Pacific NorthWest Trip: Vancouver

After a good start to our trip in Seattle, we headed a few hours north to the city of Vancouver, located in 'Beautiful British Columbia' (that's the tagline on the license plates there).  One of us (Jen) had never been to Canada, and we heard the beer scene here was up and coming, so we had a lot of things we were looking to do.

On our first day in town, we did some sightseeing, but then headed off to check out a few breweries on Granville Island.  The first of them, Granville Island Brewing, had just a tasting room only, and was a fairly small spot, but with plenty of seating.  Our sampler included all of their house brews, which were pretty much basic styles - a pale ale, a couple of lagers, a raspberry ale, IPA and a cream ale.  The one thing we learned quickly is that Canada doesn't do bitter beer.  As we were ordering the sampler, our server mentioned their IPA was "pretty bitter."  We checked the specs and saw the IBU's in the range of 40-45 (we know, that's not always a reliable indicator, but we could compare it to other IPA's we knew), and rasied an eyebrow.  Sure enough, when we tasted it, we had a hard time believing they considered this beer to be bitter.  We immediately thought, "If they think this is bitter, we should bring them some of the 3 Floyds IPA's!"

Beers from Granville Island Brewing in Vancouver

Another odd thing that our server at Granville explained was that because of the way this particular establishment was licensed (as a brewery, not a bar), they were only permitted to serve each person 12 ounces of beer.  Yep, you read that right.  12 ounces ONLY.  So, if you wanted to have a couple of after work beers, you'd be out of luck.  You could have one, but you'd be done there.  We later asked a bar operator about this and he immediately figured we were talking about Granville Island Brewery and confirmed it had to do with the limited license they must have.

After attempting to patronize another brewery on Granville Island, Dockside Brewing Company,  we learned it was more of a dinner spot that happened to serve the Dockside brews, as opposed to a taproom, so we moved on.  We ended up at Yaletown Brewing Company, which satisfied our need for more hearty food, and some local brews.  Yaletown also seemed to stick to basic styles but we learned they also liked to experiment a bit too - they tap a new beer on cask each Thursday - this week's release, which we would miss due the length of our stay was an ESB with basil.  Sounded interesting at least. For the time that we were there, we tried the following: Brick and Beam IPA, Helmcken Black and Tan, Mainland Lager, Nagila Pale Ale, Downtown brown, Warehouse Stout, Hills Special Wheat, ESB.

Beer flight at Yaletown Brewing Company

That night, the Beer Chicks wandered out in search of more beer, but our first spot turned out to be closed (it was a bbq and beer joint so we had our fingers crossed).  Not having gotten our bearings just yet, we walked back to our hotel and settled on the bar/restaurant right across the street, called the Back Forty.  From the sound of things, the building itself had been there for some time, but recently changed names and brought in a new chef with a new bbq inspired menu.  We didn't sample any food this night, but we did partake in some of the beer they had on tap from Big Rock Brewing company, based in Calgary, Alberta.  The bar had a nightly special with large mugs of Big Rock beer for just under $8, which was a great deal, considering the price of a single beer was usually close to $6.  So we tried the Big Rock IPA and Big Rock Traditional Ale. The mugs were also made by Big Rock and were some of the more creative ones we've seen. Check out Megan showing off her mug below.

Big Rock brewing mustache mug

The following day, after spending the morning at the Vancouver Aquarium, we checked out Steamworks Brewing Company.

Again, even the IPA's didn't register on our bitter scale, but regardless, the lineup of beer was solid.  Jen found herself drawn to the Nirvana nut brown ale (and not because of the band).  The space was also ginormous - we scoped out a cool, pool hall type room with a bar, that was located in the basement, and was probably the place to be on a weekend.

Lots of styles represented at Steamworks

Beer lineup at Steamworks

On what would then be our longest night out while in Vancouver, we ended up making it to three different bars in the Gastown neighborhood, which was characterized as an "up and coming" area of town that was traditionally home to low income housing.  We were told though, not too feel unsafe, as Vancouver in general, was a very safe place.  We figured it might be similar to some of what we knew from Chicago, so we weren't too worried.

