The Bar Towel

I also loved the event. Some terrific beers, and very well organized. Already can't wait for next year!
Other than bathrooms, which remain a bit of a problem, my only issue was the breadth of food options. The available options were of high quality, but a bit limited. A couple more vendors would be a huge plus.
Ren

jrenihan wrote:I also loved the event. Some terrific beers, and very well organized. Already can't wait for next year!
Other than bathrooms, which remain a bit of a problem, my only issue was the breadth of food options. The available options were of high quality, but a bit limited. A couple more vendors would be a huge plus.
Ren

i don't know, dude...
arguably 2 of toronto's top chefs, plus Guy Rawlings in attendance, plus one of the best shuckers out there shucking buck-a-shuck oysters AND serving up kangaro sloppy joes.
the food was a home run. the vendors were worried that they wouldn't be selling much of anything since alcohol's the focus.
not sure space-wise, dollar-wise and need-wise how more food vendors would work.

by the way, if I were the Moranas and after I did the quick math on ticket sales, attendance and # of drinks poured, i'd close up Volo and spend my time running Cask Days in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal once a year. the liberal liquor laws in BC means that you'd have some killer west coast options. oh, and it would be insanely profitable.

Surprisingly enough, the crab apple ciders stole the show for me and the people I was with. They were beautifully sour and complex. If I hadn't known better, I may have thought them to be lambics.

On the beer side of things, The Full City Tempest was phenomenal. I didn't even realize it was 14% ABV until after I finished my glass.

Only two gripes I have for the entire thing:

1. One hour wait to get through the line to enter if you didn't show up an hour early. Some all-session beers were cut off before people even made it through the door. Not sure how they would go about fixing this, but it's a problem. Maybe start letting people file in an hour before beer begins pouring?

2. Fucking mason jars?!

atomeyes wrote:

jrenihan wrote:I also loved the event. Some terrific beers, and very well organized. Already can't wait for next year!
Other than bathrooms, which remain a bit of a problem, my only issue was the breadth of food options. The available options were of high quality, but a bit limited. A couple more vendors would be a huge plus.
Ren

i don't know, dude...
arguably 2 of toronto's top chefs, plus Guy Rawlings in attendance, plus one of the best shuckers out there shucking buck-a-shuck oysters AND serving up kangaro sloppy joes.
the food was a home run. the vendors were worried that they wouldn't be selling much of anything since alcohol's the focus.
not sure space-wise, dollar-wise and need-wise how more food vendors would work.

by the way, if I were the Moranas and after I did the quick math on ticket sales, attendance and # of drinks poured, i'd close up Volo and spend my time running Cask Days in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal once a year. the liberal liquor laws in BC means that you'd have some killer west coast options. oh, and it would be insanely profitable.

Great Event. But I have to agree in one aspect with the food. Great chefs, but very few vegetarian or vegan options.

ChrisK wrote:
Only two gripes I have for the entire thing:

1. One hour wait to get through the line to enter if you didn't show up an hour early. Some all-session beers were cut off before people even made it through the door. Not sure how they would go about fixing this, but it's a problem. Maybe start letting people file in an hour before beer begins pouring?

2. Fucking mason jars?!

mason jars are hip, but i pretty much can't use them for beer drinking at home. shame because they look great. for those who didn't know: they had a different mason jar for each session.

the wait sucked. so either you were standing in line for an hr and near the front, or standing in line for 45 and near the back. not sure if it makes sense for people to be inside and for zero beer to be pouring. perhaps they should have two entrances next year.

atomeyes wrote:

ChrisK wrote:
2. Fucking mason jars?!

mason jars are hip, but i pretty much can't use them for beer drinking at home. shame because they look great. for those who didn't know: they had a different mason jar for each session.

I'd like to think my influence was felt at Cask Days this year

http://brewerymarket.com/introducing-th ... arket-jar/

Had a great time with the guys I was with, and everyone I bumped into.

We only had one bad beer between the 60+ beers sampled between the 4 of us, stand outs for me were the Storm Imperial Flanders, Amsterdam's El Jaguar and Full City, Wells & Young Courage, Redemption Hopspur, Alley Kat Dragon (Centennial) and Bellwoods Donkey Venom

The Chicago Brisket sandwich was really good and the fresh pretzels were good snacking.

