Toronto’s Festival of Beer is a celebration of Canada’s rich brewing history, hosted by experts of the brewing craft from around the world. Featuring 200+ brands onsite, this is Canada’s premier celebration of the golden beverage!
The Festival boasts over 60 brewers featuring more than 200 brands from all over the globe. From lagers to stouts, fruit beers to ales, we have something for everyone! The Festival features more than just beer though; there are several non-malt based beverages available including wine, ciders and ready-to-drink beverages. There are also a number of food vendors onsite serving up delicious meals. Whether you’re looking for oysters, poutine or a burger, you’ll be able to find the perfect thing to satisfy your appetite!
Gord and I love beer festivals and went this evening. We entered through the media gate.
We were escorted to the media lounge.
We received two drink tickets ... Sofie and Matilda were being served in the lounge.
I really liked the Sofie. It is a Belgian-style beer that is aged in wine barrels with citrus peel. It was my fav of the night and I'll have to get some!
There were lots of snacks in the lounge.
When we wandered around the grounds about 6:30pm, there were quite a few people. I'd heard this festival gets crowded but it was okay ... considering tickets are sold out all weekend (with a few left for Sunday), I was expecting it to be more jammed. We went last year on the Thursday night (this year it started this evening) and not surprisingly it wasn't as crowded.
My first beer was a Liefmans fruit beer from the Duval stand. It'd never had it before ... it was yummy!
This year the The World of Beer Pavillion is focused on west coast beers.
We had an interesting chat with Tim, a sales guy with Central City Brewing (Gord was drinking Red Racer, one of their beers, at that time).
You could play games at The Deck.
We headed to the local craft beer are, which was in the middle of the festival.
I had a Vienna lager from King Brewery. I've had it in the past and liked it.
We ran into Ken Woods, owner of Black Oak Brewing Company.
We got hungry. Gord got a couple hot dogs. I got in line for sandwiches at Ted Reader's. They were giving out sample bottles of hot sauce (I got a couple).
Ted was drinking a sample bottle ... hot hot hot!
I got a smoked beef brisket sandwich ...
... and a BBQ pulled pork sandwich.
Both were good but I liked the pulled pork sandwich a bit better.
We entered the Moosehead area and I got a Twisted Tea ... it was good.
Their security guy had a lot of tattoos ... this was the one on his neck.
I had a Rock Cut Lager from Lake of Bays ... it was okay.
Gord bought some jerky.
As it got later, it got more crowded but it wasn't too bad.
I had a Mill Street Organic, which I've had many times in the past.
I had a cream ale from Cameron's Brewing Company.
It got busier as it got later ... and everyone seemed to be having a good time!
Gord posed at Left Field Brewery's photo op ... the guy in the white teeshirt behind Gord had fun photo bombing the pictures :)
You could wear a Steam Whistle hat made of boxes.
There was quite a crowd grooving to tunes at the Bud Light sponsored area.
It was odd to see a stand for the upcoming movie, We're the Millers.
We had to pee so headed to the porta potties ... there was a line-up of about ten minutes to get into them but it was a good-natured crowd.
I had a lager from Creemore Springs.
There was lots of great entertainment.
I was getting beered-out so switched to Smirnoff Ice coolers at the end of the night. I liked the raspberry one and the new fruit punch one.
We relaxed back in the media lounge.
We met Scott and Brian from the Urban Craze and had a nice chat with them.
As it started to get close to closing at 11pm, people started wandering towards the exit.
It was a fun time! There were big name breweries but it was good to see the smaller craft breweries too.
You guys have had a very busy weekend celebrating. Enjoy your travels in Quebec.
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