Any chance of a micobeer fest in the GTA area instead? Don't get me wrong, the beer festival can be fun (if you're up for the party) but what about a true beer tasting event focusing on independent craft beers?
Or maybe I just described the patio at Volo?
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Toronto Festival Of Beer
Golden Tap Awards on August 18th is exactly that. Hope to see you there, more information in the top thread in Events.mapmytap wrote:Any chance of a micobeer fest in the GTA area instead? Don't get me wrong, the beer festival can be fun (if you're up for the party) but what about a true beer tasting event focusing on independent craft beers?
Or maybe I just described the patio at Volo?
Personally, the St. Lawrence festival is sorely missed.mapmytap wrote:Any chance of a micobeer fest in the GTA area instead?
I think the area businesses didn't like that Front St got closed down. The sad part is that the beer area was nicely confined to a small courtyard off the road. Drop the boring ribs part of the festival, and you can leave your streets wide open!
Really? To me the SI had a lot more malt presence than the old crustacean, which was over the top hoppy until its about 5+ years old. Unless you are looking at English style barley wines I would say it was close to dead on.tuqueboy wrote:i liked them all, but the barley wine wasn't malt-forward enough to really be a barley wine. tasty, but not entirely sure i'd call it a barley wine. as an example, the rogue old crustacean may be 110 IBUs (which i happen to think is a bit over the top), but it's also packed with malt.JerCraigs wrote: (Scotch Irish one offs I thought were all very good)
Sounds like a great time, I should hopefully make it. Good excuse to visit the beerbistro again too.Geez, the last one must have been about 4 summers ago or so. There were rumblings that it was going to come back last year, but then it didn't.mapmytap wrote:When was this last held? ...must have been before my time.sstackho wrote: Personally, the St. Lawrence festival is sorely missed.
It was a nice, small little fest. No admission fees, good brewers and good beer. Mediocre food.
The company that ran the fest - www.goodbeer.ca - still does so in Peterborough and Kitchener.
The businesses on Front abhorred losing their precious parking for an event that packed the street with people for a weekend...go figure!!!sstackho wrote:Geez, the last one must have been about 4 summers ago or so. There were rumblings that it was going to come back last year, but then it didn't.mapmytap wrote:When was this last held? ...must have been before my time.sstackho wrote: Personally, the St. Lawrence festival is sorely missed.
It was a nice, small little fest. No admission fees, good brewers and good beer. Mediocre food.
The company that ran the fest - www.goodbeer.ca - still does so in Peterborough and Kitchener.
The last one would have been in 2003 IIRC, and despite the rumors of a comeback, it has yet to happen, maybe someday, because it was a much better fest in terms of micro attendance than TFOB.
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Rob Creighton
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We (GRB) will gladly do an event focused on micro beer if it is within our market area and maybe even outside of it but I think it is strategically wrong to allow ourselves to get caught up in macro beer world where they are trying to align Guinness, Blue, Bud and Millar alongside us. In the long haul, it just ain't smart.Duct Tape wrote:The businesses on Front abhorred losing their precious parking for an event that packed the street with people for a weekend...go figure!!!
The last one would have been in 2003 IIRC, and despite the rumors of a comeback, it has yet to happen, maybe someday, because it was a much better fest in terms of micro attendance than TFOB.
My feelings precisely. The first things you see upon entering the TFOB were the Budweiser "Big Rig"& the Carlsberg mega Foosball game . It seems that every year the powers that be at TFOB succumb to the allure of the macro money. To no ones surprise, every year there are fewer craft brewers who attend. Eventually, only the larger, more profitable craft brewers will go and the festival will lose all relevance for people looking for unique and flavourful products.
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The mega foosball game and the others are known in the marketing world as a "brand experience" and there were certainly many of them at the event. As the event is more and more filled with the fratboy-mentality consumers the fest will be increasingly more about a brand experience rather than a beer experience.PRMason wrote:My feelings precisely. The first things you see upon entering the TFOB were the Budweiser "Big Rig"& the Carlsberg mega Foosball game . It seems that every year the powers that be at TFOB succumb to the allure of the macro money. To no ones surprise, every year there are fewer craft brewers who attend. Eventually, only the larger, more profitable craft brewers will go and the festival will lose all relevance for people looking for unique and flavourful products.
The macros have been there pretty much every year since I started going to the fest. They've gotten more in your face with the "brand experience" areas (although it should be noted that Mill St. had one of those this year, right between Carlsberg and Bud), but they're not exactly a new thing.Belgian wrote:The presence of nondescript macros seems a discouraging waste of space though.
Anyway, there are too many people & businesses making too much money from this thing for it to ever become less macro-oriented. Unless the OCB or some other less money-oriented person/group makes a concerted effort to start up an alternative, craft beer oriented event, we'll just have to make do with the GTAs, Cask Days, and other assorted craft beer events and tastings. Which isn't the bad a deal, really, as those are some pretty awesome events.
I'm really surprised they were able to get away with having a tattoo and piercing booth at the Festival. Between the drunken patrons and the hygiene issues, it's a recipe for disaster. Insurance must've been a fortune.wittaker wrote:Oh come on. Whereelse could you get a nice cask porter or barleywine and then go to the next booth to get your nipple pierced.