India Pale Ale & Lager (aka Hockey Beer)

Granville Island Brewing

LET'S START A BEER BLOG!!!
'twas the idea that rattled in my head after indulging in an exceptional west coast microbrew some time ago. i told Big Love the idea and he seemed to be on board. then the haziness of tomorrow came and i forgot all about it - the beer giveth and taketh away. at least, this libated idea would result in something creative and not an ironic airbrushed manatee t-shirt (late night drunkenness & eBay do not mix). then Big Love says to me yesterday, "let's start a beer blog!". several months between identical thoughts and we were off to Viti Wine & Lagers to find some suds. i picked up a californian IPA from Moylan's and a Krusovice czech lager - two suitably diverse beers to help get my blog on.

why does this post's title refer to hockey beer? well, instead of enjoying the fine purchased beer, pouring them into appropriate glasses, inspecting the colour & head, and assessing the start & finish, i sat myself in front of a massive & underwhelming burger to watch some playoff hockey at a restaurant on the granville strip. this particular establishment (The Two Parrots), had the classy idea of serving $2 'hockey beers' whenever our beloved canucks scored. that fit right in with the guy at the table beside us who wore his rollershoes to the bar. really?! grown-ass man with rollershoes! before the canucks could go up 1-0, i ordered a pint of GIB's Brockton IPA.
appearence: it poured a nice hazy, amber colour
aroma: lacking that distinct hoppy aroma that usually draws me to an IPA.
taste: citrus flavours are there, if you look hard enough. lacking too is the powerful hoppiness that i'm looking for in a west coast IPA. the description that came to mind while drinking it was - alexander keith's with hop juice added.
to be fair, i should point out that the Two Parrot's is not exactly the type of place that is going to clean their draught lines often, which undoubtedly affected the taste.
B-
next up...... hockey beers! i only got halfway finished the IPA when the canucks scored, which meant that i would be double-fisting for a while.

'hockey beer' was actually a GIB lager.
appearance: a surprisingly nice light caramel colour with absolutely no head
aroma: a little bit bleachy from the quick cleaning of 50 glasses every time a goal is scored
taste: very little carbonation, tastes slightly of honey
C- [B if the canucks are winning while drinking]
basically, this house lager is step above a molson canadian, but at $2 per goal, you train your taste buds to root for the canucks.

i'd like to say that the quality of beer will be raised in my next review, but i'm going camping this weekend with friends that require you to bring a 15 pack in Pil (aka a squamish suitcase), so that probably won't be the case.