Toronto Beer Week – Black Oak – Thursday

After seeing Volo as rammed as I have ever seen it on Monday of the Toronto Beer Week I did not expect to see another full house at Volo on Thursday. I was wrong. Black Oak was featured for the evening and all beers available that evening were from the hard working brewery from Etobicoke. On tap were some fantastic choices: Pale Ale, Nut Brown, Summer Saison, Oaktoberfest Lager, Nutcracker Porter, Double Chocolate Stout and 10 Bitter Years. Cask offerings were Hop Bomb and Nutcracker Porter. 10 Bitter Years, Nutcracker Porter and the Summer Saison were all available in bottle. The Oaktoberfest and both casks were long drained by the time I arrived but diving into a Saison and 10 Bitter Years was something I had no qualms about.

The Black Oak VIPs, Ken and Adrian, had been making the rounds and happily chatting with the full house of thirsty patrons. Ken told me of the VERY successful evening of cask beer at Kilgours where the beer vanished before one could say “reinheitsgebot”, and an enjoyable evening of Black Oak tastings at the Only Cafe.

While I was sitting at the bar drinking my saison and  catching up on my Toronto Beer Week news some university aged kids came in and were bemused by the Black Oak only menu. It became apparent that they came specifically for the event and didn’t know where to start – but were also keen and unintimidated. I overheard one say to another “have you heard of this beer called ‘Creemore’? It’s great – it’s way better than the stuff we usually drink! But I don’t see any of that here.” From there they each selected a different beer and I lost track of where they went. It was a great conversation to overhear! How it reminded me of a younger version of myself where the wonderful world of beer is just beginning to appear on the horizon. Creemore was definitely a great choice over Rickard’s, Keith’s or anything else they might serve at a sports bar back then. They were so excited at the prospect of trying new beers, and they had obviously chosen a good spot to make that leap. People trying great craft beer for the first, second… or Nth time. That’s what Toronto Beer Week was all about, and that was the most powerful moment of the week for me.

Dieu Du Ciel! In Ontario!

I never did make it up to the Granite on Saturday afternoon but I eventually did manage to get my hands on a Toronto Beer Week tshirt. My arm was “twisted” and I agreed head into Allen’s for a pint after submitting an order for a Black IPA and a Double Chocolate Stout at Fermentations on the Danforth. After this I headed to Bar Volo (I seem to be going there a lot lately…) for the Dieu Du Ciel tasting feature. Beyond knowing they had DDC on tap, and enough choices to push the list to double digits, I didn’t know what I was in store for.

This event was towards the end of the DDC feature week presented by HMH Negotiants. Starting earlier in the week a beer dinner was held at Chancey Smith’s, a beer lunch was held at Caplanskys and a pub crawl staggered it’s way across the city enduring more than 12 hours.  Tonight was the feature event at Volo and the next day was a DDC brunch at beerbistro hosted by Stephen Beaumont. All of this, and Toronto Beer Week had not even officially kicked off!

Getting back to the DDC feature, I was privileged to sample three fine DDC beers. I could not go without tasting the mighty Aphrodite. (Normally I refer to it by its not LCBO-bastardized name but the rhyme there was so appealing.) This top rated stout boasts big hits of cocoa and vanilla with the perfect bitterness. Always smooth and velvety this is a top choice that I cannot ever resist. The two choices new to me were Chaman, an Imperial Pale Ale, and Grande Noirceur, an Imperial Stout. I found the Grande Noiceur very similar (in taste and  excellence) to the Peche Mortel, with the notable difference being the absence of an overt coffee profile. Very easy to drink and could see the dangers in making this an inadvertent and unlikely session beer. The Chaman, copper colour and quite cloudy, was dominated by hops but had a large enough malt profile bring about a decent balance. I don’t think I could session this one even if I tried! Lastly I tried the much hyped Caustic Commencement Saison – the much hyped and highly anticipated collaboration effort from Biergotter and Volo. Saisons are fairly new to me but what I have learned so far is that there is much diversity under the saison label. On initally inhaling the nose I thought I smelled a fruity bathroom cleaner. Perplexed at what I was smelling I had my confusion eased when Chris told me “mangoes”. Once I had identified the mango aspect things fell into place. The mango flavour was competing with a strong hop aroma as well as notes of other tropical fruits. It was a treat to drink and was not out of place with DDC, as the caliber was top notch. Definitely setting the bar high for all future products coming from Volo’s brewery.

