Toronto Beer Festival - the beer

Our first two beers of the day.

So, after reading my last post about how I disliked the half naked ladies at the Toronto Beer Festival, you're probably thinking, "yeah, yeah, OK, but what we really care about is the beer!"

Sorry I haven't done that post - but I'm doing it now, so hold onto your hats.

As I said before, we stopped at the Great Lakes Brewery CASKapalooza first.

Up first for Jeff was the cask-conditioned Curry, Please. It was opaque yellow in colour and had a slightly spicy hop smell. "Inoffensive, but kind of bland. Not much hops or malt," he wrote in our notes (yes, we took notes - how else are we going to remember all this? BTW - the "notes" section in the back of the little guide book they give you, pfft, beer lover, please - clearly not enough room!).

Now, we haven't mentioned this before, but when we're trying multiple beers, we give them lightening bolts - much like how a movie reviewer gives a flick a certain number of stars. Only difference is, our lightening bolts don't have any upper limit.

So for Curry, Please - Jeff gave that two lightening bolts. (Jeff edit: I was hoping this would taste like curry - it would be crazy but I was disappointed that it didn't.)

I had the cask-conditioned Morning Glory Breakfast Stout. It was good. It was dark and just plain tasty. Four lightening bolts.

Jeff moved on the Canuckle Head on cask. He said it had nice, big bubbles on the head, tonnes of citrus on the nose, some malt and "a little citrus and lots of bitter on taste." Four lightening bolts.

(Four lightening bolts would set our upper standard on this particular day.)

Cask-conditioned Peach Pepper was up next for Jeff. A hazy yellowish colour, this wheat beer came as advertised - he could taste the peach and the pepper. He noted there was pepper on the nose (although it was "clouded by the smell of wacky tabacky," aka weed). Three lightening bolts.

I next went for the Mild Brown - cask. I liked it, but there wasn't much to it. Three lightening bolts.

Blonde Jager Bomb was the next one for Jeff and he was not a fan. He called it "a little medicinal. One lightening bolt.

I went up and asked for a Miami Weisse on cask, took one sip and declared it not for me. Jeff took a sip and informed me it wasn't what I had asked for (it was likely an IPA, not a weisse) - but he was a fan. There was "crazy citrus and bitter" and Jeff gave whatever that beer was four lightening bolts. (Jeff edit: I looked up Miami Weisse later on BeerAdvocate. Apparently Miami Weiss is supposed to have huge citrus and bitterness not typcially associated with a weisse. I do miss the clove and spice normally associated with a weisse.)

Jeff's last one at CASKapalooza was the cask beer Bright Star. He said it was roasty, and tasted of chocolate and strong coffee. Four lightening bolts.

At this point, the smell of pot and the dancing girls were starting to get on our nerves, so we moved on. I was pleased to see Niagara College there with their brew school. They had two offerings - a Campus Ale and a Campus Lager. Both Jeff and I chose the ale.

Perhaps not a surprise - there wasn't much to this beer. It's exactly what you'd expect new brewers to make. Jeff called the ale "approachable" although did wonder if it was served too cold. He said it had a decent bitter finish and wasn't a bad offering. As for me, it was OK. It didn't blow me away, but it was good. Jeff gave it two-and-a-half lightening bolts, I gave it one-and-a-half.

Right next to the college was Church-Key Brewing. I immediately went for the cranberry maple wheat and was so glad I did. This beer smelled and tasted like dessert. One was good - not sure I could drink it all night - but it was tasty, different and yet, was still beer! It would end up being the only other beer (besides the cask stout) that I'd give four lightening bolts to at the festival. So good.

Jeff got The Great Gatsbeer (Biere de Garde), and made a note, "Parmesan cheese." He said it was sour and sweet and "like no other beer I've ever had." he noted he'd never had that style of beer before. Like me and my dessert beer, Jeff said he wouldn't drink this one all night, but he liked it and guessed it would be good with food. Three-and-a-half lightening bolts.

