Brewtiful British Columbia

Last summer I was up at The BX Press in Vernon and heard they did a Blackcurrant Cardamom cider seasonal in the spring. I actually put a note in my calendar to look for it this year when it came out... And it was totally worth the wait! Tart, juicy with just a hint of warm spice from the cardamom. It's amazing. There are still a few bottles around, so if you're lucky you might not have to wait for the 2019 version to try this out!

Attention! Cannery Brewing has beer ice cream sandwiches!! First it was great beer that brought me in, then nachoes that kept me coming back but this is some next level deliciousness! We had the Snickerdoodle Maple Stout and the Chocolate Blackberry Porter.

I got a special delivery from @thegrowlerbc this weekend - The Experimental Belgian Ale, the first in a series of collaboration ales sponsored by The Growler Magazine. Created by the great minds at @facultybrewing and @c12beer this beer uses lesser known Saphir and Calypso hops and Belgian Golden Pear yeast. Just getting the ingredients together took some ingenuity, then the task of assembly fell to two BC breweries most well known for their beer-geekery! I love how it came ...together, lots of fruit forward notes in the aroma and some funky-fruity esters round out the taste with a light body and a crisp finish. Experiments don't always turned out as planned, but I'd say this one exceeds expectations. After hearing about The Growler's plans for future releases I'm really excited to see the rest of this series come to life this year. Take a well-connected beer lover (and home brewer) like Rob, and give him the chance to play matchmaker with some of the best breweries in the province and you're certain to get some interesting creations out of it! See more

This beer is a very special beer, in several different ways. First of all, this beer marks my slow return to blogging after a long break taken to deal with a cancer diagnosis - if you're wondering I beat it, and am just being monitored for the next year to make sure it's gone! Secondly, this beer has a BIG backstory. Just today I saw @boundarybrewingcompany and @crannogales featured on Reddit for their ongoing battle against fascism, which inspired this beer. @pacificbeercha...t did a great interview with Oliver from Boundary to get the full details, but the short version is that they hung an anti-fascist flag in the brewery in support of the victims of the hate-crime that occurred in Charlottesville last year. Someone from a local militia group got wind of this and rallied a massive online right-wing troll-fest against Boundary for hanging this flag. A shitstorm of threats and criticism occurred, whereby Crannog spoke up, having had the same flag hung in their own brewery for some time, and became embroiled in the fracas. United against fascists, trolls and sharing a great love of good beer as the dust settled the two breweries came together to brew this AWESOME Not For Nazis Nut Brown Ale. The beer stands on it's own accord. Call it whatever you want, it's still delicious. Dark, full bodied with a rich and creamy mouth feel, it walks a fine line between a brown ale and a stout. It's like Backhand of God's cheeky little brother. I haven't even finished my glass yet and I want more. Get it in ya! The story doesn't end here yet. Boundary and Crannog sent this beer into the LDB for distribution, whereby the LDB accused the beer of promoting violence and hatred - exactly what both breweries had brewed the beer to fight against. There is a connotation of some anti-fascist groups as being violent in their attacks on Nazis. Now, not all anti-fa groups are violent, and some may say promoting violence against a group that in turn wants to exterminate certain ethnicities is justified. Either way, they had to pull the beer and re-market it under the new name of Auntie Fa Brown Ale. There's still more to this story, finished in the comments!

Hey Kelowna! Four Winds is coming on Feb 22!