Muskoka Winter Beard 2012 Cellar Comparison

Storing a beer for aging is a test of will power and patience. Beer Advocate has a great page that covers the best practices for storing.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store

The keys are cool (not cold), dark and consistent.

We started our 'cellar' in 2011, with the Winter Beard. We had just tried an aged Winter Beard over chocolate ice cream at a beer pairing dinner. Quite impressed, we asked the rep more about aging and decided we'd try it out ourselves. Unfortunately, our 'cellar' isn't the ideal by any means. Since our basement is quite lit up with windows all around and does not keep a consistent temperature over the course of a year, we commandeered a shelf in our second refrigerator. Since then one shelf has become insufficient and now the good majority of the fridge is being used.

When we aged the 2011 Winter Beard it was unplanned. We just happened to have two bottles and decided we'd not drink them right away. It was a tough test and we learned for the next year to buy four bottles. 2 to try right away and 2 to store. In 2012 we started that strategy and we exchanged the 2011 for the 2012 in our cellar.

This allowed us to directly compare the two vintages. The 2012 was very fruit forward. It was quite tart and the cranberry overwhelmed the chocolate notes. The aged 2011 was smooth and intensely chocolate. We quite enjoyed being able to contrast them both and were looking forward to doing the same thing with the 2013 version. However, Muskoka decided not to have a 2013 Winter Beard vintage and instead released the 2012 aged in their cellar.

Knowing that the brewery would have much more ideal conditions to cellar than we did, it was expected that there would be differences in how the bottles turned out. We were excited to try the two together, again able to directly compare them.

Left: Aged by us. Right: Aged by Muskoka

Pouring them side by side there was no noticeable difference in colour or head. Though the nose was the first indication that these beers would be very different. From our beer the cranberry was still quite forward on the nose. On the Muskoka aged beer the chocolate was the most noticeable. On our beer the tartness followed through on the flavour, with a subtle roast and chocolate finish. Much more mellow, with the chocolate more obvious than before it was aged. However, the Muskoka aged beer was quite the opposite. With the chocolate being upfront and the tartness coming in gently on the finish. It was incredibly smooth where ours had significantly more fizz to it.

The verdict, for me, would be the Muskoka aged beer is better. I enjoyed the bigger chocolate flavours. It really shows the affects of ideal aging conditions vs. less than ideal. However, ours still aged well and held up when remembering the fresh version of the 2012. We do have one more bottle of each, which we plan to age for yet another year. It will be another interesting side by side.

Windsor Craft Beer Festival

Drive far enough South in Ontario and you will end up in the city of Windsor. It is known as the City of Roses. It is surrounded by lush farmlands and boasts some lovely wineries. It is a historic city that has come to be known for the auto industry though it is so much more than that.

It is also For Barely or For Wort's hometown.

In January, Windsor Eats with Motorburger/Motor Craft Ales announced they were hosting Windsor's first Craft Beer Festival. 

We love beer festivals and the chance to attend the first one in the city we were born and grew up in was very exciting.

The festival itself was set up in an outdoor space right across from the city's own craft brewery Walkerville Brewery.  Attendees were able to sample outside and then head into the brewery to warm up, see their set up and sample even more of their beer.

Inside Walkerville warming up and having a pint.

 Nice big set up for Walkerville Brewery

Organizers, Adriano and Pina Ciotoli did a great job of making the whole thing come together. Ten breweries attended with nine of them pouring samples for attendees.  Motor Craft Ales was not able to serve their brews off site as paperwork did not come through in time (We went to eat at Motorburger and tried their beers there.  Well worth a trip. Try the Dragula or the Big Block Brown!)

Barley and Wort with Adriano Ciotoli of Windsor Eats

Ottawa's own Broadhead Brewery as well as Van Kleek's Beau's Brewery made the drive down for the festival. They joined Lake of Bays Brewery, Bayside Brewery, Walkerville Brewery, McAuslan Brewery, Highlander Brewery, Mill St Brewery and Wellington Brewery.

Rocking the kilts, gentlemen of Highlander Brewery!

 Bayside Brewery

 Walkerville Brewery's table outside.

 Ottawa's Broadhead Brewery. Way to support new festivals guys!

We were told the Longshot White and Darkhorse Stout were the big hits at their booth.

