g's blog 'o wonders

VCBW Women and Beer

May 15, 2011 at 10:58 pm (beer)

Vancouver Craft Beer Week has come to an end, and sadly I was only able to attend one event (holy shit ticket prices were INSANE.) However, I thoroughly enjoyed the event I was able to attend.
On Thursday, my trusty beergeeklady and I went to the Republic to check out the Women and Beer event.
It. was. amazing.
There were beers from Spinnakers, Crannog, Salt Spring, Howe Sound, Big River, I’m sure I’m forgetting some and there was a keg of the Women’s Collaborative Brew (a smoked cherry saison).
Spinnakers brought a Northwest Ale. Pale, hoppy and was…I can’t even put into words how much I liked this. It was a perfect beer. The aroma was floral with a bit of citrus, it was light, but had good body. I didn’t get a chance to ask if they would be bottling it, but if they are, this is going to be one of my summer beer. Chloe was very impressed with the aroma, and yes, several days later, we’re still talking about how awesome that was.
I’d never had a Salt Spring beer, so I was looking forward to it. They had a maple bud ale. It was light on the maple flavor, but honestly, I prefer that. I’m not a big fan of really sweet maple beer. I’d definitely get that again.

I was somewhat hesitant to try the Howe Sound. I’m not really a fan of theirs. Nothing I’d had from them has really wowed me. However, I quite enjoyed the keg they had. I can’t recall if it was the King Hef or another one (I think it might have been another one) But we had at least 2 of these.

Crannog. Oh Crannog. I wore my Backhand of God shirt to the event, which the owners seemed to appreciate (we got coasters!)

Crannog had the Backhand of God and a Porter. The porter had a wonderfully silky mouthfeel and a sweet chocolate taste. I had at least 2 of them as well.

Big River Bitter was decent, but the aroma put me off a bit. However, the collab brew was AMAZING. I’ve never had a smoked cherry saison (has anyone?) and it was so. fucking. good. It literally had a smoky, cherry taste. I would love to get this on a semi-regular basis.

Also in attendance was The Beer Goddess (http://beergoddess.com/) Lisa Morrison, who wrote a fabulous beer guide to the Northwest and is a lovely lady to chat to. I lovelovelove that there is a strong female interest in craft beer.

My only complaint about the evening is that the beer/food pairing was a bit..off. I thought it would be a sit-down dinner with beer to go with each plate, but they just had bar staff bringing plates of food around while we all sipped various samples. If you were lucky, the one you were having matched what food was going around.