It’s fantastic to see that one of Canada’s best breweries is now available in my backyard, both in pubs and the LCBO. Hopefully they are blazing the trail for many others to follow! Cheers to Volo, HMH Negotiants and DDC for creating such great opportunities for beer drinkers in Ontario

Toronto Beer Week – And They’re Off!! – Monday

Excitement was in the air as I approached Volo, the humble craft beer mecca, on the first day of Toronto Beer Week. At only 6pm the patio was rammed and the inside near capacity. Three hours later even more bodies somehow fit themselves into the small establishment and a note on the door indicated the bar was at capacity and no more were permitted in. To officially launch beer week the draft line up was to be 10 of Ontario’s best beers as well as two casks: the finalists in the 2010 Cask Challenge.  As it turned out there were 12 Ontario taps and you would be tough pressed to find argument in the excellence of the choices:

Denison Weissbier, Denison Dunkel, Black Oak 10 Bitter Years DIPA, Scotch Irish John By Imperial Stout, Wellington Imperial Stout, Flying Monkey Smash Bomb IPA,Black Oak Nutcracker Porter, Mill St Tankhouse Ale, Durham Hop Addict IPA, Creemore Kellerbier and Mill Street Coffee Porter.

Most of these choices did not last the night as the exuberant the thirsty patrons guzzled them down. At with beer week in the air and at $4/pint it’s no wonder! The casks were also reduced to empty barrels. Flying Monkey’s Smashbomb IPA and Great Lakes My Bitter Wife had at it and voters eagerly cast their ballots for the 2010 IPA Cask Challenge finalists. In the company of these two casks was a third cask (though not in the finals) the top choice Durham Hop Head on cask.

I spoke to a few others who had attended beer week events in other parts of the city including Mill Street, Granite, Starfish (for Malt and Molluscs Monday) and the early consensus was a “great success.” Hopefully everywhere else this week will be a booming as last night was. And that was just the beginning. Happy beer week everyone!

Toronto Beer Week – In The News

Toronto Beer Week has been getting some mainstream exposure! Check out the links below.

Josh Rubin @ The Toronto Star (scroll to bottom for TBW notes)

Pints of Fancy @ The Toronto Sun

Suck Back Those Suds During Toronto Beer Week with Now Magazine

Toronto Beer Week @ BlogTO

Toronto Beer Week Is Upon Us!

Well, officially Toronto Beer Week will be upon us in two days but a number of beer related events have already been occurring across the city for those eager go-getters. Unfortunately there are so many things going on that it is not possible to engage in all of the events or even all of the days.  I’ll do a quick day by day of what I think sounds hot as well as what I’ll be attending.

This weekend: HMH Negotiants has been presenting a Dieu Du Ciel feature at Bar Volo from this past Thursday through this Sunday.  This evening is a big event there from 7pm-2am. After popping up to Granite Brewery this afternoon for a pint of cask and hopefully a Toronto Beer Week t-shirt I will be attending the early media portion of the DDC feature. Sadly I won’t be able to stay for the evening as I have to leave to go see Mastodon, Deftones and Alice in Chains down at the Amphitheatre – a cross I am willing to bear. Tomorrow I am hoping to accomplish a large number of chores around the house in preparation for shirking many responsibilities and having a singular focus of Toronto Beer Week from start to finish.

Monday: It’s hard to say no to $5 pints at Volo on Monday evenings. This beer week edition of pint night will feature $4 pints of the top ten rated Ontario beers. I’m not sure of whose rating this is but I am certain the selection will be top-notch. If that wasn’t enough they are kicking off the finals of the 2010 IPA Cask Challenge. The contenders are Great Lakes My Bitter Wife vs. Flying Monkeys Smashbomb IPA. May the best cask win!

Tuesday: Unfortunately scheduling does not permit me to attend any events on Tuesday. If I COULD go to an event it would certainly be the Brew Dog Dinner @ Beerbistro. A six course dinner is being prepared by Brian and crew of beerbistro and paired with beers from one of the most avant-garde breweries in the world. $90 a head is not a cheap price tag but this is one of those rare opportunities not to be ignored. My prediction is this is one of the events that will still have the biggest buzz once beer week is over.

