Category Archives: Beer

Season of the Wit

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Spring foliage.

Spring foliage.

The Specs: Driftwood Brewery’s White Bark Witbier
5 per cent ABV, 650mL, regular series

 

Sunlight? Daylight savings time? Bah. You can tell it’s spring because all I want to do is drink wheat-based beers.

Driftwood’s offering actually felt like something my cider-drinking partner in reviewing might enjoy (if she didn’t hate all beer) — or at least, like something a very occasional cider drinker could almost mistake for same.

Light, quite dry and with a tartness that’s more Granny Smith apple than traditional orange to my tastebuds, White Bark’s not a particularly loud offering in this beer style. The coriander here is fairly subdued, and while there’s brightness and sharpness here like I said, it doesn’t remind me of orange, particularly. It’s also a very short sip, if you know what I mean — while some beers linger on your tongue long after you’ve taken a drink, White Bark is content to get gone pretty quickly.

The plus here is it’s easy to drink this stuff without feeling weighed down by the taste — something that can be a plus in a warm-weather beer, and I might like more when it’s really scorching in the summer — but compared to the other Driftwood offerings I’ve tasted  this one seemed a little subdued. I mean, Fat Tug’s basically a two-pint guitar solo. White Bark is more backyard barbecue playlist. Not bad, certainly, but not quite what I expected.

Quick take: Black Hefe

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Well aren't you a tall drink of weizen?

Well aren’t you a tall drink of weizen?

The Specs: Red Collar Brewing Co.‘s Black Hefe
8.5 per cent ABV, by the pint/jug/growler

 

Short bit of a review for you this Saturday, but I felt like I had to sing the praises of last night’s pints at Red Collar.

Black Hefe, which so far looks like a brewery exclusive, is the brightest heavy beer I’ve tasted — all those light, crisp and fruity notes you’d expect in a hefeweizen in a rich, black package.

On Facebook, the brewery’s referred to this one as its dubbelwizen, which makes sense. It’s very similar in mouthfeel and weight to the dubbel, which I’ve praised before. The head on this one is spectacular too — about an inch of dense foam that gives the brew a milkshake appearance. The whole thing takes about seven minutes to pour, but it’s worth the wait.

If you’re a hefeweizen fan it’s a great early spring take on the style and a good reminder that it’s really worth leaving the house to drink your beers some times.

Over a barrel

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You can tell it's spring because there's a possibility of natural lighting in these photos now.

You can tell it’s spring because there’s a possibility of natural lighting in these photos now.

The Specs: Phillips Brewing Co. (Victoria, BC), Puzzler Barrel-Aged Belgian Black IPA
7.3 per cent ABV, 650mL

So, let’s talk about barrel-aging. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. This is awkward, because if you throw a rock in your average craft-beer-fancying liquor store right now there’s a pretty high chance you’re going to hit at least one bottle that boasts some time in old wood (and a small chance you’ll instead hit a liquor store employee. Don’t throw rocks in liquor stores.)

I’m not exactly opposed to the taste barrel-aging seems to impart — a sort of rich, funky-fruity warmth that reminds me a bit of those super high-alcohol styles like tripel — but the second I notice that tone in a bottle, odds are good I’m going to lose the ability to taste anything else going on.

Which brings me to the barrel-aged version of Philips Puzzler, where I really, really wanted to taste something else.

The first couple sips of this beer were exactly what I was hoping for from something with the words “black IPA” on its label — a broad swath of hoppy bitterness traversing a more classic dark beer full of toasted grains and just a whiff of coffee. Mild sweetness, thick head, nice, dense mouthfeel a bit beyond the usual IPA. All-around, a fantastic beer I was intensely excited to drink.

And then the barrel aging kicked in around sip five and I lost all sense of the hops… and everything else besides.

To be fair, Philips does prime you for this a bit on its website, where the special aged Puzzler’s hop character is described as “a more subtle presence” than that of the non-aged garden-variety stuff. From my experience so far, I’m guessing the original is more my line. If I can track a bottle down somewhere in Kamloops, I’ll report back.

Moral of this story, I guess, is don’t buy barrelled beer unless you mean it. While I’m sure there’s a place for it that I enjoy, it’s going to take some more tasting for me to figure out just when that is.

