ottawa foodies

Went to Winterbrewed yesterday and had a pretty good time. Some good local (mostly) craft beer. I tried offerings from Whitewater, Flying Monkeys, Beyond the Pale, Beau's, Amsterdam, Broadhead, Cassel, Turtle Island, Covered Bridge, Muskoka, and Sawdust.

Most were good to very good. I tried mostly brown's, stouts and a couple ipa's. Almost every brewer was one token, with the turnoff being Beyond the Pale choosing to charge 2-3 tokens for half/full samples. They had the prime location and had a wide variety, but I wasn't fond of the "upcharge/snobbery". Their beer wasn't above any of the others. Certainly good but not better.

It wasn't overcrowded, most/all servers were friendly and knowledgeable. There were some cask offerings which was nice. Amsterdam gave us a few cask samples. They were seeing less action than others, possibly because they didn't offer anything new.

It was refreshing speaking with the Whitewater owner/server. He seemed passionate and realistic, not choosing to go 'over the top' like some brewers (I find that some try to be extreme in IBU or ABV). They're new, small and don;t try to pretend to be anything but. Good, fresh products from what I tried.

Covered Bridge chocolate stout stood out to me. Apparently they don't add cocoa, yet it was a very prominent flavour. Smooth, tasty.

Another mention goes to Turtle Island red....very similar to Smithwick's. Amsterdam's Boneshaker is one of my new fave IPA's (don't normally drink IPA).

I'll be back next year.

Why does "brown's" and "ipa's" get the apostrophe but "stouts" does not?

Sorry, grammar nazi with a buzz on ...

Are you referring to this sentence? "I tried mostly brown's, stouts and a couple ipa's"?

If so, IPA's doesn't require IMO. Brown's pause stout's a few words IPA's.

Shouldn't you have asked "why do"? haha.

Brown's and stouts were given the apostrophe to separate them...had I added the optional apostrophe it could/would have been before the "and"....but I'm not an English teacher. I'm normally pretty keen on this type of thing, so if you've caught me, bravo! haha.

I'm a spelling Nazi, so no offence taken, if you catch me on something.

haha, shit. I was thinking comma. No apostrophe required for any...btw - buzzed review.

Busted! I only noticed "brown's" first and wrote "why does", then went back to change what I wrote when I noticed "ipa's" but obviously did not change that pesky verb!

Well played Bobby Fillet, well played!

I thought a few of the brewers really stood out by offering creative new beers for the beerfest - my favourite was Sawdust City which impresses me with almost everything they do. Even a peanut butter stout!

I regret not seeing/trying the pb stout. May have been top of my list.

i had a flying monkeys milk chocolate stout this summer at a different local beer festival.....was the best thing ever!! 11%.

peanut butter stout sounds delicious.

It may be that any spelling, punctuation, or grammatical mistakes here may be due to the beer. It would only be fitting (and understandable) given the subject.

Well Pete, some munchies would have been appreciated!! I do know what you mean though... I want goooood beer, not just unique. Some of that was met. I'm happy with any beer/food fest though....as long as fair priced and friendly.

This discussion is a really good example of how pointing out grammar/spelling mistakes can derail a conversation.

Purhapz wee shud oll jussed rite funeticly! :)

It got back on track pretty quickly ... until you just derailed it again :-)

Time to put the popcorn aside...

Speaking of asides...

Eastcoast.chef was that their Chocolate Manifesto Triple Chocolate Milk Stout? I haven't tried it but do have a couple bottles and hope that's what you had. I've had a couple of their BNL stouts and loved them (and have one still). I'm not so sure about pb stouts, has me scratching my head really. Had my hands on a Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Banana Ale tonight but went with a Black Magic Woman, fearing I might not want to drink a 750 ml bottle of pb stout by myself (and maybe I'll make the guy who gave it to me share it with me - it's not likely something that's at the top of his chart knowing his tastes, but we'll see).

ya that sounds vaguely familiar.....it was at a beerfest mind you, so a little cloudy. i do remember it being 11%. Where did you buy it, i wouldn't mind picking some up.

It can still be found at a few LCBOs in Ottawa; best bets are the 2 on Bank St.
750 ml, $11.95, 10%abv