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| Scotty and Saga raise a cheer at the frostiest event of the year: The Winter Craft Beer Festival at Steam Whistle... |
The Roundhouse Winter Craft Beer Festival at the Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto is one of the few beer festivals in the world where EVERY beer has the potential to become an ice beer...
Stouts, porters, IPAs, lagers... it doesn't matter. You leave that in your mug for more than 15 minutes and you're swilling down ice chips. I can't remember what the temperature was - something like -15C or -20C but you're right by Lake Ontario and when that wind comes in off the lake, *bam* it's feels like -30C. (To my American readers, that's about -22F... or North Dakota...)
And given the temperature, even a dedicated IPA hophead such as myself went mostly to the belly-warming porters and stouts, many of the high-octane variety.
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| Batman T-Shirt, flannel and a train station named after me. Yes sir, I came to party... |
Fortunately, they were in no short supply as the Roundhouse Winter Craft Festival had even more participating craft breweries than the summer one. All in all, the event attracted the likes of Black Oak Brewing, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery, Great Lakes Brewery, King Brewery, Left Field Brewery, Mill Street Brewery, F & M Brewery, Wellington Brewery, Niagara College Teaching Brewery, Beau's All Natural Brewing, Neustadt Springs Brewery, Amsterdam Brewery, Grand Rivers Brewing, Lake of Bays Brewing, Sawdust City Brewing, Railway City Brewing, Silversmith Brewing and of course, the hosts themselves, Steam Whistle.
As well as the hundreds of other happy beer lovers, who bought $20 tickets in advance and made it a sold-out event a full 10 days before the gates opened on January 25, my co-workers Saga and Scotty, boss Allison and I all bundled up and made the trek into the Big Smoke for the event, mostly thanks to our Steam Whistle rep who wrangled us some passes when we discovered it was sold out. Only in Canada would an event that charges you to stand outside in the frigid elements to drink ice-cold beer be sold-right-out. We are a culture of a different sort - that much is certain.
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| Allison and a very brave Wild Bill Hickok- looking dude who we dubbed Neil Young because of the frills hanging off his leather jacket. That's very Neil, circa 1973 or so... |
Fortunately, I brought a second pen. Which also froze. So while I did record a fair few beers, some of this will involve invoking my memory which was, I'll admit, a little sketchy towards the end.
Since my compadres arrived an hour before me, I was asked which booth I wanted to start with and before I could answer, Saga noted succinctly, "Wait, it's Donny. Flying Monkeys is over there - let's go..." (It's like he gets me...) And I first cracked my tastebuds with their Green Man Imperial Lager. Okay, this ain't your grand-daddy's lager - this bad boy is 8.8% and a mind-staggering 70 IBUs (international bitterness units), numbers more associated with super-hoppy IPAs rather than a lager. The aroma was malty and freezing cold but the taste had that grapefruit hoppiness that I love and have never associated with any lager ever. And from there, we roamed...
Next up for me was an Amsterdam Space Invaders IPA, a brew that I think the guy said they cooked up specially for the Fest. It was a solid offering, probably about 70 IBU and in the 6-7% zone (the guy wasn't sure), a citrus and damn chilly aroma with a fruit finish but from what I heard in the line-up, the biggest request was their renowned Boneshaker IPA, which they didn't bring. Fortunately, they had a fairly suitable substitute with Space Invaders.
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| First on deck? Flying Monkeys' Green Man Imperial Amber Lager - 8.8% brew that packs a helluva hoppy punch. |
And while I came back to Flying Monkeys mid-afternoon for one Smashbomb Atomic IPA, the rest of the day was mostly porters and stouts. Why? Because those are truly winter beers. But just before I did, I bellied up to the Neustadt Springs booth and got an Ever Ard, their nut brown ale. This low-alcohol offering - just 3.4% - is a dandy sessionable with its nutty, Polar Vortex aroma and lightly roasted malt finish. At that point, we stopped to get some pulled-pork poutine from the food truck and then scooted inside the brewery to warm up a little. For the record - and I knew this was gonna happen - Steam Whistle made out like a bandit on this frigid day as hundreds flocked inside to their bar to warm their toes and drink liberally from the bar. Hey, to the hosts go the spoils, baby! Good on 'em...
Saga and I popped back outside and my next choice was set: Sawdust City Brewing had taken their 8.5% Long Dark Voyage to Uranus Stout and infused it with raspberry for the event (and hopefully even a longer haul... fingers crossed. Let's let them finish setting up their new brewery in Bracebridge before flooding them with demands). To differentiate between the two, they tacked the word "Bloody" onto the beginning. You know what I like about stouts? A craft brewery can add more fruits, more chocolate, more nuttiness, more coffee, more anything, really, to a stout... and they just keep tasting great. Different, yes... but also great.
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| One of two firepits set up at the Winter Fest with many propane heaters scattered over the grounds to help... |
And that's precisely what happened here. They went super-heavy on the fruit, making its nose strong raspberry and Arctic sub-zero and its taste, chocolate covered raspberries. Both Saga and I loved it.
Saw the Lake of Bays booth and had to get a Mocha Porter to up my porter quotient for the day and just like the last time, this tasty beverage had that nice mocha and colder-than-your-mother-in-law's-heart aroma with its lightly chocolate and coffee finish. That's a nice porter, boys
But to me, the real winner of the day was F & M's StoneHammer Oatmeal Coffee Stout. Reason #1 was simply this: they were near the entrance and I don't think many people saw them. So I just kept walking up and getting more and more because, hey, no line-up. I really kept their server dude in sample chips that afternoon. And Reason #2: outstanding stout. Some lovely chocolate, vanilla, coffee and freeze-the-balls-off-a-brass-monkey frigid to the nose and lightly sweet oatmeal and toasted grains to the finish of this 5.5% winter seasonal.
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| The beauty of asking pretty ladies to be in a photo? No need to ask them to strike a pose. They just do... |
Interesting sidenote: my friends at King Brewery (best German style beers in the Province) saw a lot of customers not just for their beers but also because they had a spigot of warm Thornbury cider on hand. I learned something about myself. While Allison, Saga and Scotty all lined up for some warming spirits, I learned that even in the dead of winter, I will not drink cider. Nothing wrong with it - just not my kettle of fish. Though I suspect if there was a Toronto Cider Fest, I would steer a wide berth away from it. Fortunately, King was next to F & M Brewery's booth... so I wasn't lonely. Me and StoneHammer server guy happily chatted away while he kept refilling my mug. And for the record, while not a single brewer there brought an ice beer, many were consumed, regardless...
While Saga disappeared into the afternoon at about 3:30, ("I couldn't feel my toes!"), the rest of us lasted another hour before packing it in for, well, pretty much the same reason. Yeah, it got cold but I tell you, if they held another in the dead of February, I'd be right back there. Hats off (and balaclavas and parkas on) to all the participating breweries. Outstanding job.
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| And what would Winter Craft Beer Fest be without snow? It had to happen. |
Shout outs: first up is Stevil St Evil and his look at why he waited until January 22 for his year-end blog on this link called: Because I'm A Procrastinator And of course, even though she injured her ankle on ice recently, my friend KC still makes the tough choice between acting brothers Chris and Liam Hemsworth in this offering called: Can't I Have Both?
Okay, gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!!! As always, until next we meet, I remain...
Awesome event! I almost preferred it over the summer one, it wasn't nearly as busy!
ReplyDeleteNot only that, I told my boss Allison, who went to the summer one with me, that I thought the summer glass was bigger. Faulty memory. Compared the two at home... winter mug was MUCH bigger!
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