Thanks to the awesome team at Vancouver Craft Beer Week I was recently able to attend #IP HAZY at the Lamp Lighter which was:

“Their first ever Whole Hog Cookout + Crawfish Boil. They’ll be spinning a full pig on the patio while they boil up a massive pot of spicy & seasoned crawfish & veg. While you feast you can sample the Haziest selection of IPAs available”

I came with one question: IS BC HAZY BEER UP TO SNUFF?!

The event featured Hazy beer from A number of BC craft breweries including Hearthstone, Moody Ales, Twin Sails, R and B Brewing, Howe Sound, and Aslan and Brewers Row Collab.

Please keep in mind i’ve scoured the US of A for the best HAZY offerings and had the white whales of Tree House, Trillium, Mumford, Monkish, Pure Project et al. I feel pretty confident in giving you guys an honest opinion of how our shit stacks up.

So does it stack up? YES!… and no….

There is some top notch stuff being produced right now in BC hazy beer, stuff so good its easily as good as the stuff sourced from the states these beers include:

the Superflux Colour and Shape, Twin Sails High Socks (not even the best hazy from twin) , The Moody Ales Huge Citra Pale Ale, R & B Shake your Frooty and the VCBW Brewers Row Collab. Others not at this event but great hazy examples include The rest of TS and Superflux Hazy offerings, Boombox and I’m sure some more by now.

Unfortunately, there are some less than great examples of the style here too and i would recommend not spending your cash on these ones:

Phillips Flamango Milkshake IPA and Howe Sound Hazy Daze NE IPA.

So what did I learn? Well even though its a brand new style to our region we have some world class NE  Hazy style IPAs in BC. But with anything new there are some growing pains and stuff to stay away from.

Final Thoughts: Kudos to VCBW for a great event! I think the future of the event is in these focused events like the IP HAZY.

http://vancouvercraftbeerweek.com