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.

Beer bits and pieces

Yikes, what a busy couple of weeks! I've barely spent an hour a day at home. It's times like these that I envy the full-time beer industry people. Their jobs will allow for things like OCB week. Mine? Not so much.

Anyway, I thought I'd atleast try to highlight all the things I wanted to talk about. Eventually, I'll find the time to write proper posts. Eventually.

- Mondial. I still haven't transferred the photos from my camera to my laptop. I need to do this quickly, since the longer I wait, the more likely it is that I forget what I drank.

- Ten Bitter Years. It turns out that we had the first available half-keg of 10 Bitter Years at Michael's party. Woo hoo! It took some work for the foam to settle down, but the beer? So incredible.

At Michael's party, I had brought a couple of double IPAs to taste from San Francisco - Russian River's Pliny the Elder and Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale. About 6-8 people were gathered around the bottles, we all overwhelmingly preferred the Ten Bitter Years. It might have been influenced by the fact that I brought the bottles out late, after we'd all been drinking Ten Bitter Years for a good couple of hours. But still, a pretty nice endorsement!

- A slew of OCB events so far, with a lot more to come. On Sunday, we went to Bryden's to try a lot of Etobicoke beer (Great Lakes, Cheshire and Black Oak.) On Monday, it was off to Stout Irish, to see beer brewed at the patio. Tuesday, the Rhino, with more Great Lakes beer. I have pictures and beer lists of all of these, but all my spare time is going towards attending beer events, not writing about them.

Side note about OCB craft beer week - why is there a complete lack of presence at the LCBO? I know this is a bar-based event, but think of how awesome it would be to be able to taste all OCB beer at your local LCBO at the same time? I keep running into the same people at all OCB events, while the LCBO tastings would attract a fresh non-craft-beer-drinking crowd.

Friday Ramblings

It's Friday, I'm ready for some down-time. My week was filled with beer events, which made for some long days. (Due to the unfortunate necessity of a full-time job.)

Weekly round-up:

Monday - headed to the opening of the Beer Boutique. Munched on free food (love!) and drank Great Lakes Crazy Canuck. (Double-love!)

Tuesday - weekly trivia. No beer was consumed. (Whoa! But at this point, I'd been drinking for 5 days in a row, and stopping felt pretty essential.)

Wednesday - Toronto Beer Lovers event at the Twisted Kilt. I tried a glass of the cask - Black Oak Summer Saison, but I think it was a few days past its prime. Then switched to Black Oak Pale. (A multitude of people have been unenthusiastic about the Twisted Kilt. I sort of understand. The cask went there on June 9, we drank it on June 15. I'm iffy on 6-day cask. Even the Pale Ale didn't taste as good as it should have.)

Thursday - exciting! A Toronto Beer Week volunteer meeting. I don't know how useful I am at these things, but I love sitting and listening to the hundreds of logistical details that need to be worked out for an event like this.

Other things going on:

- I read a really interesting article about Japanese craft beer. Japan's never been on the top of my travel list, but it definitely moved up a little based on this article.
- I'm going to Denmark in a few weeks to visit a friend, and need to decide where and what I should drink in Copenhagen.
- I'm planning a OCB Summer Seasonal pub crawl. This will involve lots of phoning breweries and logistics. Like!
- Business cards - I need them for the Toronto Beer Lovers. It's hard to have conversations with bar owners and managers without a business card.
- This weekend promises awesomeness - Saturday, a half-keg of Black Oak 10 Bitter Years. Sunday - an OCB Craft Beer Week event at Bryden's.

That's my week in review.

In which I write an email...

A full review of Mondial will follow at some point, but right now, my camera is dead, and I can't pull photos from it.

Instead, I'll talk about Moonlight Brewing.

I was introduced to Moonlight at Toronado in San Francisco. They had the Death and Taxes on tap, I tried it, loved it, and wanted to buy some to bring back to Toronto. But, alas - they weren't sold in bottle form, and were only available at a handful of bars in the San Francisco area.

But then, at Mondial, I ran into it again, in bottle form, and my hopes were raised. So, I wrote Brian an email yesterday.

> Hi Brian:
>
> I'm a big fan of Death and Taxes (the beer, not the life events). Just
> had it in bottle form at Mondial - I didn't think you bottled at all.
> Do you have distribution in the East Coast somewhere? I live in
> Toronto (and I'm pretty sure it isn't available here) - but trekking
> down to the States to grab some would be doable.
>
> Cheers,
> Reethi

Ah, sweet, hopeful Reethi.

Brian wrote back this morning. (Moonlight is a a one-guy operation, Brian brews, delivers, kegs, etc. I must investigate brewery economics more!)


From: Brian Hunt
Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: Bottles at Mondial?


Hello Reethi,
Thank you for the kind words!
I'm busted! I don't bottle. I wanted to send beer to the Mondial, and they would only take bottles. I had to fill kegs and drive them to another brewery to bottle. It was far more crude than I had hoped and some bottles had significant flavor changes. I am relieved that you seemed to get some of the better samples!
That said, I don't have plans to bottle nor ship that far. Who knows the future, but certainly it would not be wise to hold your breath!
Best wishes,
Brian


Crushed!

