Be part of the solution at:
beerbistro's Late Autumn Beer Festival to find a cure for blood cancers
Sat Nov 19th 2005 1pm til 7pm
Dozens of beers to try, including:
• Winter Warmers
• Festival Exclusives
• Cask-Conditioned Ales
• Hard-to-Find Belgians
Your ticket Includes:
• 5 Tasting Coupons (additional tasting coupons are $2 each )
• Beer Cuisine Hors d’Oeuvres
• a Souvenir Tasting Glass That’s Yours to Keep (first 120 attendees)
Plus
Special Tutored Tastings Hosted by International Beer Expert Stephen Beaumont
3:30 - Ontario Beer, Ontario Cheese Thanks to Monforte Dairy www.monfortedairy.com
4:30 - Intro to Beer & Food Pairing
5:30 - Beer & Chocolate Thanks to Soma Chocolatemaker www.somachocolate.com
$10 per tasting session all proceeds go to Leukemia Research (advance registration recommended; sign up at the bar)
TASTE the beers of Ontario at the special Ontario Craft Brewers table
All for only $20 in advance, $25 at the door
Tickets Available at beerbistro (416) 861-9872, 18 King Street East,
or by contacting Kerry Desmond (416) 301-7339 kerry.desmond@sympatico.ca.
or Alastair Hood (905) 257-7121 ahood@pixartstudios.com
Looking for the original Bar Towel blog? You can find it at www.thebartowel.com.
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Late Autumn Beer Festival at beerbistro
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Steve Beaumont
- Posts: 443
- Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2003 7:00 pm
- Contact:
A couple of interesting brews are slated to show at the Late Autumn Beer Festival, like the return of the whiskey-oaked Black Oak Brown Ale (from Volo's cask fest, except now with a little more oak life), a cask-conditioned, peated malt version of Sgt. Major (or Sgt. Pete, as Perry and I have been calling him), the Granite's new barley wine and one-year-old draught Barley Wine from Mill Street.
And there may be more still to come.
Plus, for a mere $10 contribution to charity for each session, there's a chance to sample some excellent chocolates from Soma in the Distillery District paired with different beers, and Ontario cheeses from Montforte Dairy partnered with beers from the Ontario Craft Brewers. Only 25 spots available for each of these seminars, which I'll be leading.
And there may be more still to come.
Plus, for a mere $10 contribution to charity for each session, there's a chance to sample some excellent chocolates from Soma in the Distillery District paired with different beers, and Ontario cheeses from Montforte Dairy partnered with beers from the Ontario Craft Brewers. Only 25 spots available for each of these seminars, which I'll be leading.
Could we get a clarification on the extra $10 tasting sessions? I bought two festival tickets last week but forgot about the extra tasting session (Soma.) I went in to BB tonight to sign up for the Soma one and was told that there wasn't a signup thing for those sessions contrary to what the first message here says. I don't mind if it's now a first 25 there in attendance thing but I'd like to know for sure.
lister
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Steve Beaumont
- Posts: 443
- Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2003 7:00 pm
- Contact:
Sorry, that's my bad. I meant to have sign up sheets available behind the bar by now, but haven't gotten to it yet. Drop me a line at beaumont@worldofbeer.com and I'll make sure your places are reserved.
Are now at the bar at beerbistro.
The fest was totally awesome, had an amazing time... Saw many of the Toweller's that I know there... Cass, Jon Walker, Ken Woods, Michael Hancock, Dan-D-Man, I focused on trying new brews that I hadn't sample before, as well as a couple of old favorites of course, and there were quite a few special brews to try... Also did the Cheese & Beer Pairing session with Stephen Beaumont, which was awesome, I'm quite new to 'cheese appreciation', so this was a total eye-opener to me, and I really, really enjoyed it... We sampled 4 cheeses from Monforte Dairy, an Ontario dairy, www.monfortedairy.com . They were each paired with a different Ontario craft beer, and the tastes worked so well together, I'm definitely going recreate a D-I-Y version of this at home soon!
