My name is Matt Thomson, and I have a confession: I’m a beer geek. I’ve been homebrewing for nearly four years, and for most of that time I’ve been learning about beer, developing my palate, and subjecting my friends to long-winded rants about the history, development and appreciation of brewing over time. In an effort to save my friendships, I’ve decided to focus my interests through this column instead. Each week I’ll be writing about Vancouver’s beer culture: where to go for beer and/or knowledgeable servers, what to drink and why.

Last Tuesday night I went with a friend to Stella’s Bierstro on Cambie Street, to try their new cask ale nights. Cask ales are a fairly recent innovation for craft brewers here in North America, though they in fact represent one of the oldest ways of storing and serving ales. Different from a filtered and kegged beer injected with carbon dioxide, cask ales finish their fermentation process in the keg, with a naturally resulting carbonation. The final product is a softer, creamier texture, with a carbonation that scours the palate far less than a regular draught beer. This can highlight a beer’s strengths, or showcase its weaknesses.

At Stella’s we asked our server what the evening’s cask was, and were disappointed that she didn’t seem to know what we were talking about. Before she left to find out I ordered a Phillips India Pale Ale. Now discontinued in favour of their new IPA, this beer represents a solid North American variation on a British classic. Most British IPAs were brewed very hoppy to preserve them on their long voyage to the colonies. Hops act as a natural preservative, which in combination with a high alcohol content, significantly extends a beer’s lifespan. By nature, IPAs are strong, bitter, aromatic beers.

With a growing abundance of quality North American hops, particularly here in the Pacific Northwest, North American brewers have reinvented the IPA, developing a style of uniquely fruity, floral ales that are preferred by many beer geeks over classic British IPAs. While North American IPAs tend to vary in body from light to bold, almost all of them make use of local hop varieties, such as Cascade, Centennial and Chinook. These hops make our IPAs both more bitter and more aromatic, with an emphasis on pine and citrus aromas.

The Phillips IPA represents an excellent standard for North American IPAs. The beer is golden in colour, and was presented with a solid, creamy head. Though bitter in the bottle, on tap this beer balances its malty and hoppy aspects well. The hop aroma, a key component for any IPA, is clean and floral, with subtler pine and citrus notes.

Eventually our server returned with the news that a cask, R&B’s Hopgoblin IPA, was indeed tapped. Another North American interpretation of the IPA, this apricot-gold ale was presented slightly cloudy, which is often expected in a cask ale. A solid, creamy head had formed, indicating an appropriate fermentation period. A floral-citrus nose opened this somewhat bitter beer. Its centerpiece was aroma: strong lemony notes opened it, rolling into a bitterness with a hint of pine and spice, ultimately rounded out with a strong floral finish. Though I’ve tried this IPA in bottles, the cask was a completely different, and much more unique experience, and well worth waiting out our server’s uncertainty.

With an excellent selection of largely Belgian ales, and some local craft brews, the Bierstro is a great option for the discerning or budding beer geek, though hopefully they will take the time to educate their staff more fully in the future.