Beerin' Ain't Easy: Four Picks and the Winter Ale That Flopped

Four bottles went on the table at the Council's fourth meeting, and the honest summary is that three of them were good beer and one was a disappointment the group refused to inflate. Dageraad's Randonneur Saison from Burnaby took 3.9 out of 5, Parallel 49's Snap, Crackle, Hop from Vancouver took 3.8, Steamworks Wheat Ale took 3.3, and Pray for Snow, a winter ale from Oregon, finished at 2.7, which the notes called a generous number at the time and nobody raised afterwards. Choosing four bottles that four people will disagree about is the easy half of a night like this. Writing the disagreement down is the part that is not easy.

The rules were the ones the group has kept since the first meeting. Each member brings one beer, everybody tastes before anybody argues, and a score goes on the sheet once and cannot be revised afterwards. There were four tasters that evening, which is why the columns below are worth as much reading as the averages: the wheat ale ran from 4.0 at one end of the table to 2.8 at the other, while the four numbers on the saison sat inside a single point of each other.

Randonneur Saison, Dageraad Brewing, Burnaby

Kyle's pick was the second release in Dageraad's Single Batch Series: unfiltered, bottle conditioned, and labelled in one line as a dry, sparkling Belgian-style saison. The brewery's suggestion at the time was seafood or salad, and the table agreed on the seafood half. Peppery, hoppy and bone dry, with enough carbonation behind it to make the finish feel like something out of a soda fountain, it was the best beer of the night and still finished with a 3.9 average, much to the chagrin of the man who brought it. Kyle's own line was that it may not be the season for saison, but it was incredible, and his 4.3 was the second highest number anybody wrote down that evening.

One style note belongs beside this bottle, because the sheet got it backwards and a BC reader will notice. A gose is not a Belgian farmhouse ale. It is a German wheat beer, soured in the kettle and usually seasoned with salt and coriander, and the Belgian farmhouse beer in that comparison is the saison itself, exactly as Dageraad prints it on the label. The mix-up is a forgivable one from a table, since both beers are pale, dry and heavily carbonated, but the sourness in a gose comes from bacteria while the pepper in a saison comes from the yeast, and that difference is the whole reason the two taste nothing alike.

Snap, Crackle, Hop, Parallel 49 Brewing, Vancouver

Matt's pick was an imperial IPA brewed with flaked rice to keep the body light and push the New Zealand Motueka hops out in front, and the brewery put the alcohol at 9.3 percent, which the label repeats on the band under the three cartoon heads. Peach and mango arrived first, then a caramel layer and a hop bite that stayed put, and the rice did what the brewery said it would by adding dryness rather than a new flavour. The group's own warning was that a few of these will make the walk home difficult, written down by people who fully intended to ignore it. The average came to 3.8, with Matt's 4.4 the highest score he had given any beer to that point and nobody else getting above 3.8.

Wheat Ale, Steamworks Brewing, Burnaby

Mike brought the bottle that started the argument, and the argument was with the front label. He had been through the brewery more than once, so he knew what he was buying and the rest of the table did not. The beer is called Wheat Ale, and Steamworks' own description of it says South German style hefeweizen, which is the same thing said more precisely: hazy gold, thick white head, banana, clove and a hint of bubblegum. The group found the banana, the yeast and a spice edge, agreed it was a decent beer, and then disagreed about everything else. It finished at 3.3 with the widest spread of the night, Kyle at 4.0 and Tim at 2.8, which is what happens when four people taste for the beer they each wanted. Mike's own verdict was that Steamworks turns his crank, printed beside his own 3.3. The brewery grew out of a Gastown pub and has run its brewhouse in Burnaby since 2013, so the city on this sheet is years out of date.

Pray for Snow Winter Ale, 10 Barrel Brewing, Oregon

Tim picked a winter seasonal at 7 percent and the table could not rescue it. The pour was dark amber browning at the edges and looked full-bodied before it hit the tongue, and the sweetness arrived as syrup rather than caramel, with a heavy finish that most of the room expected to pay for the next morning. The average was 2.7, described in the notes as generous, and Tim's line was that if this is what winter has to offer then he is not praying for snow. Whether the beer still exists anywhere is a fair question and not one a sheet from 2014 can answer.

