Volo Cask Days 2007

The third annual Volo Cask Days festival.
October 20 ~ 21, 2007.



It was a beautiful autumn weekend for the 2007 Cask Days. The sun was shining on this sold out event. There were four sessions: (1) Saturday Breakfast with the Brewers, (2) Saturday Afternoon, (3) Saturday Evening and (4) Sunday Afternoon. Bier Goddess had been looking forward to this event for months. Of all the Toronto beer festivals and events, this is the one NOT to miss. It was the second year I had volunteered to help serve and there was no making the same mistake as last year - sensible shoes this time. I needed to pace myself since I had signed up to volunteer at two out of the four sessions. Ralph & Ina, the owners and operators, always do such a great job with all the special events they host that it's a pleasure for me to help out where I can. It also gives me a chance to talk with the brewers & get an inside look at this Toronto creme de la creme festival of All-Cask-Conditioned beers.


Biergotter's Cask Imperial Porter.
Biergotter's other beer, Hopocalypse Redux, won for Best Beer of the Festival as voted by the attendees. (www.biergotter.org)
Fog On The Tyne by Magnotta Brewery won for best beer name.


Ina and Stephen Beaumount, beer writer,chat about beer.

What an amazing turn out beers. Here is the list of special casks that were submitted to this event:
* Volo's Hopocalypse Redux (American IPA, brewed by Beirgotter)
* Volo's Casc Imperial Porter (American Imperial Porter, brewed by Beirgotter)
* Volo's Totally Bitter Ale (brewed by Robert Hughey)
* Denison's Weissbier (Denison's Brewery)
* Wind & Sail Dark Ale (Barley Days Brewery)
* Hop Bomb "S.T.F.U." Pale Ale (Black Oak Brewing)
* Bourbon Barreled 2005 Nutcracker Porter (Black Oak Brewing)
* Hopburn Ale (Camerons Brewing)
* Hop Head IPA (County Durham Brewing)
* Blak Kat Stout (County Durham Brewing)
* Taste of Ontario Harvest Ale (F&M Brewing)
* George's Herbal Mild (F&M Brewing)
* Fuller's ESB (Fuller's Brewery)
* London Pride (Fuller's Brewery)
* Mill Race Mild (Grand River)
* Plowman's Ale (Grand River)
* Best Bitter Special (Granite Brewery)
* Keefe Oak Chipped Steeped Irish Stout (Granite Brewery)
* Devil's Pale Ale (Great Lakes Brewery)
* Pumpkin Ale (Great Lakes Brewery)
* Stewart's Organic Ale (Heritage Brewery)
* Traditional English Dark Ale - Made with vanilla beans (Hockley Valley Brewery)
* Maclean's Pale Ale - Dry hopped (Maclean's & Lagers)
* Fog On The Tyne - Weizen yeast flavoured American IPA (Magnotta Brewery)
* IPA (Mill Street Brewery)
* Left Hook Barley Wine (Nickel Brook Brewery)
* Jackson Best Bitter - Michael Jackon tribute beer (Saint Andre Brewing)
* Perry's Atomic Pumpkin Ale (Scotch Irish Brewing)
* Peppermint Stout - Unconditioned (Tafalgar Ales & Meads)
* Volo's Grains Of Wrath Double IPA (brewed by Church Key)
* Arkell Best Bitter (Wellington Brewery)
* Special Pale Ale- Dry hopped (Wellington Brewery)


I had volunteered at sessions 2 & 3 but I attended session 4 with a group of friends. We had a great time tasting, sharing our favorites and mingling with the other beer fans. At these events, there always seems to be a relaxed excitement. The cost of $35 per session it's a real deal. You got ten 4 oz tasting tickets and a tasting glass. I don't know anyone who ran out of tickets. There were also four beers that were sold in to fundraise for Sick Kids Hospital. (Good on you Ralph!) My favourite beers of the festival were Biergotter's Casc Imperial Porter, for it's velety smoothness and well intergrated hops, and Perry's Atomic Pumpkin Ale, for it's good pumpkin flesh flavours and balanced drinkability.


Above, some of the brewers: (top) Adrian Popowycz (brewmaster of Black Oak), (second in column) Robert Hughey & Bruce Halstead of Durham County, (third in column) Perry Mason (founder of Scotch Irish Brewing Co)and (fourth in column) Russ Burdick & Jan Biega (brewer and brew monkey of Biergotter).

