Last night we attended Molson’s second Brew 2.0 event, the first of which was held earlier this summer in Toronto.

Molson put together an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Vancouver’s Burrard Street Brewery. The night consisted of a meet & greet party, a beer & food tasting, a tour of the Molson brewery and a special one-night-only beer crafted especially for us. We had a chance to meet brewmasters Kerry Scarsbrook and Gord Rickards (creator of Rickard’s Red), as well as 7th generation Molson family brewer Geoff Molson.

The Brew 2.0 menu prepared by by Blair Rasmussen, Executive Chef at the Pan Pacific, featuring ceviche and bruschetta and bison sandwiches, was paired up with different beer choices for each course. Rickard’s White for the ceviche, Coor’s Light with the bruschetta, etc. The special 50th anniversary brew was, to me, kind of like a Hefeweizen meets a Brown – it had a taste like celery. Quite nice.

Click here for the full Flickr set

We learned a lot about beer, including the difference between the beer that goes into the keg vs what is bottled / canned. That difference being pasteurization. We tasted some canned Rickard’s Red right off the line that hadn’t been pasteurized yet, and the difference was significant. Also, the Molson Canadian on tap there, fresh from the brewery, is good. I was astonished by that – it had so much more body and flavor. We also learned not to place beer bottles on their side for more than a few days – so much for our beer drawer!

The invite for the Brew 2.0 event went out to Vancouver’s social media community – to people like Duane, Rebecca & John, Raul, Colleen, Tanya, Monica, John and many many others. We were not asked to write about the event, but writing is what we do. So, you give us a great experience and we’ll very happily write about it. I was impressed with the evening and with how well Molson reached out to the community – great work!