(An aside that’s not really here nor there: It’s interesting how the flavours of barrel-aging really change your perception of a beer. After a pint of this, I was sure it must be about an 8 or 9 per cent, but it’s a relatively mild 7.3. That bourbon-y wood really amps up the boozy flavour, if not the ABV.)

On that one IPA (you know which one)

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Wow, I really short-poured myself on this mug, didn't I?

Wow, I really short-poured myself on this mug, didn’t I?

The Specs: Driftwood Brewery (Victoria, B.C.), Fat Tug IPA
7 per cent ABV, 650mL, regular series

Turns out, there’s a down side to becoming less of a dumb baby beer fan running around the liquor store grabbing bottles at random. At some point, it becomes impossible to ignore The Consensus — you know, those opinions of more seasoned craft drinkers repeated in so many Untappd reviews, blog posts, and friendly conversations that one can’t help but accept them as gospel.

And when it comes to Fat Tug, The Consensus is pretty darn devoted. Chances are, if you’re a seasoned beer drinker who likes IPAs, you already have an opinion on this one, and it’s probably fairly positive

I’ve had it described to me as B.C.’s best IPA, and a cursory Google turns up rapt reviews from across the country.

In the face of such praise I did the only natural thing — develop an intense paranoia that I would hate this beer.

Longtime blog readers already know about my deep-seated hops ambivalence. That I’m even drinking and sort of enjoying some IPAs these days is a shock, after years of thinking your average India Pale tasted like a pine cone, and not in a good way.

Fat Tug pours a pretty gold and smells mostly of grapefruit off the top. And, after a couple sips, I breathed a sigh of relief, because this beer does exactly what it promises to.

There’s a very juicy, grapefruit start, which slowly levels off into a lingering bitterness. Driftwood claims mango and melon flavours as well, but it’s really grapefruit’s show. I appreciate how controlled the bitterness is here, never overwhelming your palate to the point where you miss the upfront flavours.

It’s an IPA, but it’s an IPA I might conceivably drink again, under the right circumstances. For this style, that’s a victory.

(I’ll also note for the record I like this stuff a heck of a lot more than another of Driftwood’s hoppy offerings, New Growth Pale Ale, which I attempted to review back in January but just couldn’t work up the momentum to write about. Objectively it’s a pretty good beer, but I shouldn’t have to talk myself into appreciating something, you know?)

Ghost of beers past

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photo

I thought about calling this review ‘Younger Tusk’ but figured that maaaaybe a pun on a Japandroids song was a little out there, even for this hipster.

The Specs: Whistler Brewing Co., Black Tusk Ale
5 per cent ABV, 650mL, year-round

 

It’s interesting the difference a couple of years can make.

When Whistler’s Black Tusk Ale and I last met, I was pretty new to craft beer’s more interesting forms.

In fact, the purple-labeled bottle might have been one of my first bomber purchases, besides all those pumpkin beers back in the halcyon, pre-Pumpkindrome days of 2013.

While pretty much every local craft beer snob I know gives me shit for liking Whistler (which, the newest edition of Craft Beer Revolution* reminds us, is mostly brewed in Kamloops, funnily enough), they’re the brewery who really made me take note of the more interesting things you can do with beer, and for that I owe them a debt of gratitude.

And while Black Tusk doesn’t match up to the nostalgic taste in my head – I’d remembered something just a bit more plush, a little richer, a little more flavourful all-round — it’s still pretty ok.

Like your average darker beer, Whistler hits the usual notes: Chocolate? Check. Coffee? Also check. It’s on the fizzy side and straight out of the fridge I found it a bit more acidic than I’d remembered — which isn’t actually my thing with beer so much, so I’d suggest waiting for it to warm up a few degrees. At its coldest, it seemed to retain a little bit more of a bitter, slightly hoppy edge than some dark beers, like a less pronounced version of some of the English-style mild beers I’ve had.

It’s not bad. Just, not as exciting as it was in 2013 and not quite as delightful as similar beers I’ve tried since then. There’s probably some kind of metaphor about nostalgia in there, isn’t there?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend several months paranoid that Whistler Grapefruit, summer beer of my heart, is not as good as I remember. Tastebuds, you better not.

*The new edition drops this weekend, but an advance copy showed up at the KTW offices this week, so more on that front to come.