This festival benefitted from the trials & errors of the previous years. The quality of the beers submitted were a notch above past years. I think this is due to the competitive nature of the brewers and the prestige this event has garnered in the Toronto beer community. The cap on the number of attendees per session allowed for a more comfortable experience. We were not all on top of each other and the flow of traffic to get tasters was easy & quick. Also, the rotating invitees at "The Cheese Table" allowed for a fuller tasting experience, especially for those who attended more than one session. The invitees were, Julia Rogers (www.cheeseculture.ca), Cole Snell (provincialfinefoods.com), Ruth Klahsen (www.monfortedairy.com), Scott Jensen (www.jensencheese.ca) and Alli Miller (of Alli's Bread).


The two best beer t-shirts...gotta love the sense of humour that brewers have. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)

Tickets, Cheese Seminar, Beer Friends

September 2007

On the last Sunday of September there was a special day at Volo. The first thing happening was the Cask Days one day ticket sale. To celebrate the day there was a limited quantity of Fuller's ESB on cask for the early birds. Not only was there a big line up for the ticket sale, they sold out within the first couple of hours! This was the third year of Cask Days & it had gained a certain prestige in the beer community in Toronto as The Festival to attend if you like cask conditioned beer.

I wanted to attend the Saturday night session but by the time I got to the front of the line, I could only get tickets for Sunday afternoon. I called everyone I was getting tickets for and thankfully everyone would be able to attend on Sunday instead. This ment I would be volunteering to serve both Saturday afternoon & evening sessions...I knew then that I would have to be prepared for a long day on my feet. Then I thought, "What if it rains??!" Having promised Ralph, the owner, I'd help out ment no backing out now. Not that I would. This was my favorite Toronto beer event and I enjoy supporting those events I believe in.


Dan & Doug are regulars at Volo. There not only very nice guys but they are also fellow beer enthusiasts. Cheers boys! Don't drink all the Fuller's - save me some!


Biergotter Gang: Eric Ecclestone, Jennifer Root, Russ Burdick & Jan Biega enjoying a pint of ESB and playing some eucher. I'll take some of that action.

Part 2 of the same day: Later, I attended the first of three monthly cheese seminars at Volo taught by Julia Rogers. There were 3 sessions scheduled for the last Sunday of September, October & November. Each session would have a different focus, introducing different cheeses and their different wine & beer pairings. This series breaked for the holidays but new sessions were added for spring of 2008. If you're interested go to the Volo website listed as a link on the blog's right hand side.

(More details on this September cheese session will be posted later.)


Julia Rogers of Cheese Culture (cheese educator & enthusiast)


Tasting Plate: September '07 Cheese Seminar

2007 Golden Tap Awards

A table of Bier Gods & Goddesses enjoying their tastings.
(from left to right: Eric, Hilary, Chris, Michiho & Mark)

Once again Beer Bistro hosted the annual Golden Tap Awards on Saturday August 18. This event celebrates and honours the beer makers and beer establishments in Ontario. It was the fifth year of this event and it was packed with beer enthusiasts. Hosted by Cass Enright, the moderator of the Bar Towel website, it brings together brewers and their beers to one afternoon of casual fun and opportunity to sample, sample, sample. At $2 a tasting, it's easy to try a wide variety of beer or something from the table of finger foods.

One of the bonuses of attending is that many breweries bring one-off batches that you can try. These special brews are often only available at the event and you might not ever have a chance to taste ever again. Some at this year's event were Black Oak's Transvestites Tipple and Scotch Irish's Fire In The Hole.


Cass Enright who emceed the awards ceremony.


Michael Hancock, brewer and owner of Denison's, accepting his Editor's Circle Award for his outstanding brewing.


Adrian and Ken of Black Oak Brewing company who won the Best Beer of the Festival.

The 2007 Golden Tap winners:

Best microbrewery in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) - Mill Street
Best microbrewery in Ontario (outside of the GTA) - Church-Key
Best beer brewed in the GTA - Mill Street Tankhouse
Best beer brewed in Ontario (outside of the GTA) - Beau's Lug-Tread Lagered Ale
Best bar in the GTA in terms of draught beer selection - C'est What
Best bar in the GTA in terms of bottled beer selection - beerbistro
Best bar in Ontario (outside of the GTA) - Winking Judge
Best brewpub or tied house in Ontario (including the GTA) - Mill Street Brewpub
Best beer of the festival - Black Oak Transvestite's Tipple

New this year were Editor's Circle awards, to recognize unique and significant achievements in the Ontario beer industry. Four were handed out:

Michael Hancock
Great Lakes Brewing
Roland + Russell
Volo Cask Days

(For past winners see http://goldentap.ca/winners.html)

Victory Cafe

Victory Cafe, 581 Markham Street, Toronto (http://victorycafe.ca/)

I really wanted to get together to catch up with Bier Goddess Hilary after being away on vacation. We planned to meet at around 4 pm at Ronnie's Local 69 in Kensington Market. An unfortunate sequence of events ended up with meeting Hilary much later at a haunt closer to her house called Victory Cafe in the Annex. I'd never been there before but BG Hilary assured us that it would have some good offerings.

