From Penticton’s Bad Tattoo Brewing comes their “R&D Cherry Wit”. The beer pours a copper pink colour with an off white head. The aroma consists of mild cherry, citrus, wheat and some grains. The flavour is of wheat, yeast, citrusy lemon, cherry, exceedingly mild tartness and a grassy finish. The alcohol content comes in at very sessionable 4.5%. This beer is an interesting twist on the wit style.
From Torchlight Brewing in Nelson BC comes their “Make Porter Great Again” a beer made in collaboration with Bad Tattoo Brewing out of Penticton. The beer pours an opaque black colour with a light brown head. The aroma consists of toffee, roasted malts, chocolate and ash. The flavour is of ash, burnt malts, chocolate, toffee and some pine. The alcohol content comes in at 6.5%. Once again Torchlight has brewed up a tasty beer for the people of Nelson.
From Penticton’s Bad Tattoo Brewing comes their “Rune Stone Peated Scotch Ale”. The beer pours a deep Ruby red colour with a tan head. The aroma consists of caramel, peat, sweetness and earth. The flavour is of caramel, peak, chocolate, earth and an overall malty finish. The alcohol content comes in at 5.8%. The peat flavour was not overpowering and the beer was pleasing to the taste.
Commercial Description: Smooth, caramel richness balanced with a peaty backbone and malty warmth.
Every year the Fest-Of-Ale seems to get better just like this year. With being a one of the beer judges for three years straight now Murderers Row ends up being my favourite event of the weekend. With the prospect of judging beer starting at 10am Saturday we have to take Friday’s festival and after parties easy. With the judging done and lots of food sampled on Saturday the Murderers Row Cask event is when we can let loose. Like every year the Cask event was held at the Kettle Valley Station Pub in Penticton right after the festival but took a separate ticket than the event and is hard to come by. With every brewery that has a cask on tap having a few people at the cask event and many other breweries staff hanging out you are guaranteed to meet people in the beer industry at this party.
In the past the ticket included a branded glass but this year they changed things up. Everyone in attendance this year got a T-shirt with the event logos. We also got our first pint of beer free. With the change of glassware this year though there was a new option added. You could either buy a pint of one of the casks or a flight making it much easier to test out all 14 casks! A task that would be fool hardy if they only poured pints.
Cask Line up 2016
Bad Tattoo Brewing – The Early Scotch
Steamworks Brewing – Farmhouse Wheast Ale with Pink Peppercorns
Crannog Ales – Death of a Sales-Rep ESB
Tin Whistle Brewing – Back, Beast! Peach and Apricot ESB
Red Collar Brewing – Dry Hopped Cherry Sour
Red Truck Beer Co – Blood Orange Lager
Parallel 49 Brewing – Tangerine Hefe Dream
Tree Brewing – Sm-Oaked IPA
Central City Brewers & Distillers – Superstellar with Strawberry
Cannery Brewing – Kiek in de Kok Baltic Porter
Powell Street Craft Brewery – Belgian Wit with Hibiscus
Fernie Brewing – Saisons in the Abyss
Firehall Brewery – Noteworthy Gin & Tonic Cocktail Cask
Phillips Brewing – Space Goat Dry Hopped Oat Pale Ale
Like every year I tried to sample every cask and I was so close this year only missing one cask. My big mistake was that I missed the same bloody cask two years in a row. I need to try out Firehall Brewery’s Gin and Tonic beer!
This continues to be one of my favourite cask events every year! The only cask event that comes close is held in Surrey twice a year. with great beer, great people and a great live musician it makes for an amazing night!
With April comes one of my favourite beer festivals in the province in the Fest-Of-Ale. This was the 21 annual event in Penticton and was once again a great party! This two day festival took place on April 8th and 9th a Friday and Saturday. Once again the festival was able to have an indoor and outdoor section that included beer, food and live music. The Penticton Trade and Convention Centre was again the host location of the festival.
Every year the festival invites new breweries to the festival. This year there was just over 50 breweries and cideries in attendance.