He then had the West Coast Pale Ale. He said there was some citrus on the nose, caramel malt, and a "bitterness, but not the tonnes of citrus associated with west coast" beers. Two-and-a-half lightening bolts.

Then it was the Holy Smoke. It was "not as sasuagy" as Jeff remembered, but more smokey like a campfire.

"If you like peaty scotch, this beer is for you," Jeff said, giving it three lightening bolts.

For me, it was OK, but I wouldn't order a full pint - I could never finish it. But it was nice to try. Two lightening bolts.

We moved another stall down to Magnotta where Jeff had the Wunder Weisse. This filtered beer had some banana and close, but it was middle of the road. "Not bad - not great," he wrote, giving it two lightening bolts.

Then we wandered to the area of the festival called The Local (I hate this name, though. Why is the "the" there?). Along with all the local beers, this year there was a special booth for mash ups.

First up, we had to try the hometown brew - Wellington and F&M had created the Guelph Special Bitter. Jeff said it had a huge hop nose as well as lots of citrus. He also wrote, "Kate will be disappointed." I was - it wasn't the beer for me. But Jeff gave it five lightening bolts - his highest of the day.

He then tried Beau's and Black Oak's mash-up, which he said was only "meh." I'm not sure the beer had a name - their sign was just two coasters from each brewery - but I believe this was the raspberry beer. Jeff said the beer didn't play up to either's strength. Two-and-a-half lightening bolts.

In the middle of the mash-ups, I think on a trip back from the washroom, we stopped at the Spearhead booth. This is where the notes start going downhill. Jeff really likes this beer and wrote: "No plans yet for bottling? Why you glorious bastards?" Then gave the beer five lightening bolts. (Jeff edit: As well, I think I was becoming a little generous with the lightning bolts. Earlier beers may have been judged a little more harshly.)

Back to mash-ups and Jeff had the Devil Shaker - a mix between Great Lakes and Amsterdam. It had tonnes of hops and bitterness, but still had caramel on the front and the nose. Then he wrote, "Feel enamel melting away." I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But he gave it four lightening bolts.

We moved on and discovered Granville Island was at the festival. Jeff grabbed their English Bay Pale Ale and said there was lots of caramel. He also says something about hot sauce and being OK ... I don't think those were related to the beer. Two-and-a-half lightening bolts.

We wandered over to Nickel Brook. As you've likely guessed by now, I stopped taking notes on my beers because I wasn't drinking that many samples. I did have to drive us home from the GO Station once we got back there, so I was attempting to be responsible.

At Nickel Brook, Jeff got the Headstock IPA. He said it had a good amount of citrus aroma, dark amber colour with cream coloured head, good caramel front, and a balanced citrus end. He did have one note for the brewery: "Distribute this outside GTA!" Five lightening bolts.

I do remember having the maple porter - and I remember it was tasty.

He also tried the La Triple from 3 Brewers. He said it had a little banana, and you could taste the alcohol. Three lightening bolts.

And that, folks, is where the notes end. We still made stops at other booths, like Beau's, Mill Street, Flying Monkeys, F&M, Wellington (and tossed a boot, too), as well as others.

While much of the Toronto Beer Festival is run-of-the-mill beers from big brewers, it is nice the craft brewers have a spot to call their own and we could spend all day there enjoying what they have to offer. Despite there being a lot of cubic zirconias of beer, we also found some real gems. And that's what made going worth it.

A few pictures to end us off:

The Sheepdogs

The Trews

My problem with the Toronto Beer Festival

Unnecessary in my opinion.

Jeff and I managed to score some free tickets to the Toronto Beer Festival on Sunday and we went.

Having gone two years ago, we were expecting a good time with lots of awesome beer. I knew going in there would be a lot of younger people who really were there looking to get drunk off cheap samples (i.e. the girl who exclaimed to her group of friends that they should go to a particular booth because their half sample was more like 3/4 of a full sample - OMG, you guys!).