Our first stop was to The Cambie, which we had read was a favorite "dive bar" for locals, and most importantly, had cheap drinks. We found out it was a pub actually attached to a hostel of the same name, and as a result the place was packed (with mostly who we assumed were college age kids), even for a Tuesday.  Russell Brewing Company out of Victoria, B.C. made a few of their house beers, such as The Cambie Pale Ale, Cambie Lager, Cambie IP'Eh, and Cambie Honey Blonde. All of the beers were around $4 per mug, which as very reasonable and they have many different specials throughout the week. Definitely a place to stop for travelers looking for something fun and interesting to do.

We then moved onto Six Acres, a cozy gastropub(?) located just a few blocks away.  It came highly recommended by one of our servers at Yaletown Brewing, and was also mentioned in a few Vancouver travel books.  They had a pretty impressive draft and bottle list for being such a small place, and also had a small menu of mostly sharing plates.  We ordered up some garlic butter and romano cheese popcorn, and some sweet and spicy chicken wings to soak up our chosen beverages: Megan started with Echt Kriekenbier (cherry sour) and Jen had a draft pour of Driftwood Fat Tug.  We decided to split one last brew, The Seed Spitter, a watermelon ale from a new local brewery named Parallel 49.

Lastly, we made our way to the Alibi Room, another recommended spot for having the best tap list in town.  We arrived pretty late in the night, so we didn't have a ton of time before it was going to be last call.  After all, it was only Wednesday!  Apparently, they were fresh off some kind of IPA or hop-themed event, so they had a lot of hoppy beers on tap.  Remember how we said Canada didn't seem to do hoppy beers?  Well, check out the menu to the right, which was specially marked with little hop cones to signify the hoppiness of each beer.  The more cones, the more hops.  It was kind of fitting (if not a little humorous) that they had to code the beers this way.

Either way, we were ready to sample some of Canada's finest: After the Nut Brown, aka Brother Thelonius... by North Coast, Hopparazzi--Parallel 49, Seed Spitter (Watermelon)--Parallel 49, Gypsy Tears--Parallel 49, Hoppin Cretin---Tofino, Iain Hall--Yaletown "oud Bruin", Phillips IPA Amarillo Single Hopped, and Batterhead English Bitter--Tariq Khan.

This is only half the tap list at Alibi Room

(Dark) interior of Alibi Room

On our final day in Vancouver, knowing that we'd be getting up pretty early the next day to drive back to Portland, we kept things pretty low key.  We headed back to the Back Forty, but this time had some grub (which was pretty darn good), plus a few beers...from Big Rock of course.

After the fairly straightforward and mild beers we encountered in Canada, we weren't sure our palates were ready for what was to come in Portland.  Sour beers, ipa's and fruit beers...oh my!

Pacific NorthWest Trip: Portland, aka Beervana

This visit to Portland was our 3rd in the last two years, and the second in the past 6 months.  We had big plans!

Day 1:  We arrived in town a bit after 3:00pm and by that time, were able to go straight to our hotel to check in.  And, what do you think we did shortly therafter?  Visited a brewery of course!  We had picked out a few spots ahead of time we wanted to visit on this trip back to Portland, some of which were new and some of which we had been to before, but we tried to keep in mind that our moms were also traveling along, so we didn't want to make the days ALL about beer.

The first day we arrived in Portland, we set out with a plan in mind. Our first stop was "Hair of the Dog" brewery. We had discussed visiting this brewery before and it never made the itinerary, so it was a good place to start this time around. This brewery is located on the east side of the river, just over the Morrison Bridge. It is still relatively small, with a comfortable climate and set in a warehouse style building. There is a decent sized bar and many picnic tables to sit at and enjoy a fresh brew. Here we sampled Lila, Ruth, Blue Dot, Adam, and a Bourbon-Barrel Aged brew called Fred From the Wood. The bourbon barrel aged beer was definitely strong, but very drinkable. They rotate which beers are bourbon-barrel aged, so there is always a new treat on tap.  Hair of the Dog won our vote for best looking sampler glasses (see below).

Our next stop was a 10-15 minute walk, and was our perennial favorite,  Cascade Barrel House, which is home to a wide variety of sour beers.  This is their specialty and Cascade was one of our favorite finds on our first stop in Portland, and a place that we make a point of stopping each time we are in town.  Plus, we were bound and determined to introduce our moms to the mouth puckering world of sours!  In our experience, even though we generally seek out any sour beers, some of the flavors can be hit or miss.  We learned this the hard way when we ordered a sour style beer that had some tobacco flavors.  Yuck.  It tasted like tobacco spit, which was NOT desirable in our books.  For this reason, we almost always order a sampler at Cascade, and if we find a beer we like enough, we'll order a full glass.  Thankfully, Cascade keeps a pretty steady lineup of year round beers on tap, but they always have a few new beers as well.  Among the new ones this time around were Strawberry Cream, Blueberry, and a Spiced Red Apple beer, served straight from the cask (how cool!).

