Bar Towel Radio - Live from Volo Cask Days

Today we're doing something different - quick, raw, "live" interviews from the Brewer's Brunch at Volo Cask Days.

Listen to the interviews here.

Southern Tier on Bar Towel Radio

We're proud to announce a new episode of Bar Towel Radio, an interview with Phin DeMink and Paul Cain of Southern Tier Brewing from Lakewood, New York. Phin and Paul were in Toronto recently to celebrate the pending release of their Southern Tier IPA at the LCBO.

Get it from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here. We've got some more episodes coming down the pipe so keep your eyes open for them.

New episode of Bar Towel Radio

Well, it's been a little while, but we're proud to announce a new episode of Bar Towel Radio, an interview with Brian Morin and Dayna Guy of beerbistro.

Get it from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here. We've got some more episodes coming down the pipe so keep your eyes open for them.

Three new episodes of Bar Towel Radio

On October 14th at Rowers on Harbord Street, Industry SOS hosted a new event called the Independent Boast & Toast. This event featured various beers from Ontario craft breweries including Denison's, Trafalgar, St Andre, Great Lakes and Nickel Brook.

At the event we recorded a series of Bar Towel Radio episodes with some of the participating brewers. They are now available, interviews with John Romano from the Nickel Brook Brewery, Lindsey Key of Trafalgar Ales & Meads and Michael Hancock of Denison's Brewing Company. Get them from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here. Watch for more episodes in the coming days.

Golden Tap Awards Announced

Last night at a gala event at beerbistro, the 2007 Golden Tap Awards were announced. These were the winners:

Best microbrewery in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) - Mill Street
Best microbrewery in Ontario (outside of the GTA) - Church-Key
Best beer brewed in the GTA - Mill Street Tankhouse
Best beer brewed in Ontario (outside of the GTA) - Beau's Lug-Tread Lagered Ale
Best bar in the GTA in terms of draught beer selection - C'est What
Best bar in the GTA in terms of bottled beer selection - beerbistro
Best bar in Ontario (outside of the GTA) - Winking Judge
Best brewpub or tied house in Ontario (including the GTA) - Mill Street Brewpub
Best beer of the festival - Black Oak Transvestite's Tipple

New this year were Editor's Circle awards, to recognize unique and significant achievements in the Ontario beer industry. Four were handed out:

Michael Hancock
Great Lakes Brewing
Roland + Russell
Volo Cask Days

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone for attending the Golden Tap Awards event.

The complete audio recording of the Golden Tap Awards ceremony is available through Bar Towel Radio.

Creemore Springs on Bar Towel Radio

We're happy to announce our latest Bar Towel Radio episode, an interview with Karen Gaudino, director of sales and marketing at the Creemore Springs Brewery in Creemore, Ontario. Creemore is one of Ontario's most well-known breweries and our show covers their latest happenings and what things are like at the brewery since the Molson acquisition. Get it from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here.

King Brewery on Bar Towel Radio

We're happy to announce our latest Bar Towel Radio episode, a live discussion with Phil DiFonzo, brewmaster at the King Brewery in Nobleton, Ontario. King is a lager-only brewery responsible for the King Pilsner, Dark Lager and Pilsbock. Get it from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here.

New Bar Towel Radio Episode

We're happy to announce our latest Bar Towel Radio episode, a chat with Peter Lopaty, president of Esprit Agencies, one of Ontario's leading beer importers. Get it from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here.

New Bar Towel Radio Episode

We've got a new Bar Towel Radio episode today, a live chat with George Milbrandt, publican of C'est What, one of Toronto's oldest and strongest supporters of local craft beer. Get it from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here.

New Bar Towel Radio Episode

We're happy to announce our latest Bar Towel Radio episode, an exclusive interview with Ralph Morana, owner of one of Toronto's top beer destinations Bar Volo. Get it from Bar Towel Radio's home page or subscribe to the feed here.

Bar Towel Radio Launched

We're happy to announce a new feature of the site, Bar Towel Radio. Bar Towel Radio is a new podcast featuring interviews and discussion about what's happening in the exciting beer scene in Ontario. It's perfect for beer fans who are just getting into beer in Ontario, or for seasoned connoisseurs looking for some new and interesting information. Our first episode has an exclusive interview with the founder of Black Oak Brewery, Ken Woods.

The home page for Bar Towel Radio is here. You can subscribe to the podcast feed here.

Bar Towel On The Road: Portugal

Newly added to the Beer Reports section of the site is Bar Towel On The Road: Portugal, a beer travel report from guest writer Duncan Rowland. Consider this just a taste of what's to come from the Bar Towel in coming months.

The Bar Towel in The Toronto Star

Today's edition of the Toronto Star features an extensive article on The Bar Towel by Star beer writer Jon Filson. The story is based on a recent round table interview with site founder Cass Enright and a quartet of Forum regulars.

Bar Towellers, like the gang of Stonecutters on The Simpsons, form an unofficial elite in the local beer world. That's because, to a large extent, Bar Towel is the beer scene. If you want industry gossip, a list of the latest beers being brought into the LCBO, bar recommendations, places in the U.S. where you can snag hard-to-get ales, or advice from a cagey veteran on how to make your own barley wine, bartowel.com is your one-stop online shop.

We might be a bit biased, but we think it's a great article, and hopefully it'll bring more attention to the site - and more importantly, the great beer that we all love.

Discuss this topic in the Bar Towel Forum

New On The Road Report Released

The Bar Towel is proud to release our latest On The Road report, to Victoria, British Columbia. Victoria is a great city with four outstanding brewpubs. Check it out here.

The Bar Towel Featured in Food & Drink

The Bar Towel has been featured in the recent Summer 2004 edition of the LCBO's Food & Drink magazine, which just hit the stores. Stephen Beaumont generously wrote a piece on the Bar Towel in the "Beer Bits" section of the magazine.

Check it out on page 30. Thanks to Stephen Beaumont and the LCBO for this mention!

New Bar Towel Pub Walk

After quite some time, we are proud to present our latest Pub Walk, to the Blue Meaney!

You can view the Pub Walk here.

Beerbistro Information Page Launched

We are proud to announce the launch of an exclusive page dedicated to Toronto's new beer cuisine restaurant, beerbistro on The Bar Towel.

On the new page you can learn about the beerbistro, download a PDF of their full beer menu, and find out about their upcoming "Beer School" tastings. Check out the page here.

New Look for the Bar Towel

You may notice a slightly different look for the home page of the Bar Towel. We've implemented a new publishing system, in the hopes of reinvigorating the news page to offer the latest beer related news in the GTA.

Unlike the past where the Bar Towel News page primarily focused on updates to the web site, now it will feature all interesting beer related news items in the GTA. Whether it's a rare new tap found at a bar, to a new beer released at a microbrewery, or a great upcoming event, you'll find the information here.

But in order to gather all the beer news here, we need your help! If you have any beer news in the GTA, please e-mail it to news@bartowel.com and we'll post it up. In the next little while, we'll be implementing some new features for the news section, including keyword searching and RSS capability.