Highlight beers included:

Lake of Bays-Top Shelf
St Ambroise-Apricot Wheat
Wellington-Shadow Play
Broadhead-Grindstone Amber
Highlander-Wallaceburg Ale

Walkerville-Kellerbier

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Windsor Eats' Adriano and Pina were gracious enough to sit down with us to discuss the festival.

What made you want to put on the Windsor Craft Beer Festival?

Adriano: Well we have been doing Windsor Eats, the food and drink guide for about ten years now so everything we do revolves around food and drink. We have had the plan for the craft beer festival for about two or three years now but there was no craft beers based in Windsor.  It was not the best time to launch. So while the rest of the province was booming, Windsor was a bit stagnant.  Within the last year Walkerville Brewery has popped up and Motor Burger launched Motor Craft Ales. Also there are two or three more in the planning stages so we figured this is the perfect time. People are getting excited about it, people are realizing the quality of Ontario craft beers.  We decided this was the year.

Pina: Windsor is a beer drinking town. Windsor really loves their beer. Our whole thing was to get people to realize how much Windsor has to offer. We are very fortunate here, we have lots of agriculture and we are blessed in what we have here. When Walkerville Brewery opened it was very exciting. It is a great compliment to the wine industry as well. When we started in January and  then when tickets sales started we knew hit on something.

What were you expecting in terms of attendance?

Adriano: We were expecting, in our heads, a realistic of number of 500 Friday, 1000 to 1200 Saturday. As we started seeing advance tickets sales we had to start bumping that up. We hit over 1000 on Friday. Advance sales for Saturday were over 1400. There is a chance we will hit capacity late Saturday night and have to turn people away at the door.

How did you choose the breweries you approached for the festival?  Obviously Walkerville and Motor Craft were easy being the Windsor breweries but what about the rest?

Adriano: We were open to any Ontario craft brewery. We did not want exclude anyone. It was obviously for craft breweries only but that was the only limit.  We were very fortunate that we were able to get St. Ambroise on board. That was an added bonus to say we had a Quebec brewery.

Pina: Convincing brewers to take a chance on Windsor was a bit more difficult. It was also a first time event and we had no numbers to base it on. Distance was a big factor as well.

Did you run into a problem with it also being the same weekend as Cask Days, with breweries being over stretched as craftbreweries tend to be small?

Adriano: We definitely did hear that. Also distance.  Even though we had Beau's and Broadhead come down from Ottawa, we had a lot of breweries respond saying they did not have the staff to send down.

Some festivals allow breweries to send down kegs and have volunteers serve. Did you put that out as an option or did you want a representative from the brewery to attend?

Adriano: We wanted the representative. Especially because Windsor is sort of new to the craft beer scene. We wanted the reps here so that if people wanted to talk to them they were getting all the details about the beer from a professional that is involved in the beer and properly discussing it.

Why theme of 1885? 

Pina:  Adriano and I were born and raised in Old Walkerville.  We are history buffs. We love the history of Walkerville, we love the culture behind it. We love the story of Hiriam Walker. That is where the inspiration for the look and feel of the Windsor Craft Beer Festival came from.  We wanted to celebrate the fact that back in 1885 Hiriam Walker launched a state of the art brewery in Walkerville. Most people don't know that about him. They associate him with the whiskey but they don't know that he was brewing beer that was world renowned. We took our cue from that. The bowler hat, the moustache, that fact that we are in Old Walkerville. We are amongst the buildings that he built, distilled and stored his whiskey in. Everything centred around that. Windsor was a significant player in prohibition. We love the history here and we wanted to share that with everyone. We wanted everyone to know what happened here. This was a small neighbourhood that played a significant role in distilling and brewing and one man who spearheaded that.

Your ticket prices were very reasonable.  Both to get in and for samples. Was it hard to plan that for a first time festival? 

Pina: We weren't promoting it as drink your face off event.  It was about stepping out of your comfort zone.  We did not want to bust your bank account to try samples what the breweries have to offer. We tried to make it as affordable as possible so everyone could attend.

Do you guys have plans to do it again?

Pina:  They are in the works. We are already thinking about next year. It is a first for all of us.  We are very big on feedback.  We will sit down and talk about what worked and what didn't work. We want to make sure that next time is just a little bit better. We had a lot of fun doing it. A lot of fun to plan and put the pieces together.

