With a recent gold medal win at the 2023 Canadian Brewing Awards and Conference in Halifax, and with a brand new tap room, we decided to stop into Village Brewery for this week’s flight. 

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As you may know, we like to keep a theme when possible in choosing our flights. All styles in our flight were derivatives of the classic Pale Ale which has a long history (as covered in our education series) dating back to the 1700’s and is responsible for changing the craft beer game all over the world.  

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Our flight included: New Zealand IPA, New England IPA, Cold IPA, and IPA.

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The ‘Binge Watch’ New Zealand IPA picked up a 2023 Canadian gold medal last week. We clearly agree with the judges on this one. A New Zealand IPA must contain New Zealand hops, in this case Nelson Sauvin. Village also used a new Australian hybrid called Enigma and then added  Simcoe from Washington State. The blend worked wonderful and accompanied their addition of wheat and oats.

 

Next up, the New England IPA titled ‘Misheard Lyric’.  This one was a favourite even beating out the gold medal Binge Watch. New England IPA , or NEIPA, has only been around since 2004 and as you may have guessed, is a pale Ale variant with ‘American’ hops. Here, Village uses Columbus, Cascade, Citra and Mosaic, along with Australian Galaxy. The blend along with wheat and oats provides a juicy / sweet flavour and aroma. We could drink this all summer.

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The Super power Cold IPA was again well crafted. Crisp, fruity and 6.5 % ABV which was pleasantly undetectable. A few of these and you will surely feel like you might have a Super Power. 

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Lastly, the Nomad IPA, a core beer at Village. By now you all know IPA means more hops, however , in this example which was super bright and refreshing, hops are not as forward as most IPA styles, meaning this is a very easy-to -drink beer.

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As mentioned earlier, Village has recently unveiled a new taproom and it looks great! If you have been to Village before, you may recall the second floor taproom. Now, it is located in the front of the building, on the main floor, with a dog friendly deck and lots of sun. 

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Our dog enjoyed a hotdog from the kids menu, while the rest of us shared nachos, chips/dip and a super tasty Rueben.

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If Village is your kind of place and you want to stop in on a brewery tour of Calgary, please let us know below. We also offer Charters if you would like to plan your own event and just need a van and a driver.

 

To see more Calgary brewery reviews, click here.  

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