I'm NOT going to miss another festival at BeerBistro, everything about it was absolutely exceptional, first class and for a very worthy cause to boot!
Ah! Forgot the mention the food, it was amazing, delicious appetizers, tiny seasoned burgers, giant shrimp, duck breast hor doeurves, pulled pork sandwiches... Amazing! I'm so glad that we have Beer Bistro in town... As much as I LOVE C'est What? and it's really down-to-earth, mellow atmosphere, Beer Bistro really kicks it up a notch and prooves that beer can not just exist, but excel in a fine dining restaurant... Bravo!!!
I'm NOT going to miss another festival at BeerBistro, everything about it was absolutely exceptional, first class and for a very worthy cause to boot!
Ah! Forgot the mention the food, it was amazing, delicious appetizers, tiny seasoned burgers, giant shrimp, duck breast hor doeurves, pulled pork sandwiches... Amazing! I'm so glad that we have Beer Bistro in town... As much as I LOVE C'est What? and it's really down-to-earth, mellow atmosphere, Beer Bistro really kicks it up a notch and prooves that beer can not just exist, but excel in a fine dining restaurant... Bravo!!!
We were there the whole time except for the last 30/45 minutes when we wandered around the neighbourhood before the birthday dinner. Items on the sample menu were:
Me: (in order)
Black Oak Bourbon Barrel Brown
Mill Street Barley Wine
Tsarina Katarina Imperial Stout
St. Peter's Ale
Fuller's ESB
Stiegl
Niagara's Best Blonde
Paddy's Irish Ale
Now you can't say I didn't try stuff I normally don't have!
The Black Oak Bourbon was interesting. I was expecting something along the lines of Innis & Gunn and it was in the ballpark but didn't have that upfront oaky punch the I&G had. If this was available on tap or in bottles I'd have it every now and then. I wonder what it would taste like if it aged a little more...
The Mill Street Barley Wine was a slow drink! This was really the first time I had barley wine (the early one during the Granite Oktoberfest doesn't count as I was so stuffed that I could only take a few sips.) I must say that I really didn't enjoy that at all. It was very strong and not very appealing taste-wise.
The Tsarina Katerina. Yeah... I knew what I was getting myself in for based on what I read here but I braved it anyways. One word: no. Another slow one that I didn't find appealing. I can appreciate the care and craft that went into it but the tongue said "Sorry bub, ain't gonna work." More for you guys if it ever graces the LCBO shelves.
I was surprised that I didn't like St. Peter's Ale. I've been on a bit of an English ale kick for the past couple of months. Fuller's ESB was alright. I do prefer their London Pride better and liked Propeller ESB more. Stiegl tasted and smelled like hay. Quite thin too. For the last couple of samples I thought I'd enter more familiar territory to shape up for dinner. I finally tried Niagara's Best Blonde for real this time unlike the mistaken sample at C'est What's last thingy. Pretty good, I like it much more than Amsterdam's Natural Blonde. Last up was the ultra safe Paddy's Irish Ale which as a red ale didn't surprise me one bit, mission accomplished there.
Girlfriend:
Ephemere Framboise
La Maudite
Affligem Blond
La Messagere
Liberty Ale
Koningshoeven Quadruppel
Scotch Silly (twice)
I had tastes of each of them except for La Maudite. She really liked the Ephemere. I thought it tasted like the rest of them except for the raspberry backdrop. I don't care for the Ephemeres. Scotch Silly was quite nice. We both really liked it. She even had a second sample. LCBO: bottles please! Now! RIGHT NOW! La Messagere... I'll just quote a line from Monty Python: It was like making love in a canoe. I realize the purpose of this beer. It's really a cruel joke for those that are allergic to gluten. It's like closing your eyes are wishing deeply that the frozen yogurt you're eating is really Ben & Jerry's. Don't pretend, find another beverage category to enjoy instead.
We attended the Beer & Chocolate session. My girlfriend wets herself at the prospect of having some of that Soma hot chocolate. I was mostly indifferent. I like my chocolate sweet preferrably with some milk in it.