Definitely the best Cask Days yet in terms of quality and quantity, think this is my 5th year in a row. The wash-room situation was no worse than any other festival I've been to that wasn't held at a convention centre.

Line up to get in was crazy, not sure if they could have done early admittance (without pouring), or perhaps had volunteers doing ID checks/wristbands along the line before opening.

Biggest disappointment of the day was mason jars for sampling, I realize they are more cost effective than the 20oz Nonics used previously, but I'd rather pay the extra and have a proper glass.

The mason jars really didn't bother me at all.

My only real complaint was I ran out of time. Between only getting in 30 minutes after the start and last call being 30 minutes before the end, that only left 4 hours of drinking time. I was pretty drunk, but I could have been drunker.

That and some of the better beers running out. But you can't help that, can you? I was actually surprised that by the time I got around to checking out the ciders there were only a couple still pouring!

Best in show for me were Storm Imperial Flanders, Amsterdam's El Jaguar and Full City, Wells & Young Courage. The Bellwoods offerings, Sartori Harvest and that collab Swedish Oak Bock thing were just a hair behind.

My thoughts:

- We tried a lot of beers, but still managed to miss out on even more that sounded great
- We drank (and spent) a fair bit and still didn't manage to try any ciders or anything from the UK (free tokens for press please and thank you?)
- Highlight was the Full City Tempest
- The session felt a little short -- I felt a little rushed to beat the mass exit at the end
- Washrooms were indeed a problem, but that's an issue with the venue...not really the organizers
- As a former vegetarian, more vegetarian/vegan would be appreciated
- But, considering it was a beer event and you expect to pay a premium, $1.25 oysters were an insane deal
- The salmon chowder was delicious too
- People were SO accessible to chat with, from the Moranas, to the brewers, to just random people in the crowd
- Lastly -- this will only matter to a few people, but it's huge for them -- don't schedule it on the same weekend as the Toronto Marathon!

Gavin wrote:My thoughts:
- Lastly -- this will only matter to a few people, but it's huge for them -- don't schedule it on the same weekend as the Toronto Marathon!

Agreed! I had to be very careful during the Saturday- drinking very slowly, with lots of water!
That being said, I am glad they moved it from Hallowe'en weekend. Hard to win.
Ren

Session three was great - plenty of room to breath, beautiful weather. just a great day for a cask fest.

washroom lines were there, but never more than about 5 minutes, which is totally reasonable IMHO.

I think the food was the best yet, though not all of it was as cost effective... I like the simplicity of the tokens, but some things felt like they were on the borderline of a 1 token value but were priced at two. Others (like the oysters!) were a great bargain, and most of it seemed just right. Overall still a win.

The beer was as excellent as always. As the fest has grown, I've been even more inclined to happily admit defeat and know that I'll never try everything, let alone everything interesting, and just wander about sampling whatever I stumble upon (or have recommended). The end of the session did get a little dangerous as I was thinking about winding down on my last few tokens and started getting triple pours! Hard to complain about that though

As with every year, the volo crew finds a way to step things up, this year being the biggest yet and with the most locational diversity of casks. Big kudos to Ralph and the boys for the overall organization, the rest of the volo staff, the brewers, and the neverending list of volunteers that make this thing run - couldn't be done without you. Already looking forward to celebrating the 10th anniversary of cask days in 2014!

Great comments from all. With everyone's experience necessarily being "narrow" in terms of how much you can taste and do, these commentaries give you a much fuller picture.

It's never said enough but many thanks to Cass for continuing to make this website and forum available, I am sure it is a labour of love.

Gary

I went to the Saturday night session with my GF and two friends.

Had a great time and people were pretty nice despite getting drunker as the night went on.

Lots of great beer but I didn't get to try all the ones I wanted due to how busy it was. The ciders were fantastic...very nice to see the depth in that category.

I think my only beef would be that it was way too busy and for 30 bucks a ticket it would have been nice to get some tasting tickets to start with. I'll definitely go again...may try a different session.