The last brew day was with a new member to the home brew 'club' I belong to. Over email, we listed the various ingredients we had and found a style and a recipe that we thought would be fun to brew and consume. So a Friday night was spent telling tales, drinking pints, and making beer. He's a real good guy and we have a lot in common. Yeah, you could say we struck up a real 'brewmance'. Chad Edmunds and I made an Irish red ale that we are very excited to try. First tests prove that this could be a keeper.
Later that week, I finally received the marking sheets from a beer (McFadden's RockdALE) I submitted to the Beau's Oktoberfest Home Brew Competition. While this American-style amber ale didn't win any prizes, for my first comp submission, I was very happy with the marks it received and the noted suggestions will help to improve the next batch. I'm hoping to perfect this one as one of my standard 'house beers'.
Finally, this Sunday I was asked by Brad Campeau to be a part of the Eastern Ontario Tasting Tour for Brew Donkey.
Brad doesn't make his own beer, but he certainly has a love affair with it. Brew Donkey actually offers two services - a craft beer delivery service and beer tasting tours. He's just got the go-ahead to begin taking orders for the delivery service, and the latest beer tour was the third - the next one scheduled for Jan. 18, 2014.
The tour was an absolute blast.
On a drizzly Sunday morning, 35 adults mounted the Brew Donkey school bus, making our way towards our first stop, Cassel Brewery. On the way, Brad spoke to the captive audience about his business, the delivery service, and his vision for world domination! He then turned it over to me, where hopefully I didn't bore anyone to death on the basics of beer and beer making.
I certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert, but hopefully my intent on giving my fellow donkey riders the basis of beer knowledge was helpful for our upcoming stops.
We arrived at Cassel where we were enthusiastically met by Ben and Michel. They split us up into two groups (mostly due to the number of people and the size of the brewery) - one sampled the beer first, the other got to tour the back of the house to see where the magic happened, then we switched up.
Cassel Brewery is a great 'small town' success story. Owner and Brewmaster, Mario Bourgeois, started as a home brewer with a passion for more. He's steadily growing the business and with great support from the community and other local brewers, his products will soon be hitting LCBO shelves in the next few months. But on this tour day, our happy-go-lucky donkey riders nearly cleaned out the shelves.
On the way to our next stop, Brad handed out boxed lunches catered by Murray Street Kitchen. The overwhelming response to the food was a resounding 'wow'. A really great touch.
Our next stop was Vankleek Hill Vineyard. This was a bit bizarre; a busload of beer drinkers getting to learn about a local winery. After a few awkward moments and pauses, we all got to tour the clean facility, sample wine, and learn about hearty grapes. The stop did fit nicely with the 'support local' theme. It was an interesting stop to say the least, but Marty (Murray) knows his wine. Still, I think we were all really looking forward to our final destination - Beau's All Natural Brewing Company.
Anyone living in Ottawa knows Beau's. People in Toronto and elsewhere are beginning to know this great (not-so-little-anymore) brewery in the heart of Vankleek Hill, a town that sits squarely in the middle of Ottawa and Montreal.
I can do a whole blog post on Beau's and may save that for another time, so let me just say that they were able to accommodate 35 of us with ease. A new store and sample bar was relocated from it's cramped confines and into the brewery. The move allows ample space to mingle and check out all of their cool swag. At the bar, there are about 10 taps and on this day, they had at least five to try. Beau's wants you to sample all of their beers and they aren't shy about it. You may not like them all, and that's okay. Not all of their beers are home runs, but the ones that are, do very well (i.e. Lugtread).
We spent the good part of two hours in the brewery, and it was a great opportunity to meet the other people on the tour. Of the 35, I believe I spoke to 20. The conversations ranged from home brewing (how-to, recipes), to food, and even found an old high school friend. I even connected with some 'virtual' friends. The Brew Donkey can do it all!
Owner Steve Beauchesne was on hand to greet everyone. He shared a few pints, told a few stories, and held audience with those of us who brew at home and he welcomed the opportunity to speak about the brewery, his favourite beers he's made, and even some of the 'misses' that will never see a beer tap.
But, like all good things, the tour had come to an end. As we all stumbled onto the bus and headed back home, Brad calculated the beer purchases and announced that our little group of 35 bought 118L of beer (and 1L of wine)! That, my friends, is quite impressive.
In all, it was a great way to spend an otherwise dreary Sunday. You don't have to be a beer connoisseur or home brewer to join one of these tours - in fact, it's a great way to be entertained for a few hours, learn something new, meet some awesome people, and get to see a side of Ottawa that is on the verge of exploding.
Ride the donkey. Hee Haw!
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