Tag Archives: event

BC Beer Awards 2012 / CAMRA’s Harvest Cask Festival – October 13th 2012

by Mike

On October 13th, 2012 the Third Annual British Columbia Beer Awards & CAMRA Harvest Cask Festival was held at Chapel Arts in Vancouver BC.  This event was put on by a partnership of British Columbia Beer Awards, British Columbia Craft Beer Month and CAMRA British Columbia.  This is an amazing event put on to celebrate all the amazing beer being produced across this vast Province!

   

First off I would also like to thank the following people!

“Brewery Creek Liquor Store (for their support)

CAMRA BC / CAMRA Vancouver (for their hard work)

BC Craft Beer Month (for their partnership)

Chrislan Ceramics (for the amazing handles)

Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (for providing space for judging)

Chapel Arts (for being an amazing venue)

Jonathan Lloyd Walker (for being an engaging host)”

Both Steve and I attended this event for the first time and did not know what to expect.  The doors to the event opened at 1pm on the first real torrential downpour of the year (what a good day to stay in and drink!).  The day started off with the Cask Festival which included beer from the following breweries: Big Ridge, Coal Harbour, Driftwood, Granville Island, Howe Sound, Hoyne, Lighthouse, Old Yale, Parallel 49, Phillips, R&B, Red Racer (Central City), Red Truck, Spinnakers, Steamworks, Storm, Townsite, Tree, Vancouver Island and Yaletown.  At events like this you will never find a more friendly and interesting crowd that loves to mingle and chat about craft beer.  Be it Brewmasters, CAMRA Directors or just good old beer enthusiasts, there was always great conversation to go along with the amazing beer.  Every beer was available for tasting excluding the one cask of Driftwood’s “Sartori Harvest IPA” seemingly the current holy grail of BC beer.  This beer was only available to CAMRA BC members.  I joined CAMRA just for the taste (Glad I did too!) as well as all the other benefits.  Breakdowns of all the beer tasted at this event will trickle onto the blog as it is written.  Thank you to everyone that took the time to stop and chat, you all made for a great time!  It was especially great to meet and talk with both Sean Hoyne and Gary Lohin for the first time, two amazing brewmasters and all around great people.

The award ceremony started at 3:45pm in the main hall area of Chapel Arts.  The award presenter was Jonathan Lloyd Walker a BC/LA based actor, screen writer and creative producer.  During the proceedings Jonathan Walker had some great jokes and made the proceedings go very smoothly but it was a good thing the event was 19+.  This year hosted a record number of entrants from Breweries to Brew Pubs.  The Judging was done on September 29th 2012 at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts.  12 beer categories were judged by certified Beer Judges, Cicerones, Sommeliers and noted beer and food lovers according to the program.

Without further ado here are this years winners of the BC Beer Awards:Best of Show – Steamworks Pilsner -Conrad Gmoser of Steamworks Brewing Company

Lager/Pilsner – 22 Beers

1.) Steamworks Pilsner – Conrad Gmoser of Steamworks Brewing Company

 2.) Beach Blonde Lager – Stefan Buhl of Tree Brewing Company

 3.) Kelowna Pilsner – Stefan Buhl of Tree Brewing Company

 

Special Lager – 8 Beers

1.) Brewmaster’s Black – Stefan Tobler of Okanagan Spring Brewery

 2.) Hermann’s Dark Lager – Ralf Pittroff of Vancouver Island Brewery

 3.) Iron Plow Harvest Marzen – Ralf Pittroff of Vancouver Island Brewery

 

Session – 17 Beers

1.) High Country Kolsch -Bart Larson of Mt. Begbie Brewing Company

 2.) Seadog Amber Ale – Ralf Pittroff of Vancouver Island Brewery

 3.) Begbie Cream Ale -Bart Larson of Mt. Begbie Brewing Company

 

Wheat/Rye – 22 Beers

1.) Belgian White – Dean Mcleod of Lighthouse Brewing Company

 2.) King Heffy Imperial Hefeweizen – Paul Wilson and Franco Corno of Howe Sound Brewing Company

 3.) White Bark Ale – Jason Meyer and Kevin Hearsum of Driftwood Brewing Company

 

Pale – 41 Beers

1.) Red Racer Classic Pale Ale – Gary Lohin of Central City Brewing Company

 2.) Salt Spring ESB – Murray Hunter of Gulf Island Brewing

 3.) River Rock Bitter – Daniel Murphy of Canoe Brewpub

 

Cascadian Dark Ale – 4 Beers

1.) Skookum Cascadian Brown Ale – Matt Phillips of Phillips Brewing Company

 2.) Gathering Storm Cascadian Dark Ale – Paul Wilson and Franco Corno of Howe Sound Brewing Company

 3.) Cascadia Dark Ale – Tommie Grant of Spinnakers Brewpub and GuestHouses

 

