CASK! Challenge at C’est What

CASK! will be teaming up with C’est What (67 Front St. E.), one of Toronto’s original craft beer bars and a long time supporter of cask ales, to present a CASK! Challenge event on Tuesday, November 18.

This tasting event will compare the relative merits of hand-pulled cask ale and the more typical gas dispensed beer. Attendees will be served sample pairs – both cask and keg – of the following five beers: C’est What Coffee Porter, Black Oak Pale Ale, Granite Best Bitter, McLean’s Pale Ale, and Wellington County Ale. A brewer or two will be on hand to explain the differences in style and production.

Tickets for the event are $15 ($12.04 + taxes and transaction fee), and are available now via the C’est What ticket ordering website.

Cask News from Cameron’s and Pepperwood

Quick updates regarding cask releases from a couple of local brewers:

• Oakville’s Cameron’s Brewery will be holding their monthly Cask Night tomorrow (October 30th), featuring a surprise one-off cask, food from Whole Foods Market and other fun stuff. Details are available on the Cameron’s blog.
• In his latest online update, brewmaster Paul Dickey for Burlington’s Pepperwood Bistro & Brewpub mentions that he’ll be doing a special cask Imperial Pale Ale especially for the Canadian Amateur Brewers Association AGM & Bus tour which will be stopping by the restaurant on November 8th. Starting in December, he hopes to do a one-off cask beer to be available to all on a monthly basis.

Tickets Now Available for Buffalo Cask Festival Bus Trip

CASK! is hosting a bus trip to the 1st Annual Buffalo Cask Ale Festival on Saturday, December 6th, 2008. The event is taking place at Cole’s (1104 Elmwood Ave.) and Mr. Goodbar (1110 Elmwood Ave.) in downtown Buffalo.

The cost per person is $75 payable in advance (ordering details below). This will cover transportation to and from the Festival via luxury coach with an onboard washroom, as well as lunch and your first pint at Cole’s.

The two festival venues are a couple of doors from each other, and admission to both of them is free, you just have to pay for the beer. There will be approximately 15 casks available between the two bars.

Before purchasing a ticket, PLEASE READ THESE IMPORTANT TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

• This trip requires a minimum of 40 attendees to be financially viable. If we do not reach that minimum by Tuesday, November 25th, the trip will be cancelled, and full refunds will be issued.
• Aside from the situation described above, there will be no refunds issued under any other circumstances.
• The bus will be departing at 9:00 AM from Front Street in front of Union Station, and will be leaving downtown Buffalo for the return trip at 6:00 PM. Anyone not at the departure points at these times will be left behind, and no refund will be given.
• All attendees must be 21 years of age or older.
• While a passport is not yet required for land travel to the US, it is highly recommended, as it will make the border crossing much smoother. If you do not have a passport, you will require a government issued photo ID such as a driver’s licence, PLUS a birth certificate or citizenship card. All attendees will be asked to show their ID BEFORE boarding the bus in Toronto, and those with insufficient ID will not be allowed to board.
• For reasons of liability and safety, and to avoid border delays, there will be ABSOLUTELY NO ALCOHOL allowed on the bus. This means that no beer or other alcohol should be purchased in Buffalo to be brought back to Toronto.
• All attendees will be liable for any damages or spillages they cause on the bus that lead to a fee being incurred by the bus company.
• Finally, and most importantly, we request that all passengers be witty and charming, and experience pleasure at all times while sampling cask ales. It’s about having fun and getting out of the house, all right?

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR TICKET – $75 PER PERSON

You will not be sent a physical ticket, your name will be on a list to be checked off at time of departure. If you require tickets for more than one person, please place a separate order under each person’s name.

Orders are being taken via PayPal, but you do not need to have a PayPal account to order, you simply need a credit card. All information requested, including credit card info, is completely secure and encrypted.

Payments are being processed using the PayPal account of Taste T.O., a website business operated by Greg Clow, one of the core members of CASK!.

Thanks for ordering, and we look forward to seeing you on December 6th!

Volo Cask Days 2008: The Extended Version

As anyone who attended Volo Cask Days 2008 this past weekend can attest, it was a fantastic event with a helluvalot of casks to sample from. There were so many, in fact, that even six sessions over the course of the weekend couldn’t drain them all, and a number of them weren’t tapped at all.

Sticking to the old adage of “waste not, want not”, Volo is continuing to serve beer from the casks that were tapped this weekend as long as they remain drinkable. Several of the casks tapped on Friday were already dumped on Monday, as Ralph at Volo didn’t feel that they were in a good enough state to be consumed, but there are a good number of casks still on the go, being sold for $4 a pint while quantities last.

Beyond that, here is the planned schedule for the remaining casks that weren’t tapped on the weekend:

Wednesday October 22nd
Amsterdam Framboise

Friday October 24th
Dieu du Ciel Vaisseau des Songes
Hopfenstark Postcolonial IPA

Sunday October 26th (opening at 12 noon)
Cameron’s Clove and Dagger Amber Ale
County Durham Hop Head IPA
Granite Hopping Mad Pale Ale
Great Lakes Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Scotch Irish Black Irish Plain Porter
Wellington Iron Duke Strong Ale
(all for $6 pint / $4 half-pint)

Friday October 31st
Grand River’s Highballer Pumpkin Ale

Friday November 7th
Fuller’s ESB
Fuller’s London Pride

Bus Trip to Buffalo Cask Ale Festival

CASK! is pleased to announce that we are arranging a bus trip to the Buffalo Cask Ale Festival on Saturday, December 6th. As mentioned here previously, this festival will feature at least 15 cask ales at well-known beer bars Cole’s (1104 Elmwood Ave.) and Mr. Goodbar (1110 Elmwood Ave.) in downtown Buffalo.

There are still a few details to be confirmed before we can start selling tickets, but we can tell you that the ticket price will include transportation to and from the Festival, as well as lunch at Cole’s.

Watch for more information to be posted here in coming days, or email caskinfo@gmail.com to be put on our mailing list and receive updates as soon as they become available.