A different IPA for everyone

Happy Friday!

I enjoyed all the content our breweries put out this week celebrating the incredible women that power this industry. Hilary Angus spoke with Julia Hanlon of Steamworks, Diana McKenzie of Callister, and Chloe Smith of Townsite about where things stand in the industry today. I recommend reading it this weekend.

In today’s issue:

• The second episode of our new podcast! 🎧️

• Our new beer release list contains 22 new beers, including a beautiful Double Italian Pilsner

• Is stout is a summer beer? We tally your votes

• Our featured event is perfect for book worms

• We enjoy an old-school West Coast IPA. Scroll down for tasting notes

Enjoy the weekend!

— Joseph Lavoie

FEATURED NEW BEER RELEASE

Double Double

Luppolo Brewing’s latest lager promises double the excellence of its flagship. Called Piazza Oro, this new release amps a classic Italian Pilsner to the next level. Made exclusively with Italian-grown barley and dry-hopped with a heavy load of German hops, this beautifully golden Pilsner promises “subtle notes of orchard fruit, fresh mint, watermelon rind, and wildflower honey.” With a naturally-carbonated body, this 7% pils deserves a slow pour. Looks incredibly dangerous.

Available: on tap at the brewery for now. Cans coming soon.

👢 You’ll see that today's new beer release list contains many Pink Boot Society beers to mark the occasion. You can read more about the Pink Society here.

Lagers

• 👢Deadfrog’s Pretty in Pink Pineapple Pilsner has bursts of raspberries and pineapple.

• Steel & Oak has brought its rye lager back to the tasting room and liquor stores to help with the transition from winter to spring.

• Container’s newest Pilsner has fruity New Zealand hop flavours of “bright red apple, citrus and mandarin orange.” Yum.

Ales

• 👢Farm Country collaborated with The Barley Merchant to make a blueberry gin fiz Saison. Packed with loads of blueberries and augmented with juniper berries and lemon peel, this release was has cocktail flavours throughout. The colour is stunning.

• 👢Locality Brewing’s 2023 Pink Boots brew, Local Rosa, is a wheat ale inspired by Turkish Delight. Lightly sweet with hints of spice that balance out floral notes.

• 👢Small Gods brewed a Pink Guava Hazy Pale Ale using the Pink Society hop blend from Yakima Chief.

• East Van Brewing has an Irish Red Ale with hints of molasses, blackcurrant, and caramel.

IPAs

• Container is bringing back Forgotten Trail, its West Coast IPA packed with dank earthy flavours and bright grapefruit notes.

• Smuggler’s Trail’s new Hazy IPA, Broken Sun is bursting with tangerine, mandarin, honeydew and pineapple flavours.

• 👢Coast Mountain’s 2023 Pink Boots beer, Queen of Hops IPA, showcases Ekuanot, Loral, and HBC 586 cops. Floral, citrus, tropical and stone fruit aromas with a breezy 4.8% ABV.

• 👢Bayview Brewing also released an IPA to celebrate International Women’s Day with 77 Cents on the Dollar, a name chosen to drive awareness about the wage disparity between women and men. Similar hop profile to Coast Mountain’s Pink Boots beer, with Loral, Ekuanot, and HBC 586 hops for citrus, strong fruit and herbal notes.

• We missed this intense DIPA from Ravens Brewing a couple weeks ago, but it’s still available: Citra DIPA offers a tropical blast of citrus, stone fruit and resinous aromas.

• Luppolo has an experimental keg of its Double Coat DIPA which was conditioned in terpene, for an intense concentrated hop character that blends strawberry, sticky cannabis, and grapefruit peel.

• Old Yale’s latest single batch limited release is a hazy double hopped IPA.

• Strange Fellows also has a big juicy Doubly IPA, called Two-Fold with a tropical and citrus character.

Stouts

• Parkside tapped a licorice stout cask ale last night. It’s a limited release, so if you get in early tonight, there might be some left.

• Tinhouse has an enticing Vietnamese coffee stout, a take on Vietnamese Coffee served cold with condensed milk.

• Field House has a new vanilla chai latte nitro stout at its Chiiliwack location.

Sours

• 👢Brookswood has a new blackberry and key lime Gose to celebrate the beauty, grace, and strength of women all around the world.

• 👢Camp Beer Co. has a sour brewed with jammy blueberries and peaches for lots of fruit tart flavours.

• Strathcona’s latest Love Buzz is an imperial grapefruit yuzu raspberry sour. “There’s no way you can tell it’s 10%.”

🎧️ PODCAST

Beer Loop Talks with Avling’s Head Brewer, Brandon Judd

We take a trip to Toronto with this week’s episode to geek out with Brandon Judd, Head Brewer at one of my favourite breweries.

Wait, isn’t The Beer Loop all about BC beer? Yes, we are, but this conversation was originally recorded for a different podcast concept. The context of the original podcast was to talk about what it takes to open a brewery, and Brandon had generously agreed to help me think through the art of setting a brewery’s creative vision.

This is one of several recordings that have sat on my hard drive for months. We’re releasing these conversations in what will be our first 5-episode season of The Beer Loop Talks podcast. Brandon covers:

• How many of his early beers didn’t sell well and how he had to adapt

• Why he left his first brewing job to study abroad

• The joys of subtle and wood-aged beers

• The ideal beer tasting experience at Avling

You can listen and subscribe here. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Episode three drops in two weeks.

