Cask Days in Toronto!
A few months ago I traveled to Toronto to attend BarVolo's 10th Annual Cask Days! There were almost 350 casks there and three sessions to attend. The styles of beer were varied and there was also a cider section. This year's guest region was California and for many Canadians this would be the first time they were able to try some of these beers we take for granted, like Stone and Green Flash. Here is a complete list of all of the beers available: http://2014.caskdays.com/oncask
The venue is called Evergreen Brickworks. It is open air and very industrial. It is typically used as an event space and also hosts a weekly farmers market.
One of the stand outs, and one of the first beers I tried was The Gose Strikes Back, a blackberry gose from Beavertown in the UK. (B. United is working on bringing them into the country as we speak!)
A style that we had always wanted to investigate was the ‘Gose’. The Gose originated in the early 16th century, from the German town of Goslar. It became popular in Leipzig where the natural water contained a high amount of salt, therefore causing the style to have a slight residual saltiness to taste with a lemon tartness and a herbal characteristic. Originally the Gose was spontaneously fermented but by the 1880s brewers had established how to ferment the beer with top fermenting yeast and the bacteria Lactobacillus. By the second World War the Gose had pretty much disappeared out of production. The only man knowing the original recipe passed it on to his stepson who then died in the 1960s and pretty much taking the Gose with him 6 feet under. The style was resurrected in Germany again in the late 80s and is now brewed by around 3 breweries in Germany. It is now being brewed elsewhere around the world. South Carolina’s Westbrook canned Gose is a particular winner for us at Beavertown. So we knew the style was both salty (from the high salt concentrate in the local water) and tart (from the lactobacillus) with a slight herbal character. So we decided to base the beer on our house sour recipe, giving us a real nice drop in pH. The salt will be added to taste, we decided to use the Himalayan pink salt and we smashed up a load of coriander seeds and added to the boil to install a little herbal character to the wort.
Another of their beers I tried was their Smog Rocket, a smoked porter.
It was definitely interesting to hear which California breweries the Canadians were interested in. My friend Will and I attended the first session and before we even got in the door people were already throwing out recommendations, get the Sierra Nevada Narwhal and the Ballast Point Ghost Chili Victory at Sea. It was pretty chilly out so everyone migrating towards stouts seemed natural.
The next session I went to the people weren't as excited about the California beers. (Mind you, pours from the UK and California were 2 tokens, compared to the other 200 casks of Canadian beer that were only 1 token.) For the second session I purchased a ticket to the tour with BarVolo's owner, Ralph Morana. Who would be a better guide to learn about Canadian beers than the festival's founder? He took us through each Province and picked one beer from each. It was quite a lot of beer in an hour and a half and I definitely utilized the concept of the half pour. We were introduced to several brewers who offered awesome anecdotes to the beers we were tasting. Here are the notes from the tour:
I also had to pay a visit to one of my favorite Canadian breweries, Bellwoods! They have a tiny tasting room with communal seating and a huge patio. They have recently acquired a new space not too far from the original brewery to increase their capacity. One of the brewers I met at Cask Days was saying they brew around the clock and still can't can't up!
Thanks to Will for hosting me, and to all of the very friendly Canadians that I met that made me feel very welcomed!
