Beer Festival Day - Behind the scenes

I started the day as the Ice Man; spent some time in the kitchen prepping food, filling sauce bottles and trying not to get in the way of the cooks; gravitated to a runner for the breweries and ended the festival on garbage patrol.

Actually, the night ended with myself and a dozen or so staffers and volunteers drinking copious amounts of free beer - courtesy of Darryl, the garrulous, genteel and generous host for the event - but that was after the clean-up.

For the 4th Annual Durham Craft Beer Festival, held Saturday in downtown Oshawa, I was working, and that meant (for the most part) I had to stay sober because I was actually getting paid to be there.

That part took some getting used to.

It was going to be a long day for me; I knew that going in. Up at 5 for a short shift at my landscaping job and then home to change before reporting to Festival Central (Buster Rhino's) at 9:30 a.m.

Nancy having troubles balancing our custom tap
handles. Is that Karma Citra?

Beth, Darryl's wife and the co-host for this event, assigned me Ice Man duties, which meant  handing out 26-lb bags of ice to the brewery folk when they were getting set up and keeping track on a master sheet.

That was kinda cool - mostly because I got to meet all the brewery folk (except Second Wedge - they were remarkably self-sufficient when it came to ice) and brewery folk are cool people. They just are.

But once they were stocked up there was little to hold my interest and it became even less taxing when my pal Joe, and later John - both volunteering on this day - came on board as my 'assistants.'

So I went looking for more things to do as the VIP crowd came in at 11 to kick the festival off and get things rocking in the kitchen.

So that's where I went, with my duties being whatever the hell Dylan asked me to do in that charming way of his - "If you get any closer you're going to have to buy me dinner" - before Jessica rescued me and asked me to be a runner for the brewers.

I can't remember the number of times I made the circuit asking those fine brewery folk "Is everything all right? Do you need anything? Ice...?

Josh, with home brewers and pals Linda and John

I did deliver a keg from the ice truck to the Left Field booth because they asked, and I can tell you that bringing a big keg of beer through a huge crowd of people ("watch your back sir; mind your feet ma'am") is tricky business.

I got to see the festival in full swing at this point. The place was packed and there were a lot of happy faces enjoying the sunshine, the cool breezes and the relaxed vibe.

Perfect weather, actually.

I ran into a few friends at the event, as I always do here. My daughter in-law Caitlin (okay, my son's ex, but she'll always have a place here *taps heart*) spent the day in downtown Oshawa with some Toronto friends, and my pal Josh, who has taken the local craft beer scene by storm since his introduction to good beer only a few months ago, was in the house, courtesy of his friends Linda and John, who are the creators of the fine home brew I have been enjoying of late.

Matthew, of Brewer's Pantry fame, showed up late in need of a drink and with good reason. His Bowmanville brewer's supply store - Linda and John are among his customers - suffered another flooding that morning, and this time the damage may put him out of business for a while.

Like I said, he was in need of a drink.

Jen and Heather. At least one of these beautiful ladies
is a certified beer expert

But brewery folk stick together and here's hoping there's a way to get Matthew back on his feet again soon.

The collaborative nature of the craft beer scene was never more apparent than during set-up, when Matthew's friends and frequent collaborators at Manantler suffered a technical tragedy: Matt (of Manantler) discovered his regulator was busted. That's a big deal: without a working regulator he can't pour beer, and that puts Manantler at a big disadvantage if they want to win the People's Choice Award. Or just pour beer.

So I was asked to make my brewery rounds again, only this time to ask if anyone had a spare regulator.

No, no, sorry no and repeat.

The regulator!

I had just two more to ask when a regulator was found (not by me) at the Sawdust City booth. Garrett, in a fortuitous stroke of luck (he had no idea it was in his tool box) was able to lend one to Matt (for the price of a few beers) and, with help from Chris from Muskoka Brewery, was able to get the taps flowing in time for the thirsty customers.

(While I'm talking about Sawdust City and Muskoka - cottage country brewing neighbours - I have to give them both big props for medalling Monday at the U.S. Open Beer Championships, one of the largest blind tasting competitions in the world.

Muskoka earned bronze for its Shinnicked Stout, while Sawdust claimed two medals: silver for Gateway Kolsch, which was at the festival and also a huge seller at the bar, and gold in the Berliner Weisse category for Corioilis Effect. Well done.)