Wednesday: Sadly another day I will have to miss. Stephen Beaumont will be hosting a session called ‘Malt Magic’ at The Monk’s Table. This event is described as “Premium beer and spirit pairings with decadent chocolates and gourmet cheeses.” This one will appeal to beer and food lovers alike! I will be doing my own beer tasting at home which I’ll post when complete.

Thursday: I’m heading back down to Volo on Thursday for the Black Oak feature. “ALL” Black Oak beers will be available, which includes year round favourites as well as seasonals. In addition to this they will be bringing in 2 casks. The Black Oak crew will be on hand to mingle.

Friday: Kicking off this day is the 22nd annual Festival of Craft Breweries at the C’est What. This event, along with it’s spring counterpart have grown in popularity over the years that for this incarnation they have decided to spread the festival over two days, and now includes the Saturday. A different lineup is scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Admission is free and most samples go for a buck.

Saturday: This will be a busy day! I’m planning to make the below day’s events into my own mini cask trail/crawl. Great Lakes Brewery has modified their September Project X and turned it into the Great Lakes Harvest Festival (review). They will be offering bratwurst and pumpkin and peach pie as well as two special casks: Sweet Pete’s Peach Wheat and their Pumpkin Ale. This runs from noon through 4 at the brewery. Next up is the CASK! September social at Bryden’s (review).Four casks will be available: (Beau’s Matt’s Gose, Granite Best Bitter Special, Great Lakes Miami Dunkelweiss, Muskoka Dark Chocolate Ale) as well as some nibbles and prizes (runs 3 through 6). Wrapping up the mini crawl I’ll be heading back to the C’est What for the Saturday session of the Festival of Craft Breweries.

Sunday: Deciding it sounded like a fun idea I signed up for Toronto Beer Quest. “An urban adventure featuring Toronto Beer History.” Registration is online for teams of 2 and it’s a photo scavenger hunt. I am not entirely sure what I’m in for but it sounds like a fun idea. $40 per team is the registration cost and I believe it winds up at a pub at the end for some (hopefully) celebratory beers!

I’m hoping this week will be as great as it sounds. A few days off will need to be taken the following week I’m sure, but I’ll be right back at it on the Thursday for the Canadian German Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s German Bierfest. More on that later.

Happy beer week all! Cheers!

Bear With Me @ Beer With Me

This post marks a milestone in my blogging. Unfortunately it’s not a very glamourous one, but in the blogging world it is a rite of passage. This is my I’m-sorry-I-haven’t-posted-in-a-while-but-promise-to-catch-up-soon post. It’s not a bad thing and it happens to the best bloggers out there. I even fell behind in my precious Google Reader for beer news and posts for a time but it’ll be remedied!

IPA, eh?

Though I haven’t been posting it was not for lack of beer. I recently started a new job and have been fairly consumed with all that is involved with that. Before I started the job I took a week break to enjoy a week of freedom and the hot August weather. Beer related I did my own IPA tasting. It wasn’t formal or scheduled by any means but I did approximately one a day for the week – sampling beers I have collected over the past few months from Buffalo, Montreal, Sault Ste Marie (Michigan) and Manitoba. I will definitely post about this one soon!

4 Casks and a Pig

I also attended the August Great Lakes Brewery Project X on August 12th. In fine Project X tradition this event was a great success. Held outside, the standard draughts were available as well as four different casks. I did not take notes that night and my memory is a bit fuzzy: I thought I was told I had a black forest pale ale, but when trying to track it down online I came across a black forest porter – this seems a better description of what it was. Huge tart cherry and chocolate. The classic My Bitterer (double ER) Wife DIPA was on offer, which I found LESS bitter than a My Bitter (single ER) Wife I had a Volo a few months ago. A hoppy saison and the ‘does this moo-moo make me look hefe imperial hefeweizen’ rounded out the cask list. The pulled pork was cut right off of the pig on-site and the food ran out! Everyone did get their firsts, but there were only a handful who got seconds. Tough life, eh?

Taps, Awards, and Gold!

The Golden Tap Awards weekend was simply incredible. The 7 course beer dinner put on by Brian and the beerbistro crew last Friday evening was remarkable! A lot of planning was put into the dishes and they were enjoyed by all based on the buzz and high energy in the room. The Ontario beers paired with each course were introduced by the respective brewers, while Cass gave us the run down of the food items. Hats off to The Bar Towel and beerbistro for making the dinner the spectacle that it was. I’m looking forward to next year already!

