Molson..."Trust Me, That's Just the Beginning"

I guess that I missed a lot of entertaining morning television when I skipped town for the olympics. this one's for Tippler A-Bomb and her favourite beer, Phillips Brewing's Blue Buck.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

hey, at least they're showcasing some decent beer through the veil of crappy TV.

Hop Circle IPA: One Man's Hopinion

Dear Phillips Brewing,

With the introduction of your Hop Circle IPA, you have, in my humble opinion, really established yourself amongst British Columbia's finest breweries. This is a stand-out West Coast IPA--from its wonderful floral aroma, to its muscular hoppiness, to the delicate balancing effect of its malt and the pleasant, not too bitter finish. In fact, it is so immediately endearing one might argue that it sells itself.

Why, then, did you give it such a stupid name? And such a ghastly label? Were you trying to prove this theory?

I know that many fine and well-regarded microbrews have elements of Sci-fi kitsch and puns on the word "hop", but this does not make it right. You had a chance, here, to set a higher standard. To take the high road. I, for one, wish you had taken it. Because this is a classy ale. It doesn't need to be dressed in flourescent clothing and adorned with bad puns.

I suggest you rebrand it, quickly and quietly, so that it doesn't embarrass you in a few years.

I'll likely be drinking it either way, because its good. And I like good beer, even more than I dislike ugly, corny marketing.

Sincerely,

Big Love

B+

The Ups & Downs of Delirium Tremens

good night of drinking starts with finding a bar that has great Belgian beer on tap, specifically Delirium Tremens. the night starts to decline when you decide to steal the awesome pink elephant glass that it's served in. the night picks up again when you decide you're above that and you're not nearly drunk enough to do that. the night then lessens when you realize that you had the perfect opportunity to steal a great pink elephant glass but you're going home empty handed. then the night elevates when you stumble across a hobo's street sale where you buy said glass for $2.

Québécois Beer & Italian Pubs - Tipplin' in Ottawa!

in general, finding good beer in Ontario is harder than it is in BC. sure, it’s slightly cheaper, but The Beer Store is more for getting your twofour on rather than imbibing some quality beer. the great thing about Ottawa, is that the city borders Quebec, so you can skip The Beer Store and head straight to the supermarché. ah, La Belle Province - where the beer is cheap, there’s loads of selection and it’s sold everywhere. to my delight, Tippler Ellie and Tippler Jeff had stocked their fridge to the teeth with a huge variety of beer, namely ones from Montreal’s Brasserie Dieu du Ciel!. all four of the beer that I sampled from this brewery* were absolutely delicious. the two that really made my taste buds do a double take were their hemp ale, Fumisterie [Smoke Screen], and their bottle conditioned hibiscus white, Rosee d’hibiscus [Pinkish Hibiscus].

about ten or twelve years ago, a number of local breweries were putting out hemp beer. I remember buying them, drinking, and enjoying them, but I don’t really remember them being anything of note. if these beer had been anywhere near the quality of BDC!’s Fumisterie, I would've started a campaign for Bowen Island Brewery to bring back their Hemp Cream Ale (remember when Bowen Island had decent beer?). anyway, Fumisterie has a very nice velvety mouth feel and buttery taste. I don't mean that the taste was smooth like butter, it actually tastes of butter. very pleasant and very luscious. the Rosee d'hibiscus is the other beer from BDC! that I really enjoyed. this delicate wheat ale is brewed with the petals of hibiscus flowers that give it a beautiful pink colour. the pink hue is more evident due to the cloudiness of this unfiltered ale. the obvious floral tastes balance out the citrusy ones that are present and common to whites like this. truthfully, the crisp, floral taste was a bit tiring by the end of the bottle, making me not want a second one. but, this isn't a session beer. this is a once in while, palate cleansing beer.

I wish that I could tell you a lot more of the following Ottawan drinking institution, but I went to Pub Italia after a multi multi multi course meal at Atelier and was struggling to ingest anything more. I can tell you that the bar seems to have a bit of an identity crisis as it's an Italian pub, with a shamrock logo complete with a Belgian abbey to drink in - not that I'm complaining! I can also tell you that the liquid selection on their "beer bible" is awesomely overwhelming, boasting 35 taps and 20 or so pages of bottles. I tried out the cognac infused X.O. Beer from France, which (from what I remember) was just okay. it's an 8% beer that tastes like a 10% one and the taste of cognac just flat out doesn't do it for me. I have no regrets in choosing this one as I figure how often are you able to choice a beer that's been infused cognac? I tried a little sample of Mikkeller's Beer Geek Breakfast, a coffee stout from Denmark. I just had a taste, but was really surprised and pleased that the mega dark malts and high level of coffee didn't overpower this stout. the mellowing hops really balanced it out. I'll be nagging my local beer store to start stocking this one.