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For a first time festival they did everything right. Enough space to move, tables to sit, samples were plentiful but not overwhelming.  Tickets were reasonable in pricing, entertainment was good but not overbearing and there was plenty of bathroom facilities.  I am sure there were hiccups but it was never apparent to those attending.

Would we attend again? Yes.

Is it worth the 7-9 hour drive (depending on how one drives and Toronto traffic) Yes.  With ticket prices not breaking the bank and hotels being reasonable in pricing it is a cost friendly trip.

Would we recommend the festival to others? Yes.  Windsor is just beginning to see their craft beer market flourish.  This means good things for the city, for the future of the festival and for beer lover's in general.  They are the birthplace of some of Ontario's oldest brewing and distilling yet only now seeing the cycle come back around to them. As the industry changes in the city it can only mean good things for the craft beer festival and with passionate organizer's in the Windsor Eats crew it means that they are a place to keep an eye on.

A very big thank you to Adriano and Pina for agreeing to sit down with us.  The festival was a fun time which we hope to repeat next year.

A sense of community.

*A great big apology to WindsorEats as the post on the Windsor Craft Beer Fest is coming.  I ended up with a great interview with them and want to make sure it comes across doing the festival and the city justice.





Community:

• people with common interests living in a particular area;

• an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location      

We are big believers in the craft beer community.  We believe in people sharing something they love with each other.  

For a long time now Twitter and blogs have been a great way to interact with other beer lovers in the area but there is always that sense of "I know them, but I don't know them."  We often pass each other at festivals and never even realize till hours later when we comment on a photo saying "You were there? We need to meet one day!"

 Back in September after an event it was mentioned that we really should, as an Ottawa Twitter beer community, meet face to face.  We here at For Barley or For Wort thought that it was a great idea and took up the challenge of putting it together.

It went surprisingly easily. The first challenge was a venue that would open its doors to us. They had to have craft beer, good food and willing to put up with a bunch of chatty beer fans.  A mention was put out on Twitter and Stoneface Dolly's answered immediately.

Invitations to breweries went out and the link to reserve spaces was launched to the masses.  Within the first half hour 24 spaces were gone.

Breweries jumped on board for a chance to mingle with Ottawa beer fans. Not from behind a table as they poured them beer but in the crowd and on a more personal level.

We were honoured to have the place full of other beer lovers who just wanted the chance to shake hands with the other people they spent so much time chatting to on the net.

Check out this crowd!

On hand in the crowd we had a number of brewery people including Tyler from Flying Monkeys, Grant from Spearhead, Scott from Muskoka, JP and Trish from Turtle Island and Kichesippi's Paul Meek. 

The night was full of handshakes, stories and laughter.  We ate amazing food and drank some really good beer.  We raffled off some wonderful prizes given to us from Spearhead, Muskoka and Kichesippi.

We are a silly bunch.

 Some of our raffle prizes.

Overall the event was a huge success.  There are already thoughts of doing it again in the Spring, a sort of seasonal meet up to talk about all things beer.

The whole thing would not have been possible if it were not for Stoneface Dolly's and the amazing staff.

It also would not have happened if it wasn't for Ottawa's great beer community.  Everyone who attended proved once again that this city has a strong, vibrant and friendly group of craft beer lovers, bloggers, twitter posters and homebrewers.  

I am happy to call them all apart of my community.

 Thank you to Stoneface Dolly. To Jeff Russell and all the staff that took care of us on Monday night.






 Thank you to Scott, Tyler, J.P., Trish, Grant and Paul.

A big thank you and raising a pint to all of you who came out. You made our night.

Connections-Update on the Meet Up on November 4th

I had planned for the next post to be about the Windsor Craft Beer Festival.  It is almost done and ready but something showed up in my email today that I needed to share.

On November the 4th we, For Barley or For Wort along with Stoneface Dolly's are hosting a meet up.  Why a meet up?  Well we attend a lot of events and tweet about it, blog about and so do many other people. We talked to these people and breweries via social media but it is not often we get to see each other, to meet and shake hands in person.  We decided it was time to change that.  Craft beer is about the community as much as it is about the beer, at least in my opinion. 

We have been planning the event for a couple of weeks now. I have watched the reservation numbers on the eventbrite page go up with great excitement. 

