As we count down the months until Beer Fest time again a question that might be on your mind is where to stay when you come for next years show. No worries, we’ve got you covered. Below you’ll find a selection of hotels for every budget. Find the one that’s right for you from the list below. We’ve arranged this list from cheapest at the time of writing, to most expensive. There are lots of other options, but these are some of our personal favourites. Prices were accurate as of July 2014.
Chateau Lacombe Hotel
With prices starting at just $98 a night, you won’t find a better value for your money. High speed internet connections in all rooms and three different restaurants on site, plus you’re withing walking distance to the Theater and Arts district. You can’t go wrong with this nice, comfortable spot.
The Westin, Edmonton
This one’s only a bit more, with prices starting at $100 a night, and it has the advantage of being connected to the Shaw Conference center. If you want to book here though, you should probably plan well in advance, as The Westin is likely to fill up fast.
Delta Edmonton Center Suite Hotel
A hotel located in a shopping mall with 140 stores? What could be better, and a good selling point to your partner. Starting at just $102 a night, and just blocks from Sir Winston Churchill Square, you’re only minutes away from all the action that Edmonton offers.
Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel
Rooms here start at $104 a night. The big draw for this location is the full service spa and the free shuttle service to a number of downtown attractions. A great hotel with some really nice amenities and a good reputation.
Alberta Place Suite Hotel
A little pricier than the rest, starting at $131 per night, you’re right next to public transportation to anywhere you’d care to go, and that’s a big plus when you don’t want to drink and drive. The hotel offers spacious suites with full kitchens!
Edmonton’s got no shortage of quality hotel space, but these are the best of the best, and all conveniently located to where the festival is being held. Be sure to book your hotel well in advance as there won’t be many rooms left come BeerFest time!
It might surprise the casual beer drinker to know it, but there are actually a rather staggering number of different types of beer glasses, each designed with a particular style of beer in mind. For the uninitiated, here are some of the more common ones, and ideas about which beers should go in what glass.
The Pilsner Glass
An evenly tapered glass, with no curvature, the Pilsner glass is used for drinking light beers. Generally smaller than pint glasses, they’re tall, slender and tapered, shaped to reveal the color and carbonation of the beer you are drinking from it.
The Weizen Glass
Used to serve wheat beer, these glasses are narrow at the bottom and slightly wider at the top to better release the beer’s aroma. This shape also allows room for the thick, fluffy heads that this type of beer produces.
The Beer Stein
Traditional beer mugs that may or may not come with hinged lids sporting a thumb lever. Steins typically come in sizes half liter to full liter in size. These were believed to have originated in the Germanic provinces, and as such, it’s acceptable to drink pretty much any German beer from them.
The Tankard
Originating in England, these glasses share most of the features in common with the Germanic Stein, minus the lid and thumb lever. Owing to their English heritage, it is perfectly acceptable to drink any English beer from a Tankard, which in an English pub is often referred to as a jug.
The Pint Glass
These come in a variety of shapes, from straight or slightly tapered sided to conical and nonic pint glasses. Guinness is most commonly consumed from a pint glass, and in fact, they’ve got their very own Pint design for that purpose, but most any beer can be consumed and enjoyed by the Pint.
If all this talk of beer and beer glasses has got you thirsty, you should know that it’s drawing closer to the time of the annual Edmonton International Beer Festival. We will let you know when it’s time to get your tickets though, so come join us and have a pint, or several. Contact us today!
Now that the summertime heat is finally here we have some great tips to help you cool off with a cold one! If you’re looking for a refreshing beer to drink during those long, lazy summer afternoons that won’t sit heavily on your stomach, listen up. Below are some of the best tasting summertime brews that will leave you reaching for seconds, and thirds. Drink up and enjoy!
Victory Summer Love
A number of the entries here will be fruity and spicy, which are the hallmarks of summertime beers, but this one’s the exception that proves the rule. Brewed with Belgian and German wheat ales in mind, this pale golden brew offers a fresh, crisp, bready taste that won’t sit heavily on your stomach. Designed for those scorching hot summer days when only something a little on the dry side will do.
Deschutes Twilight Summer Ale
http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/find?brew=TWILIGHT%20ALE
The perfect end to a perfect day, Oregon Brewery’s entry on the list features clean, toasty malts and mildly spicy hops. Just wth body enough to be a substantial brew, but light enough that it won’t weigh heavily on you after a day spent cooking out and feasting with friends and family.
Leinenkugels Summer Shandy
An intriguing entry because it’s blended with lemonade and brewed with honey. That might make a hard core beer lover raise a skeptical eyebrow, but the light, sweet flavor is both crisp and refreshing. Exactly what you’re looking for if your main focus is having fun in the sun.
Anchor Summer
A full bodied beer that’s not so full bodied that it sits like the anchor it’s named after in your stomach. Robust enough to be served with dinner, light enough to enjoy on the beach. The perfect blend for those endless summer days and nights.
Smashed Blueberry
This entry by the Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland, ME is both marvelous and potent. Featuring a complex tapestry of roasted barley, chocolate malt, blueberry and coffee, more than a few of these and you’ll be a bit wobbly on your feet. The blueberries take a backseat to the rest of the flavors, making this a drink that will appeal to even those who aren’t fond of fruity beers. Fantastic.
Wells Banana Bread Beer
http://www.nearof.com/?p=387
Our last entry comes from the Wells & Young Brewing Company, and while you might not think of bananas and bread as going together, one whiff when you open the bottle will leave you salivating. There’s something that just screams home and childhood memories about the scent, and its flavor is oddly both dry and sweet. A great end of the day beer, and almost a desert in and of itself.
