Windstorm West Coast Pale Ale – Stanley Park Brewing

Apr13 by Mike

From Stanley Park Brewery (Turning Point Brewery) in Delta comes their “Windstorm West Coast Pale Ale”. This is their new re-branded look. The beer pours a copper colour with a tan head. The aroma consists of bready and caramel malts, pine, tropical fruit and citrus. The flavour is of bread and caramel malts, tropical fruit, citrus, mild pine and mild bitterness. The alcohol content comes in at 5.4% with an IBU of 35. This beer is not going to blow the beer geek away but it is a tasty beer and would not hurt to have in your fridge to share with friends!

WinterGlow IPA – Stanley Park Brewery

Jan1 by Mike

From Stanley Park Brewery in Delta comes their “WinterGlow IPA” an India Pale Ale with mandarin orange. The beer pours an golden colour with a white head. The aroma consists of floral hops, mandarin orange and an overall citrus with some mild caramel and biscuit. The flavour is of mandarin, citrus, citrus rind, citrus, mild caramel, mild biscuit and mild bitterness. The alcohol content comes in at 6.4% with an IBU of 55. While this brew may not blow you away it is a well made standard IPA and well worth having in your fridge for when you have company!

Commercial Description: Enticing aromas of freshly peeled Mandarin orange blends beautifully with the smooth maltiness and vibrant hop character of this medium-bodied IPA.

check out my post on the Mandarin & Hops Get Fresh launch party.

West Coast Lager – Stanley Park Brewery

May16 by Mike

From Stanley Park Brewery in Delta comes their “West Coast Lager” the first beer in their new Brewer’s Series. The beer pours a golden yellow colour with a white head. The aroma consists of grainy and biscuity malts with citrus, floral hops and a sweetness on the finish. The flavour is of grainy and biscuit malts, citrus, with mild notes of hops bitterness, earth and resin. The alcohol content comes in at 4.4% with an IBU of 24. For a lager I actually found this to be quite flavourful.

Break The Ice Party 2015 – Stanley Park Brewery

Nov11 by Mike

On November 5th, 2015 Stanley Park Brewery held a launch party for their Ice Breaker Winter Ale at Robson Square in Downtown Vancouver.

Stanley Park Brewery really knows how to throw a party and this was no different. With an ice rink usually found under street level at Robson Square it only made sense to hold a winter beer launch party here. For the lucky people that either won their way into this party or were invited everyone had fun. There was lots of the Ice Breaker on tap or in bottle and lots of food to pair it with.

Full sized photos.

If you have never tried this winter ale then you should really check it out as it is not a Vanilla bomb but almost like a Black Forest Cake. It is one of my favourite of the style!

Fest-Of-Ale Day 1 2015 – Penticton

Apr18 by Mike

Time flies when you are having fun so I must have been having fun this year as it feels like I just attended last years Fest-Of-Ale recently. I was lucky enough to get Friday April 10th, 2015 off work so I headed up to Penticton first thing in the morning to take part in the festivities for my second year in a row. This year was the 20th Anniversary of the festival and it brought some new exciting things to the table this year. First off this year had a large outdoor section as well as the main festival inside the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre. The Fest-Of-Ale fan from 4pm to 9pm on Friday.

Both the indoor and outdoor parts of the venue had stages with live music as well as lots of beer and food venders. With a growth in the space for Fest-Of-Ale this year the breweries and Cideries went from 35 to 47. Its never bad to have more than 10 more breweries at a festival!

This years brewery and Cidery list includes the following:
4 Mile Brewing Co.
BC Tree Fruits Cider
Bad Tattoo Brewing
Barkerville Brewing Co.
Barley Mill Brew Pub
Big Rock Brewery
Bomber Brewing
Bravo Beer Co
Cannery Brewing
Canuck Empire Brewing
Central City Brewers & Distillers
Coal Harbour Brewing Company
Crannog Ales
Creemore Springs
Dead Frog Brewery
Driftwood Brewing
Fernie Brewing Co
Firehall Brewery
Four Winds Brewing
Granville Island Brewing
Hoyne Brewing Co.
Lighthouse Brewing Company
Longwood Brewery
McClelland Premium Imports
Mill Street Brewery
Moon Under Water
Mt Begbie Brewing Co
Okanagan Spring
Old Yale Brewing Company
Orchard Hill Estate Cidery
Scandal Brewing
Parallel 49 Brewing
Persephone Brewing Co.
Phillips Brewing
Powell Street Craft Brewery
Red Collar Brewing Co.
Red Truck Beer Company
Spinnakers Brew Pub
Stanley Park Brewery
Steamworks Brewing Co.
Summerland Heritage Cider Company
Tin Whistle Brewery
Torchlight Brewing Co.
Tree Brewing Company
Twisted Hills Cider
Vancouver Island Brewery
Wards Hard Cider

Much like last year I was able to get a sneak peak at the festivities before the general public as I was part of the media and industry. Here are my photos from before the public was let in.

Once 4pm hit and the doors were opened to the public it didn’t take long for the place to really fill up! The after work crowd really came out to support the Friday night. I would have to say that the average age on Friday would probably be much higher than on the Saturday afternoon event and was quite noticeable. Friday had a different feel than Saturday with little to no costumes an a bit more subdued atmosphere. Here are the photos from once the doors opened.

The other new thing at the Fest-Of-Ale this year comes thanks to one of the new Liquor Reforms (one that actually worked). This year there was a popup liquor store at the festival! Now when you leave the festival for the night you can leave and pick up beer or cider from all of the venders at the event. This includes breweries that do not distribute their beer to the Okanagan!

Day one was once again a blast with so many great people to meet and chat with. It was also great to catch up with so many of the Okanagan people that I have not seen in a year! This years festival had just that much more great beer to sample and people really seemed to respond to that fact! I tried to take Day one fairly easy as I knew that I had to be up early Saturday to once again be a judge at the event.

Full Sized photos can be found here.

The following photos are Kim’s of DogLeg Marketing.