On Monday night, as part of Ontario Craft Beer Week, I attended a collaboration dinner with Harbord House and Great Lakes Brewery. And honestly, it’s taken me until now to write about it because I’m pretty sure I’m still full.
The evening was hosted by Harbord House owner John Oakes and Great Lakes Brewer David Bieman and consisted of four courses, each paired with a unique beer offering from Great Lakes.
In case the details thus far aren’t making it clear: This was a fucking great night.
Shockingly, after having lived in the city for five years, this was my first time at Harbord House and, thanks to the food they presented Monday and their clear appreciation of craft beer, I’ll certainly be back. As you may guess if you follow me on any form of social media or read my writing at blogTO, this was not my first time drinking Great Lakes beer. And, while I knew to expect great things, I was also really impressed with their beers Monday.
As the seating was designed to be somewhat social, my friend Josh and I were sat with a couple which gave me a valuable chance to get a sort of layperson’s take on the food and beer. Like a lot of things I say, this probably sounds elitist and snotty, but I assure you, it’s quite the opposite. What I mean to say is that, when one only drinks in the company of other beer nerds too much, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the world of caramel backbones, IBUs, lacing, dry hopping techniques etc. and it’s easy to forget that hey, some people just like to drink fucking beer because they like the taste of fucking beer.
And so, in an effort to give you a fair snapshot of the evening, in case my lone blackberry image above doesn’t do it for you, I’ll include a run down of each course and the coinciding beer, as well as the thoughts offered by my table mates, whom I’ll refer to as “Josh,” “Lynne” and “Travis” because those are their actual names. Continue reading “Great Lakes Brewery’s Third Annual Beer Dinner at Harbord House”
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