What a great time, and some great brews had. We were joined by our friend and coworker Doug and our friend Jon, known as Prototype. Prototype was with us for our Montreal trip, so he had a bit of a head-start in our craft beer conversion experiment, and I've gotta say, I'm quite impressed at how quick he's come to appreciate good craft beer. Doug can appreciate a good beer, but he's not as far in, so he doesn't quite enjoy a nice hoppy beer. Since this will most likely be a long post it will be split into a couple posts.
As you saw in the last post the festivities actually started Thursday night for John and I. I don't exactly remember what else was had after those 2 except for some Paddock Wood Czechmate Pilsner, and 606 IPA, that could be it, but knowing us there's probably more.
The next morning Doug picked us up at around 9:30 and we had breakfast at Fifty's Diner. Our first 2 stops were in Etibicoke. Black Oak Brewing came first and we were in for some great news as they had 3 of their seasonal releases, Nutcracker Porter, Double Chocolate Cherry Stout, and the high in demand Ten Bitter Years. Great Lakes Brewing was up next where we were heartbroken to find out that My Bitter Wife was sold out the night before. The very nice (and quite pretty) girl let us sample Sweet Pete's Peach Wheat, we picked up 2 bomber's of it, and in addition, picked up 3 bomber's each of 2 of their Project X beers, Bottle Conditioned Pumpkin Ale, and "Where There's Smoke, There's Fire" Smoked Chipotle Ale. Stop 3 was at the Queen's Quay LCBO on Cooper Street where we came for one thing and left with quite a few. What brought us into that lick-bo was Southern Tier's Pumking, what we left with was the Pumking, Mt. Begbie Nasty Habit IPA, Dieu Du Ciel Rigor Mortis Abt, and Sam Adams Octoberfest. We were happy with what we found at all 3 places, and were proud of our haul.
All that was done by 1:00pm, and well, we were getting a little thirsty and we decided to go to Duggan's Brewery. Initially, we were only supposed to go here to purchase some growlers, but the thirst set in. We had to make this a quick trip as we only had enough change for about 45 minutes of parking. The first thing John noticed when we walked in was that there were no growlers in the display, we asked the hostess, and again, heartbreak as there were sold out of growlers. John and Doug started with half pints of the Ontario Ale which was just tapped the night before, and I had the Double IPA. Doug switched it up and tried the Weizen out, while John gave the Double IPA a go and I tried the Ontario Ale. Not really wanting to try anything else out, and with a bit of driving still left, we decided to leave.
We decided to check to see if our hotel room was ready. It was not, but we did have an opportunity to park the car there so we could just start walking the streets. We had a decision to make, start the drinking then, or chill for a bit so as not to be too far in by the time Prototype joined us. We decided on the latter and went to the Eaton Centre and a few other stores for a bit.
Again, thirst was setting in. I decided to check my phone to find directions to Bar Volo, as I did that a forgotten bar showed up, Sin & Redemption. Both were a 15-20 minute walk away in different directions, but knowing Bar Volo was going to be something special, and with Prototype not yet with us, we chose S&R. S&R had a nice atmosphere, and considering we didn't ask for a bottle list, they had a pretty good tap list. John finally got his pink elephant, and got to try a beer that has eluded him thus far, Delirium Tremens, I decided to revisit it having it for the first time last year. It was just as great as I remembered it. Dougie went for the Hacker Keller bier which he enjoyed quite a bit. John's next beer was an old friend from the Castle on King days, Fullers Organic Honey Dew, I had a bit of a sample of it, and I agreed that it was just as refreshing as we had in the past. Dougie and I chose different beers from the same brewery, he had the Weihenstephaner Hefe Weiss, and I had the Hefeweissbier Dunkel, we both enjoyed them quite a bit and got to drink them in some pretty cool glasses!! With Prototype not being with us yet, we decided to end it at that, but before we did, our great waiter let us sample Urthel Hop-It as John and I had forgotten if it was the same one we had had almost a year ago to the day. Dougie and John ended up buying some glassware as well, Dougie got a shot glass that said Sinner on one side and Idiot on the other. John bought 2 Delirium Tremens glasses, putting his total at 4, and 2 Urthel Hop-It glasses, which we both thought looked pretty damn cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment