OCB Week: Best of the West at Bryden's

Sunday evening @5pm found me at Bryden's, with 6 other beer lovers. I'd been intrigued by the idea of all the Etobicoke brewers collaborating on a beer, and was eager to taste the results.

Here was the special, OCB beer list.



They didn't have the Aces High, the Chinook and the Etobichoker, but promised it would show up later the week.

I had a pint of the Karma Citra, shared 2 4-flight samplers and finished with a half-pint of the Anise in Chains.
The first flight had Armadildo, Summer Saison, No Chance with Miranda Saison and the Spearhead IPA. The second was predominantly a porter/stout flight - it had the Anise in Chains, the Magic Du Noir Belgian Porter, the Beau's Pan Ontario and the Robo Hop.

Because I'd started out with a full pint (didn't know Bryden's would do flights), I think my palette wasn't as clean as it could have been. In any case, to me, a whole lot of IPAs tend to taste, after a while, just like a whole lot of IPAs. They were all good, but to me, the standout beer there was the Anise in Chains.

I do have to hand it to Great Lakes though. They had 8 beers on this menu. Two of them I've seen before (the Karma Citra and the RoboHop), but the others are brand new to me. That's some serious dedication to the event.