There were a lot of girls wearing bikini tops as they walked around drinking, lots of men without their shirts on and their pants falling down (I realize at 32, I am starting to sound like an old man - but I don't care). I get it - it's hot - but really? We all can't wear tank tops or light cotton shirts?

There were, of course, the sexed-up girls standing in front of some booths. This is something that I hate, but I realize it's mostly breweries who really don't have much to offer on the craft beer front - so they have to use sexy ladies to sell their beer to men.

So I was surprised when we arrived at CASKapalooza - the tent for Great Lakes Brewery in Toronto.

Jeff and I made this our very first start for the whole day. We knew Great Lakes would have some new, unique beers to try and we weren't disappointed in the selection.

As we walked into the tent, I can't remember who saw her first, but both Jeff and I noticed a girl walking by wearing a bra and a barely-there skirt (the kind meant to show off panties). She was dressed in bright pink and black and had "stockings" that kind of look like they're fishnets, but way bigger holes.

I just shook my head. We went and got our first beers of the festival - I had the Morning Glory Breakfast Porter, Jeff had the Curry, Please - and stood under the tent and took in the scene. That's when I think Jeff noticed two more girls dancing on a fire truck, and the girl we had seen when we walked in was now dancing on a car.

As we had a few more beers, and I watched random guys walk up to the fire truck and get their photos taken with the girls dancing above them, I became more, well, disgusted that Great Lakes would think they needed girls to bring people to their booth.

So I took to my personal Twitter account.

"So many half naked chicks at @TOBeerFestival - disappointed in @Greatlakesbeer," I wrote.

Then added, "Let the beer speak for iteself @Greatlakesbeer @TOBeerFestival."

Tuesday, Great Lakes tweeted back at me.

"Don't be disappointed. We need the go-go girls & great retro tunes to lead people into #Caskapalooza," they tweeted. "The attention to #craftbeer at #CASKapalooza keeps them there."

Well, Great Lakes, I have to disagree.

Half-naked girls bring the wrong kind of attention to your brewery. It says, "We need hot chicks dancing in barely-there outfits to get you interested in what we have." I expect that kind of behaviour from the likes of Budweiser - not a reputable craft brewer.

Some of the people who go to a beer festival - I would hope - are somewhat interested in trying new beers. That's what's going to attract them to your tent and your vast array of beers - the best selection of the festival, in my opinion.

And, let's be honest: I'm a chick, I'm interested in beer. Half naked women do not interest me in the least and in fact, I won't say I was offended by them, but it certainly left me, as I said in my tweet, very disappointed in Great Lakes (like the way your mom is disappointed in you when you've done something bad and you really would prefer if she was just angry and instead, she just shakes her head and walks away).

I don't know if I need to go back to the Toronto Beer Festival. It was fun a couple of years ago, but being just two years older and not wanting to just get drunk on the Ex grounds, it's not the festival for me. I love the chance to try new and unique beers (a post about what we tried is coming up shortly), but I am not a fan of the atmosphere at the festival (this includes all the pot I could smell everywhere I went).

Ontario needs a beer festival where the focus is on the beer - not on what happens when you have too much of it.

Paddock Wood's 606 India Pale Ale and Czech Mate

Paddock Wood is Saskatchewan’s first and only micro-brewery - at least according to their website they are. Of course, I (Jeff) have no reason to doubt them as I’ve never really heard of any beer coming out of Saskatchewan.

The two beers available through the Beer Store are the 606 India Pale Ale (5.4% ABV) and the Czech Mate Pilsner (5.2% ABV). I have heard that these are also (or were at one time) available through the LCBO, although I’ve never seen them. I’m a fan of the labels and the name’s are pretty fun - well, Czech Mate’s anyways.

