Craft Beer and ComiCon - the perfect match

(Especially if you actually went inside)

The idea seemed simple enough.

I was going to Toronto ComiCon anyway, and I write a beer blog. Surely there was a connection between pop culture and craft beer?

Turns out there is. Or ‘are,’ because there are plenty of connections, as you could say craft beer lovers are the geeks of the beer swilling world. But the connection I found was in a small brewery out of Chicago called Arcade, which has produced Six Pack Stories, which is essentially a comic on beer. An original story written across six beers, in fact, with some big names in the comic industry involved.

And the artwork on the first Six Pack Stories was created by Tony Moore of Walking Dead fame, who just happened to be appearing at Toronto ComiCon.

Bingo.

So with my media credentials in order, I put the word out to my pals that we’re going to ComiCon. Don has way more comics than I (my taste in comics, like my taste in beer, is more narrowly – read IPA – focused) so he was an easy sell. Cat, who had a less than pleasant experience at her last ComiCon appearance (it wasn’t ComiCon’s fault, she says) was a bit tougher to win over.

“But we’re going to C’est What, that great craft beer pub on Front Street, after the show,” I tell her. “Why didn’t you say so,” she shoots back, adding that she had been to C’est What before. “I’m in.”

(I’m discovering that there are very few bars she hasn’t visited before, but that’s fodder for another blog.)

So on the day of the show I park my car at Cat’s north Toronto apartment complex and we head down to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to meet up with Don, who was coming in from Burlington.

After a stop at Amsterdam Brewery for ‘gifts,’ Cat says.

And just around our pre-arranged meeting time we get a text from my clearly agitated college chum, who is, we learn, just a few hundred metres away.

“Help! I’m stuck in a stairwell and I can’t get out.”

Turns out his colour blindness (it’s a red/green thing) and some natural-born deficiencies were conspiring to make it difficult to pay for his parking and get the hell out of the underground parking lot.

A passing family took pity on the man and he eventually appeared at the convention centre, obviously in need of a drink.

“I brought that bottle of City and Colour Imperial Wheat. That should help,” I offer, concern in my voice.

Imperial Maple Wheat. That is all

So we walked out the front door and plunked ourselves down on some park benches, brought out a lighter to open the bottle and some plastic glasses Cat had liberated from Amsterdam Brewery on the way down and enjoyed a drink or two of this tasty, 11.5 per cent sugar bomb from Flying Monkeys. Just like some fancy pants downtown hobos.

Suitably refreshed, we went back inside to get tickets to the show. Cat and Don, anyway,  as I was already ready to roll with my media pass. And seeing the lineup to get tickets was long, I selflessly offered to get my stuff done inside while they waited.

So I did. I did the once-around in about 25 minutes, picking up a stack of Daredevil comics I was missing, finding Mike Del Mundo (a Marvel cover artist who hails from Toronto) and buying a print of his from an X-Men cover that features cameo appearances from none other than Rob Ford and the IKEA monkey, and taking a few pics of the cosplayers and assorted colourful characters that make ComiCon so much fun.

And I found Tony Moore as well, where I was able to use my many years of journalism experience to ask tough questions like:

“Do you drink beer?”

“Uh, yes. Yes I do,” stammered the artist, who hails from Chicago and, after some prodding, cited a bourbon-barrel blonde from Alltech Breweries in Lexington, Kentucky as a personal favourite.

At this point my reporter’s notebook is out, which piqued the interest of his booth mate, who appeared to be either his manager or his wife. Or both.

“No interviews,” she said, rather sharply. “I cleared this with media,” I answered back, not quite truthfully. (I had mentioned my interest in Moore in my email communications with the show’s public relations department but never did get an answer back.)

She was less than impressed, but I plugged on for a bit anyway and did learn that his art work on the Six Pack Stories comic book/beer project was a “favour for a friend” who is one of Arcade Brewery’s co-owners.

That earned us both the evil eye from his seat mate, so I wisely thanked him for his time and moved on.