Beautiful Bier Goddess Hilary on a lovely Sunday evening in July.

It was cool but the summer is so short in Toronto, we sat out on the large patio anyways. The first pint I had was the Galt Knife Old Style Lager. It was sweet up front but it changed to a hoppy, dry finish. It was clear, amber in colour and had only a little head.


Some of Victory's offerings are listed here but you should always inquire about any guest taps.

I had the cod feature entree for dinner with stewed chickpeas. As my second pint, I had the Black Oak Saison. It was very good - some spice and malt flavours, refreshing and extremely satisfying. Coincidentally, just this past Friday, Cafe Volo hosted a tasting of Black Oak Saison on tap, cask conditioned and bottled. Tasting it now, I was very sorry I didn't make the effort of going. I understand that both Adrian (Head Brewer) and Ken (President)were at Volo for the tasting. I had the pleasure of meeting Adrian before (see posting on March 24, 2007). Well done Adrian! I've been spreading the word about your saison to all my friends.


This car was parked just a little down the street from Victory.

Grilling with Beer Event

Lucy Saunders, author of "Grilling With Beer", Stephen Beaumont, beer writer and co-owner of Beer Bistro and Brian Morin, Beer Bistro Executive Chef, collaborated to host this event on July 10, 2007.




Sometimes timing is everything. The stars must have all been alined to conspire a truely memorable event. This special 5 course meal was offered only for one day which just happened to be my birthday. What could be nicer than being spoiled to a decandent, carefulled planned meal paired with American craft beers savored with friends?

We started with the welcome beer, Lost Abbey's Avent Garde Ale (San Marcos, CA, 7%alc.) An amber biere de garde with a bready body highlighted by spicy coriander and orange notes. I found that it was saison-like, somewhat Duvel-ish, sweet up front but it had a dry finish. It would have been better if it had been served a bit colder.


First Course: Trio of beer bacon-wrapped shrimp with smoked jalapeno pale ale bbq sauce, grilled gravlax, cucumber stout pancake, white beer vinaigrette and grilled cherry beer-cured duck with chipotle peach sauce. This first course was paired with Brooklyn Local 1: The new Belgian-inspired blonde from Brooklyn Brewery. (Brooklyn, NY, 9% alc.) A delicious start. Every bit satisfying and covering a wide spectrum of flavours. My favorite was the shrimp.


Second Course: Grilled porter ginger scallops bitter greens, mango, pink grapefruit lambic vinaigrette. It was paired with Anchor Summer Beer: A slightly sweet wheat beer with hints of honey & citrus. (San Francisco, CA, 4.2% alc.) The only thing wrong with dish was there wasn't enough. The greens were not sharp tasting because the tart dressing and sweet scallops balanced this dish.


Third Course: Smoked chicken & chanterelles grilled beer onions, pear tomatoes, thyme & goat cheese on herbed walnut flatbread. It was paired with Sierra Nevada Porter: medium bodied with notes of coffee and chocolate. (Chico, CA, 5.6% alc.) This course in really contrasted from the previous two with it's earthy flavours and heavier body. The porter accentuated the walnut flatbread and smokiness of the chicken.


Fourth Course: Slow-smoked pork back ribs Waupoos cider marinated, jalapeno cheddar biscuits, smashed potatoes & rauchbier bbq beans. It was paired with Lost Abbey Red Barn: spiced with ginger, orange, pepper & grains of paradise. (San Marcos, CA, 6.7% alc.) The ribs were so tender I hardly had to chew; the texture of the smashed potatoes really enhanced their flavour; the beans were smokey, saucey and made excellent use of the rauchbier they were cooked in.


Fifth Course: Strawberry raspberry shortcake, berry beer sorbet, icecream. Dessert was paired with Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout: bittersweet and soothing. (Brooklyn, NY, 10.1% alc.) Fresh, lightness in the mouth yet extreemly deep in flavours. The palate was saturated with berries and velvetly smoothness of the stout.

No more...not even a tiny waiffer.

