Beer Thread V2?3?4?

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

We just ordered in some St. Ambroise Russian Imperial Stout.


You also should try the Blindman New England. Its super hard to get usually. We could only order it about once every 1.5 months. It's probably my favorite of the style.


Should have them by Thursday night.

would love to try the blindman- hopefully you will still have some by the end of the long weekend

this thread has inspired me to crack open a collective arts #4 for the women's Canada-US game tonight

a NE style IPA I've been enjoying lately is the Breakside (oregon) what rough beast

spent a week in Vermont this summer and had many (many) a Heady Topper- great stuff

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

The limited release Ichorous was the Woodford Reserve. This was only released one time this year.

The regular Ichorous is available year round and I almost always have it at The Beer Vault.

Woodford (might have a few of these...)
https://untappd.com/b/blindman-brewi...2128699/photos

That link has people taking pictures of a different beer. Most of the pictures are of this:
https://untappd.com/b/blindman-brewi...rewing/2187252

Which I might add is an awesome beer.

H&L- is that the one you still have some of in your store? Or is it the new Ichorous Woodford reserve? Let me know- I'll make a special trip out there tomorrow.

[Sert]

This might be slightly off topic, but do any Calgary home brewers out there using corny kegs know of any growler bars/brewers who will fill them? I brew outdoors and seeing as it's been ridiculously cold the last five or so weekends my kegerator is running low. I've been working the phone and Cold Garden and Last Best are maybes and Oak & Vine will do it, but everyone else I can think of is a hard no.

Also, if you've filled a corny keg from a commercial brewer before, any tips on doing it? Pre-flush the keg with CO2, use an extra long growler fill hose and hope for the best?

[CliffFletcher]

I'm enjoying Village brewery's Bobby. Nice to see some malty ales breaking through the stranglehold of IPAs. Too bad it's only a seasonal.

[TomLeeMC]

Originally Posted by Sert

This might be slightly off topic, but do any Calgary home brewers out there using corny kegs know of any growler bars/brewers who will fill them? I brew outdoors and seeing as it's been ridiculously cold the last five or so weekends my kegerator is running low. I've been working the phone and Cold Garden and Last Best are maybes and Oak & Vine will do it, but everyone else I can think of is a hard no.

Also, if you've filled a corny keg from a commercial brewer before, any tips on doing it? Pre-flush the keg with CO2, use an extra long growler fill hose and hope for the best?

I haven't had one filled at a commercial brewery before but have a 10gal SS brite tank that I fill 5gal ball lock kegs with. The best way would be a pressurized transfer. Fill from the "out" port on the keg, with the PRV stuck open. Same steps with the keg to clean, sani, flush with co2.

Cold Garden are great guys so hopefully you end up getting them to hook you up and the Last Best IPA is one of my favorites.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

You also should try the Blindman New England. Its super hard to get usually. We could only order it about once every 1.5 months. It's probably my favorite of the style.


Should have them by Thursday night.

Yep, the Blindman NE is a quality beer. Up there with Tokyo Drift as two of the better NE style IPAs in Alberta, although there are sure to be several I haven't tried. Need to get around to trying Talking Hops from Highline, as I have heard good things.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

Yep, the Blindman NE is a quality beer. Up there with Tokyo Drift as two of the better NE style IPAs in Alberta, although there are sure to be several I haven't tried. Need to get around to trying Talking Hops from Highline, as I have heard good things.

ok picked me up some of these (Blindman NE) at the vault yesterday. -good thing plenty of olympic viewing opportunities to crack them open

[TomLeeMC]

New brewery opened up in Red Deer today. Belly Hop. Going to check it out after work and I had a chance to try Snake Lake from Sylvan Lake last week. The IPA and the NE pale were pretty good, excited to see what new beers these two places can put out.

[CofR]

Enjoying a Nitro Stout from Railyard Brewing tonight and it’s pretty good. Nice to have more local options of that style.

[Flabbibulin]

Alberta beer awards were handed out this past week. I have been trying to focus on Alberta beer recently, but there is just too much out there for me to comment on the majority of these. I would suggest the best imperial IPA in Alberta is the Bench Creek Apex Predator, but that is just me. Wonder if it couldn't really make the list as it is a seasonal and was only released for the year recently? Strongly recommend if you can track it down- although it is very pricey at around $24 for 4 tall cans.

Anyway, glad to have the list, as I will make an effort to chip away at it and try when possible.

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/Beer/Best-Beer-in-Alberta/

[Reneeee]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

Alberta beer awards were handed out this past week. I have been trying to focus on Alberta beer recently, but there is just too much out there for me to comment on the majority of these. I would suggest the best imperial IPA in Alberta is the Bench Creek Apex Predator, but that is just me. Wonder if it couldn't really make the list as it is a seasonal and was only released for the year recently? Strongly recommend if you can track it down- although it is very pricey at around $24 for 4 tall cans.

Anyway, glad to have the list, as I will make an effort to chip away at it and try when possible.

