During a three-day climbing trip to Skaha, near Penticton, BC, my climbing friend and I visited a few local breweries to complement the outdoorsy stuff. The closest brewery to the local climbing shop, our first stop in town where we picked up the brand new edition of the Skaha guidebook, was The Tin Whistle Brewing Company (I’m linking to their Facebook page, but if you prefer Twitter, they are @TinWhistleBrew — they’re not website-enabled, for some reason). Probably should’ve hit the crags instead, but we were thirsty after the six hour drive from Seattle. Plus, we needed to pick up a few bottles for the campsite. Priorities!

Tasting station at The Tin Whistle Brewing Company — Penticton, BC

Rob’s Picks
• Peach Cream Ale – 5% – Light and crisp, with a touch of peach flavor to a bready finish. Very refreshing.
• Coyote Blonde – 5% – Slight banana/clove aroma. Light on the tongue, with plenty of carbonation. Some breadiness, with a bit of banana/clove on the finish. Not the most flavorful but pretty drinkable.
• Stag – 8% – Apple Scotch Ale. Apple, caramel aroma. Apple and caramel flavors blend nicely, with an interesting finish – sharp with a touch of a bitter twist. Least carbonated of the bunch, appropriately enough.
• Killer Bee – 6% – Dark honey ale. Coffee aroma. Light on the tongue, with a sweet honey edge to the coffee and dark chocolate flavors that play out nicely in the lingering finish.
• Chocolate Cherry Porter – Winter seasonal, with Washington cherries. Cherry flavor first, but not too strong, to a lingering dark bitter chocolate finish. Underlying dryness.
• Black Widow Mild – 5% – Light, fairly crisp with somewhat sweet coffee and dark chocolate flavors. Little bit of spiciness on the tongue, too.
• Scorpion DIPA – 8% – Floral, citrus aroma and flavors. Good malty undertones to sharp sting of a finish.

The Rest
• Kettle Valley Amber – 5% – Some biscuity maltiness with a bitter finish.

Of the four BC breweries we visited, I think Tin Whistle was my favorite. They’re still a relatively small operation but making great stuff. They do a lot of fruit beers, which I don’t usually like, but I enjoyed all of theirs, which says a lot. Gotta say, I can’t wait to return to Penticton, do some more climbing (Skaha is pretty awesome), and drink some more Tin Whistle beer.