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Caskival 2 - August 3, 2005 at DIX Back to Past Events Reviewed by Dipsophilia
A Celebration of Cask Ales, brought to us by the nice people at Dix – 871 Beattie
The tasters were Aidan, Claudio, Peter, and Don. Beers sampled and comments below:
Dockside Pelican Bay Brown
5% - Classic brown ale.
Peter - Brown ale, nutty, clear, good bubbles.
Aidan - It’s a little sharp, a little green. All at the front. Not much depth. 6.5/10
Steamworks Big Surprise Ale
5% - New beer from this popular Gastown brewpub.
Peter - Very hoppy. Good nose, sweet back taste. It’s sort of like you’ve been puking for a long time and you got bits in your nose.
Aidan - Unusual and unpleasant foretaste. Not very drinkable at all. 4.5/10
High Mountain Big Wolf Bitter
5.5% - Another entry from the Mark James Group, now known as the Whistler Brewhouse.
Peter - traditional. Direct. Smooth, a little tart.
Aidan - Medium to heavily hopped. Chewy. Very drinkable indeed. Spectacular. 8.9/10
Taylor’s Crossing Red Truck Ale
5% - Flagship Mark James Group beer available at all locations, but this is a cask-conditioned keg. Toasty biscuit malt flavours balanced with tangy hops.
Peter - Soft, good cloudiness, bubbles long in suspension, long in the mouth, amber, a challenge on the tongue.
Aidan – “Way better than the Yaletown”, the bar version tastes like a Lite version by comparison. Natural carbonation vs over oxidized which is cask ale vs CO2. Almost a bitter. 8.7/10
Claudio - A fine head, bubbles – better dispersed in the cask compared to pub pour
Dix Strawberry Blonde
5% - "Light ale fermented with Fraser Valley Strawberries"
Aidan - Very light and refreshing, crisp, clean, no after taste, thin. 7.1/10
Swan’s Appleton Brown
5% - One of the staples from Swan's of Victoria named after the man who set up many of the original brew pubs in BC.
Peter - Nice depth, a smooth brown
Claudio - The nose belies the taste, it smells like fermented swine manure.
Aidan - Great brown ale - smooth, full bodied, not too sweet. 8/10
Longwood ESB
6.3% - from Nanaimo's award-winning brew pub, which took home the Golden Bung Award for the best beer at Caskival 1.
Peter - a good, full beer, heavy.
Aidan – “That’s my kind of beer” 9.2/10
Yaletown Yippie IPA
5%- English style IPA dry-hopped with Kent Golding hops
Peter - Pleasant enough, better out of the cask than from the taps behind the bar.
Aidan - Disappointing. Early skunk wore off to typical Red Brick flavour (its predecessor and the beer I consumed with extreme regularity). There are better bitters here. 7/10
Big Ridge Saison
5.4% - Farmhouse style ale with white pepper, cardamon, coriander and orange peel
Peter - White pepper, coriander, orange zest, a nice beer.
Aidan - Wow. Very peppery. Very different. Enjoyable but....a bit of a palate spoiler. 8/10
Storm Brewing Hurricane
6.7% - “The supercritical CO2 extraction method, rarely, if ever, seen”
Peter - Crisp, hoppy. Big in the back of the tongue.
Aidan - Golden, strong ale. Features a peculiar dry hop process. Thin up front, better finish. 7/10
Central City IPA
6.5% - "You know it and you love it".
Peter - not much on the back
Aidan - huge up front, disappointing finish - the bush the cat peed on.
Storm Cassis Lambic
5% - spontaneously fermented in East Vancouver (i.e. no added yeast, air borne yeast fermentation)
Aidan - sour, sharp, vinegary, exactly as a lambic is meant to be. Should be a controlled substance. 8/10
R&B Fallen Angel
5% - wheat beer
Peter - We just stood here and drank it and killed the keg
Aidan - Best wheat beer here, lots of character. 8.5/10
Crannog Pooka Cherry
5% - Organic ale from the centre of the Province
Peter - Sweet, little in the bubbles, flat, like kool aid, yet again Peter kills a cask
Aidan - Surprisingly good, like scrumpie cider in texture. 6/10
Russell Hot Jam Brown
5.0% - Brown ale re-fermented with Jalapeno blackberry jam
Peter - This’ll hurt on the way up
Aidan - Warms you through from the inside. 8.5/10
Yaletown Grand Cru
7% - Another entry from Mark James Group. Belgian style ale.
Peter - Nice, open flavour, Belgian tribute, Top, mid tingle on the front of the tongue (my notes are lucid again), straw for a spontaneous fermentation
Aidan – Definitely not doing it for me. It’s got the sweetness, the barley, the coriander, but a poor impersonation of the real thing. Not a good job. 5/10
Mission Springs Stout
5.5% - From the Fraser Valley and one of Canada's premier microbrewers.
Peter - Smooth, not as heavy as a Guinness, thick middle of the tongue.
Aidan - Very very enjoyable stout 9/10
Back to Past Events Reviewed by Dipsophilia