The 606 pours a beautiful amber with a nice thick head. The creamy cap of head takes quite awhile to dissipate and leaves the surface covered in a thin layer of bubbles. I smell caramel and citrus in the nose - it’s not going to club you over the head, but it is there. I find this IPA to be very well balanced: a good level of caramel and biscuity malt to match the citrusy hops. If you don’t like your beers super hoppy, but still want to know that they’re in there, this is a good choice. You get bitterness on the finish, but the beer doesn’t feel like its ripping your taste buds out on the way down.

Czech Mate pours a bright, bold yellow. The head is miniscule compared to the 606. After a couple of minutes, you’re left with a couple of islands head. It has the classic aroma of grassy hops for a Czech pilsner plus some notes of lemon. The taste is slightly bready, somewhat lemony and has grassy and floral hops. It leaves somewhat of a sour taste - but in a refreshing way. I’d say this beer is more accessible to the hop aversive than the 606.

Saskatchewan’s lucky that their only micro-brewery is this talented. Both of these beers are great additions to the Ontario market. The rest of the regular line-up sounds pretty good too - I’d be really interested in trying their Black Cat lager (a schwarzbier). Plus on top of that, they have nine special releases - although they’re only distributed in Alberta and B.C.

I wish the LCBO would make more shelf space for products like these instead of the newest MolsonCoors product - did we really need Molson M or Miller Chill Lemon?

Good news in Stratford?

The town is already famous for its Shakespeare festival (which we highly recommend), but I saw news this week the Stratford Brewing Company may be looking to expand.

The Stratford Beacon-Herald reports brewmaster Joseph Tuer and his wife Rebecca Hill may be moving into an old car dealership in the town.

"Hopefully with the new building and more space, I'll be able to hire a couple of people," Tuer told the newspaper, adding they'd also like to open a retail outlet.

Best of luck to them.

Wellington Ce'da Bitter Blue

I mentioned Wellington’s Ce’da Bitter Blue around Father’s Day. Wellington used it to help kick off Ontario Craft Beer Week. 

The intention was to get around to reviewing it before now, but I’ve been putting it off. 

The beer itself is an English bitter with blueberries and aged on cedar boughs. Certainly not your run of the mill creation. Also not your run of the mill name - I know Kate really hates the location of the apostrophe and really thinks it should be Ceda’ not Ce’da since they’re replacing the “r.”

The beer pours an clear orange colour. When I poured this beer there was absolutely no carbonation. I thought when I tried it back in June there was somewhat more - maybe not. I’m wondering if there was something wrong with the canning process. I did notice while looking through the beer there’s some sediment suspended in the beer - I think that’s leftover bits of blueberry.

Putting my nose in the glass I can smell some berries and flowers and maybe a touch of cedar.The first time I tried it, I don’t remember tasting any of the blueberry. I was curious if the blueberry flavour had developed at all.

Unless my memory’s playing tricks on me, the blueberry now is much stronger. And at the end of the beer, I get some bitterness and cedar. I’m not getting too much malt. The fact that it has that berry taste, is flat and there’s not much malt taste makes me think this is more like juice than beer. It’s not really working for me.

(Wifey note: I haven’t tried it since we bought it back around Father’s Day, but it didn’t work for me either. Fruit and beers rarely work, in my opinion).

Even though I wasn’t a fan of Wellington’s Ce’Da Bitter Blue, I’m happy they brewed it. I think it’s great that they’re trying out new beers every month and doing something different. Not every beer is gonna be a hit and that’s fine. I’m hoping they discover different things with each new brew - and that’s only going to lead to better beer in the future.

Amsterdam Oranje Weisse

Yet again, I'm at work, and Jeff has decided to have a beer. But he made a rookie mistake just after removing this bottle from the fridge. Read on to learn more!

Amsterdam has released a new beer called Oranje Weisse - in their words, “an unfiltered Flemish style white beer.”

