We are pleased to announce our December Project X plans! The Ugly Sweater Edition!

Join the Great Lakes Brewery crew for an epic night to celebrate the festive season on Thursday December 13th at The Monarch Tavern for our Ugly Christmas Sweater party! That’s right, dust off that sweater your Aunt gave you that one Christmas, or raid your Grandmothers closet and come decked out in your ugliest Christmas sweater/vest to win prizes and walk the runway! Yeah, runway. There will be a panel of judges picking out the best….errr, worst dressed person.

Here’s the deal – it’s $15 at the door, with $5 of that donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank. Hogtown Smoke will be on-site offering up pulled pork poutine!!

Stay tuned for more information about which beers we’ll be offering up for the event! But you can be sure to find our seasonal Winter Ale, and our latest Tank10 series beer – Karma Citra IPA.

Date: Thursday December 13th
Time: 6:30-9:30pm
Location: The Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton Street
Cost: $15 ($5 donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank)
Food: Hogtown Smoke

Hey Bar Towel,

The countdown to Cask Days is on, with only a couple of days left until the big event at the Evergreen Brick Works.

If you’re too excited to wait until Saturday, Bar Volo is hosting a couple of pre-events – tonight features a cask takeover by Half Pints of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and tomorrow features a special cask of Howe Sound Pumpkin Eater from B.C.

But it’s the festival itself on Saturday and Sunday where over 70 breweries bring 100+ cask beers together for the largest event of its kind in the country.  There’s beer, food, music, art – the event promises to be a great one – but there’s only limited tickets remaining so you best get one before it’s too late.

The Bar Towel is getting in on the action this year as well – through our sister event series the Brewer’s Backyard, we are proud to be hosting a special section at Cask Days that features pumpkin and harvest ales!  So as a part of the incredible selection of cask ales you can find at Cask Days, please stop by our Brewer’s Backyard area to try out the following:

• Howe Sound “Pumpkineater” (Imperial Pumpkin Ale)
• Half Pints “Punk ‘N’ Fest” (Pumpkin Ale)
• Hopfenstark “Greg” (Harvest American Foreign Stout)
• Railway City “Hoptoberfest” (Harvest Ale)
• Benelux “Molsson 2012” (Harvest Saison)
• Indie Ale House “Double Barrel Pumpkin Abbey” (Belgian Strong)
• Niagara College “Boktoberfest” (Barrel Aged Bock)
• Nickelbrook “Pie Eyed Pumpkin Ale” (Spiced Pumpkin Ale)
• Brasserurs Illimtes “Magouille” (Scand’Ale With Pumpkin)
• Grand River “Highballler” (Pumpkin Ale)
• Church Key “Pumpkin Ale” (Pumpkin Ale)
• Clocktower “Pumpkin” (Pumpkin Ale)

See you at Cask Days!

The Brewer’s Backyard is hosting its final event of the year on Monday, October 8th – Oktoberfest! We’ll be featuring the beers of Beau’s All-Natural with some of their delicious treats from their recent Oktoberfest in their hometown of Vankleek Hill. We’ll have favourites Lug Tread and Night Marzen, plus new pumpkin beer Weiss O’Lantern, and up to six more beers exclusively brewed for Oktoberfest. But, people will have to come to the Brewer’s Backyard to find out what they all are!

We’ll also have sausages grilled up by WVRST, along with Cask Days ticket sales and giveaways. And in traditional Brewer’s Backyard fashion, we’re calling our event Torontoberfest!

The Brewer’s Backyard Oktoberfest will be on Monday, October 8th, from 12-4pm at the Koerner Gardens of Evergreen Brick Works.  Admission is free and you can pay for food and beer at the event. We hope to see you then!

Last night at the closing night party of Toronto Beer Week, the 2012 Golden Tap Awards were announced.  The awards, now in their 10th year, recognize the best achievements in beer in Ontario, as voted upon by the general public.  The 2012 winners were:

• Best Microbrewery in Ontario: Beau’s All-Natural Brewing Company
• Best Brewery for Cask-Conditioned Ale in Ontario: Great Lakes Brewery
• Best Bar for Draught Beer Selection in Ontario: Bar Volo
• Best Bar for Bottled Beer Selection in Ontario: Bar Volo
• Best Bar for Cask Ale in Ontario: Bar Volo
• Best Brewpub or Tied House in Ontario: Granite Brewery
• Best Regularly-Produced Beer in Ontario: Muskoka Mad Tom IPA
• Best Seasonal or Specialty Beer in Ontario: Black Oak Ten Bitter Years
• Best Cask Ale in Ontario: Granite Hopping Mad
• Editor’s Circle Award: Muskoka Brewery Re-Branding
• Editor’s Circle Award: Niagara College
• Editor’s Circle Award: The Only Cafe
• Editor’s Circle Award: Bellwoods Brewery
• Editor’s Circle Award: Paul Dickey
• Best Beer of the Festival: Great Lakes My Bitter Wife

Congratulations to all the winners!

