The Bar Towel

From CestWhat.com...

Spring Festival Of Small Breweries
After sixteen annual October Festival Of Small Breweries, C’est What has decided to start a new spring tradition. We will be featuring 35 local craft brews served in sample sizes.

Additions to our usual lineup will be Scotch Irish Corporal Punishment, Wellington Imperial Stout and Iron Duke, Unibroue Maudite and Blanche de Chambly, Church Key Chocolate Porter and Cranberry Maple, Magnotta Altbier, Headstrong Pale Ale, F&M McLean's Pale Ale, and Neustadt Scottish Ale.

Admission is free, samples are $1 each.

The Details
Spring Festival Of Small Breweries
Friday, April 15, 2005 at 5:00 PM
C'est What, 67 Front St. E. at Church
Doors Open: 5:00 PM
No charge for this event!

Admission is on a first come, first seated basis.

http://www.cestwhat.com/asp/events.asp?id=443

I plan to be there. I haven't figured out how I am going to ditch the car and get down there in good time but we shall see.

Wellington Imperial Stout AND Iron Duke? Oh well, it'll be good to see it on tap. And always nice to see the Corporal forging into new markets.

Cask wrote:Wellington Imperial Stout AND Iron Duke? Oh well, it'll be good to see it on tap. And always nice to see the Corporal forging into new markets.

I expect that means the stout AND the Iron Duke Strong Ale

JerCraigs wrote:

Cask wrote:Wellington Imperial Stout AND Iron Duke? Oh well, it'll be good to see it on tap. And always nice to see the Corporal forging into new markets.

I expect that means the stout AND the Iron Duke Strong Ale

Wellington actually dropped "Iron Duke" from the name of their Imp. Stout when they redesigned their packaging a year or so back. Probably a bit of a branding exercise on their part to avoid confusion between the two beers.

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up. According to ratebeer, there used to be an Iron Duke porter too -- anyone ever tried it?

I should be there at around 17:15 thereabouts...looking forward to it.

Myself, two friends and the girlfriend will be attending, probably close to 7:00pm by the time we all assemble and haul ass down from Y&E. I've been wanting to try a couple more of the homegrown stuff but have been reluctant to do so after the experiences with the hemp, chocolate and ginger. With the samples I'll finally give the cask and brown ales a shot. I'm not going anywhere near the porter...

With regards to the hemp and chocolate, I greatly prefer Cool's Millenium Buzz and Gritstone's ale to them. I realize that Buzz and CW Hemp really are two different beers but there's just something about the taste and texture of Buzz that I like so much more. Has anyone seen it on tap anywhere? Cool's site doesn't list any locations.

lister wrote: I've been wanting to try a couple more of the homegrown stuff but have been reluctant to do so after the experiences with the hemp, chocolate and ginger. With the samples I'll finally give the cask and brown ales a shot.

The three C'est What beers that you've already tried are the weakest of the bunch. The cask ale is very good when it's fresh (which I presume it will be on Friday - it would be foolish of them to have a stale cask on for such a large event), and the brown is a very nice mild ale, great for those times when you want to drink a few over the course of the night but remain relatively sober.

lister wrote: I'm not going anywhere near the porter...

Is this due to a personal aversion to the style, or have you heard bad things about this beer specifically? While it's nowhere near as good as Mill St. Coffee Porter, it's still a decent beer.

GregClow wrote:The three C'est What beers that you've already tried are the weakest of the bunch. The cask ale is very good when it's fresh (which I presume it will be on Friday - it would be foolish of them to have a stale cask on for such a large event), and the brown is a very nice mild ale, great for those times when you want to drink a few over the course of the night but remain relatively sober.

Remain relatively sober? Why would I want to do that? A mild easy drinking brew though is a good thing regardless of alcohol content.

I read you guys going on and on about the virtues of cask ale so I'm interested in trying it for a buck. No big loss if I find it unpleasant.

Is this due to a personal aversion to the style, or have you heard bad things about this beer specifically? While it's nowhere near as good as Mill St. Coffee Porter, it's still a decent beer.

Personal aversion to the style. I've tried several different dark beers and just can't stand the taste. A double chocolate stout (which I can't remember the name of but was/is available at the LCBO) and Trois Pistoles are the closest slightly drinkable dark beers I've had. Even then I need to have several other brews in me before attempting those two plus something to munch on.

lister wrote: Cool's site doesn't list any locations.

That's because a true, honest list of locations where Cool Beer is on tap would be very interesting indeed. I think a lot of people would like to see that list.

The other day I had a Trois Pistoles at a downtown hostlery and thought it was extremely good, I think it is the first time I had it. It is quite similar to Chimay Blue and has (as advertised on the label) a port wine-like taste. The only thing is (as with Chimay), one must remember how strong these are, at 8% or 9% abv they are effectively two beers in one. Really they are sippers to accompany a meal at that strength.

Gary

I'll be at CW tonight.

Hi Everyone
We're going to be releasing our new Seasonal Beer:
Double Chocolat Cherry Stout (guess whats in it?)
Adrian our brewer did a fantastic job in creating this very fine beer.
Ideally we wanted to create and release this in the March time frame.
But to paraphase "We will sell no beer before its time"
Both Adrian and I will be doing some smoozing tonight at C'est What.
We'd love to hear your feedback.
Looking forward to seeing you tonight.
Cheers
Ken

PS. Bring some friends, would be a great way to introduce people to the great world of craft beer.

Asst. Grain Shoveller wrote:Hi Everyone
We're going to be releasing our new Seasonal Beer:
Double Chocolat Cherry Stout (guess whats in it?)
Adrian our brewer did a fantastic job in creating this very fine beer.
Ideally we wanted to create and release this in the March time frame.
But to paraphase "We will sell no beer before its time"
Both Adrian and I will be doing some smoozing tonight at C'est What.
We'd love to hear your feedback.
Looking forward to seeing you tonight.
Cheers
Ken

PS. Bring some friends, would be a great way to introduce people to the great world of craft beer.

I hope you didn't use real cherries - they're dangerous you know. Just ask the Cantillon folks.

On a more serious note, that sounds really good! Hope I get a chance to try it.