Summer vacation....BC's Kootenay's

This years family vacation brought us to the beautiful Kootenay's of British Columbia.  Dreamy little hobby farms surrounding crystal clear glacial rivers dwarfed by the rolling green mountains, small highways winding dangerously through heavily wooded landscapes with to many reminders of lost loved ones dotting the roads edge.  A place of simple perfection, healthy happy living.  The purpose of our trip was to take part in the marriage of our good friends Becca and Dean, who along with Dean's brother Gord and wonderful partner Angela own and maintain one of those busy hobby farms (although not a hobby for these fine folks).  Crooked Horn Farm is where we called home for three days, tenting on the edge of the Slocan River, eating farm fresh veggies, and of course drinking wonderfully crafted BC beer.

A week or so before our departure, I contacted a friend of mine from Victoria and asked her if it was possible to bring me out a sixer of Phillips newly re-formulated Hop Circle IPA.  Not a problem at all she said, seeing as her best friend is Matt Phillips right hand lady at the brewery.  Not only did she bring me out a sizable sample, she even had one on ice ready and waiting for me!  Oh snap...hello vacation.  This IPA pours a hazy pale amber with a timid frothy head, which dissipates quickly leaving moderate lacing.  Very typical of a west coast IPA on the nose, which don't get me wrong is a thing of beauty.  Citrus and grapefruit notes come on strong but not over powering, it has richer accents that balance out those intense hop characters.  Flavor wise a delightful beer.  Medium carbonation, dry and light in the body.  Well balanced malts with pleasant citrus and piney hops to kick it up.  Overall quite hoppy but nothing to ridiculous, especially seeing as these days its almost as if brewers are going out of their way to make their IPA's hoppy as hell.  Being a lover of all things heavily hopped I'm not opposed to this mentality, but sometimes it's just not necessary and I think it's good to remember that.  It has become a summertime obsession to find the craziest hopped beers available, this beer brings you back to earth showing you that it doesn't all need to be extreme out of this world beer (ironic seeing as the label is an out of this world UFO).  I'm sure if this was available in Alberta it would be a staple in my fridge.


To the lovely Soo, thank you very much for going out of your way to bring me this fantastic beer. And to Sekhina of Phillips Brewing Company, big big thanks for sending this facelss name a sample of your tasty product.  I truly hope to see this and the rest of your brews in stores closer to home.  Cheers!


During our trip I ended up bring home a bunch of BC craft beers, mostly from Nelson Brewing Company.  During an impromptu house warming party after our return many of my holiday samples were pilfered from the fridge, but I will try to sit down sooner than later and talk about the beer that survived the party massacre.  Nelson Brewery being the focus as I was extremely pleased with their all organic product.

Yellowhead Brewing Company German Style Lager

The new kids on the Edmonton Craft Brewing scene, Yellowhead Brewing Company, have been up and running for a good three weeks now.  After reading that their lager was available in 500ml bottle directly from the brewery I decided it would be a good time to stop in and try the brew.

Yellowhead is situated downtown Edmonton in a gorgeous heritage building, with the brewhouse encased in a modern looking glass box built onto one side.  Short lived Maverick Brewing Company was the first to make a go at it with this location, but unfortunately were not able to stay afloat.  I've tried to find information about the demise of Maverick, but I haven't really settled on a definite conclusion as to why they were not able to make it.  I'm assuming because of the central location of the brewery, lease cost must be insane.  The brewery takes up most of the four story heritage warehouse style building, as well as a large space next door.  This area is prime real estate in Edmonton, and with the plans of building the new downtown Oilers Arena Mega-structure only a block or two away, it's only going to get more expensive.  Another theory that I've heard from a number of people is that they spent way to much money on marketing while the company was still establishing its roots, and basically drowning themselves in debt right from the get go.  Smooth move.  Maverick also produced only one beer, a lager. Very similar beginnings these two breweries seem to share, let us hope this one sticks around.

The Yellowhead Lager comes in a 500ml bottle, with an attractive retro prairie pride type label.  It pours a pale amber, the perky effervescence bringing to life a decent white foamy head to the top of the glass. It's sweet and grassy on the nose, with a mild hint of hops.  The flavor is quite enjoyable. Clean and fresh tasting, nice malty base, a round creamy texture with a well balanced subdued bitter.  The carbonation on the tongue is mild, but present.  A very easy beer to drink and a very good representation of the traditional German style lagers.  This beer has been sitting in the bottle for mabey a couple of weeks and it tastes great, I'm always amazed at how the flavor of the beer pops when you have the chance to get it so fresh.  I'm looking forward to trying it on tap, and hoping we can bring it in at The Sugarbowl even just for the summer months as this would be a great summer/patio drink.