Let me start off by saying I completely screwed up pouring this beer. After having poured the beer. I read this nice note on the side of the bottle: The Weisse Roll: Prior to opening, lay the bottle on its side and gently roll back and forth.

This isn’t the first weisse I’ve had out of a bottle but I’ve never done “the roll” before. A quick search on Google reveals that its suggested for pretty much all unfiltered wheat beers. So don’t do what I did and just pour it into your glass straight from the bottle - otherwise all that yeast stays in the bottom of your bottle and isn’t distributed through your beer. And that yeast provides a lot of extra flavour.

A quick side note: I know some people don’t like the yeast suspended in their beer. For some people it causes some intestinal problems - for those who want minimal yeast, not rolling your bottle will cut down on a lot of that.

Anyways, so the Oranje Weisse I poured (without the yeast) is a yellow straw colour. Had I included the yeast, it would be much cloudier. The head dissipates pretty quickly, leaving a small ring around the edge. The beer has a nice banana and spice smell. Even though I have next to no yeast in my pour, the beer still has lots of flavour. There’s banana, coriander, orange and clove. I think these beers (weisses, hefe-weizens, wits) are good beers to introduce to people who don’t like more run of the mill beers but like fruity coolers. Granted they’re not sickeningly sweet like most coolers, but they do offer that fruitiness and show off just how different beers can be.

I’ll likely be buying this beer again. I like the one I had tonight and I know its only going to taste better after pouring it properly (what a rookie mistake).

Brasseurs Du Temps

Ottawa didn’t have much in the way of brewpubs, but we did discover another brewpub in Gatineau called Brasseurs Du Temps (BDT). So we walked across the bridge from our hotel to the pub (maybe next time we’d take a cab - it was about an hour walk) to check it out.

Here, as usual, is Jeff’s take on the brewery and brewpub.

BDT is right on the water with a great patio for a hot summer day - which is what we were having when we were there. The brewery had 12 of their offerings on tap - not a bad selection. We ordered the “L’Horloge” (the clock) which is a tray of 3oz samples of each of their beers.

Et la Lumiere Fut! was the beer suggested to try first - a pale ale at 5.5% ABV. It poured a golden straw colour and had nice lacing. The beer had a pear nose which followed in to the taste with a touch of honey. The finish was dry and floral. This beer was very drinkable - but not bland.


Next up was Le Bouillon de la Chaudiere: A weizen at 5% ABV. It was a lighter straw colour and rather opaque because it’s unfiltered. I got clove and spice on the nose and the taste was undeniably banana. The beer menu said to notice ginger; I couldn’t find it but Kate could. I quite liked it and had another pint of it, but it was too spicy for Kate.

The ESB 1821, a 5.5% ABV extra special bitter, was the next beer in the list. It had a hazy apricot colour with a good amount of lacing. When I tasted it, I got a lot of bubblegum sweetness. It was too bitter for Kate. I thought the bitterness was lacking and couldn’t stop focusing on the sweet. This beer was a miss for both of us.

The patio.

The fourth beer was L’Allumante - a 5.5% ABV nut brown ale. It had an orangey colour with a hazelnut and caramel aroma. The hazelnut really carried through in the taste. There was a nice caramel that lingered at the end, but it wasn’t too sweet. It had a great mouthfeel and was another really drinkable beer.

Mille Neuf Cendre was a rauchbier at 5.5% ABV. The name is a play on words in French and alludes to the great fire in Hull in 1900. Since this is a smoked beer, it automatically smelled like summer sausage to me. On the upside, it was the most pleasant smoked beer I’ve had. The smoke taste wasn’t over the top and there was some honey to help balance out the smoke. Kate liked this one, I didn’t though.

The stout (a pint after the clock was done).

La Nuit des Temps is BDT’s 5% ABV stout. It poured a dark brown/black and smells roasty like a stout should. The taste didn’t disappoint with it’s delicious roastiness and coffee flavours. The bitterness from the hops finished the beer like black coffee. There was a little bit of nuttiness in there as well. It was Kate’s favourite of the twelve.

