RateBeer Weekly Magazine > Festivals

RateBeer Summer Party 2002

THE REPORT FROM TORONTO

July 25, 2002      
, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -

o those of us who attended the gathering in Toronto, it was quite possibly the best assembly of beers any of us have ever experienced over one weekend. The numbers who will claim to have been there will increase as the years pass, but we will be able to say truthfully that we attended the first Ratebeer party.



Act I -- Friday

Kathy and I arrived in Toronto Friday afternoon, checked into our place, and walked around a bit to take in the city before the festivities began. After grabbing dinner we headed to the Quality Inn Midtown, the headquarters for the weekend.

We arrived at the lobby and were soon joined by PsychProf and his three children, and shortly thereafter, Hoppyman. Soon DougShoemaker came downstairs and told us the evening was already underway in what we soon learned was the actual headquarters for the weekend, Room 705, where Volgon was staying. Upstairs, we joined Volgon, Oakes, non-member Don Bible, and the newlyweds, Radek and Princess for an hour of pre-touring tasting. When we finally left (hardly realizing we were starting an event-long standard of tardiness), we headed for Granite Brewing, home to several fine beers available (at least for now) only on tap.

At Granite, we sampled all eight of the beers they had available, before Ron Keefe gave us a nice tour of the brewing facilities. One of the more interesting sights of the weekend was seeing open fermentation in action at Granite. Next it was on to Denison’s, where we were joined by Daboskabouter. Denison’s makes some great lagers, including a Weizen that was among the group’s favorite beers of the weekend. Michael Hancock runs a top-notch facility and has a sparkling brewery that he was kind enough to show us.

Next, we headed to C’est What, a Toronto brewpub and beer bar that carries a very good selection of beers on tap. By then, my taste buds were shot, so I couldn’t appreciate the St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout I ordered. Hell, it was on nitro anyway -- guess I’ll have to try it another time. After that, Kathy and I called it a night, but some of the group headed back to Volgon’s to open up a few of the beers. They tired, but kept going into the night. Apparently, after everyone else was ready to call it a night, Don opened up a Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2002 -- no one there was willing to let that one go unconsumed. From what I understand, the session went until 3:30am.



Act II -- Saturday

Saturday, we headed out to the ‘burbs, well behind schedule (naturally), to visit Black Oak Brewing. Ken and George took good care of us after the long haul there, as we were treated to some good beers as well as a tour of their burgeoning facilities. Black Oak produces and bottles three regular beers: a Lager, a Nut Brown Ale and a Pale Ale. They’d like to make more seasonals, but with demand recently increasing, they’re having difficulty halting production of their mainstays long enough to brew a batch of something else.

After Black Oak, we headed back into town to visit Smokeless Joe’s certainly the bar with the best collection of beers in Toronto. There, we ate lunch (good mussels), quaffed many beers, and engaged in lively conversation ("That beer tastes like raisins." "No it doesn’t, it tastes like raspberries"). At four, we called it an afternoon, leaving us four hours before that night’s tasting session.



Act III -- Saturday Night

Have you ever seen one of those contests where someone’s put in a chamber that’s blowing money, and the person’s trying to grab as much of the money as possible before running out of time? That was Saturday night, only beer was involved (and more beer) and the limitations were time, tolerance and taste buds. We gave it our best shot. My notes indicate that I was somehow able to try 17 beers that night, many of them quite high powered. I don’t know how the others fared, but I’m sure most of us cleared 10 and a couple might have hit 20. And what great beers they were -- by my standards, 7 of them scored at least 4.0, and all but 3 were at least 3.4. Of course, not all the evening was spent in serious tasting mode -- sure Hoppyman provided some fine cheese, but Princess went out and brought back donuts as accompaniment. We made a dent in the seeming endless supply of beer we had, but there was never any question of our finishing it all.

As midnight approached, we took a vote among those assembled for the best beers of the weekend. Everyone was allowed to pick up to 5 beers. Tied for third, Zywiec Porter and AleSmith Old Numbskull each received 3 of a possible 8 votes. In second place, AleSmith Speedway Stout scored an impressive 6 out of 8 votes. And the winner, a beer that’s sure to enter the top 50 after all of us have submitted our ratings, Unibroue La Terrible, with 7 out of a possible 8 votes.



Act IV -- Sunday

I wasn’t there at 8am when Volgon rolled out of bed to drink the dregs of the Old Numbskull, but I heard all about it. If only they had let me know. As it was, we arrived when the morning session was about over, after Volgon, Oakes and Daboskabouter had put to rest 10 more beers, though it seemed to take something out of them. If nothing else, I was able to get a sampling of the Marin Old Dipsea Barleywine.

We went out to brunch at La Palette in Kensington Market for some fine cuisine and some decent beers. Curiously though, no one ordered more than one beer. The end of the weekend came all too quickly, and after we all said our goodbyes, Daboskabouter was kind enough to give Volgon, Kathy and me a ride to the airport on his way back to Kitchener. DC’s home, and we were glad to be headed back. But damn we wish we could have had another day to taste more of the wonderful beers we had there. And maybe even a day or two to actually check out a little more of the city of Toronto beyond Room 705.