The Bar Towel

This year's edition of C'est What's Spring Festival Of Craft Breweries is happening next Friday May 28th. The usual format - doors at 5 PM, free admission, $1 per sample - and the following beers are confirmed so far...

11 Cask Beers:

C'est What Al's Cask Ale, Black Oak Mucho Mango, Beau's Beaver River, Neustadt Big Dog Porter Extra, Granite Hopping Mad, Great Lakes Imperial Hefeweisen, Flying Monkeys Smash Bomb Atomic IPA, Duggan's Porter, F&M Stonehammer IPA, Wellington Anniversary Ale, Grand River Plowman Anniversary Ale.

30 Draughts:

Amsterdam Spring Bock and Oranjeweiss, Barley Days Lager, Big Rock Warthog Ale, Black Oak Ten Bitter Years, C'est What Mother Pucker's Ginger Wheat and Coffee Porter and Steve's Dreaded Chocolate, Church-Key Weissenbitter, Cool Beer Spezial, Creemore Kellerbier, Durham Hop Addict, Grand River Raspberry Pils, Great Lakes Miami Weiss, Heritage Sargent Major, Hockley Valley Black & Tan, Hop City Lawnchair Weissbier, King Pilsbock, St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, McAuslan Cream Ale, Mill Street Lemon Tea Ale and Roggenbier, Muskoka Born Bitter, Nickel Brook Strawberry Wheat and Gluten-free IPA, Railway City Dead Elephant Ale, Steam Whistle Pilsner, Unibroue Ephemere Cassis, Waupoos Cider, Peeler Cider.

The C'est What website also lists the Durham Hop Head, Black Creek Dandelion Stout and Scotch Irish Sgt. Major (all cask).

On my way there now. Hope to see some of you for the early part of the event.

I'll be there around 5:30. Really looking forward to some of the beers on offer. Smash Bomb!

I'm going to be there a bit after 5 and stay until the Jays game... after that, may be back again.

Good beers in general. Tops of the night for me were Great Lakes Miami Weiss, Imperial Hefeweissen (aka Do These Pants Make Me Look Hefe), and Flying Monkeys Smash Bomb Atomic IPA. All three were very, very nice beers. Disappointed that the Muskoka Born Bitter wasn't pouring properly, wa looking forward to trying that one. The Amsterdam and Stonehammer IPAs were a bit of a let down, especially after the Smash Bomb.

Great work Flying Monkeys and Great Lakes, you guys are the two most exciting breweries in the province right now, and I'll continue to throw my support your way, and preach your awesomeness to my family and friends. Cheers! Looking forward to bottled Miami Weiss...

velovampire wrote:Good beers in general. Tops of the night for me were Great Lakes Miami Weiss, Imperial Hefeweissen (aka Do These Pants Make Me Look Hefe), and Flying Monkeys Smash Bomb Atomic IPA. All three were very, very nice beers. Disappointed that the Muskoka Born Bitter wasn't pouring properly, wa looking forward to trying that one. The Amsterdam and Stonehammer IPAs were a bit of a let down, especially after the Smash Bomb.

Great work Flying Monkeys and Great Lakes, you guys are the two most exciting breweries in the province right now, and I'll continue to throw my support your way, and preach your awesomeness to my family and friends. Cheers! Looking forward to bottled Miami Weiss...

Sounds good overall. I hope no needy tickers are rating the Muskoka Born Bitter just to get the tick in.

It was one of the better Spring Festivals. Can't agree with velovampire mais il faut de tout pour faire un monde. I was disappointed in the Miami Weiss (as was the rest of my table). The Flying Monkeys IPA was good but my favourites were the Boneshaker, Stonehammer IPA, and the Great Lakes Imperial Hefeweissen. I'd take a pint of any of those in a second.

What a great event last night! Tons of good beers but my favorites were the StoneHammer IPA and the Great Lakes Imperial HefeWeissen and while it pains me to say it, the Gluten Free Beer from NickelBrook was drinkable, not awesome, but much better than expected.

Definitely looking forward to the IPA Challenge at VOLO on Sunday

I arrived by what I thought was a gluttonously early 5:15, and the place was already packed! Amazing support for this festival. In the past, I thought it was the fall fest that filled up early, with the spring fest not always making it to capacity.

At the door, they had implemented a "we'll call your cell when your table is ready" system, which I hadn't seen at C'est What before. We snagged a table in the bar area anyway, but the call for the available table-for-2 didn't come for about two hours.

A good mix of beers. The Great Lakes Imperial Hefeweiss won Best in Show from me.

SteelbackGuy wrote:

velovampire wrote:Good beers in general. Tops of the night for me were Great Lakes Miami Weiss, Imperial Hefeweissen (aka Do These Pants Make Me Look Hefe), and Flying Monkeys Smash Bomb Atomic IPA. All three were very, very nice beers. Disappointed that the Muskoka Born Bitter wasn't pouring properly, wa looking forward to trying that one. The Amsterdam and Stonehammer IPAs were a bit of a let down, especially after the Smash Bomb.

Great work Flying Monkeys and Great Lakes, you guys are the two most exciting breweries in the province right now, and I'll continue to throw my support your way, and preach your awesomeness to my family and friends. Cheers! Looking forward to bottled Miami Weiss...

Sounds good overall. I hope no needy tickers are rating the Muskoka Born Bitter just to get the tick in.

Well, Sammy was there...

Although I originally listed it in my top 3, looking back through last night's slight haze I'd have to agree with the others about the Great Lakes Imperial Hefeweiss being the standout beer of the fest. Soooo good...

SteelbackGuy wrote: Sounds good overall. I hope no needy tickers are rating the Muskoka Born Bitter just to get the tick in.

I was planning to enter it - It was in my top three of the night despite the murky pour. They were basically filling pitchers and pouring from those once they settled down. It was pretty good. I look forward to seeing it around on a regular basis to see if it holds up.

Also enjoyed the Smash Mouth. I found a lot of the keg beers surprisingly under carbonated actually which surprised me. I liked the Imperial Hefe, but not as much as other people did.

The BOak Mucho Mango was an enjoyable variation on the pale ale, though I still prefer the original, and not everyone at our table agreed on that one.

velo, have we met? You don't even know me.

JerCraigs wrote:

SteelbackGuy wrote: Sounds good overall. I hope no needy tickers are rating the Muskoka Born Bitter just to get the tick in.

I was planning to enter it - It was in my top three of the night despite the murky pour. They were basically filling pitchers and pouring from those once they settled down. It was pretty good. I look forward to seeing it around on a regular basis to see if it holds up.

Also enjoyed the Smash Mouth. I found a lot of the keg beers surprisingly under carbonated actually which surprised me. I liked the Imperial Hefe, but not as much as other people did.

The BOak Mucho Mango was an enjoyable variation on the pale ale, though I still prefer the original, and not everyone at our table agreed on that one.

I look forward to your rating Jer. There's nothing wrong with entering it anyway. Only if it was knowingly off or some such thing. I see it often where a rater adds a new beer that perhaps shouldn't have been due to problems with a cask, and then the rater goes on the slam the beer. It gives raters a bad name and causes undue arrgivation for our brewers.

velovampire wrote:The Amsterdam and Stonehammer IPAs were a bit of a let down, especially after the Smash Bomb.

Should've had them in a different order then. I saved the Smash Bomb until the end, and really enjoyed the Stonehammer, although I didn't care for the Amsterdam as much.