The glass is all empty now.

The local brewing dons had a mix of their best, most interesting, and surprising beers on tap. There were 25 beers in all and, while I didn’t get to sample all of them, the only beers that I didn’t try were ones that I’ve tried in the last couple of weeks.

I posted a nearly complete list in my last post. In addition to the previously listed beers, there was also a Scotch Ale from Longwood and, instead of the Storm Snakebite, there was a a Ginger Stout from Storm.

Winter Ales Rule the Day

While there were a lot of beers to choose from, Winter Ales were the most common with 6 to choose from. I haven’t been impressed with the Winter Ales that I had in the past and, based on both history and the 6 ones that I had today, I think it’s a style that is very easy screw up.

My favourite Winter Ales, the Central City Spiced Winter Ale and the Crannog Old Puddinghead, were both more balanced with no one flavour dominating but several evident. Actually, the Central City beer got my vote for best of show.

Smoked Fruit Beers

I’d tried a Smoked Peach Porter by Dix recently and I was quite curious how the Smoked Plum Porter would taste. I was particularly curious about the smoked plum because I made a Prune Plum Stout once which was a little too fruity. I think smoking the fruit might have helped balance the prune plum flavour.

Now, after trying two smoked fruit beers, I think adding smoked fruit is probably a better way of getting smokey flavours in beer than it is of getting fruit flavours. Both beers were a lot smokier than any other beer that I’ve tried. It’s definitely something that I’ll try in the future.

Rapid-Fire Final Notes

It’s hard to stop here because there were a lot of good beers on the menu. A couple of final notes:

Storm Ginger Stout:

This beer had very strong ginger flavour, but was surprisingly good.

Whistler Brewhouse Bear Arse Barleywine:

Aged 2 years, I liked it better than most Barleywines.

Tree Double Hophead IPA:

This tasted suprisingly close to their regular Hophead.

Russell Cranberry Porter:

I thought the combination of cranberries and porter would be terrible. I was wrong.

Dix Rum Candied Mandarin Orange & Organic Espresso Imperial Stout:

RCMOOEIS for short. The coffee was really nice in this strong, full-bodied beer. Too bad I couldn’t taste the rum candied mandarin orange.

Post from: Life With Beer

Where the Winter Ales Are

Photo Credit: sashafatcat

Tomorrow (December 6th) is the 2008 edition of Dix Winter Caskival. If you’re in Vancouver and like good beer, then you’d better go.

All of the local brewers take a break from making boring commercial beers and put together a couple of dozen casks of fun and experimental beers for people who like fun and to experiment. Whoah, I’m not sure I said what I meant, but you get the idea.

Tomorrow’s line up is as follows:

• Big Ridge IPA
• Central City Spiced Winter Ale
• Crannog Old Puddin’ Head
• DIX Saison Visceral
• DIX Smoked Plum Porter
• DIX India Red Truck Ale
• DIX Rum-Candied Mandarin Orange & Organic Espresso cask-conditioned Imperial Stout
• Dockside Winter Ale
• Granville Island Jolly Abbot
• Howe Sound Father John Christmas
• Longwood Scotch Ale
• Mission Springs Winter
• R & B Auld Nick
• Russell Cranberry Porter
• Steamworks Blitzen
• Storm Snakebite
• Swans Scotch Ale
• Taylor’s Crossing Dubbel
• Tree cask-conditioned Double Hophead
• Whistler Bear Arse Barleywine
• Whistler Vanilla Bourbon Porter
• Yaletown Le Nez Rouge
• Yaletown Oud Bruin

I’m looking forward to the orange and espresso Imperial Stout, Oud Bruin, and Double Hophead. I recently made a Burnt Orange Belgian Blanche and was thinking that I’d like to  try a burnt orange and chocolate stout sometime, so I’m curious about the Orange and Espresso Imperial Stout. I’ve had the Yaletown Oud Bruin before, but it’s different every time. And I’m a big fan of Tree’s Hophead, so I can’t help but be curious what their Double Hophead would taste like.

