Tag Archives: cask

2nd Annual Ontario Cask IPA Challenge Round 2 – Results IN!!!

By chris | Published: July 13, 2010

So the public has spoken, Price Waterhouse Cooper confirm the counts, and Ralph is pleased to announce that Great Lakes My Bitter Wife IPA, Flying Monkey’s Smashbomb IPA, Cheshire Valley English IPA, and Beau’s Beaver River IPA will be advancing to round 3.  COngrats to the brewers, and thanks to everyone who participated.  Here’s to pushing the IPAs in Ontario forward! Full results here: http://www.barvolo.com/iparound2.html

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Ontario Cask IPA Challenge – Bar Volo

By chris | Published: July 9, 2010

So, as I missed round one of this great series of events, I made sure I got to round two, and not only that, but got there about an hour after it started.  The format is simple, pit a variety of Ontario Cask IPAs and Pale Ales against each other in a head-to-head knock-out style tournament, where the winners are as voted by the patrons.  Today nine beers were being served blind (okay, one group was head-to-head-to-head).  I settled in at the bar, with Jordan (of St. John’s Wort fame) and a group of regulars.  As I had to leave by 6:30, to be home for dinner, I was game to get down to some serious IPA tasting.  I discovered….  [Read More]

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Hop Head – County Durham Brewing

By chris | Published: June 7, 2010

So my bro Andrew is has seen the inside of a fair few Irish pubs in his day; he was born and raised in Belfast.  So I was keen to get him over to Ceili Cottage, as I knew he would appreciate the place as much as me, and better then many.  We were foiled last weekend when we went to watch the Champions League final, as they were going to be showing the Chicago v Philly game (as Irish as they are, the bar is still in Canada, I guess), but this past weekend we had an early dinner on Saturday and took the whole family over for some craic.  Aside from the usual, killer ambiance and great beer,….  [Read More]

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CASK! Social Pub Crawl. This Weekend

By chris | Published: May 4, 2010

From the good folks at CASK! Social: Cask Ale Crawl 2010 Building on the success of last year’s cask ale crawl, which won a Golden Tap Award, this year’s event will take place during the weekend of May 7th – 9th 2010.  At least six participating pubs across downtown Toronto have confirmed so far: Granite Brewery, 245 Eglinton Ave East Volo, 587 Yonge St The Rhino, 1249 Queen  St West C’est What?, 67 Front St East Mill St. Brewpub, 55 Mill St Ceili Cottage, 1301 Queen  St East The crawl begins at 5:00 pm on Friday May 7th and goes until Sunday May 9th while supplies last.  Pick up a passport at any of the participating pubs.  Have your passport stamped at each….  [Read More]

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CASK! Social

By chris | Published: February 22, 2010

I just read on Troy Burtch’s blog (http://greatcanadianpubs.blogspot.com/) that the next CASK! Social is booked for this Saturday, at The Granite Brewery.  3-6pm, admission is free, as always, just come out to spend some time with other beer enthusiasts drinking cask ale.  From the good folks at CASK! Social: We are happy to announce that our fifth CASK! Social will be held this coming Saturday, February 27th 2010, at the Granite Brewery, on Mount Pleasant just south of Eglinton, from 3pm to 6pm. Ron Keefe’s three fine cask ales will be on offer and, if you’re thirsty for more Granite ales, growlers can be purchased to take away. If you’re bringing a designated driver, there is free parking underneath the….  [Read More]

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Ceili Cottage

By chris | Published: January 22, 2010

So, this is not my review of Ceili Cottage. This is a post about attending a CASK! social (http://casktoronto.wordpress.com/) at Ceili Cottage, which is entirely different. Though it will contain some very positive commentary on the bar in question. Like this: I love this bar.  Here is the skinny:  Irish-style bar in Leslieville (Queen St East around Leslie).  Run by a world-champion/world-record  osyter-schucker, Paddy, who also owns the venerable Starfish, also in Toronto. Ceili Cottage is one of the most “authentic” Irish bars I’ve been to (outside of Ireland).  Did I mention I love this bar? I brought the whole family out (okay, no dogs; the bar is not that authentic), for the CASK! Social. Quick note:  CASK! Social is….  [Read More]

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Volo, late friday nights

By chris | Published: January 21, 2010

I drink at Volo a fair amount (so should you). So trying to objectively review them is impossible, because I have years of history there. That history is a long testimony to what is an excellently run bar that is leading the charge when it comes to beer in Toronto. I can honestly say I have not had a single bad experience at Volo. So what to say about last Friday night? Me and my German hockey bud Christian headed over to Volo for some après hockey beer and olives. We sat by the Yonge Street windows, which is a strange one for me; I tend towards the tables by the fireplace or up by the bar. It was much….  [Read More]

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A good weekend for beer

By chris | Published: January 16, 2010

Wow, what happened? Somehow the past two days became big beer days. I’ll detail some of the finer points in posts to come, but briefly: Last night I closed Volo with a dear friend who is about to leave on a four month trip to Mexico. We drank great beer, ate olives, and generally had a good night. Bentley and I were back at Volo just past noon today to book me into the beer and cheese tasting they’re hosting next weekend, chat to Ralph and Julien a bit, and have sone fuller’s cask (okay, that was just me). We got home and learned that Cask Social was having an event at Ceili Cottage in Leslieville. This was three birds….  [Read More]

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Victory – a possible correction

By chris | Published: January 16, 2010

Just a note on my Victory Cafe review. I had totally forgot hand-pumped cask ales can have a significant head on them. So it’s possible my accusation that I recieved a draft ale was unfounded. It definitely was also fairly carbonated, but that’s entirely possible too. So my apologies if I was an idiot. I had a wonderful time regardless of what I was drinking, and am still looking forward to a visit to the Victory again, hopefully sooner rather then later.

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The Victory Cafe

By chris | Published: January 11, 2010

So this past Friday night, after hockey, I decided it was about time to get down to the Victory. I had met Neil and Maz at a few Volo events, and had promised up and down I would stop by sometime. Before I go on, I will offer a pre-defence for the Victory: it was about midnight on a Friday, and the place was packed. Good timing alone secured us a table by the window. So I’ll continue. We sat down, and a young hipster server handed us food menus and pointed us to the beer selection. After two hours of hockey food and beer is just what we needed. The three guys I was with decided to share some….  [Read More]

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  • Chris Schryer

    Chris SchryerI regularly describe myself as an "ardent supporter of beer", which pretty well sums it up. While I'm not working or busy being a husband and dad (okay, honestly, sometimes while I'm doing those things), I am drinking beer, attending events, visiting pubs, and thinking about beer. I work at Castro's Lounge, my local bar in the Beach, where I host beer events and take part in most things beer-related.

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