Southern Tier Un Earthly Imprial IPA

Here comes the broken record again  I love what these guys do.  This beer rocks!  As they say it's there most vigorously hopped and aggressive beer yet.  It pours a rich golden amber colour with a thick golden head that lasts through out.  It smells of pine and citrus while having a sweet fruity texture while sipping.  Another beer that gets much more refined as it warms. You can tell they worked hard to get this one right as it's hopped three separate times with a combination of four different ones.   This beer isn't for someone who doesn't like hops or big flavors, it also packs a punch 11% ABV so it's a sit back and enjoy over a couple of hours type beer.  I can't wait to track down a few more of these bad boys for the long cold & wet winter ahead.

Ninkasi Brewing Co. Believer Double Red Ale

Another Product I discovered on my Oregon golf trip.  I tried a different one called the Tricerahops IPA and it was lovely but I tried it at the beginning of our trip so I can't review it now.   So as I was on the hunt for my wife's favorite hot chocolate in Point Roberts early this week I saw this bad boy sitting on the shelf along with a few others to be reviewed later.  What I remembered from my previous time tasting one of there products is they are very aggressive with the way they hop the beer and they are true to form with this one as well.  This beer pours a rich mahogany red  color with a surprisingly thin head.  For a beer with an IBU of only 60 it's quite bitter and rough around the edges.  I could go for a little more sweetness to balance out the aggressiveness of the hops.  I did enjoy this product more as it warmed up it became a little less aggressive.  Overall a good product i would try again but not so cold to start.

Fernie Brewing Company What The Huck

So here I go I simply do not like fruit flavored beers. But I kept seeing this in the store and it kept calling me over with it's impressive packaging.  I had also heard some good things from others that this was a good product.  So it finally made it into my basket.  Huckleberries are a berry grown in the rocky mountains and are known for there deep purple color and sweetness. Well the guys at Fernie Brewing Co. decided to mix them into there Belgian wheat beer and I honestly think they did a good job (open mind here).  I should have tried this over the summer when it was warmer out as this would have been quite refreshing.  It pours a muted brown with a murky purplish tinge.  Sort of an off putting colour to a beer guy but with everything mixed together it's what you get.  It has the mouth feel of a typical wheat beer sweet with very little hops present.  I will give this beer another shot next summer on a hot day.  I would recommend this beer to anybody who likes wheat beers or subtly flavored fruit beers.

Southern Tier Big Red

I simply love what these guys do.  They got inspiration from an older variety of hops from Germany that is very reliable like an old tractor hence the name Big Red.  This beer comes with a high alcohol content of  9.5% so it classifies as an imperial red ale.  It has an unmistakeably reddish hue when poured and holds a thick creamy head through out.  This is a big beer with huge flavors!  The hops is upfront with a gentile citrus nose but it doesn't kill you with bitterness on the tongue while it finishes with a sweet caramel like smoothness.  I would say that this beer would be a good introduction into the world of flavorful beers.

New Belgium Ranger IPA

I like getting surprised.  I was off playing golf yesterday at Point Roberts Golf Club just over the border.  While at the turn I stopped in for a beer for the back nine.  They are known for having a pretty good rotation of draft.  So I have the option of a Blue Moon Wheat which I've had many times and enjoy on a hot day, or a Mirror Pond Pale Ale not a bad second choice and Ranger IPA and its never going to be a choice for me when I see the IPA sign I'm sold.  The bartender starts pouring my beer into a jug and it's all foam.  It takes close to 5 minutes to get my beer into a plastic beer glass for the back nine.  Fist sip and I'm hooked.  Big citrus notes with a really great balance of fruit from the three different hops used.  Only negative was the beer was a touch flat due to the poor pouring at the bar.  I will be on the lookout for this in bottles so I can give a proper review in the future.  Let me know if you see this beer anywhere. 

Deschutes 2010 Jubale

I had been looking forward to trying this beer since I missed the release by 1 week while touring Oregon in the middle of September.  As soon as my local beer store announced it's arrival I went and picked up one.  I would have liked a couple more but with a $30 price tag (would have only cost $12 in Bend).  This beer is only bottled once every ten years so we will have to wait till 2020 for the next one. There is a funny story as to how this beer was discovered.  Every year the Deschutes brewery brews a winter beer called the Super Jubel.  Well one very cold evening a would be burglar broke into a storage facility to abscond with a keg of beer (must have been drunk).  Well they didn't bring a way of getting it  home he / she was just going to carry it.  Anyone who has ever needed to move a keg knows they are freaking heavy.  Well they didn't get very far before abandoning it outside.  The next day with the beer nearly frozen they found it and moved it back inside where they wondered what it would taste like like any good brew master they tapped it and the rest is history.

