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Lurkaholic

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(June 2015 edition)

Can I buy Lambic everywhere?!

No.
O3XD3Hu.gif

  • Cantillon tends to send a couple shipments every year
    • Distribution is good, most stores get gueuze / kriek / rose 375s
    • Rarer stuff tends to go to a few select stores
    • 1 btl limits of all 750ml bottles are across the board now and saught after stuff sells out in hours
    • Yes, as recently as 2013 people were able to buy St Lam etc by the case. This doesn't happen anymore.
    • Most canadian 4+ star hotels have a third tap in their bathrooms which dispenses a rotating assortment of LPs though, so make sure you bring as many empty growlers with you as you can to fill in the bathroom.
  • 3F regular gueuze, GD and GB comes around sporadically - small quantities, but lasts a week or two
  • Tilquin shows up in good numbers and sticks around for up to a couple months in certain locations
And with that out of the way...

State of the scene - 2015

We're deep in the craft beer boom right now. For all but the most dedicated tickers it's proving almost impossible to keep up with everything that's being released locally. New breweries open every month, and it's all flowers and rainbows. Lots of sours starting to show up, lots of brett beers, and some awesome tap takeovers starting to show up on a regular basis. The first inklings of an adjustment were felt recently when a long-time local brewery almost went bust, but got bought out by another recent one.

2 of the leading local breweries
Four Winds -
world class limited releases (Nectarous, Operis, Sovereign et al)
Moon Under Water - great limited releases, phenomenal recent sours, continually push the envelope

5 breweries to watch
Strangefellows -
massive sour program in the works, head brewer is a local legend for his Oude Bruin
Dageraad - consistently nice belgian style beers
Yellow Dog - perhaps the best IPA in the province, other offerings bit more hit and miss
Category 12 - still too early to tell, but promising starting lineup
Callister - not even open yet, but the folks involved really know their stuff

2 older breweries worth your attention
Driftwood -
bird of prey series / fat tug ipa are must tries
Central City - red racer IPA / thor's hammer

3 notable bars in the city
Alibi Room -
the local legend, now with taplist on website
St Augustines - hybrid sports bar, great beerlist website
12 Kings - unpretentious, run by a fantastic owner, great all local lineup, amazing karaoke

Craft bottle shops
Brewery Creek
16th Street
Viti
Kerrisdale


Suggested brewery crawls

1) Mount Pleasant
Brassneck -
great growler / tasters only spot, great local brewer, owner also founded / own Alibi Room
Steel Toad - Lineup of house beers has substantially improved in the past months, but truly exceptional local bottle list & DDC guest taps make this very recommended
33 Acres - largely german styles, bit fancier
Main St - quite inconsistent, but just around the corner
Nearby Bars: 12 Kings, The Whip, Tap & Barrel / Craft (nice locations, but $$$, busy & mixed selection of beer)
Nearby Bottle Shops: Brewery Creek

2) Commercial Drive area
Strangefellows
(see above)
Storm (the most interesting brewery/machine shop to visit in the province - brewmaster James is a legend, and built almost all equipment himself)
Powell St
Parallel 49
(others nearby too)
Nearby Bars: St Augustines, Tangent Cafe, Beircraft
Nearby Bottle Shops: Liberty Wine Merchants
 
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Mate your timing is impeccable... The alibi room just confirmed they'll be kicking off their 500th taplist change on Sunday (edit: ) 9th, and I believe there's a bottleshare on the Saturday too that I'm sure you'd be welcome to attend. I'll message you.
 
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I'm happy to see all of you around here.

Happy to be here. I'm slowly trying to get more and more of the BC BA community to join... it's a hard sell with such a tightly knit crew on the Canada subforum, but I'm confident we'll get a few more as time goes by and as word of your experience gets better known.
 
Happy to be here. I'm slowly trying to get more and more of the BC BA community to join... it's a hard sell with such a tightly knit crew on the Canada subforum, but I'm confident we'll get a few more as time goes by and as word of your experience gets better known.
Yeah give it time.

I'm also getting some to join here and there. Eventually this sub forum will be filled.
 
I was hoping the BC guys would all jump over once they shut down the release thread.

I don't think anyone from Ontario would bother, really, we have our own message board. I'll stick around, though...
 
Yyyyyyup… they deleted my Releases thread, so I compromised and asked to do it monthly so it was more 'accessible', and when I posted the April one yesterday, I checked today and it was deleted…

So… yeah. Time to start actively recruiting.

I wish this forum had a bit more functionality though. It's in this weird grey area between BA and RB.
 
