Unforgettable - the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion

I may not remember everything that happened last Saturday, but I will never forget it either.

What a blast.

Singing everything from Wu Tang rap tunes to the the Tragically Hip at the top of my lungs, shouting "You never go Full Weinstein" at every bawdy joke (and there were many) and forging strong bonds with friends old and new are some of the memories I took away from the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017.

And that's just in the limo.

We also drank fantastic craft beer at four amazing breweries (and one craft beer bar) and hobnobbed with the finest people in the land (not counting the seven of us), making the day an memory permanently etched in my brain.

I have visited a lot of breweries and I have drank a lot of beer, but I have never had quite the experience like I had on this day.

The gang (pictured at Little Beasts brewing).
That's Don at the top and from left it's
Josh, Hago, Joe, Candice, myself and Paul

It was amazing. And despite it getting a little foggy near the end, it was also unforgettable.

My old college chum and Beer Bro Don put the event together after hearing about Little Beasts and Town, Whitby's newest breweries, and listening to me whine about why he never visited me. As Don already knew about Brock Street and 5 Paddles, the idea of a tour of Whitby's four breweries seemed like a great idea.

Lucky for us Don also had the brilliant idea to rent the limo - "think about it as my Christmas gift to you guys," he explained - so we could hit the town in style.

Pick a date, he said, and as the first Saturday I had available was December 9, I picked that one.

The limo, our party central

It was on.

First up was Don's buddy from CFB Borden, Hago, who I talked to on Twitter many times but had yet to meet. Hago, who chronicled the day on video, was someone I was anxious to drink a beer with, as I heard he was the coolest guy in every room he walked into.

Turned out to be true.

Paul, a Beer Store staffer like Don, was all over the plan as well. Paul lives in Newmarket but is a frequent visitor to Buster Rhino's in Oshawa (my local) because his mother lives in Oshawa and, well, Paul is clearly a saint.

Don's pal Charles, a sales rep with Nickel Brook Brewing, was also supposed to be in the mix but his services were required back in Burlington for the brewery's annual Kentucky Bastard release.

Next time Charles.

But my peeps in Oshawa were there to fill the seat. Josh, who I have known since he was a six year old still in short pants straight off the boat from England (he may have flown here; I'll have to check), was already on board (more on Josh in a bit), and I had asked my friend Candice if she wanted to join us.

Pals Don, our organizer of the event,
and Hago, our videographer

Hell yeah, she said.

We all met at Buster's at noon (Don even brought gifts!) to get the party started and to fill our bellies with delicious barbecue food, which is a necessary requirement before any major day drinking adventure.

Darryl, the garrulous, generous and always gracious proprietor of this fine establishment, was on hand to greet us and to gift each of us with a bottle of his proprietary barbecue sauce. Jessica, the Operations Manager, my friend and former boss and one of my favourite people, was there to take our orders and make sure we were looked after.

And that's where I ran into my pal Joe, who had popped in for some take-out.

"Join us," I said, and when Joe hesitated I asked him to at least join us for lunch. I had to twist his arm a bit and I was worried the festive atmosphere (it is the season) that my out of town friends brought into the restaurant would scare him off.

Next thing I knew he was in the limo. "I'll save you a seat Glenn," he said.

Candice with Mark of Brock Street

I'm kidding, of course. He didn't save me a seat at all - I had to crawl over him to get in. But I didn't have to twist his arm either. Once he realized how awesome we all were (and once he spotted the stretch limo) there was no way he was saying no.

And then we were off, with Gus behind the wheel and the seven of us squeezed in the back, singing loudly and drinking excellent homebrew (Stress Buster American Pale Ale and Granny Teapots English Pale Ale) - courtesy of Josh's pals Linda and John, as well as Notorious, an ale from Wild Card Brewing (Trenton) that features the late, great Biggie on the label.

There may have been some Brock Street Blonde as well, which was appropriate as Brock Street was our first stop. And not the brewery, which is actually on Hopkins Street, but the future site of the brewery right on Brock Street in downtown Whitby.

We were greeted there by two of the brewery owners, Mark and Victor, and the building team, led by Bob (the Builder). While nothing more a hole in the ground right now, there will eventually be a three-story brewery (8,000 sq.ft.) and event space (4,000 sq. ft.) that will cost some $2.7 million and should be open by the spring.