The beer samples were: St. Amboise Oatmeal Stout, Mill St. Coffee Porter, an ESB which escapes me at the moment and Aventinus. The chocolate samples were two chocolate covered cashews (passed those on, don't like nuts), a dark chocolate piece, a Mayan spiced dark chocolate piece and an orange flavoured chocolate piece.
One thing I am curious about though is the change from each patron getting a food sampler plate in June to servers wandering about with a plate of each food which we picked off of. Why was that? While I did wind up eating way more than the sample plate in June (I think I managed to ultimately eat a whole burger!) it was kind of annoying to either hope that you'd get all the samples come by or have to get up and accost the servers. AND DAMN IT MAN WOULD YOU PLEASE PUT A FULL PULLED PORK SANDWICH ENTREE ON THE MENU!!! Those itty bitty samples are cruel punishment!
After having all those beer and food samples I honestly can't believe I downed two more beers (Denison's Weissebier and De Koninck yum!) and a steak a mere hour later. The food, beer and the price/quality ratio made quite the impression on some of the dinner guests who had their first visits. I suspect they'll be future customers. Good stuff!
Me: (in order)
Black Oak Bourbon Barrel Brown
Mill Street Barley Wine
Tsarina Katarina Imperial Stout
St. Peter's Ale
Fuller's ESB
Stiegl
Niagara's Best Blonde
Paddy's Irish Ale
Now you can't say I didn't try stuff I normally don't have!
The Black Oak Bourbon was interesting. I was expecting something along the lines of Innis & Gunn and it was in the ballpark but didn't have that upfront oaky punch the I&G had. If this was available on tap or in bottles I'd have it every now and then. I wonder what it would taste like if it aged a little more...The Mill Street Barley Wine was a slow drink! This was really the first time I had barley wine (the early one during the Granite Oktoberfest doesn't count as I was so stuffed that I could only take a few sips.) I must say that I really didn't enjoy that at all. It was very strong and not very appealing taste-wise.
The Tsarina Katerina.
Yeah... I knew what I was getting myself in for based on what I read here but I braved it anyways. One word: no. Another slow one that I didn't find appealing. I can appreciate the care and craft that went into it but the tongue said "Sorry bub, ain't gonna work." More for you guys if it ever graces the LCBO shelves.I was surprised that I didn't like St. Peter's Ale. I've been on a bit of an English ale kick for the past couple of months. Fuller's ESB was alright. I do prefer their London Pride better and liked Propeller ESB more. Stiegl tasted and smelled like hay. Quite thin too. For the last couple of samples I thought I'd enter more familiar territory to shape up for dinner. I finally tried Niagara's Best Blonde for real this time unlike the mistaken sample at C'est What's last thingy. Pretty good, I like it much more than Amsterdam's Natural Blonde. Last up was the ultra safe Paddy's Irish Ale which as a red ale didn't surprise me one bit, mission accomplished there.
Girlfriend:
Ephemere Framboise
La Maudite
Affligem Blond
La Messagere
Liberty Ale
Koningshoeven Quadruppel
Scotch Silly (twice)
I had tastes of each of them except for La Maudite. She really liked the Ephemere. I thought it tasted like the rest of them except for the raspberry backdrop. I don't care for the Ephemeres. Scotch Silly was quite nice. We both really liked it. She even had a second sample. LCBO: bottles please! Now! RIGHT NOW! La Messagere... I'll just quote a line from Monty Python: It was like making love in a canoe. I realize the purpose of this beer. It's really a cruel joke for those that are allergic to gluten. It's like closing your eyes are wishing deeply that the frozen yogurt you're eating is really Ben & Jerry's. Don't pretend, find another beverage category to enjoy instead.
We attended the Beer & Chocolate session. My girlfriend wets herself at the prospect of having some of that Soma hot chocolate. I was mostly indifferent. I like my chocolate sweet preferrably with some milk in it.
The beer samples were: St. Amboise Oatmeal Stout, Mill St. Coffee Porter, an ESB which escapes me at the moment and Aventinus. The chocolate samples were two chocolate covered cashews (passed those on, don't like nuts), a dark chocolate piece, a Mayan spiced dark chocolate piece and an orange flavoured chocolate piece.
