Saturday 22 June 2013

Session Toronto Craft Beer Festival, Toronto, ON

Gord and I attended the fourth annual Session Toronto Craft Beer Festival today ... it was from 4pm to 9pm.  We've been to the other three.  This one was held at Wychwood Barns (Christie/St. Clair W).  The last two years it was held in our 'hood.

It had been raining all day but stopped about 3:00pm (yay!) ... then it got really humid (boo!).

A ticket was $50 and your mug and all your samples were included (we got our tickets months ago).


This is once we got in at about 4:30 (there was a ten minute line-up to get in).


There were twenty booths with beer, two with wine and one with cider.  The mug held eight ounces ... some providers gave you four ounces, some the full eight ounces.  You could buy food from about five foodtrucks.

I like beer but I'm a boring beer drinker ... I don't like a strong tasting beer (whereas Gord does).

My first tasting was a raspberry beer from Amsterdam.   I had a couple of them before they ran out ... it was good.


Here's Gord with my friend, Darlene, and her friends, Bruce and Christine.  Darlene has been to all four of these festivals too.  They had snagged this shady spot behind the stage and we never gave it up.


You could play volleyball.


I tried an IPA from Mill Street Brewery and it was okay.  We met Lucy at an event a couple years ago and it was nice to see her again today.


It was at a new venue this year, the Wychwood Barns.  In my opinion, the venue space was too small for the amount of people that were there (about 2,500).  The line-ups for most of the booths were way too long and there were too many people to try to get around (there was nowhere for them to go so they were in the way).  Everyone seemed to be having a good time, though.


There was entertainment and it was good.


How can you not love beer drinking clowns who were making balloon animals?!


I tried an IPA from Red Racer and I didn't like it (the taste was too strong) ... so I gave it to Gord and he liked it.


In the building there was Griffin Pub.  I asked for a Liberty Village pale ale ... but they didn't have any (why was it on the list?!).


So I got an RPA from Cameron's instead.


I didn't like it (the taste was too strong) so gave it to Darlene and she liked it.

I get tired of drinking beer and it's nice to have a change.  There were a couple booths with wine.  My favourite was the Fresh Moscato.


I tried Black Oak Brewing Company's peach wheat ale (it was a cask ale) and it was okay.


Here's Gord with Ken Woods, owner of Black Oak.


I also liked Five Mile's Reisling Gewurztraminer blend.


That's a lot of glasses to have given out!  And that's just for the people had had advanced tickets!  There was a table across from her for "will call" tix or if you bought them today ($60).


Stella Acquisto from Citytv did the weather from the festival (we'd seen her at the Toronto Wine & Spirits Festival last Saturday).


I was walking back to where we were hanging out when I saw someone ... it was my cousin, Janine's daughter, Shannon.  Shannon's grandmother was my father's sister.  She and I have never met but are Facebook friends (I recognized her from her FB pictures).  It was so nice to meet her and her husband, Liam, and chat.


We chatted with Jed, the organizer of the event ... he was a nice friendly guy!


I had fun time but didn't like the venue because it was way too crowded and there wasn't a lot of space.

1 comment:

Masshole Mommy said...

What a cool event.