TORONTO’S
FESTIVAL OF BEER
by Cal Vande Hoef
At the U.S.-Canadian
border, the customs officer asked my purpose for visiting
Toronto. “Pleasure,” I said, “attending the beer festival in
downtown Toronto.” He just laughed and waved me through to my next
beer hunt - eight hour days tasting central Canada’s finest beers
at the 10th Annual Festival of Beer (FOB) on August 5th-7th.
Arriving at the FOB
is easy, a short mile walk from my hotel. Along the way, street
food - pizza by the slice, Greek, Thai, and myriad ethnic fare -
is available en route to historic Fort York. Built in 1793, Fort
York is the birthplace of modern Toronto and the location of the
Battle of York in 1812.
Once inside, drinkers
are greeted by three large beer tents surrounded by many
smaller tents, some for beer and others for food. Food is on a
much grander scale at FOB compared to the carnival-style food
normally offered at festivals. Many of the local restaurants
have booths serving up their best, including a lobster sub. Also, a “Q”
tent (short for BBQ in Canadian) features television
personalities like Ted Reader from Food Network Canada.
The FOB is expensive,
but you have plenty of opportunity to sample. Tickets are
$25 (Canadian) a day plus a dollar token for each 4 oz. sample.
The plastic glass technically held 8 ounces at the rim, and could be
filled for two tokens. Brewers often overfilled the single
token sample, so I didn’t see the point of pouring doubles. A
local drinker said the tokens are a necessary constraint on
Canadian drinking habits - free beer for one price would cause them all
to imbibe to oblivion.
On the website (www.beerfestival.ca),
FOB advertised 200 brands of beer. With lines
rarely more than a few persons deep, getting a beer was easy, even
on the sold-out Saturday. As a veteran of Great Taste and other
festivals, this should have been the perfect beer festival.
However, security made everyone dump all water bottles at the gate,
and not enough of the $2 bottled water was available. While I
did appreciate the clean and nearly lineless portable toilets, the
resulting dehydration made it difficult to spend the evening in
downtown Toronto. As a result, I had only one single Belgian
ale at Smokeless Joe’s—the best beer bar in
downtown, according
to one brewer. And, due to recovering too long in the hotel
room, I missed eating at the famous beer cuisine restaurant Beerbistro
- a great disappointment.
The sampling on
Friday was disheartening. Unlike the very efficient line at Great
Taste, the gates opened nearly 45 minutes late. At the FOB,
many of the brewers have portable bars to enhance presentation.
Many larger breweries like Labatt, Molson, Tuborg, and Guinness,
and mid-range brewers like Alexander Keith’s and Robert
Simpson Brewing, had bars to belly up to that were bigger than
Smokeless Joe’s. Unfamiliar with the breweries, I was distracted by
the flashy displays and, possibly, by the commercial-clad girls
serving macrobrew samples.
Saturday was much
more successful. I started the day with Amsterdam Brewing, a
downtown brewpub. A sample of Nut Brown Ale was good,
and close to style. The Framboise was well done. However,
compared to the beers offered at the pub, only the lightest were served
at the festival. Moving on, Black Oak Brewing served a
Double Chocolate Cherry Stout that really lived up to its name. Lakes
of Muskoka Cottage Brewery was consistently good,
serving a Cream Ale, Premium Lager, Premium Dark Ale, and
Honey Brown Lager.
The Scotch Irish
Brewing Company was delightful. St. Majors IPA (a “massively
hopped” IPA at 68 IBUs) was properly bitter and satisfying.
Captain Cascade, a cask American Pale Ale was smooth, hoppy, and
well balanced. In the land of Euro lagers, a cask ale seemed an
almost unreal find. While there had been some bright spots
earlier in the day—a really interesting Eisbock by Niagara Brewing
Company from the Canadian side of the falls, a true to style
Classic India Pale Ale from Magnotta Brewery, and Upper Canada Brewing
Company’s Pale, Red, and Dark Ale offerings were all
full bodied—nothing matched Scotch Irish Brewing for quality,
and, frankly, for tasting like an American brewpub.
The difference
between Canadian and American brewpubs became clear - our
extreme and individualistic beer consumer attitude in the lower
48 allows brewers to offer a wide range of ales and lagers while
pushing the limits of style. Several Canadian brewers -
Alexander Keith’s, Robert Simpson Brewing, and Steam Whistle
Brewing sell only one beer (IPA, Cream Ale, and Premium Lager,
respectfully). Steelback Brewing is representative of
this narrow Canadian beer vision, in which the strongest beer is a
Heineken Dark or other Euro import imitation. Steelback’s festival
offerings included Bruce County Wild (Bavarian Pilsner),
Chain (Euro Lager), Link Light (Euro Lager), Steelback Red (Amber
Lager), Steelback Silver (American
Lager), Tango (South
American Style Lager), Tiverton Bear Dark Lager (Euro Dark
Lager), and Tiverton Bear Honey Brown (Amber Lager). In spite
of having its own problems with bland beer in the U.S., our microbrew industry is fighting the trend much more vigorously than
the Canadian breweries I tasted at FOB.
While it is quite
possible that Double IPA and barrel-aged barleywine have
distorted my taste, Canada, or possibly just Toronto, is afraid of
hops and strong beers in general. They seem to prefer Euro-styled
beers that taste like the imported versions. As I was out of
tokens, a young couple named Ivan and Neema bought me my last
sample of the day, Glengarry 90 Shilling, a strong, malty, Scotch
cask ale. We continued praising the beer from Scotch Irish
Brewing as I gave them tips on how and where to find similarly
interesting beer across the border to satisfy a growing Canadian
thirst for beer stronger than a cream ale.
After a few more of
my favorites from the day before, I left early on Sunday because of
the heat and lack of new brews. In spite of drinking nearly every
beer in the place over three days, my notes showed just 93 new
beers. If you’re in Toronto in August, stop for one day at the
festival. Spend the rest of your time enjoying the incredible diversity of downtown Toronto and drinking more than a couple beers
at Smokeless Joe’s. Don’t miss dinner at Beerbistro down the
street. Cheers, eh.
About
the author: Cal Vande Hoef is a full-time high school English teacher and
part time beer evangelist, spreading the good beer news. Feel free
to email him at cvandehoef@gmail.com. Or, better yet, stop by during
Town Hall’s pint club - he’s the large bald guy reading poetry.
