#torontobeerfest

Might as well start out right headed over to Black Oak for some of the Summer Saison which was my absolute favourite at the Toronto Beer Festival last year. It's a superb beer for the hot weather.

I then tried the Black Oak Daily Bread collaboration beer. Part wheat beer and part pilsner. Beautiful colouring and the Belgian Wheat nose brought you nicely into the easy drinking of a smooth pilsner. Simon, Black Oak's brewer out did himself on the Daily Bread.

After a nice few drinks and some catching up with the Black Oak crew I took a few steps to the left and visited Beaus. I had a Festivale ale and a nice chat with Beaus very own Stuntman Morra. Some really good beer and really good people with Beaus brewing.

Off twisting through the crowds to find myself over at Great Lakes Brewing's Caskapalooza.

A wall of one off casks, a bar surrounded in taps, a DJ, dancing girls and party seating. The bigger breweries pulls off similar party areas Great Lakes does it with some delicious and sometimes adventurous beer. Though somehow Wellington Brewing snuck a "Welly One Off" into the GLB Caskapalooza wall. I couldn't read the full name it was a sour cherry beer. The cherry flavouring made it taste a bit like cherry cola.

GLB Caskapalooza Herb's spiced Saison. Is "oh my gosh this is really good" a tasting note? It starts off really nicely drinkable and then you are hit with his pepper flavour that just pushes the beer into being unique and a bit extraordinary.

Off around the band shell and the fountains to explore more of the festival.

I found the Quebecois import tent. Sponsored by the guys from Bar Volo it was four or five of the great Quebecois breweries they've fostered relationships with and often feature in the bar. Wonderfully This allowed me to have some of Dieu du Ciel's delicious Corne de Diable pale ale.

After which I wandered back through the grounds to Black Oak Brewing for my favourite Ontario Pale Ale.

Which is pretty impressive Pale ales are plentiful and Black Oaks remains in my opinion one of the best. With some Toronto beer lovers and Black Oak's illustrious Ken Woods we went back to e wilds of the beer festival.

Over to Hogtown Brewers for their Kolsh style beer.

* A Public service announcement When at the Toronto festival of beer Pre-pee-pare. Meaning there are line ups and you need to go line up well before the need to make space for more beer is urgent.

Back to our regularly scheduled beer quaffing. We made it back over to The Quebecois tent. Where I had some Hopfenstark Framboise. Which I thought I might not have again until Montreal beer Fest. next year. Making it a treat to find at home.

Le Trou du Diable Schieve Tabarnak Old Style Ale was recommended and was quite good.It had the most transparent pale yellow colour.

The nights entertainment was Salt N Pepa. The two of them looked pretty great and the show made for a fun bit of nostalgia for a crowd that was feeling pretty good.Unfortunately I wasn't really able to get a photo.

  Off to Spearhead. They released a few new beers. I tried the Belgian Stout. Amazingly it was as good a stout as their Pale ale is an amazingly quaffable ale. After the stout I had the Hawaiian Style Pale ale. Which is quite wonderful in the hi weather and notably recently available in bottles in the LCBO.

I finished the evening wishing the guys at Beaus and Black Oak. Good night and wandered off with a True North Cream Ale. Jen brews up some good beer smooth, drinkable and a great night cap to my visit to the 2012 Toronto Festival of Beer.

http://www.beerfestival.ca/

Saturday was such an incredibly hot day. Pretty much stayed inside and hugged the window air conditioner for the morning. Adorned with what will be hence forth known as the festival hat, sunglasses and my mp3 player loaded with rockabilly I wandered out into the sweaty day.

Had a rather nice walk through Parkdale. Found an Americano and a ginger cookie an made my way down to the exhibition grounds. Walking through the muggy heat I had the biggest craving for an ice cold bottle of Labbat 50. It would have been perfect for the moment. With the heat and bounding down into the Toronto Beer fest. It was good to see a good line up already forming for the fest. Even better to pass by the line and walk straight through the vender entrance.

