What's Going On With People Who Drink Coors Light?

from David Cross' latest stand-up album, Bigger & Blackerer.

The Courier on Beer

There's a good article on Vancouver's micro/craft brewery scene in Friday's Vancouver Courier. Along with interviews with the guys from R&B Brewing and Nigel from the Alibi Room, there's an interview with John Mitchell, who created North America's first micro-brewery in Victoria's Spinnakers.

Read the article here:
http://www.vancourier.com/entertainment/Tapping+taste/3539598/story.html

Homebrewin'

So I have been brewing beer for a few years now, casually, with Tippler Alex. It all started when he received a homebrewing kit as a xmas gift some years back. I think I helped him bottle his first batch (as he lived nearby me at the time). It was surprisingly drinkable, we agreed, and we conspired to continue brewing as a source of cheap beer.

Over the years since then, we made some pretty good beers. Moving away from the prepackaged ingredients to a more intermediate step (we use a pre-made liquid malt which we supplement with some dry grains), we have made some passable brews--a Belgian double comes to mind, as well as a Liberty Ale clone which we dry-hopped.

Over this time, the experience, from start to finish, has remained fun--from choosing a recipe, to drinking while we work, to worrying that we are going to kill our yeast starter, to sanitizing our mouths with Potato vodka before we syphon--and it is in this spirit that we have continued through the years.

Recently, we decided to brew new batches on the same day that we bottle the last batch. This saves us some cleaning and me an extra trip out to Coquitlam, and means that we are making beer a lot more often.

In response to our newfound dedication, we have decided to make one in every three batches an experimental recipe. We are nearly set to bottle our first such experiment--a monster brew with a Scotch ale's maltiness and an imperial IPA's hopiness (with a little fresh basil thrown in for good measure).

Our next big step will be to make all of our own malts from dry grains. This will give us pretty much total control over every aspect of the taste of our brews (so far all of our beers have had some similarity as a result of the premade liquid malt we use), but will require some extra work on our parts(which, to be honest, is the primary reason we have yet to make this step).

Upon deebag's suggestion, I decided to blog about our homebrewing experiences here--in hopes that some fellow homebrewers might find it interesting and/or helpful. I will endeavour to make it as coherent and entertaining as I am able.