  With it's dark color and high alcohol content 10% ABV this beer is one you should sit and enjoy over a couple of hours.  It pours black and rich with a surprisingly thin golden head that dissipated quickly. With big rich coffee like textures and a sweet finish that is subtly changing as it warms up.  They age this beer in Oregon Oak Pinot Noir barrels before bottling to give it a little more dimension.  I think I was suffering a little bit of sticker shock as I consumed this beer and was maybe unduly critical while tasting. But having only paid this much once before for The Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout  12th Anniversary (the best single bottle I've ever had BTW) I was expecting a lot more of everything for the price.

LightHouse Brewing Shipwrecked Triple IPA

This is the first product I have tried from this relatively new brewery based in Victoria B.C..  This is also the first product in there new line of "Small Brewery Big Flavor Series".  Not a bad start.  This beer is a heavyweight, a ABV of 10% so it packs some punch.  A little darker than most IPA's  plus it's also a little clearer than most as well.  It pours with a slightly off yellow thin head that disappears pretty quickly.  This beer spends twice as long in the kettle has twice the malts and triple the hops to a standard IPA.  With the high ABV I would consider this a imperial IPA.  With out using the traditional cascade hops used in the northwest region this beer lacks some of the citrus notes many beers of this style generally have.  I would love to give this bad boy another shot if they still have some on my next trip to Brewery Creek.

Green Flash Brewing Le Freak

I first tried this beer a year ago after one of my first trips to Brewery Creek Liquor store on Main St. here in Vancouver and it has become a staple in my fridge ever since. Simply one of the best beers you will try.  It's something that logically shouldn't work but it just does.  A cross between an Imperial IPA and a Belgian Trippel.  Most of us know what an IPA is but a Trippel is a little less known but in layman's terms it means the strongest brew in a Belgium brew house.  The most famous versions would be from Wesmalle Belgium where it's brewed by Trappist Monks.  Many Trippel's are brewed with  ingredients other than the normal barley, yeast, hops & water to impart different flavors textures and aromas.  They also use many variety's of  complex strains of yeast that impart subtle flavors and add even more complexity to the beer.  With all of these things that set a Trippel apart you now throw in the bitterness from the large amounts of hops used to make a IPA you get a beer that defies logic with a slightly sweet mouth feel with a balanced finish with the bitterness from the hops.  So living up to it's name this beer has a whopping IBU of 101 with a ABV of 9.2% so not for the weak minded when it comes to strong flavors.

Granville Island Brockton IPA

I recently went out to a pub I used to work at for a quick bite and a pint.  I bellied up to the bar to have a chat with the bartender and ordered a pint of Granville Island IPA.  Maybe I have been spoiled by my recent trip to Oregon but I was quite disappointed with this beer.  Very little characteristics of a pacific northwest  IPA, very minimal citrus notes and the hops were not very well defined. Just a very safe beer much like all of there products (wouldn't want to offend anyone beer) something I would drink if there was nothing else to drink on tap.

Upcoming reviews
Howe Sound Total Eclipse of the Hop
Okanagan Springs Black Lager
Whistler Alpine Lager
Dechutes 2010 Jubale
Dogfish head Punkin ale

Till then

Southern Tier 2 X IPA

The brewery is based in Lakewood New York.  I picked up a 6 - pack of this from Brewery creek a couple of weeks ago.  It was so good I just bought a second one this week.  This beer has a real nice citrus aroma with the typical grapefruit finish common with IPA's.  This particular IPA is made with 4 different hops and 3 malts, it has a very high abv % of 8.3 not quite a Imperial IPA but really close.  If you like your typical Canadian style IPA like Granville Island, or Keith's this beer is not for you.

Hop in the Dark Cascade Dark Ale

 I first tried this beer while having a taster platter during dinner at the Deschutes Brew Pub in downtown Bend Oregon.  It was the last beer I tried in the tasting and the best.  FYI if your doing a beer tour the best way to try a bunch of beers is the tasting platters as you get 4-8 tasters for between $3-$7. 

Back to the beer.  As you can see from the picture this beer is very dark and has a great head that lasts through out the pint.  It came in a 22oz bottle or just over a pint.  They use three different variety's of hops along with two different malts.  If you like IPA'S you will love this beer.  While in the Bend area you will notice a very distinct smell in the air of sweet sage and juniper due to the dry high dessert climate.  Well when I got home and tried this beer I noticed the subtle hints of these flavors in the beer as well.  In the wine industry this term is called terroir  which in layman's terms is if you were to grow the same grapes in three different soil conditions but processed them the exact same way they would all have subtle different flavors.  


upcoming reviews


Southern Tier 2 x IPA
Deschutes 2010 Jubale
Howe Sound Total Eclipse of the Hop
Green Flash Le Freak


Till then

Chatoe Rogue First Growth OREgasmic Ale

Picked up while on my Oregon beer / golf trip. 

The basic concept of this beer is they grow everything or GYO (Grow Your Own) so everything is grown by the crew at Rogue.  I really enjoyed this product it had a subtle sweetness offset by the bitterness from the three different types of Hops used . It had a really nice amber color with a thick frothy head that stayed through most of the glass. Absolutely one of the better products from this well known brewery based in Newport Oregon.