{"id":21639,"date":"2021-10-12T13:29:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T20:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=21639"},"modified":"2021-10-12T13:29:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T20:29:27","slug":"lager-than-life-offers-decent-brews-in-an-ugly-atmosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/10\/12\/lager-than-life-offers-decent-brews-in-an-ugly-atmosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"Lager Than Life offers decent brews in an ugly atmosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 18 months of COVID-related isolation, our slice of the world is finally able to enjoy the experience of being within shouting distance of one another, and\u2014of course, like pretty much anything\u2014this is a fantastic excuse to drink beer. On Friday, the Victoria Beer Society hosted Lager Than Life, a celebration of 18 lagers from British Columbia, so I went down to check it out.<\/p>\n

The venue itself was a jarring step down from previous Victoria Beer Society events I’ve attended, with beautiful little glass sample tumblers replaced with flimsy disposable plastic cups, and the stunning locale of the Hudson replaced with a large tent in the middle of a short stretch of street in Victoria\u2019s least attractive neighbourhood, the industrial area of Rock Bay. As far as atmosphere goes, I\u2019ve enjoyed better while blacked out at a high-school house party. And for a $35 entry fee, with each sampler costing $1.75, it was up to the beer to make a pretty great impression.<\/p>\n

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People enjoying lagers at the Lager Than Life event on Friday (photo by Lane Chevrier\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first one I tried was Moon Under Water Brewpub\u2019s HOJO Japanese Toasted Rice Lager (3.8%). This is a crisp rice beer from the Victoria brewery, very dry with the barest hint of hops. I\u2019d happily take a growler of this to the beach on a summer day, but it would be nice with sushi, too.<\/p>\n

I followed this up with Delta’s Barnside Brewing\u2019s Farmer\u2019s Tap Lager (4.7%). The lighter alcohol content is belied by the stronger malt overtones, which blend smoothly with a light, hoppy aftertaste. The flavour reminds me of malt liquor, but without the kick in the teeth you get from strong beer.<\/p>\n

Courtenay’s Ace Brewing was serving up their Spitfire Lager (5%), which I wanted to try based solely on its badass name. Unfortunately, the beer itself left far less of an impression. It has a clean mouthfeel, but I couldn\u2019t really distinguish any flavour other than the hops, which I found immensely disappointing.<\/p>\n

I moved into darker territory with Penticton’s Cannery Brewing\u2019s Wildfire Dark Lager (5%). This one has a deep caramel\/amber appearance, and an impressively smooth head that I usually only see on stouts. It’s very malty, with very little hoppy impression, and, interestingly, the underlying flavour reminds me more of the earthy hay scent of a farmyard than Barnside\u2019s offering. I have to say that this one is my favourite of the evening, but tied with the HOJO. They\u2019re like visiting fond friends on the opposite sides of the world\u2014vastly different in character but equally as wonderful.<\/p>\n

A few thousand miles beyond \u201cdarker territory\u201d I ventured into \u201choly cow\u201d turf, because that\u2019s exactly what I exclaimed when I tasted Port Alberni’s Twin City Brewing\u2019s Dissimulator German Doppelbock (7.8%). This deeply dark beer will knock you into last Tuesday and make you forget that you\u2019re drinking a lager. If you can push through the initial high ABV haymaker, you\u2019ll find that it\u2019s surprisingly sweet, with a rich, smoky, wood flavour. Personally, I\u2019d like to have the same flavour in a 6% beer, where I\u2019m not overpowered by the high alcohol content, but for those who like it strong, this won\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

The last beer I tried was Nanaimo’s Longwood Brewery\u2019s Independent Pilsner (6.5%). This is a very weird, strong beer that’s unlike every other pilsner I\u2019ve ever tried, and I can\u2019t say that that’s a good thing. It tasted like I was chewing wheatgrass, with a distinct minty taste. There was also another flavour I can\u2019t place, but I\u2019ve encountered it over my lifetime, probably in my nightmares, as it left me with a vile grimace. In the words of my friend Joel, \u201cEverything else was good except this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altogether, I found that the experience of a handful of decent craft beers wasn\u2019t enough to justify the ticket price and the price per sample, especially considering the shabby Rock Bay aesthetic of this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 18 months of COVID-related isolation, our slice of the world is finally able to enjoy the experience of being within shouting distance of one another, and\u2014of course, like pretty much anything\u2014this is a fantastic excuse to drink beer. On Friday, the Victoria Beer Society hosted Lager Than Life, a celebration of 18 lagers from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,238,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-life-sports","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21641,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639\/revisions\/21641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}