April

12-Ounce All Stars

Back in February we featured the forgotten favorites, brewery’s which we love and have been wanting to feature in the club for a while, but the timing just never came along, until we made time for it.  There is another subset of beers that have flown under the radar from the beer club, and I mean quite literally under the radar.  Twelve ounce cans!  These shorties have been missing out due to the overwhelming tendency for craft brewers to package in the 16oz format.  That said, there are still plenty of the classic six pack can out there, and some excellent liquid is held within their squat frames.

One more benefit, because of the smaller size, this beer club is priced at a budget friendly $21!

The beer club releases on the third Saturday every month.  There is no sign up for our beer club, just drop by the store any time were open and pick up a pack!

Hit The Deck

Fernie Brew Co

Fernie thankfully offers beers in both 16 and 12 oz cans, you may remember Java the Hutt being featured in one of our previous collections.  Their core lineup however is reserved for the shorter cans, and with that in mind for this beer club we picked up Hit The Deck Hazy IPA.  This citrusy, juicy beer pours a beautiful hazy golden, and the addition of flaked oats in the malt gives it a noticeably rounded body.  I’m starting to feel like a broken record saying that spring is coming soon, we’re headed into what?  Our fifth winter?  Or is it six now?  In any case, enjoy this one with the state of mind of patio season.  Maybe if enough of us visualize it, it will come.  

$3.5

Okami Kasu

Ol’ Beautiful

Most often when we see rice used in beers it’s being turned into an ultra-light bodied lager.  Ol’ Beautiful challenges that with this Rice Ale.  This beer is deceptive,  pouring into a glass it shows quite a clear, clean colour with an ivory-white head, almost pilsner like.  Tasting it though reveals some floral notes and a real richness, creamy even.  That creaminess is achieved through the addition of Sake Kasu, the leftover rice from Sake production.  If you haven’t had this beer before you’re in for a real treat, I would put it in a top five list.

$3.5

Solaris

Phillips

Summer ale?  What happened to white peach?!  Phillips has taken the bold choice of changing up the longtime favourite white peach ale, for this summer we’re presented with a “summer ale”.   Mango is the main fruit flavour showing in this one, along with passionfruit and pineapple.  Otherwise it’s got a similar base as a ultra-low bitter, lightly hazy wheat ale.  Solaris used to be my go-to disc golf beer when I was living in Nanaimo, will this iteration prove to be as dependable as the previous? Time will tell.

I’ll reserve my final judgement for when I get a chance to crush one of these over a round…

$3.5

Life

33 Acres

California Common my beloved.  This style of beer is frustratingly hard to find at times but they are delicious.  Bready, biscuity malt is married to citrusy floral hops, with a body and colour that perfectly straddles dark beer and light beer season.  It should then be the perfect thing for this seemingly eternal shoulder season.  

$3.5

Dad Beer

Best of Kin

Dad Beer was brewed by the boys behind Best of Kin as a tribute to their late father.  They describe this as the beer dad “keeps stocked in his bar fridge and goes straight to after a long day’s work”.  With that in mind, its clean, crisp, and hits the spot just right, every time.  This one pairs well with mowing the lawn and telling groan-worthy jokes, I’ll start:

Why do chicken coups only have two doors?

Because if they had four they would be chicken sedans!

$3.5

Munich

Fahr

Fahr hit it big a few years ago when their Hefe was awarded best hefeweizen in the world at the World Beer Awards, since then the Hefe has been going in and out of stock as quick as they can brew it, and we’ve usually got it on the shelf in our fridge.  For this pack though I decided to show off on of Fahr’s other beers, which are also excellent, and a little overshadowed now by the Hefe.  The Munich is a dark lager, produced with “debittered" black malt.  What that means is the grain husk has been removed before malting, preventing the development of earthy, astringent flavours.  Even more interestingly though is that by muting the bitterness it allows for some  surprising fruity notes to shine in this dark, full bodied beer!

$3.5