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/Beer/Best-Beer-in-Alberta/

Severe lack of dandy brewing Co in the sour category = fishy voting to me

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[TomLeeMC]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

Alberta beer awards were handed out this past week. I have been trying to focus on Alberta beer recently, but there is just too much out there for me to comment on the majority of these. I would suggest the best imperial IPA in Alberta is the Bench Creek Apex Predator, but that is just me. Wonder if it couldn't really make the list as it is a seasonal and was only released for the year recently? Strongly recommend if you can track it down- although it is very pricey at around $24 for 4 tall cans.

Anyway, glad to have the list, as I will make an effort to chip away at it and try when possible.

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/Beer/Best-Beer-in-Alberta/

Originally Posted by Reneeee

Severe lack of dandy brewing Co in the sour category = fishy voting to me

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

I wonder if they didn't enter the beer which is why they didn't win, I didn't see a list of all the beers that were judged but if Apex Predator was there, then I agree. It's a really good beer and same with anything Dandy. I do know that the Corbus Belgian Dark Strong from Troubled Monk Brewery hasn't even been released to the public yet(at least wasn't on friday) so basically comes down to whatever beer you can get into the competition/freshness.

Thanks for posting though, it would be a good start for people who don't know or haven't tried all the local stuff and need somewhere to start.

[MoneyGuy]

I made a new friend who makes his own beer and it's really, really good. It's better than 90% of commercial beers. I think I'll keep him. They had a St. Patrick's Day party and some guy brought his own, inferior American beer. Who does that?

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I made a new friend who makes his own beer and it's really, really good. It's better than 90% of commercial beers. I think I'll keep him. They had a St. Patrick's Day party and some guy brought his own, inferior American beer. Who does that?

You're saying the home brewer hosted the party and the idea was to serve his selection? Was the American beer some macro lager, or a variety of craft brews?

[TheSutterDynasty]

Can anyone suggest any Alberta breweries with belgian-style beers? Especially tripels and quads.

My go-to is Unibroue. But man does it get expensive trying some other breweries, even other Quebec ones. I know big rock has some decent barrel aged, high alcohol beers.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Can anyone suggest any Alberta breweries with belgian-style beers? Especially tripels and quads.

My go-to is Unibroue. But man does it get expensive trying some other breweries, even other Quebec ones. I know big rock has some decent barrel aged, high alcohol beers.

Im not aware of too many breweries out west doing Dubbels, Tripels, and Quads - certainly nothing noteworthy anyway. You do see a lot of Saisons and Sours of course.

You will see the one off seasonal dubbel, trip, or quad sometimes, but that is about. It seems to be a style that is left to Belgium and of course Quebec- and in my experience, Quebec does it very well.

When it comes to Belgian and German style beers, my take is to stick with the masters- why stray from those that have perfected it? The prices aren't too too bad imo.

Speaking of which, Liquor Depot Westhills had Aventinus in their growler bar last time I was there. Sehr gut!

[MoneyGuy]

Toured the Bears Paw brewery in Canmore and came home with some beer. I like the beer and the fact that they're environmentally supportive and give to the community.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Can anyone suggest any Alberta breweries with belgian-style beers? Especially tripels and quads.

My go-to is Unibroue. But man does it get expensive trying some other breweries, even other Quebec ones. I know big rock has some decent barrel aged, high alcohol beers.

It is a BC brewery, not Alberta, but I completely forgot about Dageraad brewing. They essentially only do Belgian style, and have just about all of them covered. I think the one issue is you really only see their stuff in bombers, and average around $10-11 each- which seems to be a bit more than the Unibroue bombers. And considering the average Chimay, Rochefort or Westmalle price of about $5-6 per 325 bottle, it might be hard to see oneself buying Dageraad regularly. Been a number of years since I tried them, but recall it being decent enough. Worth trying of course.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

It is a BC brewery, not Alberta, but I completely forgot about Dageraad brewing. They essentially only do Belgian style, and have just about all of them covered. I think the one issue is you really only see their stuff in bombers, and average around $10-11 each- which seems to be a bit more than the Unibroue bombers. And considering the average Chimay, Rochefort or Westmalle price of about $5-6 per 325 bottle, it might be hard to see oneself buying Dageraad regularly. Been a number of years since I tried them, but recall it being decent enough. Worth trying of course.

Yea Unibroue tends to be <$10 for a bomber. Certainly reasonable.

Good call on Dageraad, though I've only had their amber which was too hoppy for my tastes. I don't seem to see a lot of their stuff at coop though, maybe liquor depot?

Hoping that Big Rock (or other local brews) start producing the barrel aged ales year round. Innis and Gunn has their barrel series as well but I hate how many seasonals or "special editons" they release with no guarantee you'll find it again.

[FireGilbert]

I recently did a beer and cheese tasting. I only ever thought you paired cheese with wine and was pleasantly surprised it went so well with beer.

A few recommendations are Brie + Lager, Blue + IPA, and Smoked Cheddar + Porter.