Tales of Casks and Fountains

So, how better to start this than with a tale of beer, and great beer at that. My weekend started with the eager anticipation of the 2007 Volo Cask Days at Bar Volo, a fine establishment on Yonge Street in Toronto. As always, Ralph and his family and staff worked insane hours to serve us, the beer loving public, keeping the restaurant open normal hours till 2am Friday night (nee Saturday morning), then working till between 4 and 6am to get prepped for the Cask Festival. After all of this, he had the audacity to apologize for being 10 minutes late in opening at 10am for the preview breakfast!!! Even when we got there Ralph was still working like crazy to get ready!! As always, the many fine brewers of Ontario stepped up to the plate, everytime I think they can't go any further they do. Kudos to all, but I am especially singling out a few, Magnotta for their "Fog on the Tyne" IPA with Weizen yeast, for a product from a brewery i would normally pass over, well done!! Ken and the Black Oak Crew for the S.T.F.U Pale Ale, another great name and another well made beer. The "Grains of Wrath" brewed by John from Church Key to be a house beer for Volo was excellent, I look forward to having it again in the future. And to the Biergotter Home Brew Club. You put out some amazing products, you are a hugely talented group. The Monks Elixer was great (maybe a few more months ageing wouldn't hurt), and I have heard nothing but good things about this years Hopocalypse Redux.

My Saturday ended with me sitting down with my roommates to share some beers and Watch Transformers on DVD, this ended with our kitchen receiving a new coat of Barell Aged Gonzo Imperial Porter Paint. Suffice to say, many tears were shed as we tried to control ourselves at the silliness of the situation as a fine beer sprayed across our apartment!!! That said, for the amount of Gonzo on the walls, we still got 6 sample glasses out of the bottle, so maybe we are lucky after all. We followed the Gonzo with a Great Divide Double Hercules IPA and a Three Floyds Dreadnought Imperial IPA, both of which did not explode, allowing us to watch the rest of Transformers on DVD in relative peace (this being my 5th viewing, 2 in theatres, 1 in IMAX, one a download and one DVD viewing), and i am still amazed that Michael Bay didn't screw it up. Onwards to a sequel, give me Grimlock and the real Devastator (ie the Constructicons, not the mislabeled Brawl from the movie) and I will be gold.