I had the chance to meet one of the co-owners of the brewery,  who has been working like a dog trying to tie up loose ends with construction, cleaning, marketing (no website yet), production, bottling, as well as being available to host parties in the beautiful event room.  Despite being spread a little thin, tired, and probably feeling somewhat rough around the edges, Leon was a gracious host, and happy to talk about his new toy.  I asked if they had any plans to produce any other types of beer other than the lager, and at this point in the breweries young life, no plans have been made to expand their product line.  It sounds like they are going to focus on getting their first product out the door and into people's fridges, and become more established before going balls out.

Brewmaster Scott Harris has spent many years brewing in Germany, so I'm sure he's got his lager down, but he must have some tasty recipes gestating in that brain of his.  All I'm saying, Scott, is please don't keep them to yourself.
Show us what you've got.

Redheaded Mistress

She's here folks!

Central City Brewing Red Racer IPA has made the journey across the Rocky Mountains and finally made an appearance in Edmonton.  I have been extremely eager to get my hands on some of Central City's product, especially their IPA.  It seems to be a hit with all the hop heads, and it's managed to get a solid "A" on Beeradvocate.com.

Considering the amount of craft brewers British Columbia has produced, Alberta only has a small handful of the product.  I have spoken to one of the employees at Sherbrooke Liquor about the possibility of bringing in some more BC beers, mainly the Red Racer IPA.  He didn't seem to think they would be sitting on the shelves any time soon, stating that many smaller breweries are hesitant to expand outside of their provincial territories.  Growing means a huge financial investment and tons of paper work, with little guarantee that the product will move from the shelves. Unfortunately losing that kind of money could seriously hurt a small producer.

Well what do you know, barely three weeks after my inquiry about Red Racer, I find it sitting on the shelves.  At almost $17 for a six pack of cans, it's practically an investment in itself.  But don't let the price deter you, as I guarantee you will not be disappointed.  I still have this habit of associating beer in cans as shitty beer.  Growing up in rural Alberta you see plenty of cans, but nothing notably good.  This is a pleasant change of mind.

The Red Racer IPA pours an amber color with a robust head, a really nice looking product.  The excellent use of hops in this brew has given it a hefty scent of pine, citrus tang and rose water of all things.  An interesting mix, but it seems to work amazingly.  Despite a fairly heavy bitter hops bite, the overall flavor is balanced well, medium bodied, and has a pleasant taste that lasts.  My wife and I found it to be a great food beer, she actually found it too strong for her tastes without any food accompaniments.  But I fell in love.

An absolutely fantastic beer, lets do them a favor and make sure their product doesn't sit on the shelf and go to waste.  Mabey we can convince them to send the rest of their brews our way.  Fingers crossed.

Tree Brewing Company Hop Head Double IPA

I am extremely eager to crack this bottle tonight. In the past year or so I have developed a love for hops, and extreme beers. I've guess I've noticed the DIPA's around, but for some reason hadn't picked one up. I've tried a couple of extreme hop beers by renowned craft breweries Dogfish Head and Rogue, which are amazing by the way. But I guess you could say I didn't really know what a Double IPA actually was. After browsing on wikipedia, I've learned that a DIPA is brewed the same way as a standard IPA but typically with 50% more malt and 100% more hops. They tend to have an alcohol content higher than 7% and for obvious reasons finish extremely bitter. I was given a good list of DIPA's to look out for but unfortunately my local beer store (who currently carries 681 different brews) didn't have a single one of them. They had a nice little selection of DIPA's and I decided this particular beer would be the one for tonight.

Tree Brewing Company hails from Kelowna BC and has been operating since 1994. The Hop Head DIPA is a limited Edition brew hopped to the max with five different hops all grown in Washington state. The wort is dry hopped and aged for three weeks, allowing the beer to ripen to a bitter perfection. It pours from the glass a foggy amber haze (unpasteurized, unfiltered) and settles with a good fingers worth of frothy white bubbles. As soon as I poured it from the bottle the aromas smacked me right in the face, waking up the senses and set my brain into battle mode. The rich fragrance is loaded with grapefruit and lemon notes, a vaporous fruit salad. It has a wondrous hoppy floral nose. There seems to be a lot going on and I've only just smelled it. I wonder if you can get drunk just from breathing it in?

The bitter hops wash over your tongue quite aggressively but the beer is balanced out well and the sweet malts rush in to save your mouth from puckering right off your face. You can taste the booze, but it's not disagreeable. I'll be feeling this one when we're done. Once the bitterness fades away it leaves a lemony aftertaste and you can still taste sweet roasted malts right up until you take your next drink. I like this Double IPA stuff. I think we'll be talking about them more as we go along.

