Category: Events

Contest: Win two tickets to the Roundhouse Craft Beer Festival

Posted on by Ben

Roundhouse

UPDATE: Contest closed. Thanks everyone for your interest in this contest, but I’ve chosen a winning entry. Congratulations to Vanessa Neshevich for the following  winning beer and food pairing suggestion. She lost points for excessive exclamation marks, but made up for it by quoting Homer Simpson:

Tallboy’s Koreatown burger (kimchee, bacon, cucumber and green onion mayo AUGH!!!!!!!!) paired with a King Vienna Lager to go with the creamy mayo and delicious kimchee flavours!

“I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer.”
-Homer Simpson-“

In case you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the Roundhouse Craft Beer Festival.

Now in its third year, the Roundhouse Craft Beer Festival is organized by Steam Whistle and its laid back vibe, grassy setting, and the ability to attend both days for the cost of one ticket has had at least one local beer writer speculating publicly that it might be one of Toronto’s best craft beer festivals.

As is sometimes the case, beer festivals can become less and less appealing as they get older and grow increasingly corporate-minded, but it looks to me that this one, with its focus on Ontario craft beers and local food trucks, is determined to remain true to what makes a good beer festival, in my opinion.

That’s why I’m happy to offer up two free tickets to the festival to one lucky reader of Ben’s Beer Blog.

In keeping with my theme this month of celebrating the relationship between food and beer, I want you to tell me what food and beer pairing available at the festival you’re most looking forward to and why. Pick a beer that’s being poured and a dish that’s being served and tell me in the comments below why you just can’t wait to cram them both in your suckhole.

On Monday July 28th the contest closes and I’ll pick the best/most entertaining entry to receive two free tickets. Preference may or may not be given to people who spread word of this contest via twitter.

Photo credit: Jesse Milns

Fewer beers at events, please

Posted on by Ben

Beer Festivals

As we enter June, we’re essentially entering prime time for summer beer events in and around Toronto (here, for example, is a handy list of ten such events) and while Session Toronto, Cask Days, The Toronto Festival of Beer, et. al, all tout the number of beers that will be on hand as something a badge of honour, I’d like to propose that where beer selection is concerned, less is actually more.

It seems to be a mark of success to show that the number of beers at a festival has grown exponentially from one year to the next. Cask Days, for example, boasted 230 different beers this year from 140 different brewers, up from 150 different beers the year before.

While this sounds awesome, I actually think it’s more overwhelming than it is exciting. You can’t possibly drink 230 beers at one event, even if you were to attend all three days of Cask Days, so quite simply, it’s too much. I know that the organizers of beer events (Cask Days in particular) work very hard to bring in unique and interesting offerings for their events, but with no way of trying all of them, I just find massive beer lists stressful. Continue reading “Fewer beers at events, please” →

Bar Hop announces new “Hop Talk” series

Posted on by Ben
Bar Hop bartender Matt Bod laughing at something hilarious I said
Bar Hop bartender Matt Bod laughing at something hilarious I said

Bar Hop, the craft beer destination that won the Golden Tap award in 2013 for the Best Bar for Draught Beer Selection in Ontario, has announced a new monthly event series.

Billed as “Hop Talk,” the series will be a mini tap takeover of sorts wherein a featured brewer will not only have five of their beers on tap, but will also be present to talk about the beer with customers.

The event will be free to attend and in addition to the standard 5oz sample portion sizes, the organizers have mercifully allowed patrons to also order an actual effing pint. Continue reading “Bar Hop announces new “Hop Talk” series” →

Harry Porter and the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean is coming to the LCBO

Posted on by Ben

BBB Harry porter

Great news for fans of American porters, bourbon, vanilla, and JK Rowling-related puns: Great Lakes Brewery’s excellent “Harry Porter & the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean” will soon be available at the LCBO.

Sources at Great Lakes have confirmed to the staff at Ben’s Beer Blog (yes, that’s just me chatting with Troy) that the rich, creamy, bourbon-y, vanilla-y porter that has developed a devoted following as an occasional GLB one-off will be the latest beer to join Great Lakes’ popular Tank Ten series and will appear on LCBO shelves in early February.

In order to properly launch the beer, Great Lakes will be throwing a party on February 6th at The Loose Moose (event poster below) which will feature an appropriately rich and delicious lineup of dark GLB beers. In addition to Harry Porter & the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean on tap, in cans, and on cask, there will also be Harry Porter & the Fairgrounds Coffee Bean, a Bourbon Barrel-Aged Porter with Vanilla Bean, and one more as-yet-unnamed surprise beer made with cherries. Continue reading “Harry Porter and the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean is coming to the LCBO” →

Dispatch from the Samley Cup

Posted on by Ben

Image

Monday night, seemingly by chance, I found myself at the judges’ table of Samuel Adams’ 3nd Annual service industry homebrew competition, the Samley Cup.

I’m not entirely sure who dropped dead or otherwise decided that they couldn’t be a part of the decision-making for the event, but the result was that I got a last-minute email and this angry, eff-bomb dropping beer blogger found himself seated among an esteemed panel of beer folks who actually know what the fuck they’re talking about.

We were tasked with choosing a winner among seven finalist teams of homebrewers, all there representing an Ontario bar and all vying for the top prize: a trip to Boston to tour Samuel Adams brewery. Since the event was held at the Bier Markt on the Esplanade, it was sure to be a good time worthy of a mayor; however, we were out on the mainstage of the bar and, sadly, not in the Rob Ford cocaine room. Continue reading “Dispatch from the Samley Cup” →

Contest: Calling all gentlemen

Posted on by Ben
Gents
I say, which way to the donkey show, lad?

