This past Thursday I attended, for the second time, the German Bierfest held by the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. It is primarily a business networking event, not a beer event, but there is always beer there so that’s how I wound up there. Oh, and my dad is/was a member of the CGCIC. That too.
This event was held in the north building of the St. Lawrence Market. I’ve only ever seen this building filled with farmers selling their locally grown produce or when it’s in flea market mode with vendors selling, or attempting to sell, all manner of knick knacks for over-inflated prices. Needless to say it’s a large space and more than capable of holding a few displayed Mercedes Benz cars and a large number of German and non-German businessmen and beer drinkers alike. Over the night there were probably a few hundred that came and went but the hall still seemed empty compared to last year’s intimate event in the Fermenting Cellar in the distillery district. A DJ was on the stage playing non German music (with the exception of ’99 Luftballons’, ‘Roll out the barrels’ and a round of ‘Ein Prosit’), but to be fair this wasn’t a lederhosen and dirndl wearing event – most were wearing dark suits.
The beer was what I had come for. Weihenstephaner hefeweiss, Weihenstephaner dunkelweiss, Paulaner Munchen Hell, Erdinger weissbier dunkel and Hacker Pschorr Edelhell were the offerings on tap. They also had Warsteiner Dunkel but I do not recall if it was tap or can. What was to be the highlight of the night turned out not to be. Initially promised was Köstritzer Schwarzbier on draught, however it was only available in cans. I can’t whinge about it much because canned Köstritzer was my first choice. Followed by the Paulaner and finally the Weihenstephaner dunkelweiss.
More beer choices were available from last year, where they only had one beer on offer. Last year’s event was called the Düsseldorf Altbierfest for the simple reason that they served altbier!Frankenheim Alt was the beer and it was excellent – this was my first altbier experience and I could not get enough of it!(Greg wrote a great post about it last year.) In addition there were souvenir glasses to take home (I manged to get my hands on about half a dozen).
Food was provided by Prague Catering (also not German!) but they provided some very tasty sausages which all appeared to be enjoying. The food distribution system had been revamped from last year – where one would wait upwards of 45 minutes for their food – this year the wait was no more than a minute, so props to the event organizers for solving that logistical nightmare. There was also a station pumping out h’ors d’oeuvres at a great rate. They were combinations of a base (pumpernickel bread or tiny slider buns) with a middle (sauerkraut or chutney or sour cream) and a meat topping (kielbasa or jerk pork), and were entirely delicious in every combination.
When you’ve done something before it’s completely natural to compare your next experience to past experiences and this was no exception. I’d say last year’s was probably more successful. It was held on a Friday which may have encouraged more people to come, as well it was a bit more of a swankier do. This year did not have formal business representation in for the form of booths (companies promoting whatever German commerce related services they provide).
In terms of beer geek attractiveness this event probably sits at a 1/5. Almost all of the beers are ones you can buy at the LCBO, so there was nothing THAT special about them. However, they are all quality beers and were very much enjoyed. It is not an event I see beer enthusiasts flocking to unless they start to bring in some rare German beers.
In terms of value for money, unless you’re a business person writing off this expense or you are attending for networking purposes it’s not THAT good a deal. I paid $38 for my ticket which included 3 beers (full sized I must add) and a food ticket (for the sausage) and the h’ors d’oeuvre were complimentary. I was attending with good company but great deal? maybe 1.5/5.
All in all it was a very pleasant evening. Would I attending next year? As noted above, unless they bring in some very special German beer I will probably give it a miss.
Beer With Me 