I visited Day One of the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo last night, and what I reported here earlier in the week turned out to be abundantly true: Beer has now officially arrived at this notoriously wine-centric event.

(Okay, I admit that wine is in the title of the show, and so does deserve top billing, but years past have still been frustrating for fans of gourmet beer.) (more…)

I enjoy Toronto’s annual Gourmet Food & Wine Expo and attend almost every year, assuming that I’m in town the weekend it takes place. In the past, however, I’ve been frustrated by how little attention has been paid to beer, which one might assume from years past the organizers don’t consider worthy of the adjective “gourmet.” (more…)

Last evening, I sat down to sample a few beers with a friend of mine by the name of John Szabo. He’s a wine guy, a Master Sommelier, in fact, but a nice fellow nonetheless and someone with a terrific palate. We opened several bottles over the course of a few hours, including some very local stuff — a few homebrews from John’s cousin — a couple of more obscure offerings — two large bottled ales from Birrifficio Bruton in northern Italy — and one extraordinarily rare brew — a single bottle of the 2005 vintage of Pannepot Grand Reserva. But it was a pair of semi-related black beers that stole the show. (more…)

I missed Cask Days this year at Toronto’s Bar Volo, mainly because I was in Kentucky tasting bourbon, but also because of work demands at home. Still, thanks to the indefatigable Ralph Morana, owner and operator of Volo, I was able to sample a bunch of the remaining casks this afternoon. Here are some thoughts: (more…)

If you’re lucky, you’ll never visit a bar like the Toronto locale my wife and I happened to wander into a short time ago. Actually, let me change that: not “wander into,” but “were sucked into.” Or “suckered.” (more…)

The numbers are in for the 2008 edition of Oktoberfest in Munich, and thanks to the online edition of Der Spiegel, we’ve got ‘em!

It was a mite bit chilly and more than little rainy this year, according to all reports, and that kept both visitor count and beer consumption down, says Der Spiegel. Six million people attended the two week fest, which is down 200,000 from last year. What’s more, those who did attend didn’t make up for their lack of numbers in drinking, as beer sales declined 300,000 litres to 6.6 million, although appetites evidently remained rapacious, with the number of oxen served holding fast at 104. (more…)

When Philadelphia, the self-styled “Best Beer Drinking City” in the United States, held its phenomenally successful and inaugural Philly Beer Week earlier this year, I observed that San Francisco had held a de facto “Beer Week” for years, and sure enough, the San Franciscans have adopted the term and set up a site for their ten days of beer fame. (more…)

You may never have been to Quebec City, the capital of the province of Quebec. Hell, you may never even have been to eastern Canada! But I’ll give you a reason to want to celebrate the city’s birthday in two French words and one hyphen: Quatre-Centieme. (more…)

According to Jim over at lootcorp 3.0: A Brewing Blog, I’m supposed to be writing about German beer for this September edition of The Session. But as I stare into my beer fridge this morning, I note that rather unusually I am bereft of German beers, which is probably not all that bad a thing since it’s still only 9:30 and I’ve a load of work to accomplish today. (more…)