Cask Night at An Sibin Pub featuring Ontario Craft brewers serving up casked beer and participating in competitions. My favourite being the tricycle obstacle course. I didn't take the tricycle for much of a ride myself but I did use it for my chair for a bit of the night. I also ended up with a water gun from the shot glass filling competition. Me in a bar with a water gun wasn't going to end well. I was however only threatened with iminent death once and made a friend out of that. 

The cask beer was pretty great in the heat and Mr. Pig was pretty great too. Though Even better through the summer I've been back to An Sibin and been to tonnes of beer events and got to know a bunch of the people who worked with the breweries and make all this good beer and fun nights like Cask night at An Sibin happen.

ansibinpub.com

Turned out to be quite the evening. I left work as a thunderstorm was starting. One of those ones where nature gives us a reminder of who is really in charge. On the way I ran to the courier for a drop off and made a side trip to grab a red velvet cupcake.

Over to the Only cafe where I found a pint and the patio where some friends and I stood out in the light cool rain. Which was just incredible after the heat we had been experiencing. From the patio we could hear the live music. As the rain got harder we found a spot under the umbrellas.

The Battle of the Brew Bands was a competition of bands all of whom had at least one member from the various breweries who were featured on the Only Cafe taps that night. I was there especially to see the Beaus band. I used to follow Steve the Beaus rep's former band Constable Brennan years ago. His new band was pretty great and he continues to be one of the nicest and coolest people.( A trait he shares with many of his Beaus Brewing cohorts). From what I recall the breweries represented were Beaus, Sawdust City, Wellington and Steamwhistle.

In a way I'm chastising myself for not tackling the event and blogging about the ins and outs of the competition and the beer. Direct reporting which can be fun in its own way. On the other hand just being out and enjoying the night was fantastic. Good company, good beer in a bar I'm fond of. I got to cheer on an old acquaintance and spent a rainy cool summer evening on a patio.

After the Only cafe a bunch of us crossed the Danforth and headed to Square Boy for burgers and onion rings an occurrence which happens often among my friends when out to the Only Cafe.

http://www.theonlycafe.com/

Ontario Craft Brewers Cask Festival 2011 - Arrow and Loon Ottawa, Ontario.

This afternoon we headed to the Arrow and Loon, a great pub just inside the Glebe, for the close of OCB week in Ottawa, the 2011 Ottawa Cask Festival. 5 breweries cask conditioned some beers, giving them very unique flavours, and offered them up to the attendants, all to expose Ottawans to some great beer and raise funds for the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group. 

The attending Breweries cask conditioned:

Mill Street Brewery - Weedeater and Tankenstien

Nickel Brook  - Headstock IPA, Gluten Free Ale, and a Vanilla Bean Porter

Beau's All Natural Brewery - a Bitter, Festiveale, Pan Ontario Ale, and the Lugtread 

Muskoka Cottage Brewery - Mad Tom IPA and their Cream Ale

Kichesippi Brewery - 1855 Dark Ale and OCB 613 IPA

Unfortunately we did not get to try every beer, despite our finest efforts, but we got a good sampling. The predominance of hoppy, high BTU IPA's meant that we had to drink strategically. 

Among all the beer I was lucky enough to get one last taste of the Pan Ontario Ale, thanks to Jamie from Beau's who was generous enough to provide us with a sample. I'll say, it's a crying shame that that beer will never, can never, be tasted again after this batch.

                                 For me, the winner of this event was the Nickel Brook Vanilla Bean Maple Porter. It had a nice light maltiness and ended with a heavy, bold maple flavour with a hint of vanilla. In conversations with the gent who brewed it, I learned that this was achieved by putting vanilla beans and pure maple syrup right into the cask while it conditioned. 

So unfortunately OCB week has ended, if I am not happy - at least my liver is.

Beer, Cheese, and Bacon!

Last night we had the great fortune of sitting down with a pack of Ottawa Beerites, Jamie Kaufman from Beau's, and Matt from Clocktower BrewPub to taste some Ontario beers, paired with cheeses and God's other gift to humanity....Bacon. 

The event was part of the Ontario Craft Brewers Week, and located in the basement bar of the 575 Bank Street Clocktower, we grabbed some pints of Kichesippi, and chatted for a bit with the boys. Soon the room smelt like bacon, and all was good in the world.

They Paired:

                 Beau's Lugtread Ale - Soft Brie - Italian Prosciutto

Clocktower ESB - 9 Year Old Chedder - Smoked Maple Bacon

Clocktower Brown Ale - Ripen Orange Chedder - Smoked Maple Bacon

Pan-Ontario Ale - Aged Blue Goat's Cheese - Double Smoked Local Bacon

                 By and far the hero of the night was the Pan Ontario Ale. This is a beer that was created by combining 5 Beers from across Ontario:

- Grand River's Curmudgeon IPA - Wellington's Russian Imperial Stout - Flying Monkey's Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale - Beau's Screamin' Beaver Double IPA - Great Lakes' 666 Devil's Pale Ale

The whole thing was then Aged in Bourbon barrels..... BOURBON BARRELS!!!

Needless to say, it was amazing and I wish I had more, but they apparently only mixed up about 4,000 liters of it, and that really isn't a lot.