Yyyyyyup… they deleted my Releases thread, so I compromised and asked to do it monthly so it was more 'accessible', and when I posted the April one yesterday, I checked today and it was deleted…

So… yeah. Time to start actively recruiting.

I wish this forum had a bit more functionality though. It's in this weird grey area between BA and RB.
Give it time. I'm sure there's something in the works to make this place 'the only' place we need.
 
Hey Vancouver TBers, I will be in town from Saturday August 23 until Wednesday August 27 and would love to swap some of my beers for lambic if anyone is interested. My cellar link should be pretty up to date. In addition to stuff listed there, I have all the recent Crooked Stave Reserve Beers and have great distribution in Philly, so if there is something you're interested in that isn't brewery only there is a good chance I can get it.

Aside from making a swap, I'd appreciate any recommendations that aren't already included in Lurkaholic's list.

Cheers!
Michael
 
Please feel free to give me a shout if you're coming up to town, I'd be happy to let you know of any upcoming events or bottleshares you might be interested in - and I love meeting out of towners for pints too. Cheers!
Hey man, I know it's not in your area, but my wife and I will be in Victoria on the 9th of September (I know, I saw we'll miss the GCBF by three days :mad:). We're cruising around Alaska and Victoria is our last stop. We're there from 10am to 10pm. If there's anything going on you can point me towards, or any excursions you think are worth doing, let me know. Thanks.
 
dvelcich I am not sure of their hours our how close into town they are, but Driftwood makes stellar beer and are located in Victoria. If I were traveling there I wouldn't pass on some of the solid beers they make like; Fat Tug, Old Cellar Dwellar, Singularity, Lustrum, and Naughty Hildegard.

kump I haven't had a chance to pop open that Belle Royale quite yet, soon.gif

edit. Just realized it was the 9th of Sept. not Oct. My bad.
 
dvelcich I am not sure of their hours our how close into town they are, but Driftwood makes stellar beer and are located in Victoria. If I were traveling there I wouldn't pass on some of the solid beers they make like; Fat Tug, Old Cellar Dwellar, Singularity, Lustrum, and Naughty Hildegard.

kump I haven't had a chance to pop open that Belle Royale quite yet, soon.gif

edit. Just realized it was the 9th of Sept. not Oct. My bad.
No worries. I did stop there and their stuff was awesome. It reminded me of the Half Acre of Canada. We stopped at lots of breweries as a bunch are in walking distance, but the best place we hit up was the Garrick's Head. Tons of great taps you can only see in Canada. We could have spent all day there and been happy.
 
Howdy folks,

First off, thanks for the informative OP.

Second, I'm headed up to Whistler tomorrow for a week, and will be bringing plenty of Oregon goodies in tow. I'll be in Vancouver briefly on the way to Whistler tomorrow to hit up a few of the usual bottle shops and doing some Four Winds, Driftwood, Loon hunting, etc., again on Wednesday evening for the Punch Brothers show, and then again next Saturday on the way out to catch Timbers vs. Whitecaps.

I know I've met some of you through various beer events, and Brews for New Avenues (I'm one of the co-founders), so if you're around any of those times - let's grab a beer or three! Also, and I'll be making a post in the appropriate forums as well, but if you have any St. Lam, Fou Foune, or LPK stuff burning a hole in your cellars, I'll have a bunch of de Garde, Block 15, Ale Apothecary, Upright, etc. along with me for trade.

Cheers!
 
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Got some Dageraad lately, looking forward to give them a shot. I've been pleasantly surprised recently with IPA's from Yellow Dog.

Thanks for the update, it's definitely nice to help tracking good locale stuff from BC!
 
Vancouver - I'm going to be inside you Mon 9/21 - Weds 9/23. anything going on that I should be aware of? also, i'm looking for tickets to AC/DC if anyone is sitting on a pair.
 
Four winds collab with Commons may be out by then, but other than that I don't think there's any news of anything yet. Fresh hopped beers will be hitting then too, so Sartori Harvest might be well timed.
 
I'm in Victoria until the 27th and then in Vancouver for a few days after that. Lurkaholic already knows and we are going to hopefully meet up for some beers, if anyone is in either location and would like to get together for beer hit me up.
 
I'm in Victoria until the 27th and then in Vancouver for a few days after that. Lurkaholic already knows and we are going to hopefully meet up for some beers, if anyone is in either location and would like to get together for beer hit me up.

Check out the University Heights location of Metro Liquor. Lots of good stuff on the shelf there at the moment.
 