Two facts belong beside that score. The brewery is from Bend rather than Portland, and it was sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev in October 2014, the autumn this bottle was poured, which is the kind of change that turns a craft recommendation into a different product wearing the same name. All About Beer reported it at the time.

The Scores From That Night

Four tasters, four beers, one sitting, and no revisions after the fact. The averages are the ones quoted above, and the columns are where the night actually lives.

Beer	Kyle	Tim	Mike	Matt	Average
Randonneur Saison, Dageraad	4.3	4.2	3.6	3.4	3.9
Snap, Crackle, Hop, Parallel 49	3.6	3.8	3.4	4.4	3.8
Wheat Ale, Steamworks	4.0	2.8	3.3	2.9	3.3
Pray for Snow, 10 Barrel	2.7	2.3	2.1	3.0	2.7

Where These Breweries Stand

Dageraad is still brewing in Burnaby, which makes the saison the one bottle here that a reader can still go and find from the brewery that made it, if the Single Batch Series has moved on since. Parallel 49 was last confirmed operating in Vancouver in 2025. Steamworks still runs the Burnaby brewhouse that grew out of its Gastown pub. 10 Barrel has changed hands, and a winter seasonal from 2014 is not a shopping tip. The Council ran the same format again at its New Year meeting, written up as the New Year tasting, where a golden ale brewed with pears took 4.3 and a strong Belgian-style tripel split one taster from three.

Why The Low Score Is The Useful One

The 3.9 and the 3.8 will age well, because in both cases the brewery said plainly what the beer was and the table found it. The 2.7 is the entry worth keeping. A group that had already handed out three respectable numbers that evening could have written a kind line about an Oregon winter ale and nobody would have blinked, and instead they printed the number they meant and labelled it generous in the same breath. If you keep a tasting sheet with friends, copy that habit rather than the scores: write one line per beer before the conversation starts, keep the spread visible next to the average, and leave the low numbers in place, because a low number is the only part of the sheet that tells a reader something the writer did not already have to believe.

Nothing to Be Embeerrassed About: Four Bottles From the Council's Third Week

Four bottles went on the table in the third week the Council sat down to score its own picks, and nobody had much reason to go home embarrassed. Three came from BC breweries and the fourth came from a homebrewer in Langley who had never sold a drop of it. Angry Scotch Ale from Russell Brewing in Surrey finished at 3.5 out of 5, Hoyne's Big Bock from Victoria took 4, Longwood's The One That Got Away from Nanaimo took 3.7, and the pumpkin porter went onto the sheet as a bonus pour with dashes in every column instead of numbers. A 3.5 from three drinkers who bought their own beer is not an insult, and that is the promise in the title.

The method has not moved since the first write-up. Each member brings a bottle, everybody tastes before anybody talks, and a number goes on the sheet once and cannot be revised afterwards, which is why the spread inside one beer is worth more reading than the average printed beside it. This week that spread was narrow on all three scored bottles, and the highest mark the group had handed out to that point went to a beer it did not think was much like a bock.

Angry Scotch Ale, Russell Brewing, Surrey

Russell bottled this strong Scotch ale in a 650 mL brown glass bottle at 6.6 percent and sold it in the language of the old Scottish shilling grades, promising a long boil and dark fruit and toffee from the roasted malt. The Council found the toffee and very little of the intensity the name is reaching for. It was smooth enough that a second bottle sounded pleasant rather than heroic, which is the one thing a Scotch ale rarely manages. Kyle's line was that it was smooth, drinkable and enjoyable, but only got the silver medal from him, and Tim and Tyrone landed at 3.5 and 3.2.

The bottle did better with outside judges than it did at this table. The official 2010 World Beer Cup results list it under the brewery's fuller name, Russell Wee Angry Scotch Ale, taking bronze in the Scottish-Style Ale category against 29 entries. That is a useful thing to know about a score of 3.5, because it means the beer was not flawed and not bad, only not what three people at that table wanted that night.

