilson at the helm should be opening in the next two weeks at 8284 Sherbrook Street .   Off the Rail Brewing on Adanac Street right across from Bomber Brewing is hoping to open their doors at the beginning of February and Red Truck Brewing’s long awaited tasting room at 295 East 1 st Avenue should be opening March 15 th . Dogwood Brewing is an organic brewery and will be offering IPA, Honey Ale and Stout when it opens near SE Marine and Knight Streets.   Follow them on Facebook (Dogwood Brewing) and Twitter (@DogwoodBrew) for word of the official openin...

oooh, if you know what you're looking for, you can find a pic of me on beer me bc's blog about oktoberfest at bomber brewing who doesn't love playing 'where's rebecca?' the straight asked three beer experts what to drink this fall rumour around town is that central city will be opening up a satellite venue in the former dix location this is very exciting news! monica frost won camra's volunteer of the year award congratulations!  well deserved! dogwood brewing has a kickstarter campaign - donate today and help bring organic beer to vancouver

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!

more press for r and b's chef series beers day-um, is the nettle, mint and ginger ever delicious! it's another list! the 33 best beer bars in the united states i have been remiss - i have only been to two of these bars (belmont station and monk's kettle, if you're keeping track!) darn, looks like there's more beer travel the lower mainland gets another tap & barrel this one will be in north van on the waterfront signs that your glassware is dirty beer cruise south of the border in praise of the pilsner where joe wiebe thinks you should drink in vancouver this summer why you should drink organic beer (and p.s. dogwood brewing will be organic when it opens later this year) the latest brewery tour to hit vancouver is cycle vancouver a three hour bike tour of three breweries , postmark, bomber and main street it runs every second saturday from june 28 to september 20 leaving from spokes bicycles at denman and georgia and winding its way thr...

here are my notes from yesterday's beer column on cbc radio one's on the coast talking about gmos in beer with mathew lazin-ryder: Let's begin this post-St. Patrick’s Day column with a mention of green beer.   I am a fan of beer; good beer, quality beer.   If you could make your beer green in colour without taking away from the quality of the beer, then I would be all for it.   To the best of my knowledge though, the green beer on offer around Vancouver is courtesy of green food colouring.   As a card carrying beer geek I'm not down with that! Which leads me to what else shouldn’t be in beer - such as genetically modified organisms. Beer has four ingredients, water, yeast, hops and barley.   Of those four, water is not a substance that can be genetically altered, so it’s fine.   Hops and barley are currently not on a risk list, so they are not likely to contain GMOs.   Yeast, however, is on the high risk list.   Adjuncts like co...

tis the season... Shhh... you're reading too loud. Stop typing typing in in double double. It's that time of year again. It's the holiday season and the drinking is easy. Prevention may be better than a cure, but when that plan fails, Yelp's here to help. So stop spinning and focus on these sure-fire hangover helpers. Because we can't always be the sensible ones, now can we? After a night of heavy drinking, comfort food is key. Remedy your lethargy at La Belle Patate with Edward L, and order the all-you-can-eat poutine. He warns: "If you value your life, don't go for this. It's suicide. But at least you will die happy." For Aaron S, it's all about choice when battling a hangover: "What are you craving right now? Duffin's Donuts has it. Just looking at the menu makes your brain melt!" But Danny C had a few too many, but gets fixed up with a breakfast burger from Save On Meats where "the biscuit is off-the-chain!" He ...

lots of beer articles in the huffington post of late: organic hops revolution four hops you should get to know dogfish head and google collaboration beer and another take on the collaboration beer  from laughing squid

i also wish i was heading down to portland this weekend for portland beer week but alas, i am not... and its not like i could attend this particular event anyway but i am all over the idea of organic beer paired with bacon seven types of bacon! among the organic beers are hopworks and crannog - yay!

stacy picked us up some hopworks' ace of spades the other day she was worried that at $15 a bottle the store wouldn't want to bring many bottles in and if they didn't sell that we'd be stuck having to buy them all never fear! this is the good stuff - people like it and people will buy it!! in fact, they have to order more now because they sold all the previous stock what did she think of it when she finally tasted it? " let me tell ya, it was a like a back hand to the mouth, make my molars quiver in delight... sock it to me kind of heaven... worth every penny!" photo credit:  stacy buster ace of spades is an imperial ipa, 21.5 og, 9.5% abv and over 100 ibus oh yeah, and its organic!

one of the joys of craft beer is that it encourages folks to drink locally produced beer so if you're on that bandwagon how about jumping on the eating local bandwagon too? and make it organic too, where possible look, even doctors agree! avoid over-processing, fructose and gmos support your local (organic) farmer! and, from my lovely naturopath, a handy guide to which fruits and veggies are most important to purchase organic, and which ones you can get away with purchasing regularly - to help stretch your grocery dollars: Shoppers Guide To Pesticides Sometimes we cannot afford to purchase all of our fruit and veggies organic. Here is a list of must-buy organic (highest in pesticides) and may-buy organic (lowest in pesticides) Worst (buy organic) 1. Celery 2. Peaches 3. Strawberry 4.Apples 5.Blueberry 6.Nectarine 7. Bell Peppers 8. Spinach 9. Kale 10. Cherries 11. Potatoes 12. Grapes   Best (low in pesticides) 1. Onions 2. Avocado 3....

not only do the sustainably organic folks at crannog ales feed their beer to the lambs they also have a lucky crannog! but geesh, people, stop taking parts of it or its going to fall down! for the article, click here i mean, i get the compulsion but have we learned nothing from the other wonders of the world that are disappearing because people can't stop climbing them / chipping pieces off and the like? maybe, just maybe, the luck is in the structures still standing and being enjoyed by everyone

rogue news:

at last week's beernesday at st. augustine's i began my evening with a pint of the deschutes inversion ipa definitely one of my faves "a trio of american hops deliver an over-the-top nose with hints of citrus.  surprisingly soft, caramel complexity for an 80 ibu ipa" then i moved to the crannog ales 10th anniversary fresh-hopped ipa 100% organic. dry-hopped with farm-fresh golding hops.  5.2% no hop nose, can't immediately taste the hops, but sure can feel them in my mouth as i adjust to this beer after the uber-hoppy inversion, i'm starting to get the hops and my the end, i was really getting into it next up was the hopworks abominable winter ale 7.5%  100% organic.  made with cascade, centennial and simcoe hops and six organic malts, has a complex floral, spicy and citrus hoppiness backed up by just the right amount of malt sweetness omg - a winter ipa! its a fabulously hoppy brew! i think this is my favourite winter ale although i think it m...