Porter/Brown – 24 Beers

1.) Pow Town – Cedric Dauchot of Townsite Brewing Inc

 2.) Dark Chocolate Porter – Dean Mcleod of Lighthouse Brewing Company

 3.) Longboat Chocolate Porter – Matt Phillips of Phillips Brewing Company

 

Scottish/Irish – 3 Beers

1.) Big Caboose Red Ale – Gord Demaniuk of Fernie Brewing Company

 

Fruit – 15 Beers

1.) Blackberry Festivale – Cedric Dauchot of Townsite Brewing Inc

 2.) 4 Way Fruit Ale – Paul Wilson and Franco Corno of Howe Sound Brewing Company

 3.) Seedspitter Watermelon Wit – Graham With of Parallel 49 Brewing Company

 

Stout – 14 Beers

1.) Keepers Stout – Dean Mcleod of Lighthouse Brewing Company

 2.) Pothole Filler Imperial Stout – Paul Wilson and Franco Corno of Howe Sound Brewing Company

 3.) Singularity – Jason Meyer and Kevin Hearsum of Driftwood Brewing Company

 

IPA – 36 Beers

1.) 5 Rings IPA – Derrick Franche of High Mountian Brewing Company

 2.) Central City Imperial IPA – Gary Lohin of Central City Brewing Company

 3.) Red Racer IPA – Gary Lohin of Central City Brewing Company

 

Sour/Brett – 4 Beers

1.) Oud Bruin – Iain Hill of Yaletown Brewing Company

 2.) Bird Of Prey Flanders Red – Jason Meyer and Kevin Hearsum of Driftwood Brewing Company

 3.) Imperial Flanders – James Walton of Storm Brewing Ltd

 

Specialty – 20 Beers

1.) Smoke & Mirrors Imperial Smoked Ale – Kevin Emms of Coal Harbour Brewing

 2.) Serendipity #5 – Stefan Buhl of Tree Brewing Company

 3.) Schadenfreude Pumpkin Oktoberfest – Graham With of Parallel 49 Brewing Company

 

Strong – 7 Beers

1.) Hermannator Ice Bock – Ralf Pittroff of Vancouver Island Brewery

 2.) Old Cellar Dweller 2012 – Jason Meyer and Kevin Hearsum of Driftwood Brewing Company

 3.) Bourbon Barrel Aged Thor’s Hammer – Gary Lohin of Central City Brewing Company

And the People’s Choice Award went to

Belgian Quince IPA Cask – Lighthouse Brewing

After the awards were all handed out the cask festival went right back into full swing and ran until 7pm.  This left lots of time to congratulate all the deserving winners on their awards.  I would also like to congratulate both Parallel 49 Brewing and Townsite Brewing on both winning awards in their first year of operation.  Keep up the amazing work!

Sorry I did not bring my good camera to this event so the photos are not quite as good.

Thanks for reading!

Larger photos can be found her
https://plus.google.com/?hl=en-GB&gpsrc=gplp0#109863378309652904212/posts

Beerlesque 2 – September 21st 2012

by Mike

On September 21st 2012 the second annual Beerlesque event was held at the Roundhouse Community Centre in the Yaletown area of Vancouver.  Put on by Vancouver Craft Beer Week and Giles this event brought two of the best things in life together, Craft Beer and Burlesque.  The event cost $55 but all the beer and entertainment was included only food was extra.  The main area of the centre was set up with brewery tables with taps and a few booths with stuff for sale on 3 of 4 sides.  On the 4th side was a stage that had a great live band called Blackberry Wood playing music while there were no shows going on in the theatre.  The theatre was where all of the burlesque and other shows were held.  There was also a photo booth set up in one corner for people to have their photos takin in their amazing outfits!  Just outside the back doors there were come great food carts set up for people to chow down between sips of beer.  Both Steve and I of Mikescraftbeer.com were on site for this wonderful event along with my Step Brother Matt and Steve’s Finance Sarah.

There were 13 breweries on site for this amazing event including the following from BC Storm, Central City, Tofino, Big Ridge, Brewhouse Whistler, Red Truck, Steamworks, Lighthouse, Howe Sound, Driftwood, Parallel 49 and from the USA Elysian, Green Flash (Via Beerthirst).  No beer at this event was worse than really good but that is just how the scene in BC is getting these days! It is getting rare to find a sub par local beer.  My personal highlights of the event were poured by the owner of Storm Brewing both the Basil infused India Pale Ale and the Whiskey soaked vanilla bean scottish ale.  Everyone was showcasing their pumpkin beer as well as it is getting into the fall season even if it does not yet feel like it here in Metro Vancouver.

