#torontobeerweek

For the most part Toronto beer week ended yesterday. A few of us are continuing on with one last beer adventure. 

Starting off with a half of lager at An Sibin pub we met our mates and waited to get loaded into the party bus and headed up to Wellington County drinking wonderful Wellington Arkell Best Bitter and Special Pale ale. 

It was a bit windy and cold up at the brewery but still excellent fun with good food, plentiful awesome beer and the extremely entertaining boot chuck competition. Which consisted of people tossing a rubber boot as far as they could out into the parking lot which was measured out like a football field.Apparently I can throw a boot a solid fifty feet. It’s going to take a bunch of practice to do better than that and approach the winner who incredibly got near a hundred feet. 

(I totally made Moyra go up and chuck a boot,then we drank lots of beer together which I am lucky enough to say happened a good many times)

Along with my beer buddies Moyra,Damon and his lovely companion we went on a brewery tour and saw where the magic happened. Even with everything going on they were still busy brewing more beer. Which is pretty awesome to see Ontario craft brewers doing well. The Toronto Beer Lovers and I do our part to keep them busy but even we can only drink so much so its great to see that Wellington and some of our other favourite breweries are busy working hard. 

After the tour I wandered over to see the Freakshow of Orbax and Sweet Pepper who were guys I used to see when I frequented punk and psychobilly shows a few years ago. Fun and mildly gross show with those guys, good to say hi to them and catch up a bit.

Much more beer later like the Gourdon Lightfoot pumpkin ale we got back on our party bus to head back home. A couple us us still sipping away our bus was laid back with good conversation while we watched Ghostbusters with one exception but generally cool. Where I heard the other bus was a bit more rowdy. 

Thanks to Scotty and the rest of the wellington crew for such a fun day out and making such great beer. 

http://www.wellingtonbrewery.ca

Not the most inviting weather for starting a pub crawl with pouring rain but still it’s decently warm and what better end to Toronto Beer Week then getting in on the Official Pub crawl. 

We started at Clinton’s at Christie and Bloor. I’d never been in before, it had always been one of those places I thought I should go to but the idea fades into the subconcious until you wander by again.To cheer the pub crawl and the crawl sponsors Spearhead I had a Spearhead Hawiian pale ale to start. Which paired well with my pretzel necklace. 

Afterwards we made our merry way through the annex to the Victory Cafe. Where me made the big climb up the stairs to try the new Spearhead Jamaican Fire stout. Made with scotch bonnet peppers it definitely had a healthy but delicious burn to it. 

We got left behind at Victory Cafe but found our way to the next stop the Cloak and Dagger out on College. A much smaller space but incredibly fun having the place filled with our fellow pub crawlers. I stayed with the Spearhead theme and had some of their Morrocan Brown ale and Big kahuna Pale ale. Really great atmospere with all kinds of people chatting over delicious beer. 

We ran off to the street car to head out to Stout Irish Pub. I became the official pub crawl envoy. “ If you are part of the pub crawl this is your stop, or if you would like to be part of a pub crawl this is our stop”.

Incredibly happy to end the crawl at Stout and scribbling away drinking an impossibly drinkable Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Stout. 

What a great time. Thanks to Dimitri and the rest Spearhead for taking us out and thaks to all the bars for taking such good care of us. 

www.clintons.ca

http://victorycafe.ca/home/

http://cloakanddaggerpub.com

Toronto Beer Week continues. Though it turns out even beer nerds need clean underthings so I rushed around doing laundry and ran over to Tallboys for their night of Black taps. Stouts, Porters and other lovely black beers pouring through out the night. As well as incredible chill cheese fries.

http://tallboyscraft.com

Silly things like work get in the way of Toronto Beer Week. I missed the Golden Tap Awards and really hadn’t taken the time to check what’s out there this evening. While it certainly won’t be an overly late night   I thought I’d head back out to the Danforth and check out the Wren which has become one of my favourite new watering holes since the Danforth pub crawl. After that I thought I’d head down to the only cafe as  Barley Days is releasing a new pale ale.

http://www.thewrendanforth.com

Continuing Toronto beer week in a rather staggering fashion I wandered out to Indie Ale House in the Junction. They had some lovely casked beers on offer. Some from Indie ale house themsleves, Get Well Bar, Sawdust City, Bar Volo’s house ales, Granville Brewing, Amsterdam,Nickel Brook and Northwinds. 

It was a really nice afternoon with my fellow Toronto Beer Lovers and through the magic of tasting flights got to try all ten casks.

http://indiealehouse.com

http://torontobeerweek.com

Having had an uncommon good night of sleep followed by a good run at the gym and some great coffee from Full of Beans out on Dundas west and a big plate of bacon and eggs I was ready to go back out on the beer trail. 