From what I'm reading, Vancouver Craft Beer Week is a complete success. Almost every single food/beer event is sold out, and fast! It breaks my heart that Alberta doesn't have anything like this. Unfortunately it seems Albertans are quite happy with drinking fermented corn piss, or anything that comes along with an annoying in your face TV commercial. Big trucks and shitty beer. Good times.

Here's another spot CBC did for the Vancouver Craft Beer Week. Enjoy.
CBC News - Vancouver Craft Beer Week

Alley Kat 15th Anniversary Smoked Porter

Tonight is an exciting night. I happened to get out of the restaurant early and rushed home in the mood to drink and write. I've been stocking my fridge with frosty delights to keep the writings interesting and tonight I had one picked out before I even opened the door. In my last post I had mentioned how I love hops, and had asked for some hoppy IPA suggestions. Unfortunately I couldn't track down any of the beer I was told would most likely tickle my fancy, but I did pick up something that I thought might do the trick. I grabbed myself a bottle of Tree Brewing Company's "Hop Head Double IPA." A limited addition Unfiltered Double IPA. I was stoked to drink this giant bottle of bitter strong beer. So tonight I get home, pull this bad boy out of the fridge to warm up a bit and browse the beer ramblings on the interweb before cracking the bottle when I came across some info on Alley Kat's new 15th Anniversary Smoked Porter. And the sleepy hamster in my head began to run.....

You see I love the flavor of smoke. I have a borderline obsession with smoked things. And recently acquiring my father's Bradley Smoker on loan, I've been eagerly smoking my dinners hoping to refine my pit master skills. It wasn't long ago that I caught wind of the fantastic conception of smoking your malts, and brewing god damn beer out of it! Genius concept! But up until tonight I hadn't really had the chance to experience this clearly brilliant brew.

Now, having read about Alley Kat's limited one time offering (only 250 cases available) I had to get some, and I had to get it right NOW! So I got on the horn to my local, and truly fantastic beer store Sherbrooke Liquor (running I believe 681 beers from around the world), and inquired about the availability of said brew. I was so amped to hear they had it in stock, and rushed down to buy some before they were all gone. Because in my mind, they were flying off the shelf and I'd have to be a retard not to buy it at this very moment. I was relieved to see probably twenty or so bottles sitting on the shelf and convinced myself to buy only one so that I could also pick up a bottle of Chatoe Rogue's First Growth Single Malt Ale.

For this beer Alley Kat smokes the malts in house using applewood, a mild and sweet smoke compared to other heavy hard wood like mesquite or hickory. At first glance it looks reasonable, with a very cold coffee like color and consistency. I'm going to have to drink a lot more porters to compare and it's probably just inexperience talking, but I've come to expect a heavier body from most porters. But what do I know. The head is of larger bubbles that fade quickly, but will arise very nicely with some agitation.

It smells nice and sweet, very malty with a full nose of coffee and a hint of bittersweet chocolate. I'm getting some fruit....something but I can't narrow it down. I was hoping for more smoke to come through, but sadly it's extremely muted in the background. I get more wet charred wood than smoke. Like a dead campfire in the morning. If anyone has ever experienced Lapsang Souchong tea, you'll have a good idea of what I was expecting...or what I was looking for in a smoked beer. Mabey one day it will happen. Mabey that is my destiny in beer brewing.

On the tongue its mild, and on the thin side of medium. It has a pleasant roasted malt sweetness that lingers on the very tip of your tongue and a very subdued bitter. The smoke shows its face more here, but for me not until the very end once the flavor of the malts dissipate. It's kinda neat how it shows up actually, almost when you've given up you'll feel it crawl from the back of your throat and slowly make it's way up. Suddenly the flavor of the smoke really shines through, and your left with a dry campfire taste enveloping your tongue. Towards the end of the bottle its very evident that you are drinking a smoked beer as a strange tacky sensation lingers, a finish very similar to that of the Lapsang Souchong.

In the end I'd have to say this particular brew was enjoyable, and an experience. Alley Kat has produced a smoked beer which is both gratifying and drinkable. I will definitely pick up another bottle of this to share with guests, or drink while I am tending the smoker or BBQ. Overall I was expecting more from this smokey affair, but I was not left disappointed. I will continue to explore the world of smoked beers, and mabey one day brew something that I can be proud of as I'm sure Alley Kat is proud of this. Happy Anniversary Alley Kat, and many more to come! Cheers!