Me and the lovely Caitlin, my (ex) daughter-in-law

The other breweries were having a blast as well, and I made certain to have a chat with Nick at the Great Lakes booth and to make sure they were carrying lots of Octopus Wants to Fight IPA, my reigning Beer of the Year.

Just in case I was able to enjoy a sample at the end of the show.

"No worries," Nick assured me. "We took twice what we thought we were going to need."

Smart thinking.

With a couple of hours to go before last call, I was told by Darryl to find a dustpan and start cleaning up the street, which turned out to be a profitable move: I found $12.10!

I also found a few People's Choice tickets, which I stuffed in the ballot boxes at Muskoka and Sawdust City for helping my pals at Manantler in their time of need; and a few tokens, which were given to friends I met on my travels.

A couple went to Danny and his pals, and Danny was absolutely raving about the Summer IPA on tap at Rouge River, and insisted I try a sample. I had the brewery's Spring IPA and wasn't blown away, but this New England-style IPA did exactly that.

Chris from Muskoka Brewery.
One of the day's heroes

Wow. With great gobs of peach in the aroma and on the tongue this beer was fantastic. A serious contender in several of my Beer of the Year categories, in fact. Thank you Danny.

Rouge River, a Markham brewery which finished second in the People's Choice Awards, had an even bigger hit at the festival with their Passion Fruit Sour, which earned 5-Star ratings from quite a few people I talked to, including Danny and Jessica, who couldn't say enough good things about it.

Alas, it was long gone before I got to it.

Another big seller was, surprisingly, ciders, which were selling very quickly at our Buster Rhino's booth, along with a variety of Bellwoods beer from our beer fridge.

There was a revolving door of staff and volunteers at the booth, selling food (pulled pork and brisket sammies and poutine, mostly) as well as beer and cider, but I mostly remember staffers Nancy and Shannon and the lovely but just a little bit crazy Candice (see ice bath pic) smiling for the long line of customers.

The smiles were evident on the festival-goers, who sure looked like they were having a good time from my vantage point. But they also had a bad case of the dropsies.

The average number of shattered sample glasses at previous festivals is about half a dozen but this year the number was closer to 20.

After a long hot day volunteering, Candice
deserved an ice bath. Right?

Go figure. Even the crack security team we had this day had no idea why.

The security chief (name withheld for security reasons of course), said the festival-goers were certainly behaving, as they always do.

In all the years he has worked the festival his crew has only one security incident - they had to take a dude down - and that, he added was an "impressive record" for any major event involving alcohol.

Super professional team, by the way, and good guys.

I was even called an 'MVP' for removing all the broken glass from the street with my trusty dustpan.

I was in the midst of glass clean-up duty when I stopped at the Great Lakes booth about an hour before close. Nick had promised to save a little Octopus for me, so I thought it was safe to have a sample.

It was about 20 minutes later when I found the $10 under a vacated table and in all my excitement I forgot I really wasn't supposed to be drinking beer while I was actually working and getting paid.

Which is what Darryl reminded me - in no uncertain terms - when he spotted me with my third 5-ounce sample of the day, a most delicious Full Time IPA from Beau's Brewing.

Sorry boss.

The awesome young women from Old Flame Brewery,
the People's Choice winners for the third straight year

(The next day he broached the subject again and pointed out that if I wanted to drink a little early, all I had to do was clock out and 'volunteer' the rest of the day. Hmmm. Something to think about.)

The festival wrapped up at 8, but I was busy on garbage patrol and in helping with the breakdown, and it was 90 minutes later before I punched out and headed out to the patio to join several tables of staff and volunteers enjoying the fruits of their labour: free beer and food on Darryl's dime.

And we took full advantage, enjoying good beer and in the company of good friends until about 1 a.m.. Thank you Darryl. Thank you Beth.

But I really wanted to try that Passion Fruit Sour from Rouge River. Next year I think I'll volunteer.

The Numbers

This year's festival seemed busier that previous events - I have been to all five - but the attendance remained about the same as the last two: 1,500 people.

But we sold more beer ! We sold some 1,900 litres worth, which translates to about 13,350 sample glasses. That's up quite a bit from 2016's 11,500 servings.

The Gold in the People's Choice Awards went to Port Perry's Old Flame Brewery for the third consecutive year. Rouge River earned Silver and the Bronze went to Cowbell from far-off Blyth, a little town nearly 250 kilometres to the west.

See you next year!

Cheers!