So last night I paid my first visit to the C'est What Festival of Small Brewers. I had previously tasted all the beers available, so I took advantage of the opportunity to have some old favourites, and a few that I hadn't had in a couple of years.
The winner of the night was predictably St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout (nitrogen and all) but I was most suprised by the #2 and 3 rated beers on my list - Magnotta IPA and Durham Summer Ale. Magnotta benefitted from the staleness of St. George (too bad, this is a fine pint); and Durham Summer might be my least favourite from that brewery. Black Oak Nut Brown did well, too, as did C'est What MBA. In fact, most of the C'est What beers tasted better than I remember.
The clunkers were Belle Gueule Original, Sleeman Steam and Trafalgar Roggen (which tasted much better when I first had it).
There were a number of industry people there, and a fair bit of schmoozing. A good, mellow crowd, and a lot of people genuinely curious to try all the different beers.
And as a testament to the reach of Bartowel, a card-carrying CAMRA member from Norwich, England, joined us to try some fine Canadian product, after reading about C'est What right here on this very site!
All in all, well done. A nice little small festival worth attending again.
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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!
C'est What Fest review
I agree, it was a fun fest, with a great deal of beers to sample.
The Belle Gueule was definitely a disappointment. I hope it was just the keg, as this beer has been picked up by a local distribution company, and we'll see it in more Toronto bars soon. Alongside C'est What, it's also currently available at the Esplande Bier Markt.
The Belle Gueule was definitely a disappointment. I hope it was just the keg, as this beer has been picked up by a local distribution company, and we'll see it in more Toronto bars soon. Alongside C'est What, it's also currently available at the Esplande Bier Markt.