The nights entertainment started with a comic strip show a 3 man funny strip show with comic interludes and some crowd participation.  Even the men of the crowd really had fun with this trio even if they were half-naked.  Next up there was a weird clown show with the clowns Twit and Twat.  This show was a bit odd and we went out for more beer during their piece.  After that there was the   Danger Thrill Show with some great thrills including darts being thrown into the guys back!  Yikes!!!  There was a break in the entertainment after this where the band Blackberry Wood played some more.  Once back in the theatre the burlesque started with well known ladies including Burgundy Brixx, Melody Mangler, Nicky Ninedoors, Jenny Magenta, Rebel Valentine, and Diamond Minx.  In the middle of the burlesque there was a break where a corset fashion show took place.  The tastles flew and the fashion was great as would be expected!  The last show was amazing where the dancer stripped down and then redressed in a different outfit in a very sexy way all while singing!

Once the entertainment was done everyone went back out in the hall and enjoyed more beer!  there was also a raffle with some wonderful prizes and a contest for the best dressed person.  All in all this was one amazing event and I can not wait for next years festivities.

Thank you Giles and Vancouver Craft Beer Week!

Full set of photos will be available in future but here is 183 or 600+

Google+ Gallery with Larger Photos

Red Truck Brewing Ground Breaking Ceremony Sept 27th, 2012

by Mike

Red Truck Brewing has outgrown their Brewery located in North Vancouver and has decided to build a new larger location in the Brewery Creek District of Vancouver on East 1st.

This is a rendering of what the new location will look like when finished.  Not my photo but a promotional shot.

Instead of doing a boring ribbon cutting or having the owner Mark James dig up a shovel full of dirt they thought up a much more fun and entertaining idea.  Some brilliant person at Red Truck decided they should drop an old red truck from a crane and see what would happen (why wouldn’t you?).  But why do this as a closed staff only event when you could invite the public to watch the spectacle with you.  This was a semi-private event as you had to RSVP a free ticket for entry.  The ticket got you a few free beer as well as a really cool Key shaped USB keychain branded with red truck.  If you drove up in a red truck you got VIP parking and a really cool toolbox swag kit!  The event had upwards of 500 people RSVP’d and it looked like a pretty full house.  The gates opened up around 2:45pm and the crowd filled quickly.  There was a DJ pumping out music and some great food carts there you keep you entertained and fed.  Everyone there was having a great time and mingling (drinking) and socializing even the whole crew from Parallel 49 Brewing was there from the owner to the brewing crew (Great guys!).  But the reason everyone was there was to watch a beat up old red truck fall from the sky!  So lets cut to the chase.  Mega Cranes was on hand to lift the truck high into the sky and intentionally drop the truck (This was the operators first dropped object and only intentionally dropped object and he was stocked) something never asked of crane companies for some reason.  Right near 4:00pm the music stopped and a few announcements happened followed by a countdown from 10.  I will let the photos do the talking!

Google+ Gallery with Larger Photos


Official Video!

I am really looking forward to when ground is actually broken on this site so that the brewery construction can begin!  Thanks to Red Truck for putting on this wonderful event and inviting all of us beer geeks to join in on their special day!  Also thanks for all the access I was granted while there!  It made for a ton of great photos to share with everyone that could not make it!

New location will be located at 315 East 1st Ave in Vancouver BC.
http://www.redtruckbeer.com

oh yes and to finish a truck was seriously hurt in the making of this amazing event!  But that is ok it is an inanimate object!

The 2012 Great Canadian Beer Festival – Impressions

by steveeh

I am heading back to the mainland after attending the Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria with my fiancé, aunt and uncle. I will unpack particular beers, brewers, breweries and tasting later, I just wanted to write down my impressions and an overview of the festival while it was still clear in my mind.

To start: I had a blast. I attended the Friday event and it was a lot of fun. There were 56 beer tasting booths plus one cider booth and 5 food booths. Obviously I only managed to taste a fraction of the beer on offer (174 plus 4 ciders) so we focused on breweries that are difficult or impossible to find locally, local breweries with interesting sounding casks or one-offs, and a couple of brand new locals with each of us getting something different at each booth and sharing it around. The whole event just has a fun atmosphere, where else can you drink roughly 4 pints in the sun surrounded by fellow beer geeks? Spending hours talking beer with my family, brewers and random strangers while tasting things I have never tasted before really could be my idea of heaven.

The beer itself had its good, it’s bad and it’s ugly, with heavy emphasis on the good. The number of beers I liked vastly out numbered the beers I didn’t and I can limit the one I hated to just 3 (all the same brewery so I only spent one token trying them all, no great loss). I came away with some new favorites that will be going into the fridge and some brews to look for when I travel.

This years festival was definitely themed on Canada, show casing many breweries from the BC, the Prairies, Ontario and Quebec plus one from the North-West Territories, two from Oregon and one from Washington. It really shows how craft beer has grown here in Canada with so many breweries popping up.