The Brewery Market in Hintonburg Park - July 5th (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa)

The Brewery Market in Hintonburg Park - July 5th (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa)

Don't let the line discourage you.

Last Saturday, July 5th, in the glorious sunshine I had the chance to attend the Brewery Market in Hintonburg Park here in Ottawa. The perfect weather and popularity of the event meant that I had to wait in line for about 35 minutes to get into the park but once inside the park was hardly crowded (though it was at its official capacity and hence the lineup and wait to get in) and beer lines moved swiftly. Unlike a typical Beer Festival, the Brewery Market is modelled after traditional, family-friendly beer gardens so full pints are sold (at $6 a piece) rather than sample sized glasses and there is no charge to get in. Breweries on hand included Beau's, Beyond the Pale and Covered Bridge Brewing as well as a few others.
 

On a day this nice you can see why people would want to enjoy craft beer in a park!

For the me, a cask version of Covered Bridge Brewing's Double-Double, a sweet chocolate stout, was the finest beer I had that afternoon but honourable mention goes to their Eternally Hoptimistic. Double-Double sweet had a herbal, yeasty cask touch with lots of chocolate, a bit of an earthy maple touch and subtle wood tones. It carries its alcohol quite well but you can still tell that it is strong, 7.4%. In addition to dozens of different craft beers on top, there were also plenty of yummy eats on the menu.

Mmm... Lentil burger.

The next Brewery Market will be held on Quebec side of the Ottawa River on July 24th. Another Brewery Market in Ottawa will happen in September, please check out their website for further details. I had a wonderful time and certainly plan on attending again. If you are in the area I suggest you head on out for the next which will be held rain or shine.

Beau's All Natural Brewing's 5th Annual Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill, Ontario

Beau's All Natural Brewing's 5th Annual Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill, Ontario

This weekend Vankleek Hill was the host to Beau's All Natural Brewing's 5th Annual Oktoberfest. A shuttle from Ottawa to Vankleek Hill got me there but there was also a bus from Montreal. I attended only the Saturday and am sure to return next year.

Not only was there a wide variety of splendid Beau's beers but there was also an extensive cask section with beers from a whole bunch of different breweries. In addition to beer there were lots of different restaurants from the region slinging their wares. Being a German festival there were lots of presumably tasty meaty dishes (if you are into that sort of thing) and the vegetarian options were few and far between. However, the Brisk-ain't this vegetarian ordered from The Branch restaurant was absolutely delicious.

On the beer side, Kissmeyer Nordic Pale Ale was a real standout to my taste (review upcoming) so I am pleased to report that Steve Beauschene announced that this beer will be brewed regularly by Beau's and distributed along with the rest of their fine brews.

I only choose to try two cask beers and, through no fault of anybody, their flavours were a bit all over the place. I happened to order two beers that were at the very, very end of their respective casks so I ended up getting quite a bit of sediment which kind of threw off the flavours; however, many people seemed to spend all day in the cask section so I'm sure most pours were fine and tasty.

Other than food and beer there were more fun (and hilarious) activities (beer dunk tank!) than you could shake a stick at including a homebrew competition (yum). Not to mention the whole thing raises a tonne of money for the many worthwhile causes that Beau's supports. For more information on that I suggest you head over to the event's webpage.

On top of ALL that, Rich Aucoin and the Mahones took turns rocking our worlds at the main stage. The Mahones were just awesome, speed folk metal on the accordion - I mean you gotta love it. Unfortunately, the shows were a little behind schedule so, in order to make the last shuttle back to Ottawa at 9 PM, I had to leave before Sloan took the stage. I really would have to see them but that in no way takes away from this awesome event and wonderful atmosphere.

Fredericton Craft Beer Festival 2013

Fredericton Craft Beer Festival 2013

The inaugural Fredericton Craft Beer Festival took place this past weekend (March 9th, 2013) at the Delta Fredericton. The event was well attended and thoroughly enjoyable with an impressive selection of great beers. Where some beer festivals have a number of international lagers that we've all had before, Fredericton Craft Beer Festival was a tribute to craft beers and had none of these "filler beers".

I was very pleased to be able to try beers by Bushwakker, based in Regina, Saskatchewan and by Shiretown out of Dalhousie New Brunswick. I'm not normally able to get my hands on these brews so that was interesting.

Also Picaroons had a cask version of their Yippee IPA that was just amazing. The most surprising beer of the festival had to be Moosehead Cask, it was flavourful and really interesting - not what I expected from Moosehead to be honest.

