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Let’s get real with Cask Days and Pinky and the Grain


caskdays2012_header

By Brian Yeo

So … unhhh … how was your summer?

It’s been quite some time since I pointed my typey finger at a keypad with the intent of creating articulate and insightful craft beer content for Wines in Niagara.

Have you missed me? Much has changed in the last couple of months with new careers (yes, it involves craft beer) and life plans (yes, they involve craft beer), while much has remained the same with my utter devotion to tasty beers, good food, and procrastination. So with that, let’s get back down to the reality of writing on beer while looking at a celebration of “Real Ales” and how craft beer can be used to support a real good cause.

Cask Days 2012


Without a doubt, this weekend marks a highlight in any beer nerds’ social calendar as the 8th Annual Cask Days Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto.

caskdays2012_poster

The brainchild of the Morana family of bar Volo fame, this year’s edition of the festival has once again expanded to include over 110 cask-conditioned ales (full list here) from 74 breweries (3 from Niagara!), a curated food program, visual art, and live music. For a great insight into the evolution of this festival, check out Jordan St. John’s post. All I can say is I’m looking forward to 2017!

So what is it about cask ales that inspires such devotion? While never claiming to speak for anyone other than myself, it represents beer in a traditionally pure form in so much that it is unpasteurized, unfiltered, naturally carbonated, hand-pumped or gravity fed to your glass, and once tapped it has a very short life span in which to enjoy and as such, are sometimes referred to as Real Ales.

Festivals like Cask Days present unique challenges to even the most hardcore taster. For example: 110 beers at 4 oz tasting samples equals 440 ounces of beer! That is 22 full proper pints of beer (27.5 for those who prefer the skimpy American pints), over a 5 hour session equals 4.4 pints per hour or 1.467 ounces of beer per minute and will cost you $265 when you take out the 4 tokens that come with the $38 admission!

Neither my liver nor my wallet can take such a toll. Of course, I am being completely facetious here and would never recommend such behaviour or could even envision someone attempting to do it.

The key is to strategize in advance, choose the beers you would like to try (I am targeting between 20 and 30 beers), attempt to build in style (pale ales through to stouts) and alcohol content (see previous brackets). It is also vitally important to keep yourself fed, hydrated, and warm because the current Environment Canada forecast isn’t looking great for being outside this weekend.

OAST_Weathered_3_COL copyAnd I hope it goes without saying, plan your transportation accordingly, there will be shuttle buses from Broadview station to the Brickworks courtesy of the fine folks at Mill Street Brewing.

This year certainly isn’t my first time at the Cask Days rodeo but it does have special significance in that this is the first time I was involved in the brewing of one of the beers being presented at the festival.

Kevin Somerville, brewmaster at upstarts Niagara Oast House graciously called and invited me to help out with their Cask Days beer. Now to say help out with the brewing maybe a stretch. My involvement consisted mostly of lifting some heavy things, cleaning dirty things, trying not to trip over hoses, not knocking the brew kettle over, and generally not blowing other shit up as I am prone to doing.

But I did add some hops!!!! So if you do try out the Crop Duster and enjoy it, I will gladly take some credit … and if you don’t like it, I will happily point out Kevin in the crowd … talk to him.

Pinky and the Grain

Pinky-EGV-header

 

Are you pondering what I am pondering? Click here.

Ok, so now that I’ve gotten the obvious gags out of the way, what does happen when you combine the mad talents of Chef Adam Hyman-Smith of El Gastronomo Vagabundo and Food Network Canada’s Restaurant Takeover with that of brewmaster Kevin Somerville of Niagara Oast House Brewers on a collaborative beer?

 

Well, really, I don’t know … but it promises to be pink and involves grapefruit and peppercorns. So this Sunday we will all find out and be able to support a great cause in the process. This unique one-off beer tasting opportunity benefits the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, an important cause that is all too real to most of us. Tickets are only $25 and can be purchased here.

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By Brian Yeo
So … unhhh … how was your summer? It’s been quite some time since I pointed my typey finger at a keypad with the intent of creating articulate and insightful craft beer content for Wines in Niagara.
Have you missed me? Much has changed in the last couple of months with new careers (yes, it involves craft beer) and life plans (yes, they involve craft beer), while much has remained the same with my utter devotion to tasty beers, good food, and procrastination. So with that, let’s get back down to the reality of writing on beer while looking at a celebration of “Real Ales” and how craft beer can be used to support a real good cause.
Cask Days 2012

Without a doubt, this weekend marks a highlight in any beer nerds’ social calendar as the 8th Annual Cask Days Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto.

The brainchild of the Morana family of bar Volo fame, this year’s edition of the festival has once again expanded to include over 110 cask-conditioned ales (full list here) from 74 breweries (3 from Niagara!), a curated food program, visual art, and live music. For a great insight into the evolution of this festival, check out Jordan St. John’s post. All I can say is I’m looking forward to 2017!
So what is it about cask ales that inspires such devotion? While never claiming to speak for anyone other than myself, it represents beer in a traditionally pure form in so much that it is unpasteurized, unfiltered, naturally carbonated, hand-pumped or gravity fed to your glass, and once tapped it has a very short life span in which to enjoy and as such, are sometimes referred to as Real Ales.
Festivals like Cask Days present unique challenges to even the most hardcore taster. For example: 110 beers at 4 oz tasting samples equals 440 ounces of beer! That is 22 full proper pints of beer (27.5 for those who prefer the skimpy American pints), over a 5 hour session equals 4.4 pints per hour or 1.467 ounces of beer per minute and will cost you $265 when you take out the 4 tokens that come with the $38 admission!
Neither my liver nor my wallet can take such a toll. Of course, I am being completely facetious here and would never recommend such behaviour or could even envision someone attempting to do it.
The key is to strategize in advance, choose the beers you would like to try (I am targeting between 20 and 30 beers), attempt to build in style (pale ales through to stouts) and alcohol content (see previous brackets). It is also vitally important to keep yourself fed, hydrated, and warm because the current Environment Canada forecast isn’t looking great for being outside this weekend.
And I hope it goes without saying, plan your transportation accordingly, there will be shuttle buses from Broadview station to the Brickworks courtesy of the fine folks at Mill Street Brewing.
This year certainly isn’t my first time at the Cask Days rodeo but it does have special significance in that this is the first time I was involved in the brewing of one of the beers being presented at the festival.
Kevin Somerville, brewmaster at upstarts Niagara Oast House graciously called and invited me to help out with their Cask Days beer. Now to say help out with the brewing maybe a stretch. My involvement consisted mostly of lifting some heavy things, cleaning dirty things, trying not to trip over hoses, not knocking the brew kettle over, and generally not blowing other shit up as I am prone to doing.
But I did add some hops!!!! So if you do try out the Crop Duster and enjoy it, I will gladly take some credit … and if you don’t like it, I will happily point out Kevin in the crowd … talk to him.
Pinky and the Grain

Are you pondering what I am pondering? Click here.
Ok, so now that I’ve gotten the obvious gags out of the way, what does happen when you combine the mad talents of Chef Adam Hyman-Smith of El Gastronomo Vagabundo and Food Network Canada’s Restaurant Takeover with that of brewmaster Kevin Somerville of Niagara Oast House Brewers on a collaborative beer?

Well, really, I don’t know … but it promises to be pink and involves grapefruit and peppercorns. So this Sunday we will all find out and be able to support a great cause in the process. This unique one-off beer tasting opportunity benefits the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, an important cause that is all too real to most of us. Tickets are only $25 and can be purchased here.
I’ll be there, will you?
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