Brewpub Roadtrip: Vancouver, Canada!

I’m at Lucky lab in downtown Portland, Oregon, or PDX as its known around here. The conversation is good and the beer better. Lucky Lab, like almost every self-respecting bar in PDX, brews its own beer.

With my glass full of hops, my mind on malt, I learn that I’m about to have a three-day weekend. Its President’s Day and I’m in Portland. What to do? Where to go? I know – Vancouver! And not as in Vancouver, Washington, but Vancouver as in Canada!

At first, I was tempted to make the five-hour road trip solo. I wanted to go that bad. I figured this might be my only international trip in 2008, and I didn’t want to miss the chance to cross another border.

Its not that this would be my first trip to Canada – I went to Montréal with my family long ago. But this would be my first trip as an adult and I was excited. Both because I’d heard it was a beautiful city, filled with amazing sights, but also because it is another bastion of good beer.

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VBC Brewpub Tour – Dix Brewing

While I was not impressed with Dix Brewing, Brett was in total beer man heaven. In fact, our notes from Dix is entitled “FEST!!!”

First, every beer was all hopes, his favorite. Then, the master brewer was just hanging out at the bar and Brett bonded with him over a long, very beer geek conversation. I swear they were even comparing hops grown on different sides of Mount Hood.

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