I got off work late and was pretty broke so I wasn’t going to go to the event. My plan for the evening was to go to the gym and blast AC DC into my head. On a whim I decided to check my bank account and found ha my pay had come though. To my credit I almost decided to go with my initial plan and go to the gym, get some things done and get to bed at something approaching a reasonable time. On the other hand Beaus Tap take over.

Given that only so many people could get into Bar Volo there was a line up outside of Volo for quite awhile. I chatted with friends in line for awhile and then wandered off to run some errands. Some of m friends spent upwards of two hours in line. As I ran off to do other things I spent about an hour. Though that turned out to be time well spent as I made a new friend. We had a fun conversation in line and eventually made it into the bar. My friends who had a few by then cheered as I made it in to drink with them.

The first beer I tired was the Strong Patrick Scotch red ale. It was a great strong ale and the Luchadore logo on the tap was fantastic. I pretty much lost track of the great beer I had. There were to many great people around and it was packed in there. Beaus did a fantastic job and they were not kidding about a Bar Volo take over. A Beaus flag hung outside as well as one inside. The one wall was covered by framed pictures of all the offered beers logos. It was pretty fun and over the top. It was worth the wait to get in and became an excellent time in Bar Volo with the amazing Beaus Brewing company and a whole bunch of friends and acquaintances around.

http://blog.barvolo.com/

http://www.beaus.ca/

torontobeerlovers.com

The highlights of my trip to the Toronto Underground Market were my companions whom were all people I’m glad to share my time with. The craft brewers like Beaus, Flying Monkeys and it was also great to finally to meet some of the guys from Hogtown Brewers and try their Kolsh style beer.As well as getting to see the Sassy Lamb and try another of their amazing little cupcakes.

Generally though I wasn’t all that enthused about he market itself. None of he food sellers really jumped out at me as being very interesting or inviting. Though that may have been coloured by the uncomfortable cold and that I wasn’t feeling incredibly well in general.

On the other hand there is the Brickworks cafe, Cafe Belong. I will start by saying that the hostess and our waiter were both excellent and that I was very fond of the atmosphere and was comfortable there. As well I applaud the Muskoka beer on tap. The brickworks mission statement along with my companions explanations of who Brad Long was, may have raised my expectations for the food. The mac and cheese and mushroom soup we shared were both utterly uninspired. If they were any indication of the rest of the menu I guarantee I could definitively deliver much better food. Where as my reworking of each selection would be worlds apart in how much more interesting and flavourful they would be. Perhaps it says something that in the history of Chaos in Moderation they are the first venue that I’ve said anything negative about. From my experience there I Assume Chef Long has no love of food and caters to peoples cowed by hype rather than those of us who celebrate quality and the myriad of wonderful places we have found it.  

I would not say anything critical without a solution or at least advice. I personally, armed only with my love of food would rework each menu item to be something joyous. In fact I offer that service.

In lieu of that I offer advice.

Embrace flavour, don’t fear texture. Love your ingredients. Watch old tapes of Julia Child and see that food is what you are meant for. My opinion is that I was served high end cafeteria food. Which was a terrible disservice to the staff the clientele and the idea of using and promoting local food. Local food is and can be glorious, from our Ontario meats and dairy to our phenomenal vegetation. I implore people to explore and try new things and eat great local food. (paired with our outstanding local wine and beer).

I’ll try and get out to TUM again and imagine a nicer climate will greatly improve my experience. I may also try Cafe Belong again, maybe we ordered two things they were not good at.

Either way, don’t take my word for it. Try for yourself never stop exploring.

Baking is thirsty work. While reorganizing my kitchen and making spent grain chocolate chip cookies I carved my way through some of my beer selection.

Black Oak Double Chocolate Cherry Stout, silky and flavourful a deliciously flavoured stout.

Black Oak Pale Ale, perhaps the best straight ahead pale ale you can get. My lovely coffee companion dropped by with an Abbot ale from Greene King out of Suffolk England . It was incredibly good. I don’t know much about them though.

Great Lakes Devil’s Pale Ale, one of a few beers I didn’t like on first go but have warmed up considerably to the Devils Pale. All great accompaniments to rebuilding my kitchen and baking spent grain cookies.

