Zwanze Day/Funk Night @ Bar Volo - Sep 14

Kekumba · Post by **Kekumba** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 3:44 pm

Agreed on the Gueuze! I've never really cared for it, but it really hit the spot yesterday.

The event in general was very well run, I can't complain about anything (expensive, but worth it). Really liked the Shacklands B-Funk and Nickelbrook Payson. Should have been all over sampling that Fou Foune, it was gone pretty quickly. A&T was a fine substitute however, and now I don't feel so tempted to open my last bottle. The bottle list was excellent.

Nice meeting and seeing a few of you again.

northyorksammy · Post by **northyorksammy** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 6:42 pm

Missed the main fireworks owing to Yomm Kippur, still 13 good funk/sours on today - join Tim

Bytowner · Post by **Bytowner** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:27 pm

Kekumba wrote:Really liked the Shacklands B-Funk and Nickelbrook Payson.

OT (since I wasn't there), but the Payson is brilliant. Had it at beer fest and The Wellington last weekend. Delish.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:34 pm

The bottle pours were 1 or 2 tokens. I think that generally speaking lambics were 2 and everything else was 1, but there might have been exceptions.

distr0 · Post by **distr0** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 9:13 pm

Kekumba wrote:Agreed on the Gueuze! I've never really cared for it, but it really hit the spot yesterday.

The event in general was very well run, I can't complain about anything (expensive, but worth it). Really liked the Shacklands B-Funk and Nickelbrook Payson. Should have been all over sampling that Fou Foune, it was gone pretty quickly. A&T was a fine substitute however, and now I don't feel so tempted to open my last bottle. The bottle list was excellent.

Nice meeting and seeing a few of you again.

i got the last of the fou foune - basically paid full price for the dregs but it was still great haha

boney · Post by **boney** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 10:06 pm

Great event. Good to talk to so many BT'ers.

The bottles were almost better than what was on tap. For me, the Cantillon Gueuze is always amazing, no matter how many times I have it. Other standouts were Mamouche, Leeanau Good Harbor, Mikkeller Stella 2 and Abbay de Saints Bon Chien 2009.

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 11:07 pm

i was actually pretty disappointed by what i had on tap. and i had a lot.
one was a total drainpour. disgusting. tasted like unfermented wort.

the best was the Hopfenstark berliner w/raspberries. brilliantly done.

didn't try to Solstice D'ete (sometimes i find it too malty).

the bottles stole the show. Bretteuse and barrel-aged Beuteuse, GoodDog, etc. Wow...

grub · Post by **grub** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:16 am

atomeyes wrote:hope that i'm not stirring up a hornets' nest, but...

any idea how Volo can sell/offer the Leelenau or Mikeller beer, since i don't think they went through testing at the LCBO?

also not sure how this applies to the two Cantillon kegs being tapped.

You only need to lab test if you're bringing in more than 5 cases of any one brand. In the past when folks on BT organized group buys (hair of the dog, great divide, etc), that was always the cap - max 5 cases of any brand per person (since they were all separate imports sharing shipping). If it's not going on an LCBO shelf it's not subject to the label rules and at low volume you can get around the lab testing.

That said, keep6 started importing the leelenau a while ago, so i suspect they have indeed been lab tested. I think there was even a private order, but I could be wrong there. Can't speak to the mikkeller as I'm not sure who their agent is.

As for the Cantillon, I know the rules are even more strict around importing kegs than bottles for some stupid reason, so I suspect it had to come through the appropriate channels. there might be some leeway similar to bottles. they were each only 20L, so well below the 5 case volume cutoff.

cratez · Post by **cratez** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:57 pm

Had a blast with Nigel, Jeremy and others, and was satisfied with most of the beers on offer. Highlights were the Cantillon Gueuze, Solstice D'éte, Shacklands B-Funk, and No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn. Wasn't too interested in the food options available and the way they were carted around for everyone to breathe on, but that's a minor quibble. All in all a very worthwhile event.

grub · Post by **grub** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 8:36 am

cratez wrote:Wasn't too interested in the food options available and the way they were carted around for everyone to breathe on, but that's a minor quibble.

That part didn't bother me, but I did think it a little silly to offer something that required fork+knife (the chicken) when there are no tables in the house and very limited seating. Definitely made eating it a challenge. Had I thought of that before, I'd have probably gone with something else. To me, if an event has no tables it should be more finger food-ish, but as you said, it's a minor quibble.

dale cannon · Post by **dale cannon** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 9:50 am

I had a great time sampling (mostly) incredible beer and hanging out with Michael, Mike, Ren, Russ, Jeremy, Rob et. al. on a sublime Sunday afternoon. Highlights for me were Abbeye de Bon Chien, Mikkeller Festival Special, Shacklands B-Funk, Bellwoods Sour Stout and Cantillon Gueuze. Extremely well executed event, Volo seem to have these things pretty near nailed down. Only down side for me (and presumably for all males present) was the fact there was only a single toilet at an event where a considerable volume of liquid was being consumed. Hope that gets remedied stat. Cheers!

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 9:56 am

I really enjoyed the elbow room. Props to Volo for keeping the numbers low enough that I could still move around.

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:07 am

atomeyes wrote:
the best was the Hopfenstark berliner w/raspberries. brilliantly done.
...

I can get behind that line of thinking. Easily my favourite on tap for the afternoon.

I thought the event itself was great, even if many of the beers on tap did not blow me away. Perfect weather, and more than enough elbow room outside.