It seems fitting that the official collaboration beer of Vancouver Craft Beer Week is named Hazy Pale.
I’ve been to several VCBW events over the years and “hazy” is an apt description of how most of them end. At least for me they do. When dozens of local brewers are putting their best beers on the table, it’s near impossible to choose just a few. And I’ve never been able to bring myself to sip and spit either – it seems like such a waste of precious resources. So even though the samples are usually small, the cumulative effect can be quite large by the end of an evening.
I usually take the Seabus home, and those rides are always … hazy.
That’s probably not exactly what the VCBW folks were getting at with the Hazy Pale. In fact, the festival’s collaboration beer is often meant to be a snapshot of the industry, and hazy is big this year.
Hazy Pale Infused with Guava and Passionfruit is the official name of this year’s collaboration beer, brewed by the fearsome foursome that makes up Port Moody’s brewer’s row: Yellow Dog Brewing, Parkside Brewery, Moody Ales, and Twin Sails Brewing. Yellow Dog took the lead – which is a good thing given their strong track record – and what emerged is a bit of a wonder.
It pours a thick, completely opaque orange colour. It seemed to me that if you poured it into a wide pint glass, suspended a chopstick in it and threw it in the freezer, you’d get quite the interesting Creamsicle.
The smell is pungent with citrus, although when you tip it back the fruity taste is by no means overpowering. In fact it is quite a smooth brew that would be perfect under a hot midday sun, perhaps even at a beer festival.
There’s still a chance to do just that – VCBW wraps up this weekend with the two-day extravaganza at the PNE. If you can’t get down there, however, you can get a taste of the festival by picking up the Hazy Pale in tall cans at select private liquor stores or on tap at select establishments. Partial proceeds from the sale of the beer will go to the BC SPCA.
