Just wanted to get some opinions on Parallel 49 out of East Vancouver. I know a lot of the rest of Canada won't be able to contribute a lot to this thread but this new brewer is making a serious name for itself this year. In my opinion, they started off slow with their regular line-up of relatively pedestrian beers (Red Ale, Watermelon Wit, India Pale Lager, English Ale). But since the summer, they have released an Oktoberfest-Pumpkin, a Chocolate Pumpkin Porter, a Milk Stout (enjoying one now), a Cascadian Dark Ale, and Caramel Wee Heavy. I have tried most of them and I have to say I'm astounded by the quality (and value!) of these brews, considering the brewery hasn't even been around for a year. This is truly the spirit of craft beer. Experimentation and pushing the boundaries of craft beer styles, and for that, I would have to say Parallel 49 deserves the title of best BC brewer for 2012. Any thoughts/opinions?
my bro and my buddy in Western Canada have been digging their brews... My bro is shipping out a parcel this week, fingers crossed there's a brew by them in it!
Fingers crossed it makes it without freezing, highs of -10 for the next few days here in Calgary. Air Mail?
Always fingers crossed, be it freezing or breakage!! My bro is shipping out of Kelowna, warmer temps there, but it has a lot of cold weather to get through in order to make it safely to Northwestern Ontario!! We successfully shipped around this time last winter without incident, and the temps were a bit more risky. Blackout on shipping until March after this parcel though. I have one to ship to Calgary, but I'll hold out at this point. We use the Uhaul shippers, so not sure if that helps at all to insulate the parcels at all.
Lots of love for p49! imo they're fantastic, and consistantly delicious. Definitely a fanastic new brewery Vancouverites can call their own and be proud of. Leave it to the guys from Augustines to grab the rabbit by the ears and dominate the bc craft beer scene right out of the gate!
Drinking the Black Christmas right now. The ugly sweater milk stout is the best for me so far but they're putting out some killer brews. Hit up the Ugly Sweater X-Mas Party Dec 20th at The Score on Davie if you're into Parallel 49, might be a one-off stout cask
I totally agree having had every beer they have made in bottles so far. They have 3 seasonal beers for petes sakes which all are great. They are making huge impact on the number of tap handles around town and there is often a shortage of their beers at the stores. I would put Townsite as the no 2 best new brewer in BC.
I went to the brewery when I was on vacation a while ago and was shocked to find out I couldn't legally drink more than one beer there. C'mon BC, free the hops! I've had the watermelon wit, india pale lager, and the pumpkin/octoberfest beer. They were all really tasty
This is truly the spirit of craft beer. Experimentation and pushing the boundaries of craft beer styles, and for that, I would have to say Parallel 49 deserves the title of best new BC brewer for 2012. Perhaps Hoyne Brewing might get some consideration , Dark Matter , Voltage Espresso Stout , Wolf Vine , Summer Honey Hefe were all good , Hoyner Pilsner , Big Bock , Devils Dream IPA , Down Easy Pale Ale are all ok , Parrallel 49 shelf stock isn't as appealing , but I agree with the fall releases 'Lost Souls' & 'Schadenfreude' kicked it up a notch and hopefully 'Ugly Sweater' continues this trend , PowTown Porter is the only beer I've had from Townsite , good beer just hard to find ,
I think the problem with breweries like Hoyne is, while their beers are typically good, they are constantly a notch or two below the best brewers in the province. Coupled with the fact that we also get a lot of excellent offerings from south of the border and elsewhere, it's really tough to buy their products with any regularity. Currently, P49 is kind of in the same boat for me. I've only had a couple brews -- Lost Souls was fine but uninspiring and Hopparatzi was pretty bad. I picked up a bottle of their Black Christmas today and will continue to try different offerings because I like to support the local guy to a certain extent. I still have faith -- but wish they offered more beers in bombers.