Big Bock, Hoyne Brewing, Victoria

This was the second Hoyne bottle at the table and the one that produced the best number on the sheet: 4 out of 5, with Kyle and Tyrone both at 4.0 and Tim a tenth of a point behind. The pour was a deep red amber with sweet malt and floral hops carrying from the first nose through to a clean, earthy finish, plus a light fruit layer nobody had expected. The tasters were clear that it was nothing like a traditional bock and equally clear that they did not mind. The rooster on the label is a leftover from a longer name, since the brewery first called the beer Big Cock Bock and the BC Liquor Distribution Board rejected it, and Big Bock is what came after.

The label copy still leans into the bird, in a passage about a majestic rooster unafraid to strut his colours and proclaim his dominion while the flock pretends not to listen. Tyrone's complaint was the practical one, which was that a beer this good asks you to go looking for it, and putting in the effort is not something a tasting group should have to do on a weeknight.

The One That Got Away, Longwood Brewpub, Nanaimo

Longwood built this red wheat ale around a West Coast tuna fishing derby out of Bamfield, put half the grain bill into wheat, added a generous dose of crystal malt, and told people to drink it with seafood. The label in the photograph makes the same argument with a hooked fish. The Council got a slight red hue, a subtle sourness, a bitter edge that a note of banana kept from getting aggressive, and a head that did not turn up to the party. Tim's verdict was that it was full of colour, a little yeasty, ever so sweet and not worth mourning, and the 3.7 average put it in the middle of the three.

The Bonus Pour: A Homebrew From Langley

The fourth bottle did not come from a brewery at all. Greg Clark of Langley had brewed a chocolate pumpkin porter called Jack-o-Heed and brought it to the meeting, and the group poured it as a bonus and entered dashes rather than scores, which is the right call when the only source of a beer is the man who made it. The body looked as thick as Guinness and went down far more smoothly than that description promises, with pumpkin running quietly underneath and a roasted chocolate finish that stayed put long after the glass was empty. It was the one bottle nobody at the table had a complaint about, and one unscored sample is not enough to make more of than that.

The Scores From That Week

Three tasters, four bottles, one sitting, and no revisions after the fact. The averages are the ones quoted above, and the columns are where the disagreement lives.

Beer	Kyle	Tim	Tyrone	Average
Big Bock, Hoyne	4.0	3.9	4.0	4.0
The One That Got Away, Longwood	3.6	3.7	3.8	3.7
Angry Scotch Ale, Russell	3.9	3.5	3.2	3.5
Jack-o-Heed, homebrew	-	-	-	Not scored

Where These Breweries Stand

Two of the three names on this sheet are still pouring and one is not. Russell closed its Surrey brewery and tasting room in April 2026 and sold the equipment, and the company has since moved to contract brewing, so the address printed on the label is not a place you can visit any more. Surrey was also the closest of the three to where the group sat, and the write-up treated it as the promising start of a tasting map and floated the idea of a first brewing tour there. Hoyne is still brewing in Victoria and has opened a tasting room of its own in the years since. Longwood is still trading in Nanaimo. Whether any of these three beers is still in the lineup is a separate question, and one you can only answer from a current list rather than a sheet from 2014. The write-up of another early Council meeting covers four other bottles from the same run, plus a bonus gose that split the table two against two.

What A Middle Score Is For

A 3.5 is the hardest number to publish and the most useful one to read. A brewery can shrug off a bad night, and a panel that says 5 out of 5 has nothing left to tell you, but a 3.5 with the reasoning attached says something specific: the beer did what it claimed and did not do more than that. If you keep a sheet like this with friends, write one line before the number goes down, keep the same drinkers for a whole season so the scores mean something against each other, and leave the middling marks where they are. Three weeks in, this is what the record has become: what three people thought on a night in 2014 about beers from a Surrey brewery that is now gone, a Victoria brewery that is still pouring, and a Nanaimo brewpub that is still trading.