Event: Last Best Social Club - August Edition

Last Best Social Club 

Last Tuesday (August 2nd) we attended a monthly gathering of beer enthusiasts at Last Best Brewing and Distilling. They call these meetings the "Last Best Social Club" and they reserve a section of the patio for just this purpose. $10 gets you three 12 oz sleeves of beer and a little chat with the brewer. Not bad. That's nights iteration was something a little different- but we'll get to that!

The best club ever.

Pre-Game

We arrived EXTREMELY early because Megan is neurotic, so had our pick of the seats. The only other pre-punctual beer clubbers seemed to have made themselves comfortable, either having come straight from work, or early to have dinner and chat, etc. Luckily, we had an idea on how to pass the time.

How we passed the time.

Hans had the Olsch Kolsch B'Golsch and Megan ordered three different beers (IPA Episode 4: A New Hop- Sold out; Branchy Brew and Saison Brisebois- to be featured in the tasting and therefor skipped) before settling on the Fruity Berliner Weisse. "I'd rather take my chances with hating a sour I've never tried, than order something I know I'll enjoy but can get all the time," Megan said. Because- logic. The Kolsch is an easy-drinking, crowd pleaser type beer. "Approachable and refreshing" for sure. The Berliner Weisse was very sour and smelled like sunscreen, but was not at all unpleasant. Megan's new approach to sours is to stop thinking of it as a beer and just drink it like it's a lemonade or something. Much less confusing for the braincells.

Da beers.

We only order sleeves, because we are responsible adults with jobs and we were staring down the barrel of three more alcohols to consume.

Look, Erin Weir of  "A Flimsy Plan" and the "Mystery, Outsiders and Abs" Podcast joined us for the event.

Blogging a picture of a blogger blogging

The Main Event

Remember how we mentioned that the August edition of the Social Club was slightly different? That's because instead of the traditional three 12 oz sleeves of beer and talk with the brewer, we were being treated to GIN BEERBACKS and little lessons from the head brewer AND distiller! Yes. You heard. Gin AND beer. Three 9 oz glasses of beer, expertly paired with three different 1/2 oz snifters of their house-distilled gins (or aquavit, as the case may be.) Best of both worlds. Win-win or maybe win-gin. Six alcohols for the price of three- which is actually the price of two. It's a good deal is what we're saying.

Da gins!

We were instructed that these beerbacks were not a quick way to wash down a gross shot. We were told to sip each individually, and then experience how the flavours complemented and transformed each other. It was all very posh.

Beerback #1

Beer: Saison Brisebois

Think "Hoegaarden." A real farm beer designed for quenching thirst after a long summer day in the fields.

Gin: Jelly Gin

Peppermint, jalapeno pepper and lime infused gin featuring cardamom, orris root and citrahop.

This was the consensus between the three of us as the coolest pairing. The minty-spicy note of the gin took away the "beer" flavour of the beer. We're not experts. It was neat. 

Beerback #2

Beer: Branchy Brew

Witbeer. Not cloudy because of the refining agents used in brewing. Coriander and orange notes.

Gin: Sunshine Gin

ALL THE CITRUS! Bitter orange, navel orange, clementine, lime and grapefruit peel. No angelica in this gin, which is a thing, apparently.

The citrus and the coriander link these two drinks. It wasn't as interesting a pairing because they complemented each other more than transformed each other. Still tasty, though.

Beerback #3

Beer: There Will Be Porter

Dark and rich. Simple. No added flavours, just malt.

Gin: Actually, aquavit!

Aquavit is like gin except instead of juniper, the main flavouring notes are caraway and cumin.

By this point we were all little tipsy. Megan told the brewer that the combo reminded her of soda pop. This led to a discussion of the upcoming production of the Outsiders at Storybook Theatre. There is a mysterious note in Megan's tasting book that just reads "tacoburps."

One word.

Bonus Round

As we finished the offical chats and drinks, the distiller sat down with the dudes at the far end of our table and a mysterious bottle appeared. Not wanting to miss out, Megan (totally not obnoxiously) yelled: "I hope you bought enough for the rest of the class!" and inserted our small group into one final tasting.

MEATSWEAT AQUAVIT

Unreleased, but set to retail for $100-$130 CAD, the Meatsweat Aquavit was in a league of its own. Distilled with a rack of bison in the still, it is surprisingly very scotch-y in flavour. Lots of peet. Lots of meat. It's only classified as an aquavit because the government of Alberta is really touchy and you can't just go around inventing new alcohols, guys!

The End

All in all, the Social Club was a great value and a lot of fun. We also learned a whole bunch about gin and stuff. 10/10 would go again.

Cheers,

Megan and Hans