The collaboration concept is gathering steam in the craft beer world, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the official Vancouver Craft Beer Week beers were the first to do it bigger and better in B.C.
The idea of dozens of brewers meeting up to brew a beer together is such a lovely microcosm of the craft beer sector and its notions of community and support. Not just among the breweries themselves, but for worthy causes in need of cash. One dollar from each bottle or glass of this year’s beer, for example, goes to the Music Heals foundation, a charity close to the heart of this VCBW’s host, Prevail.
With all these warm, fuzzy notions, it’d be easy to give second billing to what’s actually in the bottle. This year, it’s something quite unusual that was devised by Central City‘s Gary Lohin and Matt Phillips of Phillips. The California common is a rare enough style, but to imperialize it is one remove even further.
The result is a very well made beer with something of an identity crisis. PrevAle (one day I shall have a beer named after me) pours a bright, clear copper colour with a compact, fizzy white head.
There are big bready malt aromas on the nose, along with a little dense earthiness and some light fruit.
Bready and lightly herbal notes register first in the mouth, followed by a lightly peppery spicy complexity. A medium bitterness and big, rounded mouthfeel reveals a lightly orangey fruitiness before the strong carbonation guides the beer into a crisp finish. A chewy breadiness lingers in the aftertaste.
PrevAle is dense and crisp, refreshing but heavy, so it leaves me a bit confused. Particularly because it’s also rather delicious. But when you remember it’s money well spent, those fuzzy feelings dispel any confusion. (The price point is pretty decent, too.) Go buy this while you can.
Beer Cat: Uninterested. Remember, he’s confused at the best of times.
From $4.95, 650ml, limited supplies at government and private stores
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