Do you consider yourself a gentleman?

If so, I’ve got some news for you. On November 22nd, a show is coming to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre just for you. Indeed, it’s The Gentlemen’s Expo, designed, so their website says, for those men who’ve “ever wondered what the difference between scotch and bourbon is, how to grill a perfect steak, change your own oil, fix a leaky faucet,  start a business, or put together an outfit without asking your wife/girlfriend/mom.”

Well if that sounds like you, I’ve got three important things to tell you:

1) If you don’t know the difference between bourbon and scotch, you need to turn off the computer and go make some serious changes in your life right now,
2) The slashes in “wife/girlfriend/mom” above are meant to stand in for the word “or.” If you have a person who is all of those things to you, you also need to turn off the computer and make some changes in your life right now, and finally,
3) I want to send you to the Expo, for free! Continue reading “Contest: Calling all gentlemen” →

Aaron and Allana do Toronto’s Festival of Beer

Posted on by Ben

Owing to recent developments (i.e. we had a baby), I was unable to attend this year’s Toronto Festival of Beer; however, given my commitment to covering the city’s beer-related news (and the fact that I had two free tickets), I asked some friends of mine to attend in my stead and report back. Here now, in a Ben’s Beer Blog first, is the firsthand account of this website’s newest (and cutest) correspondents, Aaron and Allana. 

media bands

Toronto’s Festival of Beer is the best place to go if you like to stumble around in hats made from six packs and exchange plastic coins for a taste of the world’s finest brews. Beer Fest is Christmas for the underemployed – and that is where we belong!

Yumyumyum.

We were given passes to this annual sponsored frat party because Ben just had a baby and all of a sudden doesn’t care about beer anymore. More beer for us, sellout! Continue reading “Aaron and Allana do Toronto’s Festival of Beer” →

Win tickets to the Back Alley Beer Festival at Stout Irish Pub

Posted on by Ben

Stout

Here are two things you should already know:

  1. Ontario Craft Beer Week officially kicks off on June 16th and continues until June 23rd.
  2. Stout Irish Pub on Carlton near Parliament is the best bar in Cabbagetown.

Here are two things you probably didn’t know but you are going to like:

  1. Stout Irish Pub is hosting the awesomeley named “Back Alley Beer Festival” on Saturday June 15 to put you and your liver through the paces as a perfect warm up to OCB Week by pouring beer from over 20 different great craft brewers
  2. I’m giving away four free passes to said awesomely-named event.

All you have to do for a chance to win is post a comment on this very post letting me know why you prefer to drink Ontario beer. I’ll randomly select two winners and each winner will win a pair of passes (so use your real email address when you sign in to comment).

Your free pass will include your admission (which the plebs will be shelling out $20 for) and five tickets each good for a 5oz sample drink.

TWIST: While I’ll select the winning comments at random from a hat (an actual hat!) every comment that I find funny will go into the hat twice, meaning you get a second chance to win if you can just make this dead-inside beer blogger muster a chuckle.

So….why do you prefer to drink Ontario beer?

Pot-sweetening update June 12: The folks at Stout have just offered up 10 Stout-branded frisbees as runner-up prizes. First beer, now frisbees? Can this contest get any better?!

The lost barrel of “Trombsterdam”

Posted on by Ben
This is actually the best picture I took of the beer. Make of my phone's choice of focus what you will...
This is actually the best picture I took of the beer. Make of my phone’s choice of focus what you will…

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be among a select group of “media influencers” chosen to attend a private dinner at the still-under-construction second location for Toronto’s Rock Lobster. Now if hearing “media influencers” and “private dinner” makes you picture an intense session of social media junkies instagramming the shit of their meals, you should know this: 1) You’re absolutely right, and 2) I don’t care what you think I ate an amazing seafood dinner and got an article out of the deal.

You should also know this: In addition to the aforementioned delicious meal, the evening provided some excellent libations. Barrel-aged cocktails are the name of the game at Rock Lobster so it was no surprise when a handful of good ones ended up in my belly that evening. What was a surprise though was the appearance of a collaboration I had heretofore never heard of: Trombsterdam, a seemingly-right-up-my-alley joint effort from Tromba Tequila and Amsterdam Brewing Company. Continue reading “The lost barrel of “Trombsterdam”” →

Old Man Johnson IPA is coming to Bryden’s

Posted on by Ben
Perhaps the beer should have been called "Dork in a sweatshirt"
Perhaps the beer should have been called “Dork in a sweatshirt”

A month ago, I contacted the folks at Great Lakes Brewery to see if I might come out to do little profile and photo spread for blogTO (a post that, aptly, ended up being called “Behind the scenes at Great Lakes Brewery“). When I called, the always congenial Troy Burtch, GLB’s resident social media dude and sales rep, said “Why don’t you come out and brew a collaborative beer with Lackey?” As you can imagine, my answer was something along the lines of “Fuck yes.”

And so on a rainy Friday last month, I got the opportunity to brew a beer with Mike Lackey, a guy who’s been making beer for over 20 years and who’s responsible for some of my favourite local options of the past little while. And when I say “brew a beer with” I mostly mean “added the stuff he told me to add then manned the brew kettle while he disappeared and reappeared sporadically to make sure I didn’t hurt myself/burn the place down.” Continue reading “Old Man Johnson IPA is coming to Bryden’s” →