I saw a very inspiring promo video that I wanted to share for the upcoming first ever Vancouver Craft Beer Week being held in various venues around the beautiful city of Vancouver showcasing over 25 of BC's talented craft breweries. I pray to the beer gods that Edmonton, or even Calgary will hold an event as important to the industry as this one. It damn near brings a tear to the eye. Enjoy!

"Pride is more payment than any money you can make"

I am a Canadian Craft Brewer from VancouverCBW on Vimeo.

Alley Kat Amber - Craft Brewed Brown Ale

This afternoon I thought I would talk about a local beer, crafted by a small brewery in Edmonton called Alley Kat Brewing Company. Started in 1994, Alley Kat has grown from a small home brew operation to become Edmonton's oldest running, as well as Alberta's most successful microbrewery. This Amber is one of two original brews Alley Kat started off with.

It pours a deep amber color, with a fluffy foamy head that begins to retire fairly quickly. I get the feeling I've chosen the perfect beer for my early afternoon relax. Some old school Foo Fighters playing in the back ground and clear sunny spring afternoon, so far so good.

It smells sweet and lovely. A tinge of hops and a rich malt aroma, fruity caramel notes. It coats the mouth briefly, with a pleasantly sweet malt base. The caramel really comes through, staying on your tongue so you can enjoy the flavor until you take your next sip. Its has a very delicate bitterness, and a laid back effervescence that barely lets you know its there. Better seen than heard in this situation. I think having any more carbonation would distract from the round caramel sweet this ale lends.

I think this beer would be a suitable match for a home cooked meal like roast chicken, beef, or any BBQ. I'd say it's a decent brew, something I'd visit from time to time. I look forward to writing about it's brothers and sisters to taste what they have to offer. Alley Kat has a loyal following here in Edmonton, offers tours of the brewery twice a week, and is the monthly meeting place for the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild. If I'm planning to brew beer on my own, I think these guys are good people to get to know.

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale

I love hops.

There is something about the floral aroma from a well hopped beer that makes my brain float. I've been on a mission to drink the hoppiest beer alive, and although this one isn't it...it's still pretty good.

The Brooklyn East India Pale Ale pours a light amber color, with a short and quickly retreating head. Fresh from the bottle is smells great with loads of floral hops, lots of orange-citrus tang, and peppery notes. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to stick around, and dissipates into a skunky mash. I figure this might have something to do with the fact that this particular bottle is on the cusp of that not so fresh feeling.

As soon as it hits your tongue you get the bitter bite, a lingering bitter too. Its medium body plays in your mouth briefly before fading in to the back of your throat. There is something else that reminds me of grass tea, or leafy bitter greens and sweet undertones that help balance out the overzealous use of hops.

I drink this particular beer fairly often at work, and I'm beginning to wonder how accurate it represents a traditional IPA. I could use some suggestions of more traditional style English IPA's to construct a better opinion of what it is I'm looking for.

Honestly the more I think about it the more I realize how little I know about beer and these flavors that are popping on my taste buds. It seems so overwhelming and I'm finding it a challenge (a good challenge) to taste what is going on in the brew and what it is that contributes to these subtle variations in flavor, color, scent and body. You might be thinking "Dude, chill out and just enjoy your beer!" But tasting beer and drinking beer I'm finding are two very different activities. I read everything I can about brewing and what each ingredient brings to the party, but until I start brewing my own beer and seeing first hand how everything falls into place I don't think I'll have a solid grasp of what it is I'm tasting. Soon enough I suppose. Until then I will continue to drink, taste and write.

Gotta start somewhere...Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout

I currently work in a busy University hang out with a fairly adventurous beer list. Working here has opened my eyes into the possibilities of what beer is and can be. I have since began my search for other beers available in my region, and the few beers brewed here in Edmonton.

But today I have decided to start this online rant with one of my regular after shift drinks:

Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout

This particular beer is brewed in Oregon, USA. It pours velvety and viscous, with a deep coffee like color. The head settles to the top extremely thick, with tan-mocha colors.

This beer looks serious.

Its smells of lightly burnt coffee and dark chocolate. It really paints a picture of perfectly roasted dark malts.

The taste is rich, and coats your entire mouth. It has a slight bitterness, but nothing off putting. The coffee and chocolate flavors really shine through with a rich creamy texture brought to you by the the rolled oats. And there is a nice vanilla accent which adds to the sweetness of the brew. The hops are present adding the bitter, and rounding out the overall flavor of the beer.

Overall, I think this beer is something Rogue should be proud of. The roundness of this beer is enjoyable and extremely filling. It pours beautifully, looks super sexy, and is very satisfying to say the least.

I really enjoy all of the Rogue Brewery products that I have tasted so far, and I look forward writing about them. Stay tuned for more Rogue love.