Monday morning. Sky is blue, there’s a lovely breeze off the lake as I walk the dogs after breakfast. To be honest, I’m actually feeling in pretty good form. A little rough around the edges, a few cobwebs, sore legs and the linger in my mouth of a *really* big cigar; nothing too bad. I took in the colour and pageantry of Toronto Festival of Beer yesterday, and worked really hard to be in working condition today. Mission accomplished. I also headed down to bandshell park Thursday night, for Queer Beer Fest; it’s time to share some of my highlights and battle stories.
It probably would have been less elaborate if I was in worse shape.
When I first heard about Queer Beer Fest, I was skeptical. I don’t like the notion of segregating events in an effort to be more appealing to one demographic. Rather than spending time and resources designing an event for the LGBTQ community, why not spend time and resources making the entire event more appealing and accessible for everybody? There is no doubt, you see a lot of jock-type frat boys at Toronto’s Festival of Beer. You see very few trannies. That being said, and having attended Queer Beer Fest, I actually am quite partial to the night. There is no gay-o-meter at the gate, allowing and disallowing people based on their sexual preference. Not being blessed with a super-natural power to discern straight from gay, I have no idea what the actual mix of attendees was; that being said, I know I wasn’t the only straight person there. Instead, the group was there because they were either interested in beer, or Ace of Bass (the head-lining group). You needed to be okay with Great Lakes ridiculously physically fit, underwear-clad male go-go dancers. You needed to be ready to chat with people while waiting for tokens or the toilets. The over-all vibe was one of good natured enjoyment of the evening, a sense of camaraderie and support. When a guy turned around and bumped into me, spilling most of my beer, I wasn’t met with a dirty look and a verbal challenge; rather the gentleman offered me an apology and a pair of tokens to replace the spilled beer. It was just a really nice night out, drinking some excellent beers, having a chuckle listening to Ace of Bass (apparently Lucky Love still does belong in teen-aged heaven, whatever that means), and hanging out with the many wonderful people involved in Toronto’s beer scene. Now, rather than feeling off about the need for a separate night for Queer Beer, I’m happy to have a night more or less devoid of Bros. I can’t wait for next year. Many thanks and congratulations to Eventrix for identifying a niche and taking it on.
Friday and Saturday are far and away the busiest days of Toronto’s Festival of Beer, and as I hate crowds at the best of times, I stay away. Also, Friday was Ben’s 3rd birthday, and I was on the Edge again. Saturday is nearly always when Ben and I go to St Lawrence Market, have lunch, and have a nap together on the couch, all of which trumps large groups of frat boys and line-ups. So Sunday is the day to take in the regular festival. It also, historically, is when we take a crew from Castro’s down. So about 14 of us met-up at the bar Sunday afternoon, hopped in cabs and headed down. Thankfully, everybody seemed good with the MO of just wandering around, in small groups or alone, meeting up as chance presented, and generally enjoying the event.
As always, Great Lakes Caskapalooza was epic. While the really unique stuff was tapped on Saturday (Gummy Bear ale, or something), there was still no shortage of nice cask ale. I spent a lot of time getting to know the Canucklehead and the Miami Weisse. Our group maintained an on-and-0ff circle of chairs under the tent, with people coming and going as need fit. The DJ was spinning some great songs, albeit, a little loudly. The whole area, off in a corner as it was, had the vide of a festival within a festival. Well done Great Lakes!
Lots of the usual suspects in Ontario were present. I would have to give the nod to Beau’s for most-attractive booth. Also, the usual macro-brewers were there in force. Generally with overly-attractive women trying to entice you to sample their wares (beer, I mean…). I happily gave away a fake email address in return for a Labbatt 50 shirt. BBbarfly was there, and even if you hadn’t made it over to their booth, you knew they couldn’t be far, as there was their signature clinking sound of people playing with their new butterfly-knife style openers. I was super happy to drop by on Sunday and have to wait a few minutes to shake Serge’s hand, as he was too busy dealing with customers. Thomas Hinds Tobbaconists were there, supplying the crowds with nice stogies, on Sunday they actually had a guy hand-rolling cigars on the spot. I opted for a massive Hinds house-brand Churchill, rather than shelling out top-dollar for a fresh-rolled robusto which may or may not have gotten beer spilled on it. Plus, the enormous cigar opens up all sorts of overcompensation jokes to be made. There was also a number of food vendors present, though I didn’t partake in any of their offerings, other than sharing a dozen oysters with Katy Brown from Amsterdam on Thursday night. Both the grilled cheese booth and mac and cheese booth looked interesting, and Caplansky’s Deli had their truck slicing smoked meat.
Aside from Caskapalooza, I was very impressed to see Niagara College there, serving both their ale and lager. I had gotten to taste their lager at the Ontario Brewing Awards, and was equally happy with their ale, which was just a lovely classic English style ale. OCB had also put together a “Mash-up Booth”, featuring mainly blends of OCB brews, including “Devil’s Bone” (or something like that), which was a blend of Great Lakes Devil’s Pale Ale and Amsterdam Boneshaker IPA. But the top pick from there (in both mine and many friend’s opinions) was GSB, the Guelph Special Bitter, a collaboration between F&M and Welly. Just a perfect stand-up bitter.
Music is a big part of the event, and a funny thing happened this year: Eventrix secured The Trews, admittedly a very popular Canadian band. They also signed some smaller bands to play throughout the day. The “opener” for The Trews (as in, the band going on right before), was a little band from Saskatchewan making some waves. I bet when they signed-on it was a really good opportunity to play a medium festival in Toronto with a well-known band headlining. Then The Sheepdogs won a contest of fan support and were pictured on the cover of Rolling Stone. They are currently recognized as one of the biggest deals in Canada. So getting to watch them open for The Trews (and kudos to them for honouring their deal) was truly one of those “I saw them at such and such place” moments. Everybody involved in New Rock knows who The Sheepdogs are, and those of us who attended Sunday were lucky enough to get to see them for a ridiculously inexpensive price. They played an excellent set, and were a perfect band for a Beer Fest. Right out of the 70’s rock tradition, engaged the crowd, just great. The Trews, to their credit, also played a great set; Lord knows it was probably tough going on AFTER the next big things.
All-in-all, it was a great festival. Yes, there was the usual crowd of “dudes” on Sunday, but that is the reality of a festival of this size. As Chris Grimley noted: You don’t see girls in bikinis at craft beer festivals either.
Thanks to Greg and Les, and the whole crew at Eventrix.