Great Divide, Denver, CO

Great Divide Brewing Company (2201 Arapahoe Street,Denver, CO 80205 telephone:(303) 296-9460 ext. 26) www.greatdivide.com

Part two of the last full day of my vacation was a trip to Great Divide. I was a bit tired and loosing my happy buzz from Avery. I was struggling in the late afternoon to muster up enough energy to enjoy one more brewery tour. My motivator was the memory of tasting the Oak Aged Yeti at the Montreal Beer Festival. It had left a lasting impression.

The taps in the tasting room.

Proudly displaying their awards.

The Tour:



Yazoo was recommended by the guys at the brewery. We walked half a block up the street to a small take out place that specializes in dry rub barbeque. We'd had a lot of delicious, slow-cooked meats and barbeque on this trip. The diet begins tomorrow. It was a totally unassuming place. A plain counter in a tiny building with no airconditioning. The food was not my favorite bbq of the trip but it was also bbq of very different style than I had had so far so it was worth trying.

Avery Brewing Company, Boulder, CO

When you're approaching the end of a your vacation, it's always kind of sad. Bier Guide and I wanted to get a lot done on the last full day of our road trip vacation. Our vacation started out with car trouble when we drove from Toronto to Buffalo, NY. The fan has to konk out now? We had to pull over to let the engine cool because every liquid in the car was boiling so violently that the car was rattling. Anyways from Buffalo we caught our flight to Seattle, WA where we picked up a rental car. Ocean, mountains, deserts, a lot of pulled pork, four thousand plus kilometers and 14 days later had brought us to Boulder, CO. We savoured our morning coffee as we planned out the itinerary of the last golden day.


After packing, visits to bike shops (see the next posting) and a quick lunch we headed over to Avery Brewing Company (5763 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, CO 80303 or call toll-free: 1-877-844-5679). Thank goodness that we had looked it up because it would be easy to miss. Tucked away in an industrial area of town, we found a cluster of buildings belonging to Avery. Their tasting room is small but very nicely designed in a European-style with a pour station in the back and plenty of seating to let visitors relax.










Greg Miller was manning the pour station. I defy anyone to find a friendlier, more welcoming embassador of beer. He immediately invited us to start tasting and made us feel at home with his easy going manner. The anticipation of so many legendary beers to try, I asked Greg to give me a tasting course from least hoppy to most hoppy. I wanted my palate to pick up on as much of the flavours as possible.


Peter Archer is a Sales, Marketing and Merchandise rep for Avery. There were quite a few of us in the tasting room interested in a tour so he offered to take us into the brewery itself for a bit of a peek. His jovial charm, Australian accent and casual personality made a great guide for the six of us who eagerly jumped up at his offer.

"Wait a minite. We can't go yet. I see someone without a full pint!! Unacceptable, go back to Greg and get a proper glass of beer or I'm not going to take you," declared Peter. So back I went.

The tour was thorough but to be honest, I had drank too much by then to remember the details.


On the tour with Peter.



























Bier Guide finally decided what to bring home...Avery delivers to Toronto, don't they?

Beer Has the Power to Unite

It's amazing how people who were complete strangers can connect quickly if given the right circumstances. I was at the end of a two week vacation in the United States. We had gone from Seattle, WA to Boulder, CO covering over 2575 miles (that's approximately 4120 kilometers for my metric friends). It's always sad when you know you're on the second last day of holidays. The last day is always spent travelling home so it feels even worse. This trip was going to end with a bang. The morning was spent at bike shops. One shop was called Vecchio's where we met a gentleman who used to race in southern Ontario. He was familiar with courses and riders that only a small group of people would know. Beer Guide, who also used to race was familiar with many of the same places and people. Small world, eh?

After noon, we went to Avery. This was a much anticipated visit as we had already sampled their Maharaja in the past. (See blog entry on May 1, 2007.) Having checked on when their tasting room was open, we knew that it was just a matter of finding them. If anyone plans on visiting, look up their website for a map to their brewery & tasting room. It is not the easiest place to find - located in the rear of an industrial area off the main road. The search was well worth it! We were not alone. Some were there already sampling and chatting around a table. Soon others arrived. I offered to take a picture of a nice bunch of guys as a momento of their visit. You see, it's becomes apparent to me the folks that are really into beer and those who are not. They seemed serious about their beer. I like the serious ones. I think it was Vincent who commented how that was a nice offer but they had their own digital camera. I took their picture and asked if they wanted to send me a copy, I would post it on my blog. To my delight, they did.


From left to right are James, Cibi, Jacob, Matt, and Vincent.

I hope you boys are well and enjoying some Avery beers for me. And if any of you are ever in Toronto, I would be happy to show you around our beer haunts. Cheers!!