Hop City launches Mr. Huff

Tonight we attended the launch of Hop City's new pilsner, Mr. Huff ... Gord had seen an announcement about it on The Great Canadian Beer Blog.

It was a free event in our 'hood ... how could we say no?!

There was an old school photo booth so we checked it out.

Here's Gord having a beer.

Mr. Huff is supposed to be a hoppy beer. I'm not a fan of hoppy beers so had a Barking Squirrel instead. I wasn't crazy about it so Gord switched with me and surprisingly I liked Mr. Huff better.

Roger Mittag, "Professor of Beer" at Thirst for Knowledge, was the emcee. There was a taste testing of Hop City's four beers along with food pairings. John and Kevin, the brewmasters, talked about each one as we tested them.

Here are Kevin and John, along with Tim Pettigrew, a chef at the Grindhouse, who supplied the food.

Here are the food pairings:

Lawn Chair, a wheat beer, with a pulled pork slider with Lawn Chair BBQ sauce on in-house baked Barking Squirrel foccacia.

I'm not a fan of wheat beer but the sandwich was tasty!

Mr. Huff, their new pilsner, with Mr. Huff battered black tiger shrimp with beer infused mustard aoili.

I don't like shrimp but Gord does so I gave him mine.

Barking Squirrel, a lager, with grilled house-cured pork belly lardons with sweet Barking Squirrel consomme and micro greens.

Remember I said I didn't like the Barking Squirrel? It tasted a lot better with the smoky pork belly.

Happy Hour, an ale, with braised sausages in puff pastry with caramelized onion relish.

These were good ... the balsamic vinegar was the first sensation but it finished with a sweet mustard taste.

Gord had taken a beer course last spring and we ran into his instructor, Mirella Amato of Beerology and the Toronto chapter of Barley's Angels.

There was a band in another room ... they played covers and were good.

This woman REALLY liked them.

We suspect someone went up to Queen Street where there are some trendy bars and let everyone know that there was a free party going on here as the room was jammed mostly with younger partiers.

The night was a fun experience trying new beer!