The beer lineup for today’s Golden Tap Awards has been revealed, and it’s one of the best of all-time.  The Golden Taps will feature beers from across the province, with all tap lines at beerbistro changed over just for tonight.  The event will feature 22 different beers on tap, all from different breweries, plus three casks and a bottle station.  See after the break for the full list, and we hope to see you tonight!

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Voting has closed, and now it’s time to reveal the winners!  The 10th anniversary Golden Tap Awards will be unveiled on Saturday, September 22nd at the closing-night party of Toronto Beer Week at beerbistro.

The event, which is open to the public and is free admission, will feature an all-Ontario craft beer festival with some of the best beers that the province has to offer.  We’ll be offering sample sizes during the festival portion, which runs from 4pm until 8pm.  At 8pm we will hand out the awards, and from that point onwards all beer will be available in full glasses.  We’ll also have delicious beerbistro cuisine available including pulled pork and poutine (don’t have to wait until late-night on Saturday!)

We will be handing out awards across a series of categories including best brewery (regular + cask), best brewpub, best beer (regular, cask + seasonal) and best bar (draught, bottled + cask), along with a special set of Editor’s Circle awards for special achievements in beer.

We will have breweries from across the province represented, with beers available from Cheshire Valley, 3 Brewers, King, Bellwoods, Amsterdam, Spearhead, Great Lakes, Double Trouble, House Ales, Indie Alehouse, Junction, Kensington and more.

Doors open to the Golden Tap Awards at 4pm on Saturday, September 22nd at beerbistro, located at 18 King Street East.  Awards show at 8pm.  Admission is free, and we hope to see you there!

We’re approaching the ending of the voting for the 2012 Golden Tap Awards!  If you haven’t gotten in your votes now is the time to do so – voting will close on Monday, September 17th.  You can cast your votes in as many categories as you’d like at the Golden Tap Awards voting page.

The awards will be announced at a gala event taking place on Saturday, September 22nd at beerbistro.  The Golden Tap Awards will be the closing-night party for Toronto Beer Week, and will feature an all-Ontario craft beer festival including Cheshire Valley, 3 Brewers, King, Bellwoods, Amsterdam, Spearhead , Great Lakes, Double Trouble, House Ales, Indie Alehouse, Junction, Kensington and more.  The festival starts at 4pm and the awards show is at 8pm.  Free admission, and you can find out more at the Facebook event page.

So, vote now and we hope to see you at the awards!

On Friday, September 14th the third edition of Toronto Beer Week touches down with beer celebrations across the city.  Until September 22nd Toronto will be filled with beer events – from tastings, dinners, launches, contests, festivals – everything a beer lover could ask for.

This week’s Toronto Beer Week also features an official beer – a Metric Porter brewed in collaboration between Great Lakes and George Milbrandt of C’est What which will be on display at every participating bar.

There are tons of events happening around the city and the best way to plan is by using Toronto Beer Week’s Events Calendar.  You can also stay on top of things at The Bar Towel’s Events discussion forum.

The Bar Towel is a proud founding partner of Toronto Beer Week.  This year’s closing-night party of Toronto Beer Week will be the 10th annual Golden Tap Awards, where the best craft breweries, bars and beers are recognized.  You can find out more about the event and RSVP at our Facebook event.

We look forward to seeing you at Toronto Beer Week this year!

Pub Crawls! We love doing them, and the 3rd Annual Toronto Beer Week (September 14-22) provides us with another opportunity to sit down with our friends to plan a collaborative pub crawl…this time we’re going to “Rock The Danforth!”

On Monday September 17, starting at 5:45pm, our good friend Troy Burtch will lead the Danforth crawl along with friends Sam Corbeil (Brewmaster – Sawdust City Brewing) and yours truly Cass Enright (from The Bar Towel and Brewer’s Backyard).  Itinerary will be as follows:

5:45pm – 417 Restaurant and Lounge
6:45pm – Brass Taps Pizza Pub
7:45pm – The Only Cafe
8:45pm – Morgans on the Danforth
9:45pm – Sarah’s Cafe and Bar

Some more details can be found after the break.  We hope to see you there!

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