(Though, the locovore in me is delighted that although we live in a world where you can get strawberries and mangoes in the middle of winter, you still can't get Moonlight on the East Coast. Makes the trip to San Francisco extra-special.)

The Beer Boutique

The Craft Brew wall of the Beer Boutique

The newest concept beer store in Toronto is the Beer Boutique - it opened yesterday. I have no idea how, but I managed to scam a VIP invite the previous day, and headed there Monday night to check it out.

And, meh. Colour me slightly unimpressed.

Ok, let me back up. I guess I should be impressed - if only at the contrast with the current Beer Store retail concept. In the Beer Boutique, there's actually lighting. And you can see and touch the bottles. And the floor isn't made up of concrete, and the walls aren't gray. In other words, it actually looks like a retail store, not a warehouse.

Here's why I'm unimpressed. Looking like a retail store is a pretty low bar, by any normal standards. The Beer Store is a piss-poor retail experience, but the Beer Boutique isn't stellar just because it is better than the Beer Store.

What the Beer Boutique didn't have? Interesting bottles. Draft taps. Single bottles. A beer I was dying to try.

I dream of a beer store like City Beer opening in Toronto. Until then, I guess, this is as good as it gets.


I should sound a tiny bit more complimentary, they did pour me some free beer. (Great Lakes Crazy Canuck, if you want to know.) And handed out some free appetizers. Both the beer and the apps were yummy.

Garrison at Rhino

Just in case you think all I do is grumble about the state of beer in Toronto, here's a shiny, happy entry.

I'd read the Bartowel post about a whole lot of Garrison bottles at the Rhino, then my friend Anna mentioned she'd tried some, and so, of course, I *had* to go.

Anna and me got to the Rhino a week ago. We found a spot on the patio, and split three bottles between us. (Yes, that seems a bit lame. But alas, we both had to be at work the next day.)

The Jalepeno Ale was good, if a tiny bit of a stunt beer. (I can't see myself drinking more than a half-bottle.) The Hop Yard Pale Ale was *excellent.* Many bottles of this lie in my future. We finished with the Black IPA (no photo, too dark for my camera phone to take pictures...)

The prices were super-reasonable. We paid about $5 for our regular size bottles of the Jalapeno Ale and the Hop Yard Pale Ale, and about $8 for the 750ml bottle of the Black IPA. Good for the Rhino!

I definitely need to head back - to re-taste the Black IPA, and make my way down the rest of the Garrison's list. However, OCB Week is fast approaching, and there's a ton of events happening. Here's hoping there'll still be bottles left at the end of June!

Beer Festival Crankiness

Drinking in Toronto is always an expensive proposition - I'm someone who likes good value for money.

And that brings me to today's post, the ridiculous amounts of money that beer festivals cost in Toronto.

I'm picking on Session in particular here, mostly because the Toronto Festival of Beer is something I have no desire to go to. From what I can tell, it is filled with frat boys and macro beer. Boring, and boring.

Session is, however, a craft beer festival, one I would actually like to go to. I'm not going to though - because it costs $35 to get in.

$35. Let's pause and consider that, shall we? Here's what $35 will get you beer-wise, anywhere else in Toronto.

- 4 pints at C'est What, Bar Volo, Rebel House - all places where you can get quality local beers. 4 pints is more than I want to drink in an evening.
- Significantly more beer at cheaper beer venues - the Only Cafe, the Rhino - again, quality local beers.
- At-least 2 6-packs of almost any beer. Sit on your balcony, have some friends over, get the grill going. A perfect summer evening.

Here's what you get for $35 at Session. (From BarTowel.)

- Entrance to the fest
- limited addition glass tasting stein
- access to approx 100 different craft beers from Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, B.C, Oregon, New York
- live music throughout the day (acts TBA)
- opening ceremony with garrett oliver -
- unique entertainment all day - blue mushroom circus (sword swallowing, strongman, dancers)
- Cooking with beer demonstrations (pairing etc)
- Chances to win beer prizing (vote for the best of fest)
- Meet and chat with beer makers, marketers, sellers, creators throughout the day
- Spend the day drinking with 2000+ like minded folks.

So, essentially, you get a glass for $35.


- The bands? Free at the Harbour Front. And at a million of free summer festivals in Toronto. Go there instead.
- Opening ceremony? Meh. Brooklyn Brewery does make good beer. I'm not sure if I'm going to pay $35 to meet a brewer though. They drink around town, they are normal people, I'm sure you can meet them for free. (OCB Week has a ton of Meet the Brewer events - they are all free.)
- Cooking with beer. Again, meh.
- Drinking with 2000+ like minded folks? Ok, that's an amazing way to spin 'crowded as heck'.

I know I sound cranky. I am cranky.

Sorry. I think $35 is just greedy. In addition, $35 encourages me to drink entirely too much, in an attempt to spread out the cost of my entry fee over multiple samples. I'm sure over-imbibing is something the organizers are trying to prevent, not encourage.

Yes, people in Toronto seem to have a ton of money. But me? I'm going to spend my money on Mondial instead. Where the entry is free, and the beer is just as good.