Sunday 17 August 2014

The Indie Boat Hop Craft Beer Cruise, Empire Sandy, Toronto, ON

This afternoon Gord and I did the first ever Indie Boat Hop Craft Beer Cruise.  A craft beer festival and a boat cruise ... two of my favourite things!

It was coordinated by the Indie Ale House Brewing Company and the Bar Hop.  It was on the Empire Sandy, a tall ship that was built as an Englishman/Larch Deep Sea class tugboat for war service by the British Government in 1943.


Tickets were $40 and included an Indie Boat Hop cup (which held eight ounces), a drink ticket, a three hour sail (from 1pm to 4pm) and access to beer that has never been released on land!  Extra drink tickets were $4.50.


 Here are the breweries and cidery on the boat offering one-offs:
  • Amsterdam
  • Bellwoods
  • Blackheart Brewing Collective
  • Get Well 
  • Great Lakes
  • Indie Alehouse 
  • Nickel Brook 
  • Sawdust City 
  • West Avenue Cider Company

It was a sold-out event.


Here's what I had ...
Cherry Manilow (Grisette with cherries) from Great Lakes
Berry Switzer (Berliner Weisse with raspberries) from Nickel Brook
Bogus Journey (Berliner Weisee with raspberries and blueberries),
a Bar Hop Collab

I wanted to try Rob & Jason's Fruitbasket (fruit punch pale ale), a Bar Hop Collab, but they never did open that keg.  So I went back and had others I'd had earlier.

You could buy food onboard.

Sausage and Goldfish was $7

We headed eastward and went halfway around the Islands.

It was busy on the water
Looking up Yonge Street

And then we headed back towards the dock  ...

They fired canons a couple times
Yes, Captain John's is STILL there!
There were people doing the EdgeWalk on the CN Tower

Here we are ...

Gord and I
Me
Gord

It was a fun cruise and I hope they do it again.  Though it was packed, once everyone got on board and got a drink, the line-ups weren't too bad.

3 comments:

Masshole Mommy said...

That sounds like such a fun time. You guys do the coolest stuff.

Teresa said...

Another fun day!

Rosie said...

Wow that looks amazing Teena!