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!

C'est What Spring Festival

Post details, reviews and recaps of interesting beer events in Ontario and elsewhere here.

Moderators: Craig, Cass

Post Reply
georgemilbrandt
Posts: 53
Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:26 pm
Location: Toronto
Contact:

C'est What Spring Festival

Post by georgemilbrandt »

It's spring, when everyones fancy turns to... beer. We are happy to reciprocate these feelings with another installment of our semi-annual homage to fermented barley on Friday May 25 from 5 to 10 p.m.

Over the past year we have served eighty-nine different fine Canadian brews on our thirty-five taps so why not find a few more and reach a "century"?

Twenty-two different brewers will be represented at the festival. Some of the notable newcomers to our taps include: Church-Key Rye, Mill Street Wheat and Stout, Magnotta Wonder Weiss, Muskoka Hefe Weiss, Nickelbrook Maple Porter and Green Apple Pilsner, Durham Hop Head (cask), Neustadt Scottish Ale (cask), Barley Days Dark Lager, Niagara Honey Brown, Heritage Maple Lager and Organic Best Bitter, and Hockley Valley Stout. As well, on tap for the event are recent additions: King Pilsbock, Griffon Rousse, Walkerville Lager, Amsterdam Spring Bock, Granite Summer Ale, Blanche de Chambly, and Great Lakes Orange Peel Ale. As is this isn't enough, fourteen of our regular favourites such as C'est What Coffee Porter, St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, and Denison's Weiss Beer will be available for sampling.

Three ounce samples will be availble for a loonie each, admission is free.
George, C'est What

User avatar
inertiaboy
Bar Fly
Posts: 556
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:18 pm
Location: Steve, Ottawa West
Contact:

Post by inertiaboy »

georgemilbrandt wrote:Over the past year we have served eighty-nine different fine Canadian brews on our thirty-five taps so why not find a few more and reach a "century"?
That is impressive and should be applauded.

User avatar
northyorksammy
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1193
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 11:17 am
Location: Eglinton and Yonge
Contact:

Post by northyorksammy »

heritage best bitter looks a new one
church key rye replaces the Durham rye?

User avatar
JerCraigs
Beer Superstar
Posts: 3053
Joined: Sun May 25, 2003 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by JerCraigs »

Is the Heritage Best Bitter the Scotch Irish Session or are they separate recipes?

georgemilbrandt
Posts: 53
Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:26 pm
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by georgemilbrandt »

The Church-Key Rye is quite separate from the C'est What Rye (I assume that's what you meant by the Durham).

The Heritage Organic Best Bitter would at least be different in the "Organic" part, as far as recipe goes, perhaps Perry can weigh in on this...
George, C'est What

User avatar
GregClow
Beer Superstar
Posts: 4038
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Parkdale
Contact:

Post by GregClow »

georgemilbrandt wrote:The Heritage Organic Best Bitter would at least be different in the "Organic" part, as far as recipe goes, perhaps Perry can weigh in on this...
I think Jer asked the question because Perry recently announced that S-I Session Ale is now organic.

PRMason
Bar Fly
Posts: 873
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Fitzroy Harbour, ON

Post by PRMason »

What C'est What is pouring is indeed the organic ale. It has been renamed Stuart's Organic, in keeping with the new dog label. This one features Stuart, a "Westie" on the label instead of Maisie the Border Collie on the past Session Label.
The new beer is a bit paler than Session, owing to the colour of the organic pale ale malt being about half the colour of non-organic. we couldn't up the organic crystal too much for fear of sweetening the beer too much. Organic Admiral hops are used exclusively as well. The are a relatively new "dwarf" variety from the U.K. that gives very good aroma as well as usable bitterness. The IBU's are about 25.
I may be sending along a pin of Downtown Mocha Brown Ale as well. This is a brown ale brewed with cocoa and espresso, with a splash of blackstrap molasses as well. It will depend on whether the beer is conditioned enough by next Thursday when it would be shipped. A pin will also go to Volo as well.
"Every day above ground is a good one."

