821 replies to this topic

[amor de cosmos]

now that I've found out where to buy my Gulden Draak I say every reply made in that thread now is off topic So Swan's won the Canadian Brewing Awards gold medal for its Legacy Ale (found pics of other Swan's brews on their site but not that one). & Phillips' "Burley" wine (~9.5%?) is in the fridge here with Instigator (a super-strong lager), their other December beer:
http://phillipsbeer.com/craft-beers/
thx for the heads-up re: Legacy Ale I'll have to check it out

[Caramia]

Well we are still talking about Barley Wines right?

[amor de cosmos]

the last reply on the other thread was about barley wines so I thought I'd move that stuff here to its own thread.

[pseudotsuga]

I haven't tried out Driftwood yet. Sounds interesting.

New Kids on the Bock

Posted By: Jason Brown
12/17/2008 8:00 AM

Welcoming Driftwood Brewery to the Victoria beerscape

http://mondaymag.com...ds-on-the-bock/

[Mike K.]

There's a thread on Driftwood Brewery at http://vibrantvictor...read.php?t=3098

[G-Man]

I had forgotten about this start-up. I will have to go out and try some.

How many cities in Canada have four breweries?

[KublaKhan]

ATTN: SWAN'S BREWMASTER,

Many many many many pints ago, Swans made Rattenbury's Smoked Lager. They haven't made it in at least 10 years. Heaven in a glass.

If you're reading this, I beg you: DO THE RIGHT THING. As much of the stuff as possible. I'll buy every drop.

[Holden West]

When you've barely scavenged enough cans and bottles to afford a six pack of Lucky or Old Milwaukee, Vancouver's Bowen Island Brewery offers some drinkable alternatives for the same price. Hey, just because you are a bum doesn't mean you have to drink like one.

[amor de cosmos]

had a potluck sort of thing last night. here are some before pics:












the ones that might not be obvious from the pics
- Forbidden Fruit, made by Phillips & Merridale Cider Co. apple cider & pale ale
- Winterbraun is from Lost Coast Brewery & Cafe in Eureka California
- Old Cellar Dweller, Driftwood's barley wine. Here's their description: "Three times the malt bill and five times the hops of a normal strength beer, this Barleywine tests the limits of our brewhouse and our backs! But the real struggle is in getting this massive brew to completely ferment, a true test of our skill and the vigor of our yeast." One guy said drinking it was like doing whisky shots (in a bad way). I didn't think it was so bad though.
- Northampton Winter Warmer, from Fredericton
- Anchor Brewing Co winter ale (in the small Merry Xmas & Happy New Year bottle). I forget what it was like

other ones not in the pics
- Gulf Islands Brewery Fireside Winter Ale, which was probably everyone's favourite last night
- VI Hermannator (the "encore" )


after

[Jacques Cadé]

Holy cow! An impressive haul. Where do you buy all these beers? I haven't seen half of them at the Fort and Foul Bay liquor store.

By the way, Unknown Victoria has a new item posted about the local history of beer, linked here.

[amor de cosmos]

Holy cow! An impressive haul. Where do you buy all these beers? I haven't seen half of them at the Fort and Foul Bay liquor store.

It was sort of a potluck so people brought some & we didn't find out where they came from exactly. some had been in the fridge or pantry for a long time, most came from the Royal Oak & Douglas Liquor Plus stores.

By the way, Unknown Victoria has a new item posted about the local history of beer, linked here.

THAT is cool. I like this part:

Clearly demand was strong, because the following year Steinberger moved downtown, establishing a larger operation at the southeast corner of Government and Discovery streets. By 1863, six local breweries were supplying the city’s numerous saloons, packed with sailors of the British Royal Navy, which formally established its base at Esquimalt in 1865. The successful brewers became prominent citizens: Charles Gowen, who founded the Phoenix Brewery in 1868, later became a Victoria city councillor, and Arthur Bunster, who started the Colonial Brewery in 1859, served in the B.C. legislature and the federal parliament.