Prompting the question from Hago, with only a small twinkle in his eye: "Do you know how much money you could have saved if you just called it the Hopkins Street Brewery?"

But a more important question is, why the celebrity treatment for this particularly sketchy (plus Candice) band of beer writers, vloggers and drinkers?

It seems the real celebrity here, at least when it comes to Brock Street Brewing, is my boy Josh. An accomplished carpenter as well as a craft beer fan, Josh has worked on a number of projects with Brock Street, most notably the pop-up bar at the Oshawa Centre mall, which he designed and built.

Candice showing off her guns

He's a star, our Joshua.

With Gus getting impatient, we climbed back in the limo and set the GPS for Brock Street's current location on Hopkins Street, where we were met by Mark (great guy) and whiled away an hour drinking beer, buying beer and swag, and being entertained by a two-piece band playing in the brewery.

5 Paddles, Durham Region's first craft brewery, was next on the agenda, and we arrived there the old-fashioned way: we walked. Gus was nowhere to be found (he had gone for coffee, though Don had assumed it was something I said) so we didn't bother waiting for him as 5 Paddles was across the street and just 50 metres up the road.

We got the celebrity treatment here as well, as Spencer (one of the original brewers and owners and a super cool dude) took us on a tour of the brewery before we settled in for more beer - Dr. Juice, a 7.5 per cent Double IPA was the bomb! - and more good times.

Gus was back from his coffee break in time to squire us to the next stop, Little Beasts Brewing in south-west Whitby, near the Oshawa border.

I love this place. It has only been open for a month or so but Brewmaster Erin and her business partner John have been busy producing world class beer since opening day.

It's a big space, too, and the place was busy with thirsty customers, all being waited on by Erin (never without a smile, this lady) and John, who happen to be the only two employees.

Paul Thebeerguy, Hago and Matt from Manantler

We drank some excellent beer - the just-released Boysonberry Saison was super delicious - and met up with a few special guests. Paul Thebeerguy, a long time pal was in the house - much to the delight of Don, who had spoken to him on social media but never met him - as was Matt from Manantler Brewing in Bowmanville.

We had invited Matt to meet us somewhere along the way because we had felt bad not including Manantler - my once and always favourite brewery (they put my face on a beer, dammit!) - on our agenda because of time constraints.

Matt chose Little Beasts because he hadn't yet visited the brewery and had heard (as we all did) great things about it.

I had just finished loudly reminding Matt how much I loved Manantler (they put my face on a beer, dammit!) when he got the chance to meet Erin, who is one of the nicest people in craft beer. I was a little too far to eavesdrop on the conversation but I'm sure the subject of Manantler swag (in Matt's car, as requested by us) might have come up.

We would have stayed longer but Gus was only booked until 4, and besides, we had business outside in the parking lot.

What happens in the limo, stays in the limo.
Or something like that

In a scene about ten minutes later that looked illegal sketchy as hell, Matt opened his trunk to reveal a bag of beery goodies, which we had asked him to bring along. And our little band of merry men (and merry woman) lined up to score Manantler beer and t-shirts and the like in the Little Beasts parking lot.

And that's one of the many things I love about the craft beer community. It isn't about competition, it's about collaboration. So cool.

And then it was back in the limo - party central on the day - for the final brewery stop.

The limo really was a party all on its own. It's where Hago, our videographer on the day, got some of his most candid shots and video sound bites, and it's where we did our best (ahem) singing. I mentioned at the top about belting out Hip tunes - I remember Boots or Hearts - and when Josh broke out a bottle of Manantler's Liquid Swords - a Wu Tang Clan-inspired IPA - someone (Paul, I think) found a Wu Tang song on the car's stereo.

It was a sight to see - though probably not to hear, as Gus quickly put up the partition - the seven of us singing very loudly, "Wu Tang Clan ain't nothing to fuck wit!" WU TANG CLAN AIN'T NOTHING TO FUCK WIT!"

Good times, good times.

Our last stop was Town Brewery and we all definitely had our glow on by this time. We had negotiated an extra hour out of Gus, so we still had time to wander about in the huge (1,500 sq.ft) tap room, drink some great beer (Lotto Max IIPA, anyone?) and buy some swag to go.