BDT offers a 5% ABV raspberry pale ale called La Framboyante. It had an orange-pinky colour to it. The beer screams raspberries in the aroma - as the name would imply. But to me it tasted like a cordial, not a beer. The drying finish was definitely like biting into raspberry seeds as the menu suggested. Kate absolutely hated it. I wouldn’t order it again, but I’ve also had worse.


By the time we go to Dumduminator, an 8% ABV doppelweizenbock, Kate was more than a little tipsy. I think she was dehydrated from walking to BDT in the heat. (Wifey note: What? Me? Tipsy? Never! And that was a long walk.)

Continuing with the Dumduminator, the beer poured an orangy-brown colour and a ring of lacing remained through to the end of the beer. Dumdum was all about bananas. When I smelled it, I thought I was diving into banana pudding. The beer tasted like bananas foster: Banana, caramel and alcohol. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it - Kate didn’t like it as much and struggled to finish it.

The "clock" of samples.

The ninth beer on our beer clock was La Saison Haute (7.5% ABV). It had the colour of apple juice. And while the beer had been sitting outside for a solid 15 minutes already, lacing remained. The nose had pepper, floral and slight orange notes. I didn’t get the explosion of citrus the menu promised in the taste but I did get the pepper. I did notice some lemon on the finish - this wasn’t one of my favourite beers.

Trois portages was the next beer, a 9% ABV tripel. It poured a hazy orange colour. The nose was very fruity but not bright. It was more like drying fruit. The taste was super sweet. Way too sweet. The menu said there was some bitterness that kicked in at the end but I found no relief from the sweetness. It was like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer asks a Brazilian to make him the sweetness drink possible. This was absolutely my least favourite beer.

The penultimate beer was the first IPA on BDT’s menu: Au Pied du Courant - an American style IPA at 6.5% ABV. It poured a nice amber colour and even though it was the 11th beer, it still had lacing. The nose was promising with citrus and pine. But then I got pepper in the taste - not what I was expecting from an America IPA. There was some biscuit malt at the beginning and a bitter finish as expected, but that’s all it is: Bitter. There’s not much flavour in the end. I was disappointed and Kate couldn’t finish hers. At this point, Kate was pretty much sauced. (Wifey note: Hey! You’ll catch up to me soon enough in this post, sir. Jeff was sauced by the time we left.)

The last beer was a big beer: Diable au Corps, an imperial IPA at 9.5% ABV with 100 IBUs. I had been looking forward to this one all day. Could this IPA redeem the performance of the Au Pied? It was an apple juice colour that amazingly still had a cap of head after 30 minutes. I got citrus on the nose and had citrus for taste... and the end was bitter - but the 100 IBUs is counteracted with a wall of sweetness. And the sweetness lasts and lasts and lasts. Kate would not drink more than a sip. I was really looking forward to an imperial IPA and I was really disappointed. This was a close second for worst of the day.

Overall, the brewery has a great selection of beers: Twelve beers that cover a wide variety of tastes. Plus, they also have guest taps for other craft brewers - I like the sense of comraderie. The beers have what I think are a definitive Quebec spin to them. I’d recommend Le Bouillon, L’Allumante, La Nuit des Temps and Dumdum over the rest - and I’d avoid the IPAs if you’re expecting a west coast IPA. And like I said earlier, this place has a great atmosphere and it’s miles ahead of the Clock Tower Brew Pub - and only a couple of miles away.

So take the extra time and get to the Gat for BDT.

(Wifey note: If you’re going with a group, this pub offered this cool table at the front of the restaurant that had a tap at a table. We were both pretty impressed by that. As well, Jeff has decided “Get to the Gat” should be the new tourism slogan for Gatineau - but now that he’s put it in this blog, I don’t think anyone would pay him for his idea.)

A waitress going to the patio.