We each had a sampler, testing out the following sour beers: The Vine, Blueberry, Spiced Red Apple, Strawberry Cream, Apricot, Nightfall, and Sang Rouge.  Some of our favorites of those that we tried were the Nightfall and Sang Rouge. They have a great blend of berry flavors, with the quintessential sour twang. Cascade has definitely grown over the past couple of years, with a fuller menu and a wider range of flavors on tap.  Always keeping it fresh...

Our moms ordered an Apricot sour, which we both though would be pretty benign, but sadly missed the mark with Jen's mom and Megan's mom was not a huge fan either, though she did come around to a few from Megan's sampler. 

Needless to say, we could have spent a lot more time here, but with our present company, it was time to move on.  Our last stop this first evening, was Deschutes.  Deschutes is a more widely distributed brewer, but they have a great restaurant/bar with fantastic food served alongside what they have on tap. Once again, we indulged in samplers because we insist on trying a little bit of everything. This time around, we tried: Black Butte Porter, Twilight Ale, Mos Eisley, Extinction Stout, Hop in the Dark, and the India Red Lager. Deschutes has some great porters and stouts, even for those who typically don't care for these styles of beer. Everything is worth trying at least once!

Day 2:  Since we had a full day at our disposal, we hopped in the car and made our way to the town of Hood River, which is about an hour outside of Portland.  Hood River is known for its beautiful scenery and abundance of summer activities, such as windsurfing and biking.  Unfortunately, summer hadn't quite arrived in Portland, so the temperature was on the mild/chilly side, but nonetheless, the rain held off, so it was enjoyable.

Full Sail Brewing in Hood River, OR

While in Hood River, we had our sights set on Full Sail Brewing and Double Mountain Brewery. Full Sail has a huge brewery set-up and they offer hourly tours. They also have a small area set-up for food and drinks. Here comes the sampler selections of their most popular brews: Amber Ale, Session Premium Lager, Session Black Lager, Pale Ale, IPA, and two of their specials, The Limited Edition Lager '03 and the Limited Edition Lager '05. Full Sail rotates which limited editions they have on tap, so it's worth a stop by and a taste whenever you are in town. There is a great view from the tap room at this brewery, so it's a nice place to stop in the mid-afternoon for a relaxing beer and the scenery.

Beer list at Double Mountain (click to enlarge)

Though it was early in the day, we decided to make a second stop to check out another brewery in town, Double Mountain Brewing.  We were both glad we did, and the only thing we regret was not ordering the delicious looking pizza, which it seemed as though pretty much everyone else was doing!  We had actually tried one of their beers in Seattle at Collins Pub, but they do not sell in stores or deliver outside of the Pacific Northwest area.  We drank: Cluster F%&k (a decided favorite), Black Irish Stout, Goliathon, Ferocious Five, Peche Mode, Kolsch, Vaporizer, Hop Lava, India Red Ale, and Das Boot.  All of the beers were tasty and unique. They are going to be doing some great business out of Hood River for years to come!  The group favorite seemed to be the Clusterf#ck, a single hop IPA (with cluster hops, duh).  But, there were plenty of beers we enjoyed, so much that its a near certainty we'll be visiting them again the next time we are in town.

Double Mountain Brewing in Hood River

Chalkboard listing of beers at The Commons Brewery

We had a hard time figuring out where to go at night - we preferred to visit a new brewery, but had a hard time locating one that was within reasonable walking distance, or that had a tap room that would be open.  We settled on The Commons Brewery, which didn't look to be too far from PDX Green Dragon, which we could hit up after.  The tap room was supposedly only open until 9pm, so after our walk, we were cutting it close.  To top it off, we nearly walked right by the place, which didn't have much in the way of signage or a storefront.  Once, inside, we were literally smack in the middle of the brewery, and got to mingle with the owner while standing at the bar.  They invite you in to walk around their brewing facility and they are willing to discuss any of their beers and show you their processes.  We learned they had just opened back in December, but already had a nice lineup of beers and we managed to sample each.  They also had just installed a new brew kettle that they were preparing to begin using within the next couple of days. Being a brand new brewery, they had a short brew list, but everything was fresh and seemed to be along the Belgian style. We sampled the following: Madrone, Blonde, Pils, Wit, Flemish Kiss, Walnut, Urban Farmhouse, and Pale Evening Ale. For new brewers, they have a bright future!

