On May 20th, 2015 (Wednesday) we attended our first Canadian Craft Beer Tap Takeover. Hosted by Atomic Rooster and staring two of my favourite Canadian breweries: Beau's and Beyond the Pale.
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| The Events Poster |
Strangely for Ottawa, the event was starting at 12pm on a Wednesday. Which seems weird as most people in Ottawa work for the Government, so they would be at work from 9am till 5pm. But we expected/planned for a bit of a lunch crowd, so we didn't arrive till 1pm with the plan being to miss all the food ordering. Upon arriving we was surprised to find the place pretty quiet (near dead). At the bar sat five or six retired old guys, drinking their cans of Coors and Bud, whilst in the window sat five guys sampling the beers (by the pint) and in the middle a big work crowd enjoying their lunch. The waitress seemed slightly flustered, but soon welcomed us in and produced the beer menu. Each brewery had produced Six beers for the showcase, even though the Cask option was not on the menu. Each beer was selling at $6.50 for 16oz (CAD dollar so plus tax guys). Or you could par take in the blind tasting. The Blind tasting fell into 4 pairings groups: Belgian, IPA, Cask and Wheat. Each pairing cost $5 for two 5oz samples. So it will come as no surprise that we went for the tasting option.
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Badly photographed menu |
Sadly and slightly disappointing, it wasn't a true blind tasting as the Beau's option came in a Beau's glass and the Beyond the Pale in their branded glasses (real shame). But it was the best way to try all the beers without getting too wasted in the early afternoon or getting stuck with a dud beer. So here is how the pairings worked:
Vs.
Beyond the Pale Mullet - Belgian IPA - 5% - 49 IBU (Link)
Winner: Beau's simple reason had more of a punchy taste. Aroma's of Orange and grapefruit and peppery notes.
Style: IPA
Beau's Le Coeur Noir - Black IPA - 7.1% - 60 IBU (Link)
Vs.
Beyond the Pale Rye Guy - Rye PA - 6.7% - 52 IBU (Link)
Winner: Beyond the Pale. This was the first beer we tried on our first day in Canada and we both had been impressed by it. In this pairing it won out for us, as it is exactly what we want in an IPA. Hoppy but with a good malty backbone. Beau's was tasty but sadly too dark to win in this category.
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| 1) Rye Guy 2) Le Coeur Noir 3) Mullet 4) Gigantic |
Style: Wheat
Beau's Wag the Wolf - Hopfenweisse - 6.0% - 20 IBU (Link)
Vs.
Beyond the Pale Pink Fuzz - Grapefruit Wheat - 6% - 20 IBU (Link)
Winner: Beau's Wag the Wolf. Reason being it was a classic tasting Wheat beer, clean, crisp, banana, yeasty notes pure win.
Style: Cask
Sadly our server had little to no info on these beers. I have emailed the breweries and will see what they say.
Beau's Ox Session Pale - Unknown
Vs.
Beyond the Pale Stimmy Hats IPA - Unknown
Winner: Beyond the Pale, had more of a grapefruit taste which helped it to win through. More details will be written in once I know for sure I'm writing about the right beer.
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| 1) Ox Session 2) Stimmy Hats 3) Pink Fuzz 4) Wag the Wolf |
Style: Imperial
Not on the official list but offered by the server so why not!
Beau's Haters Gonna Hate - Eis Kolsch - 8% - 40 IBU (Link)
Vs.
Beyond the Pale Imperial Super Guy - Imp. Rye Pale ale - 9.1% - 90 IBU (Link)
Winner: Beyond the Pale Imp. Super Guy. This was a bit of a no brainer as I'm just not a fan of Kolsch style beers sadly.
VS
So there you have it. The winner of The Beers with Peps is---
Beyond the Pale 3-2.
Now if you drop out the unofficial Imperial round, it would have actually been a draw (boring!). But overall it was a great afternoon out, which we had a lot of fun doing and being a part off. I look forward to the next Ottawa event. Until then here are some links:
Venue:
Breweries:
Also some of Beau's great label designs to finish us off
