As September segues into October and much of the U.S. craft brewing industry heads to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival, I am reminded of my recent visit to Victoria, British Columbia, for North America's other great fest, the Great Canadian Beer Festival.
This was my first visit to the GCBF since it moved from its old, notoriously crowded indoor location to the far more expansive outdoor confines of Royal Athletic Park, a move which has served the fest very well. Although now cast at the mercy of the elements, which I'm pleased to say were extremely co-operative this year, the extra breathing room makes the event seem open and easy to navigate even when sold out, as it was on the Saturday afternoon and evening. In fact, aside from a handful of line-ups at a few booths, I must say that the overall festival experience was as mellow and easy-going as is Vancouver Island itself.
By numbers, the GCBF has now firmly established itself as one of the leading beer fests in Canada, with only Montreal's Mondial de la Biere as serious competition. This year, over 40 breweries were represented, predominantly from British Columbia, but with an ever-increasing presence from the U.S. Pacific Northwest and even a couple from Manitoba and Alberta, and they brought with them over 130 beers. Not quite in the league of the GABF's more than 1,600 brews, but plenty to occupy the mind and palate over a two day event. (And, I might add, served in samples mercifully larger than the GABF's anemic shotglass sized pours.) Moreover, almost a quarter of the beers on offer were served in cask-conditioned form, making the GCBF without question the single largest source for cask ale in Canada.
Although there was plenty of fodder for the hop-happy among us, my star of the fest was a more refined pick - the supremely balance Twenty from the Spinnakers Brewpub, a wonderfully reserved pale ale with a fragrant, leafy-floral nose and a body showing notes of light citrus, tobacco, caramel and a delicate grassiness, ending in a mildly tannic, dry finish. So impressed was I by this ale that it was the only beer I enjoyed twice over the course of the weekend, both times by the pint at Spinnakers' landmark brewpub.
Other GCBF highlights included the moderately bitter, apricot-ish Old Yale Pale Ale, vastly improved from my last tasting; the remarkably floral-spicy Super G from Hugo's Grill and Brewhouse; Crannog's superb, organic and dry cocoa-ish Back Hand of God Stout; and the herbal, peppery Gruit Ale from Washington state's Winthrop Brewing. They were joined in the taste memory bank by suitably spicy Great Canadian Pumpkin Ale from Vancouver's Steamworks Brewing; the Irish-inspired Pender Island Porter from the newly rebranded Gulf Islands Brewery; and the earthy, cask-conditioned Bitter from Calgary, Alberta's Wildwood brewpub.
Of course, at every fest there will be a few off-the-wall entries, and at the 2005 GCBF there were at least two. On the "It must have seemed like a good idea at the time" side of the equation was Russell Brewing's Blackberry Habanero Ale, a cask-conditioned mix of flavours very much out of harmony with one another, while the credo of "patience is a virtue" was given proof by Storm Brewing's Blackcurrant Lambic, a seven-year-old Vancouver "lambic" given a fruit hit in 2002 and aged to a funky, tart, dryly fruity flavour that would not be out of place in any tasting of true, traditional Belgian lambics.
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