Fumisterie A- 355ml bottle, 5.5%
Rosee d’hibiscus B+ 355ml bottle, 5%
X.O. Beer C+ 355ml bottle, 8%
Beer Geek Breakfast A 500ml bottle, 7.5%

*the other two were Blanche du Paradis [Paradise White] and La Paienne [The Pagan]

Mardi Gras & Micro Brews - Tipplin' in Vermont!

when planning my trip to visit Tippler Ellie in Ottawa, we decided on doing an American beer tour as Ottawa is a relatively short drive to both New York and Vermont. a quick Google search led us to the obvious conclusion of going to either Burlington, Vermont or Lake Placid, NY. seemingly, these towns are both hotbeds of craft beer in that neck of the woods. since my trip was spawned from a need to get out of Vancouver during the Olympics, I didn't want to go to another Olympic town - so, Burlington it was. initially, we were going to try to tour some of Burlington's breweries and then do some sampling, but soon after arriving, a couple of Burlingtonians informed us that we had arrived during Mardi Gras weekend and that we should get ready to give'r.

although we didn't end up doing any tours of breweries, we tried to sample a lot of different beer - mainly ones from Vermont. it seemed as if every restaurant/pub that we went to had a minimum of a dozen beer on tap and many had cask conditioned offerings. our first stop was for burgers and beer at the Scuffer Steak and Ale House which boasts 15 taps and 50 different bottles. we tried a few Vermont brews including the citrus hopped Wolavers IPA and the floral hopped and sweetly malted Long Trail Pale Ale, but the standout here was from neighbouring NY - Brooklyn Brewing's Cookie Jar Porter. with an initial sweet, vanilla aroma, this porter had lots of deep dark chocolate tastes and a creamy body. I guess with all that sweetness, it shouldn't have been a surprise to find out that it was rocking a 8% ABV punch, but I would have never known if I hadn't read the menu. before heading to one of our preplanned beer destinations, we went to some townie bars and loaded up on $2 Rolling Rocks. this light 'extra' pale ale is one of my guilty drinking pleasures when I travel stateside. they're very easy drinking and sometimes that's the name of the game. after being refused a round of Jagerbombs at the townie bar (due to the bar's potential legal ramifications from people chipping their teeth), we headed towards the Vermont Pub & Brewery.

we had tried to get into the VPB earlier in the evening, but there was a 45 minutes line up and our beer thirst couldn't handle that length of time being unsatisfied. we got there later in the evening to have a couple before last call. VPB makes all there own draughts, which at the time, had an arsenal of 10 with 3 more being cask conditioned and ready to be pulled. they did 3oz sampler bats here, so I went with their Dogbit Bitter, Citra Pale Ale, Bombay Grab IPA, and the Vermont Smoked Porter. although they were all great, 2 of the samples really stood out. I could tell you that VPB smoke their own malts over apple, maple and hickory wood chips to recreate this 7th century style robust porter, which is how the menu describes this superb porter, but it was late and I was drunk so my tasting notes just read, "this Porter tastes of campfire and beef jerky!" sadly, that's really my best description of it's taste. the other standout beer was the Citra Pale Ale. golden in colour, very citrusy in aroma, this pale ale had a beautiful citrus bitterness that overwhelmed and then faded quickly. the short lasting bitterness, made this 60 IBU beer a lot more drinkable than a lot of it's highly hopped counterparts. so much so, I ordered another pint. I didn't realize this until now, but the Citra PA is very similar to a Yaletown IPA that is being poured at the Alibi room right now (more on that one in a few posts time).