User avatar
Cass
Beer Superstar
Posts: 3828
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by Cass »

I'll be down at the fest tonight. Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

User avatar
GregClow
Beer Superstar
Posts: 4038
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Parkdale
Contact:

Post by GregClow »

I'll be there as well, for the first hour or two.

User avatar
JerCraigs
Beer Superstar
Posts: 3053
Joined: Sun May 25, 2003 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by JerCraigs »

Checked it out for dinner, and a few quick samples. Surprisingly quiet this time around. Previous years have been jam packed.

Enjoyed the samples I had. Among them, the SI Mocha was particularly pleasant. I also enjoyed the Black Oak Lemon Pepper Ale which strikes me as having nice patio potential for summer.

Steve Spong
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2005 6:52 pm
Location: East End Toronto

Post by Steve Spong »

There were some good ones last night, although the Black Oak had the peculiar distinction of being both the best and worst beer I had. The first sample I had early in the evening was fantastic - refreshing and complex. The second sample I had later in the evening (9:30 or so) was, I presume, at the bottom of the cask and had a distinct nose and taste of garlic. I thought it was just me at first, but the other three people I was with all agreed. The Nickelbrook Maple Porter was a pleasant surprise, far superior to the Trafalgar and Heritage maple offerings. All told, a solid event and not as busy as has been in the past.
"All right, brain, I don't like you and you don't like me - so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer."

User avatar
shintriad
Bar Fly
Posts: 646
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 9:19 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by shintriad »

Well done event, good samples, very organized and well run. My only issue is C'est What's unusual scoring system...making me do all that math when I'm getting drunk?! But I hung out with a bunch of friends-of-friends and many of them were trying craft beers for the very first time...we might have some converts on our hands after last night.

Glad to see others were also impressed (for better or for worse) by Black Oak's Lemon Pepper Ale...that was my favourite new offering of the night. Even though I now know it was just a variation of the Pale with a bucket of Bulk Barn lemon pepper spice dumped in, it was still great.

Asst. Grain Shoveller
Posts: 147
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:00 pm
Location: The Black Oak Brewing Co.
Contact:

Post by Asst. Grain Shoveller »

A little truth to our concoction it seems, would destroy the "romantic notion" that many people have about brewing different things.
Perhaps i should never again reveal my sources and just shroud the whole unique process in mystery and smoke & Mirrors.

(now all the other breweries will desend on the bulk barn)
(extra PS don't bother with the cajun spice in beer, just doesn't really work)

cheers
Ken
:lol:

lagerale
Posts: 492
Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 1:23 pm
Location: west side

Post by lagerale »

This was a fun event - not too busy and another good opportunity to try some good, local beer. My faves included the Durham Hop Bomb (cask), the SI Downtown Mocha Brown (awesome name to boot!) and the Nickelbrook Maple Porter. I have to say the Black Oak Lemon Pepper Ale wasn't to my liking, but I admire their wilingness to try something different.

georgemilbrandt
Posts: 53
Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:26 pm
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Post by georgemilbrandt »

With a dozen brews new to our establishment on tap that evening we reached the "century" for featuring over one hundred different draught beers in the last year. As it turns out, we had representation from twenty-three different brewers at the Festival in the form of three dozen beers.

In all 1810 samples were purchased and about one-third were rated. Perhaps it was the warm weather, but the shear number of tasters that didn't have the energy or inclination to fill in a tasting sheet was notable. At last year's Springfest 45% of samples were rated. It seems that we hosted a particularly critical bunch this time around with the average score coming in at 34 out of 50, a full three points below last year.

* For the second Festival in a row, Hop Addict from Durham Brewing finished at the head of the pack with a median score of 42, the only brew to break forty. Durham's Hop Head and Hockley Valley Stout finished with scores of 38.5 and 38 respectively.
* Only sixteen of the thirty-six beers were rated by enough Festival goers to qualify for "Best Of The Fest".
* The Most Curious award for the most tasted beer, goes to Church-Key for Catch Her In The Rye. Close behind was Black Oak's Lemon Pepper Cask Ale.

The full table of results can be found at http://www.cestwhat.com/tasteresult/springfest2007.asp

For those of you who actually keep track of these things, the Fall Festival will be held on September 28.

Cheers!
George, C'est What

Post Reply