I would love to meet up but I won't be in Victoria until the 30th, and won't be back in Vancouver until the 3rd.
 
I would love to meet up but I won't be in Victoria until the 30th, and won't be back in Vancouver until the 3rd.

Yeah think our schedules are going to miss each other by a couple of days on each side, maybe next time! Which might not be for a while, had my fill of my family for the time being. ;)
 
i'll be in Vancouver 14th/15th and then at Whistler till the 22nd!!! if anyone wants any east coast brews let me know
 
Heeeeeere's Jonny! (couldn't let you guys have all the fun)

box_social you prolly found out, but bottle shares at a bar/pub/shop are illegal, that said they still happen but you generally need to know someone pretty well. Some guys from Chicago whipped out a Zombie Dust at Portland Craft once and the staff had no issues. One bottle likely much easier than a full on share, especially if it's corked and fancy looking (wine corkage is allowed, beer is not)
 
cross post from the dark side...

Gonna be in Vancouver for 2 days/1 night in mid/late March. Will not have a car. Leaning toward staying at the Hotel Georgia, but open to suggestions (Loden Hotel looks cool too). We like the young, energetic, fun crowd, so if this hotel leans toward the stuffy side, I'm all ears. Looking to stay somewhere awesome though, since only in town for one night and have never been. Definitely want to hit a couple of beer spots. And I'm liking the bike rental thing, although mid March is probably not biking season (am I wrong?). Any advice on hotels, beer bars, areas to stay or see, activities for this time of year, etc., all appreciated. I have read a bit so I'm aware of the recommended beer spots. Would love some current opinions on best breweries to check out and restaurants. And of course the obligatory...."where can I land some loons, even if just on tap?" Thanks in advance!
 
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cross post from the dark side...

Gonna be in Vancouver for 2 days/1 night in mid/late March. Will not have a car. Leaning toward staying at the Hotel Georgia, but open to suggestions (Loden Hotel looks cool too). We like the young, energetic, fun crowd, so if this hotel leans toward the stuffy side, I'm all ears. Looking to stay somewhere awesome though, since only in town for one night and have never been. Definitely want to hit a couple of beer spots. And I'm liking the bike rental thing, although mid March is probably not biking season (am I wrong?). Any advice on hotels, beer bars, areas to stay or see, activities for this time of year, etc., all appreciated. I have read a bit so I'm aware of the recommended beer spots. Would love some current opinions on best breweries to check out and restaurants. And of course the obligatory...."where can I land some loons, even if just on tap?" Thanks in advance!


We stayed in the Downtown Eastside/Gastown area. More so on the DTES, which has a reputation, as being a bit rough, but we very much enjoyed it. Never had an issues walking around at night. Easily could walk to the touristy part of Gastown and along the water front to other parts of the City. Rented bikes and rode in Stanley Park.

Our AirBnB was close to two awesome food/beer spots:

Chambar

http://www.chambar.com/

Alibi Room

http://www.alibi.ca/

Highlight of the trip was hiking the Chief in Squamish. Think a smaller version of Yosemite. Insanely beautiful trails, and your typical north shore technicality :D

the-chief.jpg


12379615753_599c9db0cd_b.jpg


2012-09-13-Stawamus-Chief-1683-MKH.jpg
 
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Thanks Ryan! That hike looks amazing, and normally we're all about it, just imagine it may be covered in snow in March. Definitely plan to check out Gastown area.
 
I'd second Ryan's advice - airbnb apartment for a night or two in gastown with a Loden / Georgia budget you can really take take advantage of the exchange rate and live like a king. Plenty of good eating and drinking nearby too.

Brewery wise, this thread needs another update. Sit tight :)
 
I've never stayed at Georgia but have worked there a few times, it's a pretty damn nice hotel. The Loden is also cool, but much smaller, so I guess it's also quieter. The bar at Georgia Hotel is a bit of a "things you must do in Vancouver before you die" kinda place. Both locations would be similar in terms of things to do.

I find myself in East Van/Main Street/Mt Pleasant area when looking for good beer. Doubt you'll find any Loons anywhere unless a new shipment comes in. Plenty of other good sours around from Belgium, shops can be hit and miss.

You can bike year round here for the most part. March is 50/50 for rain. It will be cold to you if coming from Cali. A decent lightweight windbreaker is ideal to layer under. Especially if doing the sea wall at all.

I always like to point out Car2Go and Zipcar are here, even if you own a car where you live, it's great if you travel North America a lot as you can now use both in both countries. Might even work in Europe now for Car2Go not sure.
 
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