STOUT AS A SUMMER BEER

Last week we asked you if you prefer to enjoy stout during the winter months, all-year, or exclusively in the summer? Looks like we’ll stick to the citrus bombs and lagers on those hot summer nights.

Is stout…

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 (50%) 🌧️ A cold-weather beer

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 (50%) 🍃 Fantastic all-year round

⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ (00%) 🌞 A summer beer

Your perspective:

• C.M: “The world (and especially the lower mainland of BC) needs more stouts and porters.”

BURNABY BREWING DISTRICT

According to the Burnaby Beacon, plans to create a brewer’s row in Burnaby are going full steam ahead. The idea would be to have a linear row of breweries along the BC Parkway near Royal Oak Skytrain station.

So, we’re wondering, with similar brewing districts in Port Moody, East Van, and North Van does the idea of another brewing district excite you?

If you only do one thing this weekend

Small Gods has a storyteller series that kicks off on Sunday. Enjoy an evening of literary readings, featuring:

• Visiting author Janice Lynn Mather (fiction)

• Local poet Kelsey Andrews (poetry)

• Small Gods’ resident writer Sierra Skye Gemma (nonfiction).

• You can reserve your seat here.

Also happening this weekend

🎛️ DJ Mateo is back at Brookswood tonight from 7-10pm. Original samples, soul, funk, yacht rock, R&B and more.

🎚️ Beats, beers, burritos…it’s Frequency Fridays at Russell Brewing tonight, 7-9pm.

🎸 Beere Brewing has live music tomorrow from 3-6pm, featuring Nicole Sumerlyn.

🎶 Deadfrog has live music every Sunday from 230-6pm. Ben Crosby is on stage tomorrow.

🪕 Smuggler’s Trail also has live music this Sunday, 3-6pm. $1 off all beers.

🎤 Open Mic Sundays at Container Brewing. Grab a beer, get on the mic, bring your fans. Sign-up is at 6pm, mic opens at 7pm.

Upcoming Events

NEW! 🎪 The 9th annual East Side Beer Fest is taking place at The Wise Hall on March 15, 7-9pm, featuring 22+ BC breweries. Proceeds will support the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.

NEW! ✨ Uncontained: Drag, beer, and bites at Container Brewing on March 15. Tickets $15 in advance.

NEW! 🐶 Fuggles is putting on the Return of the Puppy on March 19. The brewery is teaming up with animal rescue Endless Pawsabilities to bring cuddly, adoptable puppies to the brewery. Starting at noon, $1 from all pints sold will support the non-profit.

📚️ Small Gods is also hosting a book swap on March 20 from 6-8pm. Meet other book lovers and get a chance to trade books with a new friend.

NEW!  💥 Small Gods is taking over the taps at The Butcher and Bullock on March 22. The takeover gives those of us on this side of the Straight to try Small Gods’ beers, including a new lager that will get released for the event.

🌭 KPU Langley Campus is hosting Food Truck Wars, with 45+ Food Trucks, a beer garden, and live entertainment from March 31-April 2.

🤣 Five Roads Brewing is hosting comedian Ed Hill on April 15. Tickets $23.

NEW! 🎪 Kelowna Beer Fest will feature 30+ breweries on May 13, 1-7pm. .

🎪 Brewhalla is back in Fort Langley on Saturday, May 20th for the 6th annual craft beer and music festival.

🤯 Trivia Nights

• Every Monday at Smuggler's Trail in Langley

• Every Tuesday at Old Yale in Chilliwack

• Every Tuesday at Farm Country in Langley

• Every Wednesday at Moody Ales in Port Moody

• Every Thursday at 3 Dogs Brewing in White Rock, it’s music trivia.

• Every Thursday at Small Gods is full deck games night.

• Container hosts game night on the first and third Tuesday of every month.

🏃‍♀️ Run Clubs

• Steel & Oak hosts a run club every Wednesday night. Run 3km or 5km to earn that beer!

• Small Gods invites you to join the Small Gods Production Team every Tuesday evening. Meet at the brewery at 6pm, run around Sidney and return at 7pm to enjoy $1 off the latest beer release.

GAMES

This hop variety was popular with two new beer releases this week. Can you guess which one?

Ravens Brewing West Coast IPA (Citra and Simcoe)

This is a wonderful style treatment from Ravens Brewing. I’m still a sucker for West Coast IPA and this one was a perfect hit of nostalgia. It has the copper colour that gives you a clear hint of what to expect: a taste profile that doesn’t shy from its speciality malts. Of course, if you love citrus, the Citra hop won’t let you down, giving you hits of grapefruit and fresh tropical fruit. And if you love old-school pine, the Simcoe completes the package, bringing a good hit of bitterness in the aftertaste. There’s a lot in this tiny package for IPA lovers of all kinds.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Beer Loops you may have missed

• Pucker up with this wave of sour beers - read more

• The Mix-Pack: Cole Staughton’s curated 4-pack of BC Beer - read more

• The Hidden Recordings, our podcast launch - read more

• Nevertheless, it’s stout season - read more

A READER’S REVIEW

🙏 Thank you!