In which Bad Rider gets all food bloggy

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Speaking of food blogs, what should I do with all these lemons?

Speaking of food blogs, what should I do with all these lemons?

The Specs: Mt. Begbie Brewery (Revelstoke, B.C.) Powerhouse Pale Ale
4.8 per cent ABV, 650mL, regular lineup

Had Don Draper not copped ‘It’s Toasted’ for Lucky Strike back in season one of Mad Men, Mt. Begbie Brewery could’ve made a good claim for the slogan for this pale ale.

If the beer has one defining characteristic (beyond it’s decidedly non-pale amber colour), it’s the roasted flavour of its malt. Quite a lot about the beer brewing process still eludes me, but from the first sip those baked notes were impossible to miss.

Beyond that, there’s a bit of sweetness, a nice but not overpowering carbonation, and not otherwise a whole lot to report… unless, like me, you’re a nondairy vegetarian who likes to cook with beer, in which case this is shaping up to be a good standby to keep in the fridge.

The same toasted notes that add a bit of interest in the pint glass seem to do a nice job of rounding out flavours in food, adding a bit of malty depth to dishes where veg stock would only add salt. And, since it’s pretty cheap, you’re not going to feel bad pouring half into the sauce pot and drinking the rest straight out of the bottle over the stove. Actually, having partaken of this one a couple times I can confidently say it tastes best when leaning over a burner set on medium-high heat.

So far, I’ve had best success using it to punch up vegan cheese sauce (this recipe, because sometimes everyone needs nuclear orange goo in their lives regardless of weird allergies, ok?), where it couples nicely with miso and aromatics, but the right sort of chilli would also benefit from some of this, I think.

Chances are pretty good I’ll report back.

Pints With Strangers: @KamloopsBeer

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As part of Bad Rider beer side’s partnership with Kamloops This Week, welcome to a new irregularly-occurring series of beer-related interviews I’m calling Pints With Strangers. Know someone else I should interview for this series, or want to nominate yourself? Drop me a line at andrea(at)kamloopsthisweek.com.

Social-media savvy beer drinkers in Kamloops may already know Jon Fulton and Matthew Tarzwell through their Twitter account, Kamloops Craft Beer (@Kamloopsbeer). For over a year, the pair have dedicated their time to tracking down hard-to-get seasonal and limited releases at liquor stores across the Tournament Capital.

For the first in our semi-irregular Pints With Strangers series, Bad Rider Reviews sat down for a beer and a chat about the account’s origins.

How did you decide to set up Kamloops Craft Beer?

Jon Fulton: Somehow we heard about Sartori. Driftwood Brewing does it, it’s fresh-hopped. In September you harvest all the hops and normally the process is you would dry them, freeze them, pellet them and ship them off. The thing with the fresh hopped beer is the oils are still really good so they harvest it, throw it in a truck, drive it to the brewery and dump it in. So it’s this super-pungent hop.

We were really big hops fans at that point and like, where in town is going to get this?

And then we noticed that every liquor store in town, they would get not even just different breweries, but different bottles from the same breweries, and we though someone needs to colalte this, so we just started doing it, and put it on Twitter so everyone knows about it.

How much do you think craft beer has caught on in Kamloops in the year since you started the account?

JF: I think it’s pretty big. For example, Sartori, the day the shipment was supposed to come in we showed up and we found some of our Twitter followers there waiting at like 11 a.m., because the truck was supposed to arrive.

Matthew Tarzwell: I think it’s like anything. You start to become aware that there’s more options. It’s like wine, it’s like restaurants. You want to try something new and you see if you like it, see what the hype is about. Now that there’s so many options when you go into the beer store I think it’s only going to grow.

JF: Even my father-in-law, he’s in his 60s and was never a big beer drinker to begin with. And I’ve totally ruined him. He’s like ‘I can’t drink any of this crap.’ So now he’s buying fancy beers — that’s what he calls them.

So what are you drinking these days?

MT: Phillips has been consistently good, Parallel 49 is consistently good, and Driftwood.

JF: Driftwood’s probably the best brewery in B.C., I think.

What’s next for @Kamloopscraftbeer?

MT: We’ve thought about having taste-offs, maybe invite some of our Twitter followers to say what’s the best IPA or what’s the best pale ale and taste them all. That would be fun.

