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Hello readers! Today we bring you an article that is going to give you a lot of info about the craft beer festival scene in Ontario. We are going to start things off with a brief description of beer festivals. A beer festival is an event in which you can taste and purchase beers (and other alcoholic drinks). Beer festivals are held in a number of countries around the world. The largest beer festival in the world is the Oktoberfest in Germany. As many of you know, the second largest Oktoberfest festival actually takes place in Kitchener-Waterloo in October. Don’t worry, Rebecca will be there to cover Oktoberfest in October, but be sure to buy your tickets as soon as you can since they get sold out very quick! Beer festivals can also be found all over Ontario in the summer – the biggest one is the Toronto Festival of Beer on August 5th. Unfortunately, due to final exams, we can’t attend this year, but we encourage anyone who does not have finals to go investigate (it was amazing last year!).
Last Friday (and Saturday!), we attended the Downtown Kitchener Ribfest & Craft Beer Show. It was very busy, and we spent a while waiting in lines, but it was definitely worth it. There were 11 Ontario Craft Brewers in attendance: Amsterdam Brewing Co., Big Rock Brewery, Brick Brewing Co., Cameron’s Brewing Company, F&M Brewery, Lake of Bays Brewing Company, Mill Street Brewery, Nickel Brook Beers, Railway City Brewing Company, The Flying Monkey’s Craft Brewery, and the Wellington Brewery. Overall, there were over 50 different beers to try. Beer alternatives were also available and were provided by the Black Fly Beverage Company and the Yellow Tail Winery. In addition to beer, there were seven ribbers there, along with a ton of traditional fair fare. The ribs we got were from Boss Hogs BBQ and were absolutely amazing! There was also live entertainment and admission was free.
To sample beer, you had to purchase a wristband and a sampler glass for $6. The wristband could be used all weekend. To purchase beer, you had to buy beer tokens for $1 each. Whenever you wanted a beer, all you had to do was go to a booth, give them a token and then they would fill up your 4oz beer glass. This is a pretty sweet deal as it lets you try a ton of different beers for cheap! Most of the brewers brought along swag and some even had coupons and contests.
We ended up buying 40 tokens on the Friday night, and due to the long beer lines and a mistake on our part regarding the closing time, we only used about half of them (in an hour and a half; it was a fun time), so we decided to go again on Saturday to use the rest! Unfortunately, this article had to be sent in before we went back on Saturday, but we will be doing a quick review of what we tasted on Friday (yes, we took notes at the festival). We are going to write some brief notes on what we tasted separately:
Eric
I tried Flying Monkeys Netherworld (coffee and cocoa with a slight fruit taste), Lake of Bays Red Ale (spicy hops and dark, roasty malts), Railway City Iron Spike Blonde Ale (mild hops, sweet fruit and grains), and Wellington Special Bitter (sweet malt with a slight hop aftertaste).
Rebecca
I tasted Flying Monkeys Orangemungus (Cask beer that has a very pronounced orange taste, my first impression was that it tasted like Five Alive mixed with beer. Delicious), Lake of Bays Pale Ale (slightly sweet malt flavour with medium hop bitterness), Railway City Iron Spike Copper Ale (Sweet caramel, fruit, and some vanilla and spices), and Wellington Special Pale Ale (Malt with spicy hops at the end).
Both
Mill St Organic (we chugged this one… so no tasting notes), Mill St Stock Ale (very flat and warm so it was really gross; we are hoping they will take proper care of their beer next time), F & M Stonehammer Dark (chocolate roast, hops, chocolate coffee finish), F & M Stonehammer Pilsner (we drank it too briskly to make notes), and Wellington Trailhead (grains with a clean hoppy aftertaste).
The Kitchener Ribfest & Craft Beer Show happens once a year and we strongly recommend you attend next year – it is a perfect place to try a ton of new beer for cheap and in small quantities. This is our last article of the term and we hope that on your break, you will try some tasty summer brews. See you this fall, and as always, fear no beer!!!
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