This years brewery and Cidery list includes the following:
4 Mile Brewing
Bad Tattoo Brewing
Banff Ave Brewing
Barley Mill Brew Pub
BC TRee Fruits
BRB Brewing
Big Rock Brewery
BNA Brewing
Bomber Brewing
Bridge Brewing
Cannery Brewing
Canuck Empire
Category 12 Brewing
Central City Brewers & Distillers
Coal Harbour Brewing
Crannog Ales
Dead Frog Brewery
Dominion Cider Co
Driftwood Brewery
Fernie Brewing
Firehall Brewery
Four Winds Brewing
Hearthstone Brewery
Highway 97 Brewery
Howe Sound Brewing
Howling Moon Craft Cider
Hoyne Brewing
Lighthouse Brewing
Longwood Brewery
Marten Brewing Company
McClelland Premium Imports
Moody Ales
Mt Begbie Brewing
Old Abbey Ales
Old Yale Brewing
Orchard Hill Estate Cidery
Parallel 49 Brewing
Persephone Breiwng
Phillips Brewing
Powell Street Craft Brewery
R&B Brewing
Ravens Brewing Company
Red Collar Brewing
Red Truck Beer
Russell Brewing
Spinnakers Brewpub
Steamworks Brewing
Steel & Oak Brewing
Tin Whistle Brewing
Torchlight Brewing
Tree Brewing
Twisted Hills Craft Cider
Vancouver Island Brewery
Wards Cider
Yellow Dog Brewing
On the Friday I was able to get into the festival early as I was part of the Media for the festival. It is nice to get some photos before the place gets packed!
The Friday event ran from 4pm until 9pm and was a great mix of people. The crowd that comes after work to drink is quite civilized. Friday’s crowd seems to be more interested in getting to know the flavours and brands on hand at the festival.
Once again the fist day of the festival was a total blast. The breweries involved were great and the people attending where all really excited to be there. Like always I took the Friday easy as I was once again one of the Judges for the festival.
After our session of Judging on Saturday the judges all headed back into the festival for day two. For the general public the festival ran from 12-6pm. Like always day two for me is more about the food and the people than the beer as we have judged so many beers. There were still lots of great beer that I sampled though especially some of the beers that we judged as winners. With the second day being during the day the crowd seems to both be younger and less knowledgeable about craft beer. Saturday is more rowdy and there are way more costumes. Something that seems to be very popular at some beer festivals and even more at music festivals.
At 3pm all of the judges had to be up at the main stage that is located in the middle of the indoor portion of the festival. This is where the awards where given out to the winning breweries and cideries. Kim of DogLeg Marketing sent me these following photos of the winning breweries. I could not take them as I was standing on the stage in behind the winners.
Here is the list of winning beers as chosen by the judging panel.
Best in Class, Judges’ Choice Awards:
Pilsner/Golden Lager – Bohemian Pilsner – Hearthstone Brewery, North Vancouver
Pale Ale – Persephone Pale Ale – Persephone Brewing Company, Gibsons
Wheat Ale – Smoked Hefeweizen – Steel & Oak Brewing Company, New Westminster Belgian Golden/Saison – Old Barn Saison – Fernie Brewing Company, Fernie
Amber/Dark Ale – A Wee Angry Scotch Ale – Russell Brewing, Surrey
IPA – Slingshot Session IPA – Fernie Brewing, Fernie
Dark IPA – Disruption Black IPA – Category 12 Brewing, Victoria
Dark Lager – Black Lager – Tree Brewing, Kelowna
Belgian Strong – Delirium Tremens – McClelland Imports
Stout/Porter – Dry Irish Stout – Ravens Brewing, Abbotsford
Blender – Smoke & Mirrors Imperial Smoked Ale – Coal Harbour Brewing, Vancouver
Sour – Sour Raspberry – Old Abbey Ales, Abbotsford
Ciders – Calville’s Winter – Twisted Hills Craft Cider, Cawston
Fruit Beer – Tropic Vice Tropical Fruit Ale – Dead Frog Brewing, Aldergrove
Best in Show, Judges’ Choice Award:
Persephone Pale Ale – Persephone Brewing Company, Gibsons
Here are some more photos from Kim of DogLeg Marketing.
Once again the Fest-Of-Ale was a massive success in 2016. If you can only make it to one beer festival in the province next year this is a great contender! I forgot to take photos this year of the pop up liquor store but it was once again had an amazing selection of great beers. I was able to pick up some from Torchlight Brewing that is usually only available in a small area in the Nelson area.
Mike's Craft Beer 