Today Jeff Russell, chef at Stoneface Dolly's sent me the menu for the night. If you aren't sure about coming perhaps the menu will sway you. 

For the night they will be offering:

Lamb burger
Topped with goat cheese, caramelized red onion and peppers.

Almond Encrusted Chicken                  Supreme style Mariposa breast topped with a brie cream sauce and poached pear. Served with garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables. Sun-dried tomato Goat cheese           Goat cheese covered with marinated sundried tomato, basil and green onion and served with homemade crostini. Homemade foccaccia bread                  With your choice of toppings: Choice of basil pesto and bruschetta or eggplant and goat cheese spread topped with caramelized peppers and onions       Black Bean

Penne tossed in a Black bean cream sauce served with portobello mushrooms and roasted red peppers

Chicken or Tofu Bobotie

A traditional South African dish. Baked ground chicken with light curry spices, almonds and raisons served with coconut basmati rice, fruit chutney, yogurt raita, and vegetables. Or for the vegetarians, choose baked tofu instead of chicken.  Want to join in the fun?  Want a chance to win a few brewery related prizes? Than come on out and join us.   https://www.eventbrite.com/event/8610106059 Reserve your spot for free. You pay for your food and beer. It is that easy.  See you in a week!

Fall is here.

Fall has firmly set in and a variety of events have come up occupying our time and leaving us with little chance to sit down to write it all up.

At this moment we are in Windsor, Ontario about to attend their first craft beer festival.  This is a big deal for us here at Barley and Wort as it is our hometown and we love to support new festivals.

Over the last month we have hit a wide range of events from awards to Oktoberfest, beer launches and lots of planning for events to come.

September found us at the Golden Tap Awards in Toronto, Ontario.  The beer and food pairing before hand had some great combos. Try Muskoka's Mad Tom and curry. Or Amsterdam's Autumn Hop and ice cream.

While there I managed to pop into Bellwoods Brewery, Amsterdam's new Brewhouse and the Beer Academy. A whirlwind trip that ended with a stop at 5 Paddles Brewery.  I managed to get my hands on Midnight Paddler, Home Sweet Home and Keep It Simple Smash.

We attended the launch of ClockTower's Pumpkin beer.  They had some great food combos incliding sweeten popcorn, an autumn soup and cheesecake.  They had pumpkin beer and some served right from pumpkins.  The beer itself was quite flavourful with just the right mix of sweetness and spice notes.

Next event on the list was a great tap takeover at The Branch restaurant in Kemptville, Ontario. The featured brewery was Church Key Brewery from Campbellford, Ontario. On hand was John Graham, head brewer.  We got to spend some time with him chatting beer.  Featured beers were Holy Smoke, Northumberland Ale, West Coast, Honey Oat Stout and It's the Great Pumpkin Ale.  The food was fantastic including their sloppy joe, soup and curry.

The end of September and beginning of October kicks off Oktoberfest all over.  We made the trip out to Beau's Oktoberfest in Van Kleek Hill, Ontario.  So many wonderful food vendors and great beer selection.  The cask area was a hands down favourite by the crowd.

Highlight cask beers for us were: Pissed Off Pete's Pumpkin Porter, Damf Punk, Hellwoods, Country Bumpkin and Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. 

Next on the list was some down time with a vacation into Prince Edward County. Wineries as far as the eye can see but we did manage to stop at the local brewery-Barley Days.  Some of their Lager, IPA and Oyster Stout came home with us.

The trip home was completed with a stop at Kingston Brewing Company.  They are one of the oldest brewpubs and the entire place is covered with beer posters, tap hands and signs.

Next up for us?

Well as I said we are here in Windsor for the craft beer festival.  With ten breweries in the line up, including two from the Ottawa area it promises to be a fun time. 

After that we are hosting the first Ottawa Bottle Share.  Ottawa Beer Events is putting it on and we are opening our home to some craft beer fans to share rare bottle.

Finally Monday, November 4th together with Stoneface Dolly's we are happy to be hosting a meet up for Ottawa craft beer bloggers and beer lovers in general.  Chef Jeff is putting together a special food menu for us. 

Want to join us?  Reserve your space here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/event/8610106059

That is September, October and the beginning of November in a nutshell for us here at For Barley or For Wort.  Lots to do, lots of great beer and many wonderful people.