Sour White

Parallel 49th Sour White

What can I say?  The beer that has it all for me at the moment.  Enough funkiness to resemble a saison.  Barrel-aged in French Chardonnay barrels for over a year.  In a previous incarnation, they branded this as a "Sour Chardonnay Barrel-Aged".  Not only was that an uncatchy mouthful, it was misleading because the only similarity to chardonnay was the oak barrel aging, not the taste.  Parallel 49 now refers to the brew's "juicy pear" flavour.

Fairly high alcohol (7.5) and nice mild IBU (6) makes this an excellent summer sipper!

Campfire Kolsch

Campfire is the perfect name for this beer. It has hints of a smoked wood flavor.

In honour of this year's lumberjack theme Red Truck Beer created for the VCBW (Vancouver Craft Beer Week) this Campfire Kolsch. A sessionable Kolsch style ale using a cherry wood smoked malt and hops that gives a tropical fruit note.

$1 of each bottle being donated to the Vancouver Firefighters Society.

 ~ Colleen

A long overdue visit with a friend

A girlfriend and I had a pleasant evening at the Tap and Barrel.  To be honest it wasn’t my first choice as I haven’t heard outstanding reviews.  We picked the coal harbour location as it was a middle meeting point on transit and found a table on their large patio without any problems. They have set tables under giant umbrellas or communal seating up top overlooking the seaplane. This is where we opted to sit.  They have a large area so we had no trouble finding a table with some space on a summer evening.

Their drink menu is pages long of beer or wine. You can pick a flight of whatever you like, which is a great option. Being easily overwhelmed I picked things that sounded refreshing on a hot day.
 

My choices were:

Pineapple hef. The Tree Brewing, Kelowna offers up some beers with great creative names. They love what they do and have fun with it. Mellow Moon Pineapple Hefeweizen has a summer smell to it! It is a light citrus wheat start for flavour, than evolves to a citrus taste before finishing with the pineapple flavor. 

Beermosa, Parallel 49 see: Bearmosa Post

Life, 33 Acres Brewing.  I didn’t love this in the start.  There is a bite as the beer hits your tounge, but by the 3^rd sip it is hardly noticeable. Perhaps that bit is because of the way it is processed. It’s called a California Common” What this means is rather than fermenting the lager at a cool temperature it is done at a higher temperature closer to an ale. Because of this face it is often referred to as a lager / ale hybrid.

Over all it was a great summer evening for a patio drink and some great company.

~ Colleen

 

 

Beermosa

Defined as an excellent blue-collar breakfast cocktail, consisting of orange juice and beer. Best prepared with light, American style lager beer. And is especially popular with post-punk hipsters.

The name is what got me and I am not a hipster nor was I having it for a breakfast cocktail.  But I can see how it would be a great substitute for champagne and orange juice on a special morning.
Or for my purpose as a light refreshing drink on a patio on a hot summer day. It tastes like beer but with a hint of a tropical taste, would be a great drink for the non beer drinker.

~ Colleen