the darkerside to rants

I spent Friday afternoon / evening at the annual Hopscotch Festival in Vancouver. It is essentially a “hangout” for people who like all things liquor.

The great start came with the annual “Great Whiskey Smoke” a precursor event to the actual access to the tasting hall. You get there at around 2:30 in the afternoon then have around three hours to socialise, eat food and drink before you get access to the tasting hall itself which has more liquor and food.

The event isn’t cheap / free of course, the Whiskey Smoke ticket is ~$120 and then you have to pay for the samples that you can get there, but what it does is put a pretty amazing amount of different booze and food into a tiny space that allows you to sample quite a variety for less than it would cost to sample the same amount in a restaurant or bar.

I have a photoset here from the event.

Most beers in North America suffer from two key problems in being good Lagers (as drunk in Germany):

1. Beers are being pastereuised in order to make them more durable for transport over large distances.
2. Corn is a key ingridient in a lot of the large batch brewing operation

Both really doesn’t do a lot to improve the taste of beer. Be it Canadian, Blue or Coors, in essence they are all the same beer, brewed strong and just watered down to the desired alcohol content. Especially when it comes to light beers I could not tell you the difference between a Coors light and a Canadian light (both brewed by Molson) or even Blue light (brewed by Labatt).

Okanagan Spring Brewery is a small brewery located, as the name suggests in the Okanagan and their Bavarian Lager is notably different from the Labatt and Molson offerings.

First of all the brewery claims to adhere to the Reinheitsgebot, which means for one thing that there won’t be any corn to be found in it.

Secondly, and that may make the biggest difference, it is not pasteurized. This clearly helps the taste (think of how Homo Milk tastes differently from the “normal” stuff).

This yields a full bodied Lager. Most Lagers I am not really a fan for, they tend to taste like “water” (and heck, I can drink water instead), there is a distinctive note of the hops and the beer itself also has a pleasant aroma.

I am more of a fan of darker Ales, Stout or Alt, but this is a Lager I truly enjoy on a hot summer day.

Rating: 4/5

… is in the business of making beer for almost 300 years…. and they still can only make:

Water, water, water or… crappy water.

Yeah, Go Molson!

Oh yeah, the Heineken was good though.

Ah, I like the fall. During fall they release some really tasty ales and beers here in Canada. Curtesy of the LCBO.

In today’s taste challenge: Black Wych from our goood friends at the Wychwood Brewery Company Witney. Located in the wonderful Oxfordshire, England, UK.

Wychwood Brewery nestles in the delightful Cotswold market town of Witney, on the fringes of the ancient medieval forest, the Wych Wood. The brewery is sited at the old Eagle Maltings, built more than 150 years ago when barley was malted for the town’s brewery. The founders of Wychwood Brewery, as well as being passionate about beer, were aware of the legend of the Wychwood Forest and decided to name the brewery after the ancient wood.

Why do I feel one step away from entering Hobbington?

But onto the beer.

The Website describes the taste as:

5.0% ABV. Black Wych is a beguiling traditional English dark stout, silky smooth, soft and seductive. A heady brew, which entices you to lose your senses and fall for the charms of The Black Wych

Which I have to admit it pretty bang on. Now if you think of a Stout you tend to think of Guiness or maybe Beamish, both very thick, nutty and strong beers. The Black Wych, although clearly a stout, is lighter than that and can be drunk a lot faster than any of those two. It is more like a very dark ale to me but quite tasty if you like stronger tasting beers. If you are rather a fan of the “light stuff” then better steer clear, this beer is clearly not for you.

Note: 4/5

Let’s all have a nice Doppelbock.