You can find many of these brews at www.divinewines.ca or www.sherbrookeliquor.ca!
Why not come and join us and get a cooling taste of these and other great beers for all seasons at the Edmonton International BeerFest 2015?
Beer is affected largely by the quality ingredients that make it up. The importance of water in the quality of a beer cannot be overestated as it constitutes about 95% of the total ingredients. Looking around the world at the established brewing regions, you can see a pattern of good fresh water availability. Great water makes for some great beer. An indepth understanding of the impact water has on flavor is essential and very important to the brewer, here is a quick overview.
There are only four key ingredients necessary for brewing, with so few total ingredients it is easy to see why the water needs to be perfect and is infact the most important amongst them. Water is an integral part of the recipe. The water incorporated into the beer must have a very good taste in order for the beer produced to also have a good taste. /p>
You may have heard the term “Hard Water” before and not been 100% sure of what it means. Basically it refers to the amount of minerals in the water that cannot be removed by boiling or through water softening. This is why defining the taste of water is best broken down chemically.
Calcium
This is a principal mineral and it determines the hardness of water. It helps to promote the flavor and clarity in the finished beer. It is also instrumental because of its enzyme activities on the components of beer and acidifying effect on the wort.
Sulphates
If there is too much sulphur in the water then it will have an unpleasant smell. Sulphur also contributes to the permanent hardness of water. It also emphasizes the hop bitterness and makes the bitterness seem drier and crisper. If there is too much sulphur it can cause sickness.
Magnesium
Magnesium is also essential in brewing liquor as it works with the yeast acting as a co-factor for producing certain enzymes required in the process of fermentation.
Obviously there is much more complexity involved but you can definitely see how important the water source is for beer brewing. As these minerals in the water mix in, they change the chemical process that creates the beer. So if you are considering making a home brew of beer, be sure to consider your water as your most important ingredient! Good luck!
As the festivities continue to scale and people rush to acquire gifts for their loved ones, there is one group of people who seem to be as calm as ever: the beer lovers. Beer is handcrafted, available in over 100 styles, and has its own decorative packaging, which eliminates the need for wrapping. Plus the fact that the recipient will most probably share a glass with you, making it the ultimate gift for this season. However, there are many other good gifts that can be just as pleasing to beer lovers.
Glassware
Proper glassware is a must have for any beer lover, not only for their aesthetic value, but also to enhance the taste of beer and the drinking experience. Just like you need a glass to pour your wine, you also need the right glassware to appreciate the striking characteristics of your beer.
Nuts, Cheese or Meats
There are a few things that pair well with beer to make any drinking experience so much more incredible, and you can never go wrong with some artisan cheeses, nuts and meats. You can expect the recipients to devour them fast owing to their awesomeness, so make sure to purchase enough to last longer than a moment.
Bottle keeper
There is nothing good like a cold beer, and the vacuum-insulated stainless steel growler promises to do just that. The best thing about these coolers is that they can keep your drinks cold, carbonated and safe for longer than 24 hours, allowing you to enjoy your favorite alcohol during overnight trips and long hikes.
Home brewing Equipment
A brewing starter kit makes the perfect gift for home brewers or those aspiring to be home brewers. The kit contains different supplies and equipment that can significantly enhance the home brewing experience. If you are not certain about what the recipient needs, you can purchase a few ingredients, or get them a gift card.
Beer Bottle Cufflinks
Every now and then, everyone needs to dress up when attending a function or celebration. Not many people wear cufflinks, but you may manage to change the minds of a few beer lovers by getting them some with beer bottles on them.
Beer Nerd Board Game
Beer taps into the playful side of the brain, and while one’s attraction to the opposite sex seems to scale significantly, so does the need to interact more closely with drinking buddies. Nothing achieves this better than a trivia board game to challenge your beer knowledge while having lots of fun. It has multiple choices, so you do not have to be so informed to win.
How many times have you stared at those foamy pints of gorgeous, gold-colored alcoholic beverages and wondered, what is the difference between beer and ale?
You’re in luck, my slightly inebriated friend. For today, we will divulge the secret behind this most perplexing of questions.
On the face of it, there appear to be not much difference between beers and ales. After all, both are usually made from just grains and water, and are the by-products of the yeast fermentation process. However, a closer inspection reveals an entirely different story.
Before we delve into the subject, it would perhaps be wise to take a step back and do a little clarification first. You see, the term beer’ is technically the common noun for this class of alcoholic beverage as a whole.
Ales and lagers are the two major subgroups of beer, which can be further classified, among others, into porters, stouts and bitters (ale) and pilsners, bocks and darks (lager).
However, sometime between the late 19th century and early 20th century, the term lager somehow gave way to beer, a shift that remain stuck to this day. So the original question should have been – what is the difference between lager and ale?
Essentially, it has all to do with the type of yeast and fermentation temperatures.
A top-fermenting process using a yeast species called saccharomyces cerevisiae at normal room temperature produces ales. This will yield the lighter-colored ale that the snobbier amongst us have always claimed to prefer.
Meanwhile, lagers are produced by utilizing the yeast species saccharomyces pastorianus in a bottom fermentation process under a considerably lower temperature. The result is lager, also known variously as beer, cold one, brewski, and even Britney (those crazy Irish).
It is worth mentioning that a few centuries ago, the difference between ales and lager were significantly more pronounced. At the time, ales were brewed using barley or wheat instead of hops, which only became a farming staple less than two centuries ago.
However we look at it, there is no denying that beers and ales have evolved into one of the most crucial elements of modern civilization. For many of us, a cold can, mug, pint or bottle of beer is the highlight of our day, bringing us unconditional comfort and joy.
