Spring Festival Of Small Breweries

C'est What's next beer festival takes place on Friday May 23 from 5:00 to 10:00. There will be the usual and unusual, thirty-five to forty examples of the best Canada has to offer in sample sizes at a loonie each. Confirmed so far are:

Amsterdam Pomegranate Wheat, Barley Days Summer Breeze Light Ale, Big Rock MacNally's (bottle), Church Key Honey & Water Mead and Cranberry Wheat, Durham Belgian Wit, Grand River Pilsner, Heritage Maple Bush Lager, King Pils Bock, Neustadt Scottish Ale (cask), Nickel Brook Cuvée, Unibroue Ephemere Pomme all of their new bottles Wellington SPA (cask). Much more to come.

Another tasting note: You can visit Joan any weekday between 2:00 and 5:00 and do your own tour of the taps, 100 mL at a time ($1.75 each inc. all taxes). The afternoon sampling program also includes two prepackaged tastings complete with tasting sheet - samples of all six of our brews or a tour of eight spanning all of the styles on tap.

Stouts And Porters

Beer tasting results

The stalwart souls that showed up on Wednesday March 27, 2008 confronted the dark forces of beer, naming names without the comfort of a label in a "blind" tasting of international stouts and porters. All of the tickets were sold and the tasters were under the spotlight of the TAPS Media cameras (check out the video podcast here) while sweating over the quality and identity of the fifteen brews. It was a marathon session, with Brenda and George pouring and serving 750 samples in about two and one half hours (one every twelve seconds).

When the foam had settled, the extreme degree of difficulty of the task became apparent as the best effort at identifying the brews was nine correct by beer writer Mirella Amato. Black seems to always be in fashion; those assembled seemed to enjoy just about all of the products with the spread of median scores ranging from thirty-three to thirty-eight out of fifty. The top finisher was C'est What's own Coffee Porter which was two points ahead of Durham's Blak Katt Stout. Third place went to Church-Key Chocolate Porter with a score of 35.5.

The full table of scores can be found here.

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Great Real, Get It Live

Capital Grass and the No Men + Lucas Stagg

Capital Grass and the No Men are Matt Gower, Wayne Coulis, Robin Watson and Allan Fretz. These 4 gunslingers combine roots music and punk rawk energy to form a sound they like to call "Punktry".
If you listen closely to the lyrics, you'll hear songs about fear, love, loss and hope. Main influences include but are not limited to Neko Case, The Sadies and The Black Keys. Hailing from a town in southwestern Ontario known as Guelph, Capital Grass and the No Men have played all across the land with bands such as The Rural Alberta Advantage, Sarah Hallman, The Noble Son, Apples and Boom Creek's Low Ceiling Group.

Saturday May 17, Doors 10:00pm, Show time 10:30 p.m. Advance tickets are available for $6.00

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Elana Harte + Jacob and Lily

Local country girl Elana Harte has been making waves the past couple of years after landing in Toronto via Montreal spreading her good word of sugar coated country hooks and Indigo inspired power pop. Energy galore. One third of local popsters VSH, Harte is hot on the promo trail in support of her latest solo offering that sees her embracing her inner twang. Pure pop hooks with a dash of Nashville.

Wednesday May 30, Doors 10:00 p.m., Show time 10:30 p.m., Advance tickets are available for $7.00

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Wine List Changes

Expanded selection by-the-glass

In keeping with the spirit of our "true local flavour" mandate we are expanding the selection of VQA wine available to you by-the-glass. Soon you will be able to purchase any of the wines on our list in an individual serving.

The most recent additions to our wine list are the Dan Aykroyd Sauvignon Blanc 2006, Calamus Gewürztraminer 2007, Henry Of Pelham Meritage 2006, Trius Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, Harbour Estates Merlot 2004, EastDell Estates Pinot Noir 2006.

On Thursday June 19 from 5:00 to 10:00 we will be holding a Spring Festival Of Local Wineries featuring the nine wineries that currently supply our establishment. More details will be found in our next e-news.

New Brews

The Granite Best Bitter has moved to cask and returning the our list are Church-Key Cranberry Wheat, Ephemere Pomme (Unibroue), and Great Lakes Orange Peel Ale. Nickelbrook Cuvée, a tasty strong golden ale, is new to our taps.

The Unibroue bottled collection has arrived. We are now carrying Blanche de Chambly, Don de Dieu, Chambly Noir, Maudite, La Fin du Monde, and Trois Pistoles.

A new C'est What brew, Sierra's Excellent Ale, has arrived. Truth be told, it is a summer ale, but we didn't want it confused with the Sierra's Summer Ale from a couple of years ago as the recipe has been completely re-built. The new brew is designed for warm weather quaffing at 4.0% alcohol, is nitrogen-dispensed, and has a refreshing hint of bitter in the finish at 25 IBU.

In case you're wondering about the fascination with the name Sierra, it's my daughter's nom d' plume.

Our complete beer list featuring forty-nine craft brews, is available online. All brews meet our uncompromising craft beer standards.