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india pale ale

1/3/2020

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The IPA is an incredible beer in many ways. I don't know if you can assign a date to the start of the microbrew revolution we're currently living through, but it's amazing that the IPA is still driving it. Especially when you consider that chasing the very newest of the new also drives the revolution.

It's also incredible how divisive the IPA can be. Here in 2019 there are still people who lose their minds over other people liking this style. If you think drinking an IPA is like licking a rusty tin can, that's fine, but please, for Pete's sake, me liking IPAs is not a personal attack on you.

But, that's modern life, which Blur correctly said - 23 years ago! -  is rubbish. 

Anyway, we have some sub-styles here to consider. The S&O, Breakside, Yellow Dog, and Driftwood are all from the NorthWestern school. The Superflux / Gigantic collaboration is a New England style IPA - these are the 'hazy' and 'juicy' IPAs you may have heard of. The Vice & Virtue is a Brut IPA - an attempt to make an IPA into champaign. And, as a sub-sub-style, the Driftwood Sartori Harvest is also a 'fresh-hop' IPA.

With a fresh hop beer, the hops are harvested a the farm, and immediately delivered to the brewery and tossed in the boil. They usually come out in September, so I was wary of finding this beer in December as IPAs generally don't age. Ironic considering the 'India' part of IPA refers to British brewers dumping hops into beer they shipped to India for the war effort to keep the beer from going bad. It had a best before date of March, and I've wanted to try it for years, so it was worth a roll of the dice I figured.

​it was awesome.


Steel & Oak Parkade (New Westminster) - Vice & Virtue Brute (Kelowna) - Breakside IPA (Portland)
​
Superflux + Gigantic Pretty Much Yeah (Vancouver + Portland) - Yellow Dog Play Dead (Port Moody) - Driftwood Sartori Harvest (Victoria)


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flight gallery 3

1/3/2020

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In this gallery we have some of the more creative trays. Parkside's nifty park bench, BNA's map of Kelowna, and Wild Ambition's oil and vinegar salad rack. At least that's what it reminds me of. I don't know if restaurants do this anymore, but you could order a salad with oil and vinegar as your dressing option, and you'd get a tray with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to doctor up your salad as you pleased.

Also here, is maybe the best tray I've ever seen; Sooke Oceanside's metal Vancouver Island. That's some serious attention to detail.

​Omen (Edmonton) - Chapman (Orange) - Parkside (Port Moody)
Sooke Oceanside (Sooke) - BNA (Kelowna) - Wild Ambition (Kelowna)
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flight gallery 2

1/3/2020

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Look at the different beers! Lots of good stuff here - the metal tray at riip, the bones at Yellow Dog, and that beefy handle on to the tray at Red Bird.

Beer definitely goes with sunshine too. Don't the ones from riip and Bad Dog look enticing? 

But then the moody dark lighting at Analog is super cool.

Analog (Edmonton) - riip (Huntington Beach) - Bad Dog (Sooke)
Yellow Dog (Port Moody) - Cannery (Penticton) - Red Bird (Kelowna)
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flight gallery

1/3/2020

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It's always exciting - to me anyway - to see how a brewery puts a flight together. The glasses, the tray, how do they identify the beers, the glasses - each brewery is just a little different. 

The presentation of the flight is the final detail demonstrating a brewery's commitment to getting everything right. Golden's Whitetooth and Kelowna's Rustic Reel are prime examples. Whitetooth has beautiful glasses and the shellacked plank of wood tray. Rustic Reel's tray is a perfect compliment to the feel of the brewery, and I don't think I've ever seen flight tray come with snacks.

On the other hand, you could argue that the plain tray from Kelowna's Boundary Brewing demonstrates that they're too busy making great beer to spend time on the tray. And their beer is great, so this is plausible.

Whitetooth (Golden) - Streetcar (North Van) - House of Funk (North Van)
Bad Tattoo (Penticton) - Rustic Reel (Kelowna) - Boundary (Kelowna)
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    I'm 80. I wrench more than I ride and I like it that way.

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