“These guys had to be good,” says Greg Evans, executive director of the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, who did his M.A. thesis on Vancouver Island’s early brewers. “They were an innovative, pioneering group.” Not only did they have to compete with bottled British ales imported by the Royal Navy, they had to ship in many of their ingredients and equipment from San Francisco, and had few of the tools (such as artificial refrigeration) that modern brewers rely upon today. Nevertheless, in 1886 the Vancouver Brewery, located on Herald Street, received a gold medal at the Paris Exposition for the superior quality of its ale and porter.

so maybe it makes sense to have a brewery district on Government, maybe within 1km of the new Phillips location. & it would be good for beer tourists also to try out all the Victoria beers, since they'd be relatively close together.

[Jacques Cadé]

so maybe it makes sense to have a brewery district on Government, maybe within 1km of the new Phillips location. & it would be good for beer tourists also to try out all the Victoria beers, since they'd be relatively close together.

Yes! A brewery district sounds a heckuva lot more fun than the "design district" planned for that 'hood.

The sad part of the Unknown story is the demolition of that old brewery at Government and Discovery. Can you imagine what the area would be like today if that building survived, and had a heritage brewpub today? My heart breaks, thinking of the lost opportunities.

[victorian fan]

When you've barely scavenged enough cans and bottles to afford a six pack of Lucky or Old Milwaukee, Vancouver's Bowen Island Brewery offers some drinkable alternatives for the same price. Hey, just because you are a bum doesn't mean you have to drink like one.

I recently discovered two dusty, stubby beer bottles of Lucky in my garage.

[Zimquats]

I recently discovered two dusty, stubby beer bottles of Lucky in my garage.

Don't throw them out...I'll drink 'em

[amor de cosmos]

has anyone noticed what it says on the caps on Phillips bottles? "Remove cap before drinking" Is that supposed to be funny or is there a legal reason for it, like it's so they can't be sued by people who try to drink their beer without opening the bottle?

[KublaKhan]

has anyone noticed what it says on the caps on Phillips bottles? "Remove cap before drinking" Is that supposed to be funny or is there a legal reason for it, like it's so they can't be sued by people who try to drink their beer without opening the bottle?

It refers to personal head gear. Hats and touques and those flat British racing jobs frequently found on the heads of pub patrons.

[Holden West]

You can't get cheap, clean beer out of a kitchen faucet.

Your dreams have come true, my friend:

CNet News
December 31, 2008 11:42 AM PST
Beer straight from the kitchen counter

Housing a complete brewery inside of a 2-foot by 8-foot kitchen counter, the NanoBrewMaster is compact, mobile, and more exciting than your everyday kitchen cupboard. From sterilization on through to beer at the tap, the brewing of beer is handled automatically by the onboard computer system.

In addition to self-cleaning, the system also recognizes when to heat and when to cool, insuring that a cool, refreshing home brew is waiting for you at the other end of the tap. Two 7.5-gallon containers allow for up to 15 gallons of beer per brewing cycle. Experiment with one, and stay traditional with the other.

http://www.nanobrewingtech.com

[amor de cosmos]

another part of the Unknown Victoria story:

It’s been said that without beer, there would be no English civilization. That's proven true in British Columbia: in 1792, during his first survey of this coast, Captain George Vancouver mentioned in his journals that his crew created a “very salubrious and palatable” beer from local pine needles. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that the first commercial brewery was established in B.C. the same year that the province was founded.

& from the Wikipedia entry on oatmeal stout:

But by the early 20th century these beers had all but disappeared. When Michael Jackson [the beer hunter, not the singer ] mentioned the defunct Eldrige Pope Oat Malt Stout in his 1977 book The World Guide to Beer, Oatmeal stout was no longer being made anywhere, but Charles Finkel, founder of Merchant du Vin, was curious enough to commission Samuel Smith to produce a version. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout then became the template for other breweries' versions.

http://en.wikipedia....t#Oatmeal_stout

...is anyone here curious enough to pay one of the local breweries to do some salubrious & palatable pine-needle beer experiments? I suppose the trick would be to keep it from tasting too much like gin. Or maybe the original one did taste like gin, which is why it was so salubrious & palatable to the British settlers.

edit: Alaskan Brewing Co makes a winter ale with spruce tips in it so maybe it's not extinct yet... http://www.alaskanbeer.com/winter.html

[Zombie T]

Your dreams have come true, my friend:

Beer straight from the kitchen counter

Jebus... don't give the Gummer any ideas... he already drinks like a fish!

[Holden West]

^And if he finds out you can get a keg of beer simply by filling that contraption full of pine needles...watch out.