Last night I attended a long table dinner hosted by Beerthirst and held at the Pumphouse Pub in Richmond. It was my first time to this pub, which is housed in an old fire hall and located right near the busy heart of Richmond. The Pumphouse Pub has a really nice ambience; stone fireplace, lots of wood, old fire hall photos and paraphernalia, large bar and even space for live music. There was a great turnout of beer geeks for the long table dinner, and the evening got underway a fashionable hour late – coincidentally this gave us just enough time to peruse the pub’s extensive beer list and have a pint… Read More Here

When we venture off to try something new for the first time, or something we’re not familiar with, it’s always great to have a friend with you.  So if you’re going to try some bold flavoured beers for the first time, there’s no better friend to try it with than food.  A great food pairing will not only help you take on some of the boldest beers, but it’ll really help you understand the flavours and magic of craft beer.  Also, pairing food and beer is something your veteran beer nerds enjoy as well.  So not only is it a great way to introduce people to different, or bold beers, it’s simply a match made in heaven when done right.  Well, on the corner of 2road and Blundell in Richmond, there is a special food and beer-pairing going on every month.  It’s converting Molson and Budweiser drinkers into craft beer enthusiasts… Read more here

Luckily there are some people who do things right, because a lot of people still don’t get it.  You see, some people don’t understand that just because you carry 50 different beers, it doesn’t mean you carry a variety of beers.  If you’re one of those pubs or restaurants that carry 50 different lagers and pale ales, you may have a variety of brands, but not a variety of beers.  Unless you have a proper beer list, there’s no point in having so many beers on the menu.  How many times have you seen a wine menu where it’s 20 different white wines, and that’s it? … Read more on VancouverBeerBlog.com

GOALIE JANITOR – NIKE HOCKEY

SAMUEL L. JACKSON TEACHES THE INGLEWOOD JACK

BOBBY RYAN vs. RYAN GETZLAF

HOCKEY ROADTRIPS

DATING WITHIN THE DIVISION

The Brewers Association says simply that a craft beer can only be made by a craft brewer, then goes on to define craft brewers using a three-pronged approach. The brewery must be small, with an annual beer production of less than two million barrels. It must be independent, with less than 25% of the brewery owned or controlled by a member of the alcoholic beverage industry that is not also a craft brewer. And it must be traditional, with either an all malt flagship beer, or with at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or beers that use adjuncts to enhance flavor.

Probably most beer enthusiasts would agree that craft beer is more about an attitude or an approach to brewing than it is about a specific definition. Craft brewers produce smaller batches and use traditional brewing methods, although they often interpret traditional styles with new twists, and may develop new styles. And craft brewers generally insist on using premium, traditional ingredients, producing only all-malt beers. In the end, craft beer is about creating a flavorful, high-quality beer which in most cases is very different from the mass-produced beers most Americans are familiar with.

But are these beers better? Maybe, maybe not. There’s a tendency to assume that a craft beer must be better than a mass-produced beer, but it’s worth remembering that premium ingredients and traditional brewing methods don’t automatically produce a great beer.

Perhaps the best comparison would be to home cooking. For most of us, when someone says “home cooking” or “just like Mom used to make,” we get a very definite mental image – Mom in her apron slaving over a hot stove, spending hours making everything from scratch before calling us to the table for supper. Of course, if you think about it, you also know the mom who couldn’t boil an egg or make toast. Home cooking isn’t good because the food is made at home, it’s good because of the skill and care taken by the cook.

And the same principle applies to craft brewing. A big company with an attentive and talented brewmaster using quality ingredients can produce an excellent beer. And in turn, an unskilled or inattentive brewer with a poor recipe can still produce a flavorless or even bad beer. The only way to decide whether a beer is good, in the end, is to taste it.

Kooner Hospitality Group is happy to feature this innovative micro-brewery.  Find out more how Turning Point is creating a more sustainable beer.

The New Brewery – Vancouver Magazine, July 1, 2010

Stanley Park 1897 Amber by Turning Point is available at all Kooner liquor store locations.

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