Inside the brewery/taproom at The Commons Brewery

We continued the night by heading back to one of our favorite beer bars in Portland, The Green Dragon. This is a popular location for locals to hang out with their friends, have a few drinks, and play some party games. Since they have over 50 beers on tap and many more in bottles, we quickly (and obviously) decided that it would be another sampler stop! For the first round we tried: Bourbon Barrel Baltic Porter with Raspberries by Flat Tail(a favorite of the night), Stumptown Tart by Bridgeport, Chamomellow by Buckman Botanical, Chatoe Rogue OREgasmic by Rogue, Jasmine Green Tea Mead by Buckman Botanical, Spiced IPA by Widmer, and Sweet Heat by Burnside (another amazing surprise).

Some of these beers exceeded expectations and we shared these new gems with the people sitting next to us who weren't sure what to order. The Sweet Heat is made with habanero peppers and definitely has some heat on the back of the palate, but the fruity notes chime in with perfect unison and make it a great summer beer. The Bourbon Barrel Baltic Porter by Flat Tail was another favorite because it was a sour style beer, surprisingly, and had great flavors, letting the raspberries flow in gently and keeping the beer from being too bitter or have an overly "bourbon" flavor. We then decided that we might as well do another round because there were too many beers catching our attention on the menu! Round two: Two Gypsies Our Side by Stillwater/Mikeller, Maibock by Green Dragon, Scotch Barrel Aged Barleywine by JW Lees and Co, Supplication by Russian River, Flat Tail IPA by Flat Tail, Back in Black by 21st Amendment, Comatose IIPA by Good Life, Hop Lava on Cask by Double Mountain, and Ginger by Buckman Botanical.

The Buckman Botanical Beers are made with fresh ingredients that give them all a light taste without being overpowering. The Jasmine Green Tea would be fantastic on a hot day...similar to what we've been enduring in Chicago lately! Keep it nice and cold, and it's crisp and refreshing.

Meg and Jen at the 2nd Annual Portland Fruit Beer Fest

Day 3:   Prior to the trip, we bought tickets to the Portland Fruit Beer Fest, and decided it would be best to go early in the day to a) avoid crowds and b) appease our moms as far as not letting it dominate our day.

We attempted to sample just about everything that they had, and found that there were some great beers, and some not so great. Many of the breweries made beers especially for this event, so they weren't currently available to try anywhere else, even in the respective tap rooms. The list of beers at the festival are as follows: The Bad Apple by 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Levinator by Upright Brewing, Hip Hop Saison by New Belgium, Marionberry Habiscus Gose by Widmer, Whack & Unwrap by Oakshire, Bomb.com by Lompoc, Camera Obscura by Laurelwood, The Fruity Monk by Burnside, Festina Peche by Dogfish Head, Yuzu Belgian Style Golden by Elysian, Strawberry Mandarin Wit by Flat Tail, South by Fort George, What Up Apple-weizen by HUB, Hot Town Summer in the City by Gigantic, Lychee Lager by Lucky Labrador, Cherry Bourbon Renewal Porter by Ninkasi, Huckleberry Hound by Alameda, Raspberry Sour by 10 Barrel, Ching Ching by Bend, Femme Fatale by Boneyard, Tropical Storm by Block 15, Red Light District by Burnside, and Saigon Saison by The Commons. As you can see, there was a lot to choose from and a lot to drink! Since none of the beers were very hoppy, our palates could handle tasting many different things that day.

An hour or so into our our tasting, we took a break for some food and to rest our legs.  We headed inside and were lucky enough to squeeze around a table in the pub.  Burnside had a few "fruit" beers not being featured at the festival, so we each tried one - Jen had the 'Fruity Monk,' and Megan tried the International Incident, which was AMAZING! As Megan commented on Untappd, it was Sweet Heat enraged..and it was a delicious choice with the burger that we had for lunch. Everywhere you turn, there is something great to try!  Later that night, we finished up some of our cache of beers at the hotel - Granville Brewing's Cascadian Dark Ale (from Vancouver),  Elysian Brewing Company's Fallout (another one of the 12 Beers of the Apocalypse), and Deshutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale. 