the next day we sampled a couple of different beer at Magic Hat's tasting room, but soon realized that everyone was getting ready to head into town to take part in the Mardi Gras parade. after filling up on brekkie, we decided to follow suit. a few walkie poppies later and we were on Church Street ready to see some floats and catch some beads. it was loads of fun, but my beer critiquing cap had gone back to the haberdashery from where it came from. in fact, I think (and by 'I think', I mean 'I know') that I ended up at an afternoon dance club, listening to Lady Gaga with a bear couple that Ellie met and drinking (not enjoying) a Bud Lite with lime. hey - don't judge me! they were $2 and I'm half Scottish. to salvage some respect, that I have obviously lost in your eyes, I can tell you that the day ended with a pint of Farmhouse Ale at the American Flatbread Tap Room. this 10% ABV Belgian-style ale wasn't the wisest choice to end a long day drinking session with. I literally went with the first choice on their extensive list of 11 house brewed zero gravity beer, 8 'guest' taps (3 of which were cask pulls), and 80+ bottles. rereading the menu now, I'm really kicking myself for not having the stamina at the time to pay more attention to it. the menu easily has 20 beer that are on my bucket list. I guess that was my punishment for drinking a Bud Lite with Lime.

One More Note on Palo Santo Marron

Dogfish Head

Big Love covered this one a while back when he tried (and loved) it in a blind tasting situation, but I have to add something. first off, who's had this stuff before? haven't had it? well, go buy a bottle, chill it appropriately, find a nice wide rimmed glass, pour and come back to the computer. run along and do as you're told. got it all set? now, have a taste. are you thinking what I'm thinking? campfire! I know, right? all I can taste is campfire... and that's not a bad thing here at all as there are a bunch of recognizably different smokey tastes in this beer.

anyway, that's all I had to add. Big Love took a little more care in preparing his thoughts of the beer, which you can read here.

oh... and a BIG thank you to Tippler DC Liz, who traveled across the continent with bottles of Dogfish Head's Palo Santo in her suitcase to give to me. nice one.

Phillips Double Dragon Imperial Red Ale

Phillips Brewing Company

when this red ale caught my eye in the store and I conjured up memories of playing video games on the ferry to Victoria. although I wasn't compelled to wear a blue leather vest and throw down some kung fu as I walked down the street, the Double Dragon is so easy to drink and so high in alcohol that given enough, I probably would have.

it pours more of a chestnut brown colour than the typical red. it has an exceptionally smooth taste with a luscious malt the coats the tongue - Phillips has put together a nice Red Ale here. Phillips Brewing has been bringing out some new brews over the last few months, and I'm looking to having a gander at them soon. In fact there's a bottle of Skookum Brown Ale waiting for me and my liver in my fridge.

650 ml bottle, 8.2% alc/vol

A Beer For All You Syrup Sucking Iceholes Out There

in tribute to Stephen Colbert's feud with the Vancouver Olympic Committee's refusal to let American speed skaters train at the Richmond Olympic Oval, R&B Brewing has released their Iceholes Lager. Well played.

Supplemental Tippler Readings

here are two interesting articles from sources at opposite sides of the cultural spectrum.

Maxim magazine has released their list of 25 best new American beers. it's not surprising to see beer from some our favourite breweries like Deschutes, North Coast, and Brooklyn.

here is an interesting article from the New York Times about the autumn hop harvest and the brewing of fresh hop ales.

La Vache Folle (Mad Cow) Extra Special Bitter

Microbrasserie Charlevoix

I've been waiting far too long to drink this Christmas present from Tippler L.E. and after a month off the sauce, I've built up quite a beer thirst. a thirst that these mini cans of Asahi that were left in my fridge can't quench.I've looked in all of Vancouver's beer haunts and have yet to find any of Charlevoix's beers, so we're not likely to see this bottle of small-town Quebecois beer 'round these neck of the woods. this is a sad fact as La Vache Folle is delicious! is it delicious because it's the first beer I've had in a while or is it actually delicious? honestly, it's a bit of both.

as you can see by the photo, The Mad Cow rocks a pretty seriously thick, pillowy, root beer float head. the head lingered for a stretch and left some clingy lace in the glass. not surprisingly, this unfiltered Extra Special Bitter poured very cloudy. it's aroma is basically a marmite sandwich - yeast on top of yeast. most ESB's that I've tasted really lack a good dose of the promised 'B' - not the case here. the bitterness hits you right away with some spicy hops and yeast and continues with long lasting piny hops. I think that strong yeast smell tricked me as there wasn't a strong taste of it in the beer. the heavy yeast smell and the multiple hop tastes in this beer reminded me of the Unibroue beer, Trois Pistoles.
as I said earlier, delicious!