After a quick walk through the grounds and headed over to Black Oak Brewing Company. Topped up my coffee with double chocolate cherry stout and helped set up for the day. Good enthusiasm from the crowd throughout the day. Though we needed better signage for the other beers as the crowd generally thought we only had the two that had six pack boxes out on the counter. The pale ale and the nut brown. It was fun to pour and explain the other beers and often get people to try the other taps. The Summer Saison was a good sell in the heat. One of the few regrets for the day was that I didn’t get to drink more of it. Had a lot of fun pouring talking beer with the fest patrons. Very happy to see some good enthusiasm for Black Oak. We shared some pretty good food in the booth too. Chili cheese fries which were pretty extraordinary. Avocado grilled cheese, which wa pretty inspired. An artisan grilled cheese with home made ketchup, which was good but a beer based bread and something deeper than the one year old cheddar would have been more suitable. As the pepper bread competed too much with the cheese. The gentleman from Oysterboy dropped off a plate of Oysters and homemade ginger sauce which I quite liked and I also had a pretty decent cheese burger while drinking later in the day. Which was great leaning on the Black Oak counter drinking the Pale ale to was down the burger that was loaded with hot peppers pickles and a BBQ sauce that worked really well. A few days later remembering just what I drank will be interesting. I had some of all the Black Oak beers. Started my wandering with the Black Oak Hop Bomb cask conditioned pale ale. It was a nice choice being light and a pleasant hoppy texture and taste. Popped across to Great Lakes Brewing to have some of the Crazy Cannuck. Which really wasn’t a beer I was crazy about. This summer I’ve grown pretty fond of it and look forward being down at the Great Lakes Brewery Thursday for Project x where I fully intend to pick some up. Front there I wandered found another of many t-shirts I came away with this weekend. A bright yellow Toronto Beer Fest shirt. Perfect for if I got to inebriated and needed to flag myself down later. At least I’d be visible. Over to Mill st. for a few moments of frivolity with Sketchy the clown and some coffee porter which brought me memories of Beer fest’s past darting back over to Mill st. again and a again throughout the day. The Mill st. Coffee Porter seems less severe and bitter than my memories of it. I liked it originally for the stronger overwhelming flavours. I’m not sure if it’s that my palate has evolved or if they have massaged the beer over the years as it has been a few years since I’ve had it. Next stop St. Ambois another t-shirt (which made it into the hands of one of my fine companions at Black Oak). A McAuslan’s cream ale and a few words with Barry of St. Ambois whom I had met previously at the Junction Fromagerie. Sipping on my cream ale. I walked about found Spearhead Hawaiian Pale ale which with it’s light flavour tied with the Black Oak Summer Saison for the best beer for being out in days heat. I would happily spend a summer afternoon on the patio rotating between the two of them. Out of character for me I hit Innis and Gunn and had their blonde. It was alright as Blondes go. I like the concept of Innis and Gunn’s beers the ones aged in rum and whisky casks. The end result seems too saccharine and sweet for me though. I missed but will mention Stone Hammer, Wellington and F&M nor did I make it back to Beaus. All breweries whom make fantastic beer. At he far end of the bandshell I found the Great Lakes brewery Caskapolooza. A tent set up with what looked to be near a dozen casks and Great Lakes Taps. Here I had a nice chat with Adrian the brewer from GLB while I tried the Gummi Beer. They took a kilo of gummy bears from Costco and infused it into the beer. Like most beers he attempts Adrian made it work. It felt a bit like a weiss beer had the gummy flavour but wasn’t overwhelming. I hope and will advocate that they try it again. The other one Adrian suggested was the Good Morning coffee stout. It was amazingly good as well. I had another Gummi beer and went back towards Black Oak. With my South Side Cheese burger After a quick stop at Kings for their pilsner I went though the Black Oak line up. The pale ale which was fantastic with the burger. The nut brown which is such a good dark ale. The Summer Saison, a fantastically blended Belgian style wheat beer with coriander and orange peel (Which will be the first thing I reach for when I finally make it home this evening) and the Double Chocolate Cherry Stout. Which is the beer that made me fall in love with and become a devoted fan of Black Oak Brewing Company last year at the inaugural Toronto Beer Week. After we closed up shop for the day. We headed back over to the Great Lakes Brewing Caskapalooza tent where we had something of an after party. Breweries from all over donating kegs to carry us into the night. There I had a Dark Flying monkeys beer. Didn’t catch what it was as I was in good company and we were busily picking on eachother. Tried the GLB Raspberry blonde and spent the rest of the evening drinking GLB Crazy Cannuck. The Toronto Beer Fest was great time. It was super fun to see it from both sides of the counter this year. Good company and excellent revellers at the Black Oak Booth. Excellent fun talking with the other vendors and being excited about each others product. Good food and entertainment at the fest. I’m already looking forward to next year.