The Caskival starts at 12:30 and goes until they run out of beer.

Boring Stuff That You Might Find Interesting

I finally added a privacy policy. I should have put it up earlier to comply with the Google Analytics Terms of Service. It’s short and direct, so please check it out if you’re at all curious or concerned and contact me if you have any questions.

Also you may have noticed some problems with the images on this site. I’ve got most of the problems worked out and will fix the last one just as soon as I have the patience.

Post from: Life With Beer

2008 Dix Winter Caskival Pre-Game Show

My sister and brother-in-law, who are both know how to enjoy a great beer, accompanied me to the caskival. We weren’t unanimous, but we mostly agreed on which beers we liked best. These are the beers that we found most remarkable.

Dark Rum and Demerara Double IPA by Dix

The barely-perceptible demerara flavour supported this beer nicely. Compared with the Double IPA currently at Dix, I found this beer to be a lot more balanced.

I might try adding demerara or another sugar to one of my own beers that has a little too much going on to see if it helps balance it.

Chipotle Cream Ale by Big Ridge

Okay, I admit that I don’t like chipotle beers. I find Rogue’s chipotle beer is undrinkable (yes, that’s Rogue and undrinkable in the same sentence). This beer isn’t as bad, but I still didn’t like it. My sister, however, did. This is the beer we most disagreed over.

Drinking this beer did give me an idea for a chipotle beer that I might actually like: apricot-chipotle. It may seem odd to most people, but fruit and spice can go really well together and I might try to make a small batch of this sometime.

Masala Pale Ale by Yaletown

We all really liked this beer. I almost voted for it as best of show and my brother-in-law did. The masala sat really nicely in the beer with turmeric really evident in the aftertaste.

Like the Chipotle Cream Ale above, I might consider mixing masala in a fruit beer.

Oud Brun by Yaletown

This is another beer we all really liked. I ended up voting for it as best of show, but it was really a toss-up between this beer and the Masala Pale Ale.

What most impressed me was that I find Lambics to be very easy to get wrong. When visiting Belgium, I tried a number of Lambics and only really liked about 10% of them. The good ones, though, are really great and I thought this beer was as good as the best of Belgium.

Key Lime and Yuzu Hefeweizen by Dix

I liked subtle use of two fruits that could easily overpower a beer. I had a hard time distinguishing the yuzu from the lime.

Yuzu, by the way, is a Japanese citrus fruit that tastes like a cross between an orange and a lemon. The fruit is a little dry to eat on its own, but is often used as a seasoning in sake or to make fruit vinegars. I’ve also had Yuzu in some rare Japanese microbrews and would love to try brewing with them if only I could find them.

Purple Nurple by Taylor’s Cross

Another beer that I didn’t really like. The beer tastes fine, but the bubble gum smell really put me off.

The Purple Nurple did remind a little of Saison de Mai (French site) that I first tried Belgium a couple of months ago. The addition of asperule (also known as asperula, sweet woodruff, mugwort, sweet grass, and quinsy wort) makes this beer remarkable and I suspect this may have been one of the ingredients in the Purple Nurple.

Complete List of Casks

• Blackberry Stout – Dix
• Cranberry ESB – Spinnakers
• Simcoe Red Devil – R & B
• Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout – Mission Springs
• American Style IPA – Whistler
• Chipotle Cream Ale – Big Ridge
• Purple Nurple – Taylor’s Cross
• Dark Rum and Demerara Double IPA – Dix
• Espresso Vanilla Oatmeal Stout – Central City
• Apple Cider – Storm
• Oud Brun – Yaletown
• Three Finger Ale – Crannog
• Sour Cherry Wheat Ale – Dockside
• Key Lime and Yuzu Hefeweizen – Dix
• Frambois – Yaletown
• Masala Pale Ale – Taylor’s Cross
• Raspberry Pilsner – Storm

Post from: Life With Beer

Dix Summer Caskival 5