I’m now done with my required duties and I figure I should be seeing Cat and Don in the crowd soon. Cat is tall and Don is wearing his drinking hat, so how hard could it be?

But after another walkabout and no sign of them, I return to the lineup area and find the line moving fine but no Cat and Don. They must be inside and I missed them, I figure, wishing the bowels of the Convention Centre weren’t a dead zone for cell phone signals so I could call them.

Twenty-five minutes and another two fast circuits of the show reveal no tall women (save for a sexy Super Girl or two) and no drinking hats of any kind. So I travel up the escalator to see if I can get a signal.

“Glenn.” shouts Cat when I reach street level and finally contact them. “Where are you?”

“Looking for you guys at the show, where you’re supposed to be,” I answer. “Where are you?”

“Across the street at Steam Whistle drinking beer. I thought you would figure that out.”

“You ditched me,” I replied, before I realized I had, oddly, lost cell service again.

What do I do? I go across the street to Steam Whistle and drink beer with my friends who had deserted me, of course. (I’m met at entrance by a couple of dudes, by the way, who take one look at me and tell me that “if I’m looking for Don and Cat, they’re at the back.” Nice.)

After we have a drink at the brewery and they beg for forgiveness, we head over to C’est What, a hipster hangout on Front Street (conveniently located near Cat’s car) that serves some great food and plenty of craft beer. All of their beer offerings are craft beer, in fact, and if you don’t believe me you can take a look at the beer menu that is now on display on my wall.

(I didn’t mean to do it, C’est What people. Blame Don.)

We ate well, drank some awesome beers (more on those in the review section at the end of this blog) and spent some quality time with friends. That and a ton of colourful pop culture characters made for an interesting and pleasurable day.

I’ll even overlook the fact that my friends abandoned their pal to drink beer without me. Maybe.

*

And now…some new beers. At C’est What I had a wee dram – okay, a pint – of Hopping Mad, a six per cent IPA from Toronto’s Granite Brewery. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. Smooth, but not nearly hoppy enough for me.

The second round was much better. I had the Moralite, from Quebec’s famed Dieu du Ciel Brewery, and it was exceptional. Very nice. Silky smooth and quite aromatic. A very good beer.

The Alchemist (Vermont) and Dieu du Ciel (Quebec).
A delicious partnership

But before we got to the craft beer pub – my first bar ever that served nothing but craft beer – there was my short visit to the Steam Whistle brewpub and their famed pilsner. I’ve had this beer before but it was a long time ago, so I was really tasting it again for the first time. Speaking as an IPA lover, this was a damn fine beer. Clean and crisp, it tasted like a pilsner should. Which is good, because this is the only beer Steam Whistle makes.

That night I got around to trying Narcissism of Minor Differences IPA from 5 Paddles Brewery in Whitby. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Underwhelming would also be an understatement. It just flat out wasn’t very good. I know the boys were looking for balance for this beer, but I think they forgot the hops because I sure couldn’t find any. Sorry 5 Paddles dudes.

I’ll finish with something from Flying Monkeys of Barrie, one of Ontario’s coolest breweries: the City and Colour Imperial Wheat, which, as previously mentioned, we drank out of plastic cups in the park in front of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Which is also across the street (and in full view) of Steam Whistle Brewery, so I suspect that’s where Cat and Don got the idea to ditch me. But I digress. The Imperial Wheat, a marketing collaboration with musician Dallas Green and his City and Colour band, is a thick, maple-syrupy (with some bourbon vanilla added), high-alcohol explosion of stout-like quality. A third of a big bottle of this 11.5 per cent sugar blast was enough for me to kick off a Comic Con.

Besides, my Momma taught me it’s always nice to share.

*

Shout outs to Don of Brew Hah Ha fame: Funny Thing Happened on the Way to ComiCon and Cat of The Cat Came Back: ComiCon Without Actually Doing ComiCon who already blogged their versions of the events depicted here, as well as to our ex-pat Canuck pal Steve, all of 5 foot 19 in New Zealand, with his own tale of beer festivals and cab drivers down under: White-knuckle Taxi Driver fever.

Cheers!