Mmmmm, San Diego beer

September 16, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

Full disclosure – I’ve starting writing this piece about the wonderful craft beer I had an opportunity to sample in San Diego while sitting at my “home” craft beer bar in Halifax. It’s a case of Nova Scotia craft beer fuelling some writing about beer.

Whenever I visit a new place, that city’s craft beer breweries and bars jump to the top of the must visit list for me. In San Diego, seven days would be nowhere near enough time to sample all I wanted to, especially considering some of this trip was work related and needed my full attention. After enjoying a Karl Strauss mosaic ale at a Padres game (my opinion: that might be the perfect ballgame beer), I visited their brewery just a few blocks from my hotel to try some of their other brews. Of the four samples, I really enjoyed the slightly spicy Windansea Wheat and one of their iconic beers, the Red Trolley Ale:

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A Vancouver craft beer crawl

June 17, 2015June 17, 2015 / Greg / 1 Comment

One of the significant advantages of visiting a city for the second time is that it affords you plenty of time to dig into it much deeper. For my most recent visit to Vancouver, one of the things I wanted to explore was the thriving craft beer community on the west coast. On my previous trip there a few years back, I had a quick taste of west coast craft beer on a night at the Alibi Room. On this visit, although I had more in depth explorations planned, I found myself back at the Alibi for a couple of sampler trays and a delicious bison cheese steak. My favourite beers? In the first sampler tray (photo on the left), the Brassneck Staircase wit (beer on the far right) and the Four Winds pale ale (beer on the far left) were outstanding. In the second sampler (photo on the right), the Red Truck lager (left most beer) was a wonderful easy drinking sessional. Another Brassneck beer, the white IPA (second from right), was truly exceptional – a piney, citrusy mashup of a west coast IPA and wit. My multi-day Vancouver beer crawl was off to a great start.

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Nashville craft beer

August 10, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

Every North American city I’ve been to over the past few years has a vibrant and growing craft beer scene. As part my pre-trip planning, I look for a craft beer bar or two and create a list of beers I hope to try when visiting a city. For this recent trip to Nashville, a small craft beer bar in the Gulch neighbourhood, Hops + Crafts, came very highly recommended.

Early afternoon on my last day in the city, after filling up on a wonderful pulled pork sandwich from the Peg Leg Porker just around the corner, I arrived at Hops + Crafts just as it was opening. Not sure if it’s a good or bad sign when you’re the first person in the bar for the day. But when you catch a look at a set of taps like this, any guilt is gone. After all, this was a small sliver of vacation time for me…

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Southern eating, Nashville style

August 5, 2014 / Greg / 3 Comments

With limited time to explore Nashville on my recent trip there, I had to cut a few corners. One place I wouldn’t cut on was experiencing my share of southern food staples. I had no shortage of recommendations for great places to eat and foods to try, and I managed to squeeze a lot into my abbreviated time in the city.

On my first afternoon in Nashville, after visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame and taking in some live music downtown going on as part of the Country Music Association Festival, I worked up an appetite for some barbeque and dropped into Jack’s BBQ right on Broadway. It took me about twenty minutes in line to get to the counter, as this is a popular place:

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Early bird gets the craft beer

April 22, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

I’m blessed with a very robust body clock. When I travel, it can take me days to shake off even a small timezone adjustment. On this recent trip to Chicago, I found myself waking around 4:30am each day and patiently awaiting the time when I could venture out of the hotel to find breakfast. Even on my third morning, I was still operating on Atlantic Time. Why am I telling you this?… To justify a story of me wandering up to the Bucktown neighbourhood northwest of downtown Chicago on a Saturday morning in search of a craft beer bar called the Map Room.

There’s something about being on vacation that makes it relatively acceptable to partake in a drink before the crisp hour of noon. It’s even more justifiable if that drink at 11:30am “feels” like it’s been had at 1:30pm. By the third day of this solo trip, I was in an indulgent mood. The idea of a great beer (or two) in an outstanding neighbourhood bar while reading a book was what I wanted. After pouring over an outstanding draught list, I choose the most local beer available, a 3 Floyds Brewing “Live a Rich Life” double IPA (from Munster, Indiana). It was a hoppy, Belgian style double. At 9.5% ABV, I was glad to have a few of these delicious bread sticks to help mop up the alcohol:

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My kind of Alibi

July 2, 2013May 3, 2015 / Greg / 1 Comment

I have a soft spot for beer bars. I’ve been to a few really great ones recently – Bar Volo and the Rebel House in Toronto, Elysian Fields in Seattle, Wynkoop in Denver and La Taberna Lúpulo in San Juan to name but a few. So when plans for Vancouver came together, I got a lot of recommendations that the Alibi Room was not to be missed.

What great recommendations.

We sat down and I was presented with a two page menu of beer on tap. The selection was overwhelming (and exciting!). Knowing I was going to be sampling a few beers, I started by selecting the Phillips Brewing Wheatking Hefeweizen and Upright Brewing Engelberg Pilsner. Both wonderful, it was a great start to a sampling session:

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