All in all, it was another great weekend in Portland and we felt like it had been a successful one.  These beers, combined with some great food from the Portland food trucks, was a fitting end to our 3 days in the Rose City.  There is always something new, another brewery, a variation of a beer that we had previously tried, or another festival.  We both agree that Portland is an amazing place and definitely a place for any beer lover!

See you soon Portland, see you soon!

Jen & Meg

Pacific NorthWest Trip: Seattle

The 5th edition of our mother-daughter vacation took us to the Pacific Northwest this time around.  Our first stop was Seattle, Washington.  Well, technically, our first stop was Portland, but immediately after flying into PDX, we picked up our rental car and headed north to Seattle.

Our first beer-centric experience brought us to one of the Elysian Brewing Company locations in the Capital Hill neighborhood.  It was a cozy brewpub, which also houses their main production brewery.  Elysian immediately intrigued us not only with a wide variety of beers on tap, but we also learned of their '12 Beers of the Apocalypse' series, and were able to try two of the beers while at the brewpub.  Check out this link for more on the series.

The original Elysian brewpub in Seattle's Capital Hill neighborhood

Our initial taster lineup consisted of the following (in pictures below from left to right): The Immortal IPA, Men's Room Ale (original red), Perseus Porter, The Wise ESB, Avatar Jasmine IPA, Pandora's Bock, White Woods Wit, Bete Blanche (trippel), Loser (pale ale), and Split Shot Espresso Milk Stout.

Finally, we tried the 4th and 5th beers in the 12 Beers of the Apocalypse - the 'Peste,' a chocolate chili ale, and 'Ruin,' a rosemary agave IPA.  Our server even gave us a small sample of one of their collaborations with New Belgium - the Trip XII, a pink peppercorn IPA.

Taster lineup #1 at Elysian

Taster lineup #2 at Elysian

Sampler at the Pike Brewing Co.

Later that night, we made our way to The Pike Brewing Company, located at the famous Pike Place Market.  We heard good things about them from our hotel concierge and were immediately impressed by the enormity of the restaurant/brewery space.  Once again, we shared a sampler of their flagship brews which included Pike Naughty Nellie (Golden Organic ale), Pike Pale Ale, Pike IPA, Pike Kilt Lifter (Scotch ale), Pike XXXXX (extra stout), and Pike Monk's Uncle (Belgian-style tripel).  We also tried the Space Needle IPA

Unfortunately, in both of these beer chicks minds, most of the beers fell flat.  Nothing really jumped out at us as being worthy of trying again or seeking out in the future.

Our last brewery stop while in the Seattle area was to the original Pyramid Brewing alehouse, located across from Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team.  Most people are familiar with at least two of Pyramid's flagships brews - their Hefeweizen and Apricot Ale. 

Pyramid Brewing Alehouse

We were most interested in finding out if they had more variety in their lineup than these two fruit flavored beers.  To our mouth's delight, they delivered.

Sampler at Pyramid

Taster: Scotch Ale, Outburst Imperial IPA, Summer Grifter IPA, Dunkel, Apricot Ale, Hefeweizen, Cleo's Cream Ale, Curve Ball (kolsch style).  As bad as it may sound, the Apricot Ale remained supreme.  It is just too thirst quenching and makes for one heckuva summer beer.

We also managed to squeeze in one more stop to a bar, Collins Pub, which Megan found in a book called 'The Great American Ale Trail.'  It also happened to be only a block away from from out hotel, how convenient!

Collins Pub in Seattle

They had a pretty good taplist, but the place was empty on a Saturday night.  We had two beers each - Peche Mode by Double Mountain Brewery, Tarte Lychee from the New Belgium Lips of Faith series, Wookey Jack by Firestone Walker, and Vortex IPA by Fort George Brewery.  Overall, we weren't to impressed with this spot, beyond the tap list.  If it hadn't been a mere minute walk from out hotel, we probably wouldn't have sought it out.  The first night in town, we attempted to grab a drink there, only to discover it was closed by the time we arrived, shortly after midnight.  Perhaps because of its downtown location, its a great spot for happy hour or after a football or baseball game, who knows.



And with that, our time in Seattle was complete, and we headed a few hours north to spend the next few days in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Our only experience with Canadian beer has been Labatt's Blue (ick), so we were hoping for something slightly more impressive.