Cass’ & Troy’s 1st Annual Pubcrawl

So I realize this is late, but I guess “better late then never”.  OCB week was June 20-26th. There was a heap of OCB events all over Ontario.  Like, a real big stack.  I only got to two, Castro’s Smokes (which I hosted), where we served Castro’s first Cask of Ale.  Rob Morra from Beau’s brought in a pin of Festivale, and drove the tap home.  Quite exciting.  We also served a heap of BBQ Pork.  A good time had by all.  The other event I attended, and the one the will be the meat of this post (for the sake of modesty), was:

Cass' and Troy's Pubcrawl

Cass’ & Troy’s Annual Pub Crawl

So if you don’t know, Cass Enright is the founder of The Bar Towel (http://www.bartowel.com) and the Golden Tap Awards.  Troy Burtch is a fellow beer-blogger (http://greatcanadianpubs.blogspot.com/) and now works for Taps Magazine.  They are two highly regarded beer authorities in Toronto, so they got together and decided to host a pub crawl.  It was focused on the Kensington/College West area, and of course, looked to highlight cool places serving great beer.  First stop was the Victory Cafe, which I missed, but I caught-up at Caplansky’s Deli, which I had no idea was a craft beer place.  A pint of King Pilsner changed my mind.  As I started to sip my beer, I realized this was no regular pub-crawl.  This was a groupd of beer writers, beer makers, and beer royalty.  Is there a better way to celebrate brewing in Ontario, then in the company of local beer heros?  From Caplansky’s, we wandered down to Ronnie’s Local, in the heart of Kensington.  As we walked down, Troy introduced me to Mike.  “Hey Mike, have you met Chris?  He does TorontoBeerBlog.com.  Chris this is Mike Lackey from Great Lakes”, suddenly I was a giggling school-girl.  Anyways, Ronnie’s was a cool dark little bar, with Delirium Tremens on tap for $6.50.  Insane.  Lots of tight-jeaned hipsters with beards.  The back room where we set-up shop smelled more then a lot like cat piss, and was more humid then an Estonian sauna.  Still, Delirium was $6.50.  For my second tipple I mounted the parabola and slid the whole way down the other side, and cracked a $4 bottle of Molson Stock Ale.  And here’s the funny thing:  It actually wasn’t that bad.  Like I would drink that everytime if offered Stock or a Canadian.  Okay, jumping ahead 18 hours, I had an earth-shaking hangover the next day, and given that I was being pretty responsible with drinking lots of water, and knowing every other beer I drank was chemical free, I can only attribute this ice-pick-to-the-temple head-ache to the Stock.  After Ronnie’s, we headed down to the Embassy, also in Kensington.  I’ve been there for Reggae parties, when the place is jammed with hot sweaty bodies getting well down to heavy bass.  I had never been there when it was nearly empty.  I had also never been there when they were serving Black Oak Saison on tap.  And (by proxy) never been there when Saison was on tap, and I could drink it with Ken and Adrian from Black Oak.  It was stellar, and being able to chat with the guys who make it while sipping was incredible.  While there I also met a fellow named Dmitry, who is starting a brewery called “Spearhead”.  I chatted amicably, then got a demonstration what an interview sounds like when another blogger tagged in.  What I gleaned from the real interview, is that they are gearing up to be a very hop-forward brewery.  There was probably more, but I got freaked out by the intensity of the conversation, and drifted back to Ken.  I think it was at the Embassy that Cass announced he was going to be importing Picaroon’s from Halifax, which is exciting news for smart beer drinkers all over the GTA.  From there, what was left (or those who had arrived, I’d lost track) of us wander-staggered down to Cloak and Dagger, which is a great bar to finish a pub crawl.  Lackey’s Casky from Great Lakes was on hand-pump, and it’s fair to say we did our civic duty to try to ensure Cloak and Dagger’s rotation. Apparently there was a lot of other nice beers too.  But I can neither confirm nor deny that.  Lackey’s Casky was just too damned nice.  Cloak also provded us with epic entertainment.  A dude with a guitar who could have been mistaken for Jack Black.  I can’t remember what he played, except that it was predictably pub music, but I do know that I only had to shout “Freebird!” like five times for him to bang off a couple of lines of the song.  Classic.  I think I was happier with myself at the time.  At this point I was likely moving into offensive mode, so if you’re reading this and confiming that fact, I’ll offer my sincerest apologies.  It’s entirely possible.  Probable even.  I made my farewells (before they became f-offs) and hopped a streetcar home.  I assume I got there, because I’m here now, not still at Cloak and Dagger.  All-in-all, it was a great evening, I met and drank with a number of really incredible people, heard lots of industry news and gossip, and drank some truly gorgeous beers.  Cheers to Cass and Troy; you guys are saints.

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