One thing I am curious about though is the change from each patron getting a food sampler plate in June to servers wandering about with a plate of each food which we picked off of. Why was that? While I did wind up eating way more than the sample plate in June (I think I managed to ultimately eat a whole burger!) it was kind of annoying to either hope that you'd get all the samples come by or have to get up and accost the servers. AND DAMN IT MAN WOULD YOU PLEASE PUT A FULL PULLED PORK SANDWICH ENTREE ON THE MENU!!! Those itty bitty samples are cruel punishment!
After having all those beer and food samples I honestly can't believe I downed two more beers (Denison's Weissebier and De Koninck yum!) and a steak a mere hour later. The food, beer and the price/quality ratio made quite the impression on some of the dinner guests who had their first visits. I suspect they'll be future customers. Good stuff!
lister
Sounds like y'all had a good time.
They did servers with trays thing last time I was there for a fest. i personally like it better since my fat butt left feeling nicely full, rather than the previous time when I felt like I didn't get enough.
I found that once I got over the fear that the food would disappear (they had plenty) that it was relatively easy to flag someone down, or they would get to your table eventually. The service was excellent (as it almost always is there)
Mmmmm steak and mashed potatoe martini.... <drool>
They did servers with trays thing last time I was there for a fest. i personally like it better since my fat butt left feeling nicely full, rather than the previous time when I felt like I didn't get enough.
I found that once I got over the fear that the food would disappear (they had plenty) that it was relatively easy to flag someone down, or they would get to your table eventually. The service was excellent (as it almost always is there)
Mmmmm steak and mashed potatoe martini.... <drool>
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Kid Presentable
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2001 8:00 pm
- Location: Toronto
the reason we changed the format for the food at the festival was because we tried it that way for the golden tap awards and everyone in the restaurant seemed to like it better. I personally like it better, finding it less of a pain in the ass than the sample plates, and people get to try a greater variety of food.lister wrote:
One thing I am curious about though is the change from each patron getting a food sampler plate in June to servers wandering about with a plate of each food which we picked off of. Why was that? While I did wind up eating way more than the sample plate in June (I think I managed to ultimately eat a whole burger!) it was kind of annoying to either hope that you'd get all the samples come by or have to get up and accost the servers. AND DAMN IT MAN WOULD YOU PLEASE PUT A FULL PULLED PORK SANDWICH ENTREE ON THE MENU!!! Those itty bitty samples are cruel punishment!
we've had a pulled pork sandwich on the lunch menu for quite some time now, if you ask real nice when you come in after lunch I'll make one for you.
kp
The fest was awesome as they usually are at beerbistro. Lots of food being served and good beer to be had by all. The waitstaff is very professional and knowledgeable.
I was happy to see other restaurateurs partaking in the event. Namely, Ralph from Volo and George from C'est What were enjoying the event either as customers or to get ideas on planning their own events perhaps. Regardless, it's great to see them supporting each other similar to the way craft brewers do!
The best beer I tried was the Stein Dark Lager. Very flavourful, nutty taste. I'll definitely pick some of these up at the LCBO soon. The silent auction was a nice touch to the event to raise funds, along with the door prizes.
I was happy to see other restaurateurs partaking in the event. Namely, Ralph from Volo and George from C'est What were enjoying the event either as customers or to get ideas on planning their own events perhaps. Regardless, it's great to see them supporting each other similar to the way craft brewers do!
The best beer I tried was the Stein Dark Lager. Very flavourful, nutty taste. I'll definitely pick some of these up at the LCBO soon. The silent auction was a nice touch to the event to raise funds, along with the door prizes.
Stein Dark Lager? I've not heard of this one, and I can't find it listed on the LCBO site. The closest I could find was Duckstein (which is a copper-coloured Altbier from Germany) and Steinlager (which is a pale lager from New Zealand).DAN-D-MAN wrote:The best beer I tried was the Stein Dark Lager. Very flavourful, nutty taste. I'll definitely pick some of these up at the LCBO soon.