But, don’t take my word for it. Drink the beer!

http://blackoakbeer.com/

http://www.greatlakesbeer.com/

http://www.abbotale.co.uk/home.php

Taking our monthly Toronto Beer Lovers meet up on the road we went to Stout Irish Pub in Hogtown. It was my first time out there and have to say I liked it quite a bit. A sentiment echoed by most of the TBL as well. Great pub atmosphere, fun local beer on tap and from why I saw decent pub grub as well. Baking and cleaning all day I was a few drinks in well before I made it out to Stout. The atmosphere and some good beer and company capped off a productive day at home. Through the night I had one of my new favourites the Red Racer India Pale Ale out of British Columbia. One of my favourite from last year Beaus Lug Tread Lagered Ale and a St. Ambois Scotch Irish Ale to cap off the night. We had a great group out everyone animated and chatting with each other. Erin and the rest of Stouts staff were awesome and we had a superb night and everyone went home happy.

torontobeerlovers.com

http://www.stoutirishpub.ca/

I tried the Beaus Beaver River at the the Only Winter Beer Festival at the beginning of February. It was delicious like I’ve come to expect from Beaus Beers. It was actually being delivered to the LCBO the same day as the festival. It was good to try on it’s own rather than with all the other great beer I was drinking. Beaver River is smooth and drinkable with a mild hop bitterness I’ve come to associate with Beaus offerings. As far as my deeper thoughts on it I’ve decided It’s going to take more analysis.

But,don’t take my word for it. Drink the beer!

Here’s the Beaver River profile courtesy of Beaus.ca

http://www.beaus.ca/beer/seasonals/beaver_river

Sara my long time friend got herself a much deserved promotion. She called me up saying we needed to celebrate. I’d have to say we did quite well for ourselves in that respect. With visiting three venues and a beautiful walk in the snowy night we celebrated Sara’s hard work fairly well. We started out at the Ace down on Roncesvalles. I’d heard a lot about the place and was excited for the opportunity to visit. Both Sara and I have an affection for 40’s era films and music. Which doubly increased our appreciation of the Ace. It seems like a little bar from earlier times. Extremely pleasant and comfortable for the two of us.

The food was good. We shared the evening special Spaghetti with sautéed mushrooms and pesto kale. The manhattan’s were fantastic. A fair size well mixed and containing a spiced apricot. The apricot itself tasted like pie soaked in cocktail. Incredible.

While we could have happily spent the night sacrificing our battered pocketbooks to the cocktail menu the night called. We walked down through the beautiful snowy night. Window shopping,enjoying each others company and the warmth of the evenings first drinks. Up Queen West, we found the bar formerly known as Mitzi’s Sister, The Sister.Live Bluegrass music and a booth to ourselves. We had a pretty decent time. Mushroom poutine to share while I went through some of the craft beer selection Sara went over to wine. Pretty happy with the beer list I managed a Junction Conductor Ale, which was my first beer of 2012 and one I’ll have several times throughout the year. Beaus Lugtread and a Durham Black Katt stout.

Making are way closer to getting home we got bored of waiting for the bus at Ossington and ducked into Sweaty Betty’s. Sara and I retired out to heated patio. Her with a double glass of wine and me with a Wellington Special IPA. The patio was enclosed like a small barn. It was a neat change of pace from the the nights other venues. All in all a pretty good night and well deserved celebration of my friends well deserved promotion and our long friendship.

http://www.facebook.com/TheAceToronto?sk=info

http://mitzis.ca/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweaty-Bettys/211004945599543

Trolling Twitter came in handy as I had no idea there was an upcoming beer festival at the Only cafe. So when I found that the Only teeter about it. I got right on it and asked them about it. They were pretty great and tweeted back a link and I was able to set up events for the Toronto Beer Lovers. I went for both the Friday and Saturday and had a pretty great time chatting with everyone and negotiating the crowd. As crowded as it was all of us at Only Friday night were classy and as kind as we could be trying to get around to all the different beer. It made a huge difference in how the night could have gone. So cheers to everyone who was out. I did actually manage to write about some of the beer I got to try. Saturday night not so much. The blogging and social media stuff took a backseat to good company and being part of he event.

Friday, I started with the Wellington one off IPA casked ale. Housed in a wooden cask it has a citrusy woody flavour which made for a nice comparison the the Black Oak Hop Bomb cask which I had later in the night.

The Hop Bomb had it’s own wood flavour brought on by the hops rather than the vessel. The Beaus Treading Water was a fun blend of their Bog Water and Lugtread beers. The mix came out seeming very floral and seem wheat flavours coming through from the bog water side.

The Railway city pomegranate beer was pretty interesting. It came off very juicy like grapefruit juice. I would choose this for a brunch beer it would be awesome with good smoky bacon, eggs and strong coffee.

