The Indie Boat Hop Craft Beer Cruise, Empire Sandy, Toronto, ON

This afternoon Gord and I did the first ever Indie Boat Hop Craft Beer Cruise.  A craft beer festival and a boat cruise ... two of my favourite things!

It was coordinated by the Indie Ale House Brewing Company and the Bar Hop.  It was on the Empire Sandy, a tall ship that was built as an Englishman/Larch Deep Sea class tugboat for war service by the British Government in 1943.

Tickets were $40 and included an Indie Boat Hop cup (which held eight ounces), a drink ticket, a three hour sail (from 1pm to 4pm) and access to beer that has never been released on land!  Extra drink tickets were $4.50.

 Here are the breweries and cidery on the boat offering one-offs:

• Amsterdam
• Bellwoods
• Blackheart Brewing Collective
• Get Well 
• Great Lakes
• Indie Alehouse 
• Nickel Brook 
• Sawdust City 
• West Avenue Cider Company

It was a sold-out event.

Here's what I had ...

Cherry Manilow (Grisette with cherries) from Great Lakes

Berry Switzer (Berliner Weisse with raspberries) from Nickel Brook

Bogus Journey (Berliner Weisee with raspberries and blueberries),
a Bar Hop Collab

I wanted to try Rob & Jason's Fruitbasket (fruit punch pale ale), a Bar Hop Collab, but they never did open that keg.  So I went back and had others I'd had earlier.

You could buy food onboard.

Sausage and Goldfish was $7

We headed eastward and went halfway around the Islands.

It was busy on the water

Looking up Yonge Street

And then we headed back towards the dock  ...

They fired canons a couple times

Yes, Captain John's is STILL there!

There were people doing the EdgeWalk on the CN Tower

Here we are ...

Gord and I

Me

Gord

It was a fun cruise and I hope they do it again.  Though it was packed, once everyone got on board and got a drink, the line-ups weren't too bad.