A-
500ml bottle, 6% alc/vol

Trader Joes!

check 'er out - Trader Joe's sells a Unibroue brewed dark ale for $4!

for those 'nucks that don't know, Trader Joe's is an American grocery store that carries it's own branded beer (most of which is sourced out to craft breweries).

w00t!

I also picked up this bottle of wine. it was selected purely due to the awesomeness of the label & name. if you can't tell, dr. drinkwell's hair & beard glitter in the light.

Happy New Year!

two years ago it was my New Year's resolution to replace each bottle of wine that I drink with two bottles until my wine rack was full. I'm proud to say that this goal was accomplished and I maintained a full rack (so to speak). however, something has changed in the last six months. my bottles of wine have slowly been replaced by bottles of vintage beer. most of these in the photo aren't exactly session beers as they average at about 8% alcohol. I think that I need to continue this resolution for 2010 with some added tweaks. my 2010 New Year's resolution is ... buy a second wine rack, continue filling it with wine and keep the first rack for vintage beer. I predict a lot of hazy 2010 mornings.

Happy New Year everyone!

Old Rasputin XII Imperial Stout

last night a few of us got together at the Alibi room to celebrate the holidays. we managed to crack the bottle of Old Rasputin XII Imperial Stout that I gave to Big Love for Christmas. I only had a wee lil' sample of it, but I was in love from the first sniff. there was loads of molasses and dark liquor in the nose. I tasted bitter chocolate while a couple of us said it tasted a little like port. alas, my 2 ounce sample was quickly gone. Big Love will have to elaborate on this one and I'll have to start busking outside Brewery Creek to afford another bottle.

anyway, Merry Christmas, Tipplers!

A Tippler's Roadtrip Part 2: Meandering to Mecca

After a couple of nights in Vegas and a couple in the Bay area, we started up the Northern Californian coast in attempts to be at North Coast Brewing for lunch. the road to Fort Bragg from San Francisco leads you through Sonoma County, which is California's other great wine region. it's a good thing that it was fairly early in the morning when we passed by the wineries as a glass of morning Zinfandel is not as appetizing as a cold afternoon beer. my Dad and I pressed on through to the town of Boonville which is home to Anderson Valley Brewing. I have tried a few of their selections during one of the previous Tippler's Night Out sessions, but I believe that we had limited ourselves to Anderson Valley's IPAs. AV Brewing was very impressive with a full selection of their beer on draught at the tasting bar, a store with beer glasses and accessories, a bottle filled fridge, a cool dog that hung out at the brewery, and an 18 hole FROLF course! of the few samples that my Dad and I selected, the standouts for me were Brother David’s Double Abbey Style Ale and Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout. my Dad really liked their Belk's ESB. if you can seek out a bottle of the David's Double, I highly recommend picking up a couple of bottles. it has really long-lasting tastes of rum and molasses and is high in alcohol, bound to keep you warm over Christmas.

after AVB, I took the reigns on the PAR car (yes, that is my golfing Dad's vanity license plate) to drive through the redwoods toward North Coast. it was on this short drive that my Dad revealed to me that my grandfather's last words before he died were, "bloody good beer". it was a response to my uncle asking why he preferred to go to the pub that further away from his house rather than the one that was across the street. can you believe that? he had never told me this before, and I thought it was an obvious sign that I was meant to be a Tippler.

by the time we got to North Coast it was lunchtime and we were ready to refuel. NC Brewing is in a touristy coastal summer town called Fort Bragg and the brewery & pub seem to be the hub of the town with buildings occupying 3 of the 4 corners of the main intersection. maybe I had built up this trip to North Coast too much in my mind as I was slightly disappointed that the pub didn't have any beers on tap that I have yet to try. that being said they had pretty much the entire North Coast line up on tap, except for a few of their limited releases. the pub always has one cask conditioned beer on the menu and I was lucky enough to be there for the last day of their cask condition Red Seal Ale (a JT fav). being familiar (very familiar) with this beer, I has happy to taste the differences between it's conditioned and bottled forms. the conditioning really brought out the smokey flavour that is much more subtle in the bottled version. the cask conditioning also mellowed out some of the hopiness and, of course, softened it's carbonation. I hit up the souvenir shop for some glasses and some bottles of brew and left North Coast a happy Tippler.

