On Canada Day I decided to get off my ass and do something productive rather than just sit at home, sample beers and play games (Rift is back in my life)...so we drove over to the Evergreen Brick Works, which was just 7 minutes away via DVP.
If you haven't been there, the place is a cool collection of a converted factory, warehouse, trails and ponds in the back. The only downside is that it is not easily accessible unless you live behind the trails or have a car. Sure, you can take TTC there, but the trip frequency is not the greatest.
The Reason
Why did I decide to get off my ass and go? Well, it was Brewer's Backyard and there were some interesting collaboration beers as well as some good eats.
The Event
For $20 you got a mug and 2 drink/food tickets. No, you don't have to buy the mug, but I thought it was cool to have one. The tickets themselves are either $4 or $6. The $6 tickets are interchangeable and you can get either a food item or a drink item, while the $4 tickets were beer only. One other thing I wasn't told about at the ticket booth is that the tickets bought you only half a pint of the collaboration brews, but full pints of the regulars. I made my peace with that last one since the collaborations were on the stronger side and I had to drive back home after.
The Beers
Amsterdam, Great Lakes and Indie Ale House were present and had booths set up at the Koerner Gardens.
At the time I was there, Amsterdam was offering the following:
- Lemon Wheat - collaboration with Broadhead
- Framboise
- Market Pale
- Oranje Weisse
Great Lakes was offering the following
- Crazy Canuck Pale Ale
- Orange Peel Ale
- Miami Weiss
- Lake Effect IPA
- Saison de la Canneberge
Indie Ale House has these on tap:
- Broken Hipster
- Golden Devil
I wanted to try all the beers I hadn't had before, but I ended up only having the Broken Hipster, Golden Devil and Saison de la Canneberge. The Lemon Wheat and Lake Effect were having some problems with the temperature and I was told to return in a bit...I would have had I not had to leave...so next time guys.
Broken Hipster - refreshing wheat with a lot of fruity notes and low on the spices
Golden Devil - heavy hitter with sweet honey notes and a lot of spices (wish I had written down some notes)
Saison de la Canneberge - tart, extremely refreshing and veeeery drinkable, easily my favorite of the bunch
The Food
The food was provided by Kanga, Sweet Sammies and Indie Ale House and was all very delicious. My favourite of the bunch were Kanga's butter chicken pies.
Sweet Sammies' maple bacon ice cream sandwiches were also a hit. The ice cream was sweet with a strong maple aroma up front and a very nice bacon note at the back.
Overall, I enjoyed the event and wish I hadn't driven so that I could wait around for the other beers and sample everything. At the end, I walked around the trails, saw some turtles, took photos, sobered up and went home. I will definitely do one of these again.
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