I was pouring the Black Oak Hop Bomb cask for awhile. It’s a strongly hopped pale ale which comes out of the cask very nicely being both highly drinkable and carries woody hop flavours. As mentioned above a nice beer to follow up the Wellington IPA casked beer with. Giving you the opportunity to appreciate the differences and similarities.

Beaus Beaver River IPA boasting a full hoppy flavour and newly available in the LCBO. (I’ll need to pick some up and give it another try). The Only was passing out Mulled beer to help keep us warm on the patio. It took some getting used to but was quite good.

Sawdust City Ol’ Woody Alt Ale amazingly drinkable. The Long Dark Voyage to Uranus was a phenominal Stout and the name was subject to lots of funny jests. While they continue to look for a building Sawdust City has brewing their extraordinary beers out of Black Oak and the Niagara Brewing College.

Flying Monkeys had the Netherworld and an Imperial stout. St. Ambois Wee Scotch Ale was pretty decent as well.

The Saturday was a whole lot more social for me. A bit more drinking went on as well. Nice to see Junction,Kensington brewing, Nicklebrook and all the others out on the back patio. Afterwards the other Toronto Beer Lovers and I went down to C’est What for even more craft beer and met up with the rest of the group for our monthly gathering.

http://www.theonlycafe.com/

The actual Toronto Beer Lovers event was a a Parkdale art walk followed by drinks at the Rhino. Those of us not signed up for the walk were welcome to come crash the Rhino and join the group. It turned out to be a fun night out and a good group of people. I phrase I use repetitively when describing TBL gatherings. The Beaus Cabba Cabba Hey Double Wide IPA was good. It seemed a bit citrusy and seemed to have a slight vanilla flavour coming from the hops. It’s also a fairly high alcohol beer at about eight percent. A fact I didn’t quite realize until I was already a few pints in. Following the new Beaus Double Wide I found that the Rhino still had Black Oak Ten Bitter Years on tap. A treat for beer enthusiasts. Also a eight percent beer. I had a few of those as well. Shortly there after we moved down the road to Mitzi’s Sister. Which had been renamed The Sister and been completely renovated since the last time I had been in there a few years ago. Unfortunately we missed the music but our companion who left earlier was still there and we finished our night over there. Then went home to welcome a particularly exuberant hangover fairy in the morning.

http://www.beaus.ca/

http://therhino.ca/

http://blackoakbeer.com/

Of course no believed me that this was when I was going to have my very first beer of 2012. Not that I can blame them since I’ve been out five or six times a month for the last three years or so drinking and experiencing all kinds of great beer and and venues.

A couple new people out this time which is always great along with a lovely gate Crasher in our very own Reethi. With the great ever changing beer list and great atmosphere their was really no question where to have this event. Bar Volo, has been a champion of craft beer in Toronto and have been the cultivators of of love affair with great local beer. Giving us the chance to try new things and make new friends.

2012 started for me with my TBL companions, pouring over the chalkboard and picking through just what be our beer start for the year. My first beer of the year was the Junction Brewery’s Conductor Cask conditioned pale ale. It was a fantastic start. Beautiful orange colour, smooth hoppy taste. I’ll be visiting Junction beers in the future. With them, Indie ale house, Kensington Brewing and all my other favourites and all the fantastic beer we’ve been exposed to it’s going to be a fantastic year of beer, good people and events. 

Speaking of favourite beer makers, My second beer of the year was Beaus Bog water Bruit Ale. A fruity ale which like everything else Beaus makes left me laying awake wanting more. 

My third beer or the year was one I had tried for the first time in December. Gananoqueee Shiver Eisbock, Jason Ree’s of the Pork Ninja’s and several Beer Lover’recommendeded it tme. The bocks and dopplebocks I’ve tried have all been amazingly good and I get excited when I know one is coming to me from the bar. Eisbock is typically a dopplebock that has been frozen and had the resulting ice removed to increase the alcohol content. The Shiver was my first try of this style of beer and it was really nice. The alcohol wasn’t overbearing and it just led to a nice sharp flavour. A fine beer , you should be a bit wary of as it is a bit strong alcohol wise and goes down smoothly.

A great start to the year.

http://barvolo.com/

http://www.junctioncraftbrewing.com/jcb/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gananoque-Brewing-Company/169171079809900?sk=wall

http://www.beaus.ca/

http://www.torontobeerlovers.com/