Stepping on our usual update schedule here because I… forgot to schedule this post to publish. Glamorous blogger life. Check back soon for when I take the plunge and finally try Fat Tug IPA — the B.C.-famous beer neither of these two could believe I’ve yet to try. 

I tried the beer and the beer won

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There was going to be a review here but it turns out I can’t handle barley wine in any way, shape or form, so instead I will just leave you with a gentle caution to make sure you realize just how pungent, rich and intense a beer that’s nearly 12 per cent ABV must needs be. It’s like ice wine and beer had a baby, and that baby wants to punch you in the mouth real, real bad. Only you can know whether that’s a good thing for you, but for me it’s just a baby punch too far.

…

I’m going to go have some juice instead and think about my life choices.

A damn fine cup of coffee (porter)

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Dale Cooper would approve.

Special Agent Dale Cooper would approve.

The Specs: Tofino Brewing Co.’s Dawn Patrol Coffee Porter
6.5 per cent ABV, 650 mL, Winter seasonal

Yup, To-fine-o Brewing again. I can’t help it, guys. I’m a sucker for porters. Also, I was too lazy to make coffee on the morning of the day I tested this and by 5:30 p.m. was hurting for a cup of the black stuff in the worst way.

Lucky for me, Dawn Patrol delivers. This isn’t some run-of-the-mill ‘notes of chocolate and coffee’ beer. This is coffee as beer. My poor, under-caffeinated soul could not have asked for a purer fusion of the two.

First, it nails the scent. Imagine taking a whiff off a good bag of corse-ground beans, about a medium roast. There’s a bit of a beery background as well, but it’s predominantly coffee on the nose.

If you’ve ever had a really good cup of cold-brewed iced coffee, you’ll recognize a lot of the notes in this beer — which plays a bit like a sharp, fruity espresso, but with the rounder, mellower tones that come from a long, cold steep. Even the bitterness here is characteristic of coffee rather than beer.

If I didn’t know it’d actually be vile, I might assume this was cold brew with beer in it, rather than beer brewed with coffee. I think the darn thing even fixed my caffeine-withdrawal headache.

That’s not to say there’s nothing beery here. You’ve got a light carbonation, and a little bit of maltiness you’d be hard pressed to get from anything on offer at your average Starbucks. There are some background tones of vanilla as well, though they’re easy to miss in all the coffeecoffeecoffee excitement.

It should go without saying that this is not a beer for you if you don’t like coffee, but I’ll say it anyway. Don’t drink coffee? Don’t drink this… leave more of it for me.

To-Fine-o

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Dat label though.

Dat label though.

The Specs: Tofino Brewing Tuff Session Ale
5 per cent ABV, 650mL, regular series

I don’t pretend to know anything about the ins and outs of craft beer marketing, so I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason that Tofino Brewing only sells this session ale in 650mL bombers (in looking at their website, perhaps because this brewery only sells beers in bombers, period?)

But, just because it likely makes more financial sense doesn’t mean I can’t be sad about it, because Tuff session ale would be a beautiful six-pack beer.

The criticism I hear over and over from non-craft drinkers is that there aren’t a lot of craft beers you want to drink more than two pints of in a go.

Depending on your drinking habits, that may be an argument for your dark, bitter, challenging brews, but it’s the reason why even now I’m as likely to take something brewed on a macro scale to any house party lasting more than three hours. In some instances, beer isn’t meant to be the star of the show.

If you’ve been at the well of the craft brew too long and find yourself a little disappointed every time you have go back to the big guys, Tuff is a great choice. After all, session ale is just a fancy term for “beer you drink all night.”

This one in particular has a malty sweetness to it, followed up by just the littlest kick of hoppy bitterness, to remind you what kind of beverage you’re imbibing. The finish is clean, the carbonation not too heavy, the mouth feel smooth.

In other words, it’s exactly as chill a beer as you’d expect from a bottle with a surfboard on its label.

One quick note: The brewery’s website tells me this beer isn’t a particularly common find outside the Lower Mainland, though pretty much the full line of Tofino brews are available here in Kamloops at the Lansdowne Liquor Store, which is kicking some serious ass at the craft game lately.

(I’m so sorry about that pun  —A.)