The ‘main’ Golden Tap Award night was last Saturday and was just as enjoyable as years past. The Golden Tap Awards are always a standout event in my summer as they provide recognition for the efforts in the Ontario craft beer industry and a great afternoon of beer sampling and camaraderie. Brewers, publicans, bloggers, beer enthusiasts and beer lovers alike congregated, sampled, laughed, sampled, cheered for the awards and sampled some more well into the night. The beer menu for the day included a huge number of taps and a dozen plus in bottle form. I didn’t come across more than a handful of choices I had not previously enjoyed so I made sure those were first on my hit list. The Lake of Bays Pale Ale and an offering from Kichessippi (don’t recall any more specifics of the name – a blonde?), which I admit I had not heard of prior to this event. I didn’t dislike them however neither were remarkable in any way. They may be playing it safe by making easy to drink ales but they will need to establish a specialty in the near future else they will be directly competing with the big boys and sadly I can’t see them sticking around too long. I certainly won’t write the breweries off before they have the opportunity to prove themselves as they are both young and hopefully up and comers and I look forward to trying anything else from them in future!

Check out Cass’ post towards the bottom of the page for the beer dinner courses & pairings, as well as the results of the 2010 Golden Tap Awards! Congrats to all!
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Hopefully this post will last you through the weekend. I am off to Bracebridge for a wedding tomorrow and unfortunately won’t be able to stop in on the Muskoka Beer Festival (damndamndamndamn) I do plan to stop in at the Muskoka Brewery which is something I’ve not done before so hopefully that will make up for it!

Regular posts coming next week, promise!

Cheers!

OCB Week Day 6 – Volo & Flying Monkeys

When Volo announced they will be having special taps and casks it’s usually about 50-50 chance that it’s a special event. Though it was OCB week this event was not officially on the agenda but that did not stop the faithful from pouring into Volo. Arriving at 4pm on the dot we grabbed a shady-ish spot on the patio and previewed the cask menu of the day.
Six (or more?) casks on offer plus a number of familiar taps from the BelgOntario days earlier in the week. The casks included Black Oak Marmalade Saison, Granite Hopping Mad, Duggan #99 Double IPA, Great Lakes “does this moo moo make me look hefe?” Imperial hefeweize, Beau’s Festive Alt as well as Beau’s Beaver River.

The light malt, citrus and grassy notes of Black Oak’s (standard) seasonal Summer Saison make it a perfect choice for quenching a thirst, so I was keen to see how the Marmalade version would fare. Visually it looked very similar but the citrus aroma and flavour were considerably more pronounced. I do not think they used actual marmalade but a considerable amount of orange and grapefruit (from fruit) hit your tongue and added notable amount of tart bitterness to compliment the hop bitterness. Would I have it again? You betcha, though drinking it quick enough to stop it getting warm OR keeping it out of the sun would be a wise decision.

Next up was to be The Only Cafe for a Night of Flying Monkeys however we decided to lengthen our trip from downtown to the Danforth and make two pit stops.

OCB Week Day 1

No formal event attendance today but did stop in at the Rebel House for a quick aperitif to acknowledge the kick off of OCB craft beer week. Beau’s Lug-Tread and Black Oak’s Pale Ale were the perfect compliments to the hot weather and relaxed patio vibe.

After the Rebel we went to a restaurant for dinner in the Rosedale area. On tap they had Steamwhistle Pilsner and "Granite". Granite what? "Granite – we only have one kind." I never did get a formal confirmation of which one, but a round of "Granites" were ordered. It didn’t take us long to deduce it was the Ringwood Ale. Delicious.

Very much looking forward to the rest of the week. This is gonna be good!!

Duggan #9 Now Available

To follow up on the Duggan’s Brewery theme from my last post, bottled #9 has finally made it’s way into the LCBO. This is very good news. I’m not sure the reasoning behind the wee 275ml bottles but I am not running the brewery. I currently have some #9  in my fridge. As I was taking the bottles out of the 6 pack holder I noticed a Duggan Brewery business card fall out. Not only is a it a business card, but it’s a $5 coupon towards food on your next visit. Brilliant marketing. “You like this beer? Come check out the brewpub.” Brilliant.