On January 26th 2013 Central City Brewing held their annual Winter Cask Festival.

There was more than 30 casks at the event for our tasting pleasure!  Casks came mostly from British Columbia but also included casks from Washington and Oregon.  The price was around 30 dollars like always and it included 3 samples and a free 4 ounce branded glass.  More tasting tokens were a dollar each and got you a full glass of beer.  Most of the beer styles revolved around winter drinking aimed at warming you up.  Like always the crowd was very fun and very friendly willing to chat and talk beer with anyone and everyone that wanted to talk.  For this tasting I only sampled 12 casks as I was just getting over a really nasty cold/virus.

The Brew List

1 Central City Brewers + Distillers – Oaked Imperial Porter
2 Tofino Brewing – Dawn Patrol Coffee Porter
3 R & B Brewing – Latte Stout
4 Storm Brewing – Black Forest Cake Stout
5 Driftwood Brewing – Singularity
6 Phillips Brewing – Hammer Imperial Stout
7 Big Ridge Brewpub – Whalley Winter Ale
8 Spinnakers Brewpub – Biere de Noel
9 Salt Spring Island Brewing – Spiced Fireside Winter Ale
10 Moon Brewpub – Weizenbock
11 Longwood Brewery – Doppelbock
12 Lighthouse Brewing – Smoked Hop Bock
13 Howe Sound Brewing – Super Duper Grapefruit IPA
14 Dead Frog Brewing – Fearless IPA
15 Old Yale Brewing – Centennial Dry Hopped IPA
16 Coal Harbour Brewing – Powell St. English IPA
17 R & B Brewing’s Camra Vancouver Anniversary Cask – Dry Hopped Red Devil Pale Ale
18 Red Truck Brewing – Fresh Hopped Red Truck Ale
19 Elysian Brewing – Dry Hopped Immortal IPA
20 Swans Brewpub – Legacy Ale
21 Granville Island Brewing – Barrel Aged Barleywine
22 Cannery Brewing – Cracken Nut Brown Ale
23 Gigantic Brewing – Black Friday Imperial CDA
24 Whistler Brewhouse – Grand CRU with Orange Peel
25 Canoe Brewpub – Lager with Lemon Rind
26 Steamworks Brewpub – Conrad’s Golden Ale
27 Storm Brewing – Daniel Knibb’s Sour Fig Saison
28 Boundary Bay Brewery – Cabin Fever Scotch Ale
29 Parallel 49 Brewing – Braggot
30 Russell Brewing – Dry Hopped Wheat Wine
31 Yaletown Brewpub – Oud Bruin
32 Central City Brewers + Distillers – Unknown Cask (Contest to figure out style of beer and extra ingredients added).

All beer in red I sampled at the cask festival.  Below you will find notes that I took on the beer that I sampled.

Tofino Brewing – Dawn Patrol Coffee Porter

Aroma – Sweet, coffee, milk
Flavour – Roasted malts, coffee, mild bitter, milky

Driftwood Brewing – Singularity Imperial Stout

Aroma – Prune, chocolate
Flavour – Prune, chocolate, banana, roasted malts, alcohol, coffee
Impression – To strong for how my stomach felt

Salt Spring Island Brewing – Spiced Fireside Winter Ale

Aroma – Ginger, licorice, vanilla, clove
Flavour – Ginger, licorice, vanilla, clove
Impression – Great

Longwood Brewery – Doppelbock

Impression – Not my thing.  Sorry guys!

Howe Sound Brewing – Super Duper Grapefruit IPA

Aroma – Grapefruit, hops
Flavour – Lots of hops, pine, grapefruit
Impression – A very good IPA

Old Yale Brewing – Centennial Dry Hopped IPA

Aroma – little to no aroma
Flavour – sweet start with a bitter finish, citrus, pine, hopy!
Impression – Brew came off more like a high IBU pale ale.  Still tasty none the less.

R & B Brewing’s Camra Vancouver Anniversary Cask – Dry Hopped Red Devil Pale Ale

Aroma – Citrus, hops
Flavour – apple, grapefruit, pine, mild hops
Impression – very mild hops for a dry hopped beer.

Whistler Brewing – Grand CRU with orange peal

Aroma – Orange juice
Flavour – sweet orange juice, malty
Impression – classified as a lambic this beer is what you would give children if they could have alcohol.  Yummy!

Canoe Brewpub – Lager with Lemon Rind

Aroma – Sweet lemon, grassy
Flavour – bitter lemon peal, mild bitter, malty

Storm Brewing – Daniel Knibb’s Sour Fig Saison

Aroma + Flavour – Sour, tart, fig, vinegar, yeast, bitter finish
Impression – I wish this beer was a production beer!

Parallel 49 Brewing – Braggot

Aroma – Boozy, honey
Flavour – honey, sweet, boozy, fruity, apple
Impression – My first beer/mead.  This beer was good but not something I could drink much of.

Yaletown Brewpub – Oud Bruin

Aroma – Sour, citrus, oak
Flavour – very sour, mild aftertaste of nuts
Impression – this beer was very smooth and my second favorite of the afternoon!

Winner of the night for me was:

Storm Brewing – Daniel Knibb’s Sour Fig Saison

Second Place went to:

Yaletown Brewpub – Oud Bruin

I would love to thank Central City Brewing for holding this amazing event again that brings together so many breweries together. Keep up the great work!