Iche Bein Ein Beerfester!

Back on Sunday my buddy James invited me to come down to Toronto's 12th annual Beer Festival, sponsored by the Beer Store.

Got to say that the day didn't start off good due to the torential downpour and subsequent drizzle throughout the day. It was wet, muddy, and gloomy all over. But we figured that the weather was just a way to weed out the children from the pros.

So we get down there and get our entry tickets and tokens. Along with your ticket you get your one 8 oz cup to tote around from beer tent to beer tent. The tokens are a buck a piece and will buy you 4 oz of beer. So a decent cup is of course a toonnie.

It brought a smile to my face how the first and most monolithic tent/trailer in the park was Budweiser, and that no one was stopping even to smirk at it. We were all on a mission to enjoy the good stuff; not to drink the Bud.

So after about fifty token later and a couple of freebies here and there between the two of us, what is the report:

1) There is a terrible beer out there called the Black Bullet. It is 17% alcohol and tastes like that lousy Minhas Creek Ale with a shot of Armenian vodka in it. Bleah!

2) DON"T BUY MEADE! I never had this stuff before but I knew the badass vikings used to drink it, and the tent said it was 9.5% alcohol so of course I went to investigate. What I got was my choice of black current or raspberry meade... I was standing in the middle of Beerfest with the equivalent of a "wine cooler" in my hand (props to Tyler). Needless to say I guzzled it as fast as possible and fled the scene looking for redemption.

3) Innis & Gunn: Redemption came in the form of Innis & Gunn. A very decent brew worthy of any old skool pub with a set of taps. Once I drank it down, the memory of viking wine cooler faded away.

4) The Shantytown: At the back of the Beerfest is about fifty portable toilets arranged in rows and collumns. I dubbed it Shantytown because there were literally alleys and lanes in this cluster of plastic pissers. Each port-a-potty had on average about 4 people lined up outside of them and you've never seen so many side deals being made to try to speed up the line.

By the way, every Shantytown has its high end and its low end (Central versus Town). Look for the grey shanties because they are way bigger than the orange ones. That way you are less likely to be standing in funk inside the shanty.

Beerfest was awesome. Good thing it is only once a year though. It's hard on a pilgrim like me.