Literally in this case as todays adventure is the Hopping the Danforth Pub crawl. I’m pretty excited for this as it includes a bunch of bars I’ve been meaning to get to. 

Starting with the Wren at 1382 Danforth Avenue. 

I really liked the Wren with its old wood and wallpaper and old west saloon influenced decor. I particularly liked the chandelier and the bar itself. With its tremendous craft beer selection the Wren was definitely a place to return to and I have a few times since and am looking for my next oppourtunity to visit. At the Wren I had the Left Field Brewing Resin Bag IPA. Which was a great choice and a great way to start the pub crawl. The resin bag was piney refreshing sweetly hoppy refreshing beer. 

A whole store front away we continued on to Sauce at 1776 Danforth. Sause is an interesting place with a more dark shadowy decor with a fun back patio. I stayed with Left Field and had their Maris Pale ale. 

A few blocks we wandered over to Morgan’s on the Danforth at 1282 Danforth Avenue. Morgans was far more intimate than I had imagined and a much more pleasant atmosphere than I would have thought from what I have heard of the place. I enjoyed the stop there with a casked Great Lakes Brewing Canucklehead pale ale. 

From Morgans it was a bright sunny walk down to the Only Cafe.I love the Only. It’s been the scene of so many good times this visit I was chatting with new friends and drinking back a Kensington Brewing Company Fish Eye PA. 

While it was a bit of a struggle to leave the Only Cafe we did have a good walk over to the Court Jester all the way over at 609 Danforth. I took a bit of a rest from drinking at the Court Jester as it was packed a few of us wander ahead to the Brass Taps at 493 Danforth so a not too far of a stumble away. 

I remember the Brass Taps as a dingy college watering hole. The taps have been redone with a good mix of macro and micro brews on offer. It’s still divey but in a good low key bar sort of way. My Barley Days Harvest ale was pretty welcome. Though at this  point I was finishing other Beer Lovers drinks as well. After quaffing our fill and completing our pub crawl we headed down to night two of the C’est What’s Craft Beer Festival. Where we had beer samples and food which was a god send after eleven hours of drinking. 

http://torontobeerweek.com

www.torontobeerlovers.com

https://www.facebook.com/TheWrenDanforth

http://www.sauceondanforth.com

http://www.morgansonthedanforth.com

http://www.theonlycafe.com

http://www.thecourtjesterpub.ca

http://www.brasstapspizzapub.com

Corks has been a fun little spot. A bar in back corner of the Longo’s Supermarket at Maple Leaf square. Corks serves local Ontario beer and wine which goes well with their menu which includes some of the best pizza I’ve ever encountered. This visit I had the La Grillia which was a beautiful creation covered in cheese and roasted vegetables. 

Black Oak Brewing and Sawdust City both had wonderful casks of beer on offer. 

The Black Oak nut brown was wonderful as a casked beer. The cask conditioning made the incredibly balanced nutty flavour even more subtle even more subtle and pleasing. 

The Sawdust City Lone Pine India pale ale was pretty enjoyable as well. A well crafted pale ale which paired wonderfully with my awesome grilled veggie pizza. 

After we took out the Black out nut brown cask and took a good run at the Lone Pine we  wandered off to the C’est What for their festival of craft beer.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Corks-Beer-Wine-Bar-at-Longoss-Maple-Leaf-Square/468033599877029?rf=182263251790498

I was wondering what Stout Irish Pub might have going on during Toronto Beer Week. About an hour later I opened my email to find that Erin (Stout's sassy proprietress) had emailed me to tell me and the Toronto Beer Lovers that the Monday night will be a night of beer bromance. A night of cask beer under the stars where each beer is a Great Lakes Brewing brew mixed with another great Ontario brewers beer. What we had was Great Lakes Brewing's Red Leaf mixed with Kawartha Lakes Brewing's Raspberry Wheat to make a cask of Raspberry Red. Great Lakes Brewing's Crazy Canuck with Beaus Night Marzen to make Crazy Beau Beau Great Lakes Orange Peel Ale mixed wit Amsterdam Brewing's Boneshaker to make my favourite of the Night the Orange Shaker. Great Lakes Brewing's 666 Devil's Pale Ale added with Camerons 266 Dark ale to obviously make up the 932 cask. Inside they also had a bonus cask Of Great Lakes Uncle fester Munich Hellis German Style Lager. Everyone at Stout has been really good to us every time we've been there and this time was no different. It became a great laid back Toronto beer week event. Fantastic local beer. At a fantastic local pub drinking outside as fall comes up on us.

http://www.stoutirishpub.ca/

http://torontobeerweek.com/