I also found time to chat briefly with Jeff, one of Town's co-owners, and school both Paul and Joe at ping-pong (yes, they have a ping-pong table, as well as a giant Jenga), so I couldn't have been glowing too hard.

Hago, however, cut himself off at that point and switched to water as he had dinner plans at his in-laws just up the street. And that's where we went next, delivering Hago and his awesomeness to his family (and the roast turkey), safe and semi-sober.

Don, Candice and Paul enter La Quinta Hotel
in Oshawa like a boss with a trolley full of beer

Gus then took us all back to Oshawa, where we got Don checked in across the street from Buster Rhino's at La Quinta Hotel so we could stash all the beer. And then we went en masse back to Buster's.

Pretty sure there was a good glow on everybody by that time, and we lost Don a short time later. With a freshly made bed literally across the street, it was no surprise he 'phantomed' back to the hotel.

Soon it was just Candice and I, and as there was still the small problem of all that beer stashed in Don's room, we made a couple of trips from the bar to the hotel to bang on his door to try and rouse the poor guy.

But no waking up this boy.

All good things must come to an end; even the Whitby Craft Beer Invasion 2017. Candice called for a ride home and I went back inside Buster Rhino's and had one more half-pint before being told by both Nancy and Alex that I had drank enough for one day.

Good call.

All there was left to do at that point was to put one foot in front of the other and walk the five blocks home to my bed.

Unforgettable.

Beer guilt and my pal Don

The idea of the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017 really came from me trying to make my pal Don guilty for never visiting me in Oshawa.

He would visit Whitby, Oshawa's arch rival in sports and our next door neighbour, annually (at least) to see his friends Trish and Johnny. And he would fail to visit me and I would of course be butt-hurt about it, especially as I drive down to Burlington/Oakville for a night of drinking a couple or three times a year.

I mentioned the butt-hurt?

My Beer Bro Don, pictured here with his new pal
Josh at Little Beasts. Don't worry Don, I don't think
Trish is still mad at you for not visiting

Anyway, the last time this happened a few months back I laid on the guilt heavy. Really tried to make him cry, in fact. His response: "I'm in Whitby. You're in Oshawa. Duh."

I answered back, "It's next door!" but he was off on another social media adventure and ignored me the rest of the day.

So then I wrote a super positive blog about my friend Erin's new brewery, Little Beasts, and the wheels (actually operated by real mice) started turning in Don's head. "So there's Brock Street, 5 Paddles and now this? Hmmmmmm..." he probably said.

I wrote another blog three weeks or so later (unusually busy activity for me) on an even newer Whitby beer maker, Town Brewery. And my story was again glowing, reflecting the fact that both new breweries are fantastic places staffed by wonderful people making amazing beer.

And then the light bulb went off in Don's head, likely scaring the shit out of the mice, and the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017 was born.

Don's home Saturday night. But good luck trying
to wake him, Trish!

"We will visit all four craft breweries in Whitby," he said. "We will drink beer."

And then he thought a bit more. "We will rent a totally bad ass limo and do this in style. And I will pay for it!"

And then he probably paused, reflecting if it would be worth all the effort.

"And Glenn would shut the hell up about visiting him!"

Actually, I'm just joking about the last part (the rest is all totally true), because Don knew that getting a bunch of craft beer drinking friends (and soon-to-be-friends) together for a day of brewery visiting would be an absolute pleasure as well as a fucking blast. All by itself.

Hell, the limo ride itself was totally worth it.

Anyway, after the party was over and the pictures and comments on social media started flooding in, there was one from Trish in Whitby that I thought was priceless.

"Excuse me sir ...are you in Whitby right now???"

The tone and the multiple quotation marks were clearly the mark of a woman who was a little bit butt-hurt upset that her friend didn't visit her when he was so close, but couldn't get mad at him because he was the loveable kind of guy that was hard to stay mad at.

And I have to admit I grinned a bit at the exchange.

Sorry Trish.

***

Hago: Soldier, family man, awesome dude and amazing videographer, put together this kick-ass montage video of our day. Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017  Enjoy!

You should also read Part One of Don's Brew Ha Ha blog The Prelude Blog, all about this wonderful day. More to come.

Cheers!