Yes, this blog is miserably out-of-date, which is why I am preparing to scrap the whole thing and replace it with something more user-friendly. Please bear with me.
Next Stop: Santiago, Chile!
Well, actually my next stop will be in Blumenau, Brazil, but that’s to judge homebrew and take in the Blumenau Oktoberfest. After I’m done there, though, I’ll be flying to Santiago to spend a few days getting up to speed with the local craft brewing scene.
Sometime during the week that I’m in Chile — October 12 – 16 — I’ll be hosting a beer event of some sort, although details are still being put together. If you’ll be in or near Santiago, please check back here for an update once things are firmed up.
Win Tix for OktoberFEAST in Ontario!
For my readers in Ontario: I not a big promoter of events and neither have I ever hosted a ticket give-away, but OktoberFEAST not only looked to me like it’s going to be a great time, but it’s also an event in support of a good cause. So here you go.
Featuring ample amounts of Toronto food talent (Barque Smokehouse, Thoroughbred, Cheesewerks, Hawthorne and Oyster Boy, among others) and Ontario breweries including Beau’s, Double Trouble, Great Lakes, Junction, the new Lake Wilcox Brewing and Side Launch, among many others, OktoberFEAST promises to be a terrific night of food and drink, all in support of cancer research and support services for cancer patients. It all happens on Thursday, October 8, at the Berkeley Church, 315 Queen St. East.
We all likely know someone whose life has been affected by cancer, so there is no reason to not want to support this cause. I’d be there myself, but I will unfortunately be boarding a plane right about the time the Toronto event is getting started.
I am, however, able to offer you, dear reader, the chance to win a pair of tickets for the Toronto event. Just go to Twitter and either retweet one of my mentions, like this one, or tweet a link to this page and mention both me (@BeaumontDrinks) and the hashtag #OktoberFEAST. Two lucky winners will be selected Wednesday, October 7 at noon. I’ll tweet at you if you’re a winner and you’ll get your ticket emailed to you. It’s as simple as that.
Shuffling Off to Buffalo…for Beer Week!
The end of September will be me heading just south of the Ontario border for Buffalo Beer Week, where it will be my honour to host not one, but two consecutive events.
First up, on Tuesday, September 29, I’ll be teaming with winemaker Jonathan Oakes of Leonard Oakes Winery and Chef Jim Guarino to host a dinner called ‘Vines & Bines’ at Jim’s stellar seafood restaurant, Oshun. We’ll be serving six remarkable courses, each one partnered with both a wine and a beer, but this isn’t going to be any kind of ‘he said wine, he said beer’ sort of thing – we’re celebrating both beverages and how well they pair with Oshun’s delectable cuisine.
More information is available on the Buffalo Beer Week website and tickets may be booked by calling 716-848-4500.
The next night, Wednesday, September 30, I’ll be installed at the Pizza Plant Italian Pub on Transit Road in Williamsville hosting not one, but three tasting sessions of rare, esoteric and remarkable beers from all around the world. Each tasting will cover four beers and last for one hour, with a new set of beers lined up for the next one.
The first tasting starts at 6:00 and tickets are available for all three through the Pizza Plant.
Join Me in Mexico City for Cerveza Mexico
For me, one of the great results of co-authoring The World Atlas of Beer in 2012 with Tim Webb was the development of a much greater awareness of what is happening in craft brewing beyond Canada, the United States and western Europe. Further, a truly eye-opening experience I had while compiling the first Pocket Beer Guide one year later was tasting my way through many of the craft beers of Mexico.
In the few years since, Mexico has continued to grow its craft beer scene, even despite the oligopoly of the big two brewers, Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Modelo and Heineken-owned FEMSA Cerveza. Cerveza Mexico is a conference, competition and beer festival that celebrates this growth and is now in its fifth year!
I’m proud to be both judging at the competition and speaking during the conference, where I will hold forth on the topic of “Craft Beer Around the World and the Rise of National Styles,” or in Spanish, “Cerveza Artesanal Alrededor del Mundo y el Crecimiento de los Estilos Nacionales.” No, I won’t be speaking Spanish, but I understand that there will be simultaneous translation made available.
If you’ll be in Mexico City from September 3 – 5, please consider coming by the conference or at least checking out the beer festival, Beer Mexico 2015. And if you see me on the festival floor, do come on over and say hello.
Full details are available in English or Spanish here. (http://tradex.mx/cerveza)