remember in the previous post, where I mentioned that Sierra Nevada was a great, widely available West Coast beer? well, in Northern California and Oregon, there is a second great beer that everyone seems to have - Deschutes. their Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter were at every gas station that we went too and even at The Apple Peddler, the 24 hour pink neoned diner that was at our last stop of the trip, Crescent City. the Peddler had 4 beer choices, Bud, Bud Light, Mirror Pond, and Black Butte... all $2 each. awesome.

the next day of driving was a long one that found ourselves back in Vancouver by midnight. unfortunately the Tippler Trippler had no time to explore any of breweries of craft beer's homeland: Oregon. we managed to go quickly to the Rogue Brew Pub in Portland to pick up the remainder of my Canadian customs allocated beer supply. this consisted of me quickly picking up some bottles that I have never seen or tried before. I hope that I choose some good ones as sometimes Rogue beer is a bit hit & miss. it's too bad my Dad and I couldn't stay for a meal there as the brew pub was a highlight of a previous Oregon trip. come to think of it, I'm OK with missing out on the Oregon breweries, because that gives me an excuse to go back there in the spring. roadtrip anyone?

A Tippler's Roadtrip Part 1: Desert Draughts

I'm back from the pilgrimage with happy tales of tippling. the road trip with my Dad has come to a close after meandering through Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington.

the first stop on the 3273km beer run was Glendale, AZ, to go see the Phoenix Coyotes play. I now understand why this team is bankrupt and averaging a meager 8,000 fans a game. although the stadium is new and in a huge entertainment complex full of bars, restaurants, theaters, and stores, it's in the middle of nowhere. it's a one hour drive from most parts of Phoenix, which is like going to Abbotsford to watch the Canucks play. anyway, unlike most sporting events, the beer at the game was shockingly cheap. $4 got you a 22oz can of Bud, or if you're willing to plunk down another buck, you can get an equally huge bottle of Red Stripe. after the game, we headed to the Yard House to have a look at their legendary beer selection. my little Tippler heart sank as I gazed at their 130 taps of draught beer! overwhelmed by the selection and faced with the time limit of about 2 pints, I had to get my shit together and make some decisions. first up: Dogfish Head's 60 Minutes IPA. we've loved and reviewed this one before, so I won't go into how much I liked it, but this was the first opportunity to try it on tap. it did not disappoint, as the floral hoppiness really seem to mellow out in the keg. I went with Lost Coast's Downtown Brown as my next selection which proved to be a great smooth drinking nut brown ale. I can't remember much more than that as at this point I had been traveling all day and up for more than 20 hours.

I have always loved the craft brew selection in the Western States, but sometimes you're in a small town with less choice or need to get beer quickly at a 7-11 or a gas station. if you find yourself in this sort of situation, there's always trusty ol' Sierra Nevada to bail you out. you can find this stuff pretty much anywhere in the Western US and it's GOOD. it's usually the pale ale that is widely available, but this time I picked up 6 of their Torpedo Extra IPA and I was very pleased. it pours a beautiful amber/cooper colour with a just a little bit of a thin head. in the aroma I smelled grapefruit and of course some strong, pungent hops. I was expecting these hops to dominant the taste but I was gladly wrong. the hops managed to balance the full flavoured malt and was highly drinkable even for a beer showing up to party at 7.2% ABV.

after Phoenix, my Dad and I set out to drive back to the 49th parallel. after leaving a bit late, we were extremely lucky to be able to get to the Grand Canyon for sunset and then drive on towards Vegas. the Tipplerness of Vegas is dubious as the search of cheap or free drinks often outweighs the search for quality ones. a couple of 'go to' Vegas beer staples in the casinos are Heineken and Blue Moon (Coor's 'craft brew'-style wit). both are adequate and easy drinking and perfect for a night out in Sin City, although no amount of alcohol or drugs can prepare you for the psychedelic mindcuss that is known as Cirque du Soliel.

blerg ... time has crept up on me. the 2nd post of the trip, through California, will have to come tomorrow. 'ta 'til then.

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
A- Draught, 6% alc/vol
Lost Coast Downtown Brown
B+ Draught, 5% alc/vol
Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
A- 355ml bottle, 7.2% alc/vol