The Bar Towel

http://www.beerfestival.ca

A number of crafty things happening...

http://www.beerfestival.ca/brewmasters-series

A lot of familiar friends in the exhibitor lineup as well:

http://www.beerfestival.ca/2013-exhibitors

First time we'll have our Oatmeal Coffee Stout there, so that's cool!
I'm working 12-4 on Saturday so stop by and say Hi!

I know FM will have pilots

MatttthewGeorge wrote:First time we'll have our Oatmeal Coffee Stout there, so that's cool!
I'm working 12-4 on Saturday so stop by and say Hi!

I'll be there on Saturday, I'll make sure to stop by to try the oatmeal coffee stou... I mean say hi to you Matthew....

Got there at 3:30 with my "Hoptimized" ticket. The 330 to 530 stretch was enjoyable since the place was almost empty. Then the after work frat boyz arrived.

Every booth was 20 deep. Buying tokens was a 20+ min wait.

Few notes. There were a lot of hot girls serving the beers. Which is nice on one hand, but not too many brewmasters talking about their suds.

There was nothing to do but drink beer and eat. Past years had volleyball, soccer, and other activities. The 365 booth had games to play, but nothing really cool.

I went to the first Beer Fest and I've been to it every year except for a couple. Sad to say, I wont be back. It has become too main stream for me. And expensive for what it delivers. I know that is the opinion of many on this forum. I will keep an eye out for other Festivals in other towns.

The cost is the single biggest reason I haven't been going the last couple years. I'd like to go just to check out some of the special releases from GLB and Flying Monkeys etc. but almost everything else shows up around town at some point so it's not worth it any more, at least to me.

I've been three or four times now. Each time I've either been gifted the tickets or got them for free so the price thing isn't a huge issue for me since $1/sample is fine.

That said, this year's was the worst. The crowd seemed more annoying than usual (I was there Saturday). No caskapalooza - and GLB's offerings were a stepdown from past years. The world of beer area was a giant letdown - last year's Quebec focus was good but this year they just had beer you could get at the LCBO (except for Silver City) and wanted $2/sample. The barrel series beers that they advertised were nowhere to be found outside of the Matador.

I felt really cheated by beer fest this year.

mahcinesquad wrote:The barrel series beers that they advertised were nowhere to be found outside of the Matador.

There actually was a booth where they were pouring other barrel beers, although it was smaller than I expected and not especially easy to spot.

When I was there on Sunday, they were already out of a few things, but I tried the Sawdust City One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Biere (which was quite good), and I think they were also pouring Matador, Nickel Brook Kentucky Bastard, and a couple of others.

That and the Silver City beers at the West Coast pavilion were most interesting things there. Oh, and the Flying Monkeys/Central City Red On Red was great as well. Otherwise, not a very exciting event, at least in terms of new products.

GregClow wrote: When I was there on Sunday, they were already out of a few things, but I tried the Sawdust City One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Biere (which was quite good), and I think they were also pouring Matador, Nickel Brook Kentucky Bastard, and a couple of others.

Dang it! Wish I hadn't missed it. I kept trying to find it through the map app... but of course they weren't listed as beer exhibitors.

I did get the Red on Red FM/CC collaboration which was good. Actually I thought the FM booths as a whole were the highlight. I liked the wheat breakfast beer they did - can't remember what it was called.

GregClow wrote:the Flying Monkeys/Central City Red On Red was great as well. Otherwise, not a very exciting event, at least in terms of new products.

What he said. Considering the ticket price (plus gas and usually a hotel), I'm seriously considering not going next year, especially if the London Beerfest continues to improve. Not to mention I think it's become shorter this year.

IIRC, previous years regular ticket was 8h (noon - 8 PM) for Saturday, this year it's 1:30-8 (maybe it was last year as well). I don't need more time to pound beers, I need more time to drink at a slower pace and enjoy what I have. I realize MolBudBatt's probably drives this event and they need to force frat boys to drink for less time so they don't die in the park, but that's just it, it's not really about good beer. I don't see why I should pay even more money to have a reasonable amount of time in the park.

GregClow wrote:Otherwise, not a very exciting event, at least in terms of new products.

It strikes me that they're not trying to be an event about new products at all, but just about 'beer'.

On another note, it wouldn't surprise me if organizers made a push to try to get some of the notable Ontario craft absentees in there next year somehow. Clearly they must have recognized that some of the larger ones (Muskoka, Amsterdam) chose not to attend and that consumers would notice too.

Cass wrote:

GregClow wrote:Otherwise, not a very exciting event, at least in terms of new products.

It strikes me that they're not trying to be an event about new products at all, but just about 'beer'.

True, but in the previous few years, a lot of craft breweries brought new stuff anyway. Great Lakes with Caskapalooza, Flying Monkeys with a bazillion different things, assorted one-offs and seasonals from others.

This year, Great Lakes had a small booth with mainly stuff from their regular line-up, and aside from the Monkeys, there weren't many other breweries with one-offs.

Not to say that the quantity of new beers is the sole criteria for judging a festival. But all of that, combined with the notable absence of some breweries that had been there in previous years, made it feel like the whole event had taken a couple of steps backward from the improvements that made been made since the move to the new location.

All of that said - I will note that while I didn't eat anything myself, I was impressed by the fact that most of the food vendors were local restaurants, food trucks & pop-ups of quite good quality. If I was hungry, I would've been more than happy to eat something there.

The stuff from Fidel Gastro's was quite tasty.

Hear you Greg & totally agree. I guess I just don't hold any kind of expectation for the TFOB anymore. I think it will ebb & flow over time with the amount of energy individual breweries put into it in terms of new stuff.

Anyone else going this year? I was originally planning on skipping but Canadian Beer News is reporting that Cigar City will be there. No confirmation on the TFOB website.

Hopefully Friday night is a bit more chill than the Saturday, which has been a gongshow of frat boy drunks in the past...