Attending a work party on Friday night and drinking G&Ts as an out for a lackluster beer selection, Saturday was a day I was looking forward to. Planning to attend 3 Toronto Beer Week events this day I was excited to say the least. But not just any three events! Three events all with cask beer. Delicious.
First up was the Harvest Festival at the Great Lakes brewery. A number of Project X events this past summer were held in the Great Lakes front yard and this one might have been the last outside one of the year. Slightly overcast and a touch breezy, the weather did not ruin the festival of harvest! By the time I arrived at 230pm there were about 60 adults sampling beer, enjoying the food and keeping an eye on the ~15 kids tearing around the lot. The small things often make a difference and the bales of hay and pumpkins were a nice touch along with the booths of local purveyors of fine cheeses, coffee, meats and soap (they had even made a pumpkin ale soap including ‘head’ – very original!). Live country music also filled the air and greatly added to the atmosphere.
We managed to get the last of the cask pumpkin ale on our way in. I have had a few bottles of this year’s pumpkin ale from the LCBO and the pumpkin ale on cask was considerably hoppier than it’s bottled counterpart. Since it was the end of the cask I got a bit of pumpkin particulate in my glass. It added to the authenticity of it being a pumpkin ale, as well, who doesn’t love floaties in their cask? Now armed with some cask it was time to eat!
There were a small number of food choices but boy were they excellent! Jalapeño sausages (brats?) were just massive and incredibly delicious. For $2 this was the deal of the day! I was told they were from a place called European Quality Meats & Sausages in Kensington – definitely worth checking out.
We heard word that Sweet Pete’s Peach Wheat was running out so we hurried over to try this one. It was a very smooth wheat beer – I’m going to guess it was a North American wheat based on it’s smooth, mellow profile. I didn’t taste too much peach, which is OK by me – I’m not a big peach fan, but I did taste some cloves. This one was certainly not dry hopped.
Time to eat again – we grabbed the last couple slices of pumpkin pie and a pumpkin ale on tap. The pumpkin ale was not dry hopped and had that glorious clove, nutmeg, cinnamon profile you expect in a pumpkin ale. The pie was very delicious and dominated by cinnamon. After a bite of pie the pumpkin ale tasted just plain ‘beer-y’, but the beer long outlasted the powerful pie and once again returned to its pumpkin-y glory.
We headed off in search of more casks at Bryden’s for the Cask! social but everyone else was still having a great time. It seemed a fun environment for beer lovers and families alike. Would definitely go to this event again next year!
Beer With Me 