The Bar Towel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday November 14th 2008

For more information contact Maz Brereton at maz@victorycafe.ca or 416 894 6105

Victory Winter Cask Ale Festival
Saturday January 31st 2009
12:00 – 7:00 P.M.
The Victory Café, 581 Markham Street, Toronto

Following the success of its first cask ale festival this past summer, The Victory Café will be hosting a Winter Cask Ale Festival on January 31st. This festival will feature a broad selection of winter ales covering many different styles to celebrate the season. Sharing the same goals as the previous festival, this event pays tribute to local traditional cask ales and welcomes everyone who would like to sample the pleasures of these wonderful brews.

Cask conditioned ale, also known as ‘real ale’, is beer that is brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, water, yeast and hops) and matured naturally in the cask where it undergoes a secondary fermentation. This imparts unique characteristics and greater depth of flavour. Cask ale is a fresh, natural product and is free from the chemicals and preservatives found in many of today’s mass-produced beers.

There will be twelve cask conditioned ales on offer, all from local Ontario microbreweries. The full list of beers will be announced at a later date.

Beer samples will be offered by the half-pint measure, purchased with a beer ticket available at the festival. Hearty food suitable for the season will also be available with a food ticket.

Tickets can be purchased at the door:

$12 – admission, souvenir glass, two half-pint beer tickets, plus one food ticket
$8 – admission, souvenir glass, and two half-pint beer tickets
$4 – additional food ticket
$3 – additional beer ticket

Well that should be quite a good time as always at The Victory. Looking forward to this, and it should break up the Winter Doldrums too!


Yaay, er.. um.. I mean, Cheers.

I'm sure there will be some one offs at this event. 12 cask winter ales...
doesn't get much better.

Happy New Year everyone.

Any word on the line-up yet? Checked the Victory web site and couldn't find anything.

Cheers,
J

jaymack wrote:Happy New Year everyone.

Any word on the line-up yet? Checked the Victory web site and couldn't find anything.

Cheers,
J

They have a partial list up now:

http://victorycafe.ca/news/viewtopic.php?t=191

Not-quite-complete list:

Blak Katt Stout, County Durham Brewing Co
C'est What Old Town Brown, County Durham Brewing Co
Jubilation Ale, Grand River Brewing
Keefe's Irish Stout, Granite Brewery
Nickel Brook Cuvee '08, Better Bitters Brewing Company
Peculiar, Granite Brewery
Red Dragon, County Durham Brewing Co
Scotch Ale, MacLean's Ales
Stonehammer Oatmeal Coffee Stout, F&M Brewery
Victory Café Compass Empire Ale, Better Bitters Brewing Company
(TBD) Chocolate Cherry Stout or Nut Brown Ale, Black Oak Brewery
(TBD) Winter Ale?, Great Lakes Brewery
(TBD), Neustadt Springs Brewery

Wondering how different the cuvee will be

I had the Old Town Brown the other day and it was brilliant. I'm curious to see how it compares on cask as opposed to nitro, but I do remember taht it was one of the best done nitro beers I've ever had - flavour was not sacrificed for creaminess, and it had a wonderful depth.

I'll probably have 4 half pints, so the other three beers are a tough one... perhaps the oatmeal coffee stout, compass empire and red dragon, but its a tough call! Does anyone know what type of beer the red dragon will be? Irish red?

The final list for Saturday has been confirmed:

Nickel Brook Cuvee '08, Better Bitters Brewing Company
Winter Ale, Great Lakes Brewery
Neustadt 180, Neustadt Springs Brewery
StoneHammer Oatmeal Coffee Stout, F&M Brewery
Hopping Mad, Granite Brewery
Blak Katt Stout, County Durham Brewing Co
C'est What Old Town Brown, County Durham Brewing Co
Double Chocolate Stout, Black Oak Brewery
Jubilation Ale, Grand River Brewing
Peculiar, Granite Brewery
Red Dragon, County Durham Brewing Co
Scotch Ale, MacLean's Ales
Victory Café Compass Empire Ale, Better Bitters Brewing Company

First of all, I've been away for a long while and am glad to have seen this posting in time. I am hoping to come down in the afternoon, but noticed that tickets are only being sold at the door.

Any worries about tickets selling out early? I probably won't be down until 2:00pm or so.

I'll be there, see everyone down there.

I'm looking to be there about 1, will be a good time

Awesome, awesome event. Thanks and well done to all the folks at the victory. All the beers were excellent, and its tough to pick a favourite, although the Neustadt 180 was particularly good.

completely sold out by late afternoon every single drop of cask beer

I arrived at 2:20 and was told they were at capacity. Hopefully next time they will sell tickets in advance or otherwise accomodate people who have been looking forward to this for months and travelled many miles to get there. I had arranged for childcare and made sure to have the afternoon available for a few good cask brews and was quite disheartened to not be able to get in. I am sure it was a great time for those lucky enough to get in ( it was for the summer cask fest ) but I don't know if I will bother to take the train downtown next time without being assured of a seat.