I was in toronto for this last year at the saturday evening session. Definitely worth going to. Got tickets for the sat afternoon session this time.
If you're looking for real cask conditioned ales, this festival is (for the most part) not the place to find it. If you're looking for beers served (predominantly) flat and are looking to race against dozens of others to try the only cask of said beer before it runs out in a particular session, this is the place to go do it. Needless to say, I won't be attending.
next time i see you, i'm going to punch your face with Jay's fists. my fists are too delicate. if you're a purist, then yeah, i can see your angle. on a good year, i'd say that there are 15% fabulous must-try beer. maybe 20% tops. one year seemed like it was an IPA-themed year. not the best choice for casks, IMO. if you didn't want an IPA, then the other options were meh. a few drain pours. last year, i don't think i had one drainpour and i had a # of absolutely delicious beer. there are enough beer this year where i know that trying the good ones is going to be quite a drunken challenge. plus, having the food done by Bar Isabel and Parts and Labour? can't see how someone doesn't see this as being the best beer festival in Canada, hands down.
I was at the Saturday night session last year. Had several good beers, though a lot of the better ones (Hellwoods with Cherries, Full City Tempest, Stalin's Choce) were running out a couple hours into that session. As luck would have it, the one stinker I had was with my last token - some Chipolte porter that had way too much frigging chipolte. I should have known something was up when my lone final token earned me a full pint pour.
Yeah, it's hoing to be super hard to find "real" cask ales in good condition, what with the 30 or so featured UK breweries there ;-)
I went ahead and added all the beers not already on the site. Should make it easier for everyone to keep track of what they 'had' and mitigate the number of duplicate entries created (a problem in previous years). If you can't find a beer, look harder as it's on here somewhere.
We went the first session and the Saturday night session. World class event for sure the Moranas and their staff did an awesome job.
should have let me know that you were coming. i was at the 1st session. we could have asked Tomas to go camping...
I am in TO until Thursday there will be camping. The whole Morana clan and I are going out Wednesday and I am going to see the Ducks beat up the Leafs on Tuesday. We checked out Bar Hop and Wvrust tonight may end up at Bar Volo later tonight. Cool beer scene in TO!