As fun as the festival was I feel like I could have had a better time if the event had done a better job of getting information to us. When I arrived I was handed a roll of tickets without explanation. None of the volunteers inside the venue that I asked knew what the tickets were for. I eventually went back out to the gate, asked the staff there and found out that the tickets were for the "Garrison Beer Education Room" but with no indication as to what the "Garrison Beer Education Room" was.

I eventually made my way to the Beer Education Room and, to my utter astonishment, found what seemed like more than a dozen more ales, barley wines and bock beers to sample by Unibroue, Brooklyn brewery and plenty of other breweries that had not been advertised in the lead up to the event and were not even included in the beer checklist pamphlet I received when I arrived!

Jackpot.

... Except, the Garrison [District Ale House] Beer Education Room closed an hour before the end of the main event and precisely ten minutes after I discovered it, bummer. However, I still got to try Brooklyn Brewing's Monster Barley Wine and their Local 2, so I'm grateful for that.

Edit: The organizers of the Fredericton Craft Beer Festival contacted me after this post went up to explain why the Garrison Beer Education Room worked the way it did. According to them the Beer Education Room had to be treated as a separate event due for licensing reasons as a result they weren't able to promote in the same way as the main event. This explains a lot and I am grateful to the organizers for reaching out to me to explain this.

All in all, I am very glad I went. The venue was very nice, it was a great opportunity to meet some brewers and fellow beer geeks and to try a wide variety of really excellent beers. The VIP ticket was definitely worth it as the pass got me admitted to the event a half hour early and gave me access to the Bushwakker beers for only $10 more. Also the free chips and popcorn was a nice touch and the water jugs at glass rinsing station were always kept full. Next time (and I'll happily go again) I won't leave the Beer Education to the last few minutes. Also, it would be nice to be able to buy a few bottles to take home though I'm sure that would be another regulatory nightmare for the organizers.

Two IPAs and a hoppy American Pale Ale from Garrison Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Imperial IPA -Garrison Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 7.0%

This unfiltered strong ale has a hop smell so strong and bitter it's almost metallic. It's a glowing reddish orange colour in a glass and is cloudy with some light sediment. The beer itself, quite unsurprisingly, tastes strongly of hops but with a caramel malt backing that prevents the beer from being one dimensional. However, even with this backdrop of sweetness, if you don't like hops this beer is not for you. If you DO like hops, this Imperial IPA has a hoppy bite that mellows as the glass empties and an interesting malt character making it an authentic and tasty IPA.

Comet Double IPA - Garrison Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 7.0%

Had the chance to try this one out of a cask at the Seaport Beerfest. Quite good. Incredibly foamy. The aroma was very much watermelon and melon hops. Tastes extremely bitter, more along the lines of a sprucy hops but still with some melon tones balancing it out but overall less melon than there is in the aroma. Certainly sweet and had malt flavours but deliciously dominated by the hops.

Hop Yard Pale Ale - Garrison Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.3%

This dry-hopped pale ale is just on the lighter side of medium amber in a glass and it pours a slightly cloudy gold with a nice fluffy head and good lacing. An aroma strongly of resin and sweet nectary hops. A very bitter very floral hops taste, citrus, melon and lots of cedar. Quite sweet with some toasted bread malt tones as well which grounds the high-flying hops taste which still dominates this lovely example of an American Pale Ale.

Depending on the sip this beer is sweet, malty, with fruity melon tones and very hoppy. If you love hops this beer is great: complicated and delicious. If you hate hops do not mess with this beer or really any other dry-hopped beer for that matter. If you are in between on whether or not you like hops give this one a try, and it may just make you a believer.

Seaport Beerfest (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Seaport Beerfest 2012

A few general notes about my recent Seaport Beerfest experience in Halifax: it was awesome despite the rain. I got a number of reviews done and it was great to see such a vast selection.

Of the beers I tried, the ones that really stood out were: Rogue's Roost's Barley Wine, Garrison's Comet Double IPA, Flacatoune a Belgian Pale Ale from Microbrasserie Charlevoix and Hell Bay's English Ale which I thought I was a superb English Pale Ale. There were many more beers that I tried and enjoyed and many more that I didn't have time to try. Hell Bay's Smoked Rye also gets special mention for being such an interesting beer even though I couldn't finish my sample for fear that the intense smoke flavours would mess up my palate.

I also would have liked to be able to make it to some of the ciders since I don't usually drink those. In fact, one of things I enjoyed most was being able to try beers that I wasn't expecting to be all that remarkable without having to shell out the cash to buy a 12-pack just to confirm my suspicions.

I'm definitely going next year and wholeheartedly recommend it to all you beer enthusiasts out there.