Beer & Bacon in the Shwa-Eh

If the immediate economic impact of a fledgling beer festival is the true measure of success, the Beer & Bacon Shwa-Eh held October 19-20 at Children's Arena in Oshawa was a bit of a dud.

Crowds were thin for both days, despite a stellar musical lineup and enough delicious local beer to keep me happy. And judging from the looks on the faces of the brewers and vendors in attendance, everyone took a bit of a bath on this one.

I, however, had a great time, and that's what really matters, am I right?

In fairness to Bowmanville's KCC Event Productions, who hosted three successful butter tart festivals in Durham last year, the timing for the beer festival was bad. They did a lot of promotion on Facebook and other social media, but a sign blitz immediately before the festival - the final weekend before the municipal election - fell flat amidst a sea of campaign signs plastered all over the city.

Josh and I. Birthday fam for life

On the bright side, Beer & Bacon Shwa-Eh garnered a couple hundred write-in votes for Mayor of Oshawa.

Just playing. It was only a couple dozen.

(KCC may want to also consider reverting back to the original name of the event - Beer & Bacon Festival, as the 'Shwa-Eh' addendum - particularly the 'Eh' - is a bit tired, but that could be just me.)

Seven brewers stuck around for the two days, along with a half-dozen vendors inside the arena and three food trucks in the parking lot. Not a lot of bacon-y products but plenty of beer for us thirsty masses.

My birthday bro Josh and I decided to take in the festival on the Saturday:  two days before our shared birthday.

Now I've known Josh since he was knee high to a grasshopper, fresh off the boat from Bristol, England, and ever since he came of age we've talked about celebrating our birthday together but our plans oft go awry, as ol' Robbie would say.

(Consecutive blogs quoting Robbie Burns. My Sons of Scotland dues should be on the house this year.)

So this year we decided we would have a drink or 12 together, albeit two days before the date. And what better venue for the celebration than a beer festival?

As it was just three days after cannabis was legalized in this country - 10/17 is the new 4/20 - we were sufficiently mellow when we arrived at Children's Arena for the event.

You could probably squeeze 400 or more people on the arena floor but there was never more than 70 or 80 festival goers in the time we were there, so that was disappointing, but friends Linda and John were there, so that was not.

My pal Matt from Manantler Brewing was in the house, so my once-and-always favourite brewery became my first stop. And my second, with Creamed by Bickell in my glass, followed by Ketchin Zeez, while I caught up with Matt on all things beer.

Drink number three was Eye of Sauron, a Sour from Chronicle Brewing, and after a quick chat with brewery owner Ted I returned to my table and the friends I had abandoned.

The talented Sarah Fazackerley

We talked about Trump, and I lamented the state of journalism in the world of 'fake' news; and we also talked about local brewers - good and bad. Linda and John are both experienced home brewers, so their opinions were something I valued.

The subject of the legalization of weed also came up, and the prevailing opinion (mine, anyway) was that the bloom had already fallen off that rose. Marijuana, we agreed, was not really legal. Just 'controlled.'

I knew they'd screw this up.

Rant over, I hit up Cameron's next and their First Light Session Lager, a four per cent beer that was top notch. I liked this one a lot and said so to Andrea at the booth, and we had a brief chat about the attendance at the festival.

"A little slow last night?" I ventured, "Meh," she replied with as much diplomacy as she could muster. "We're hoping for better things tonight."

Brock Street and their Bohemian Pilsner was next on my agenda and then I settled back in my chair for the entertainment, namely Justin Cooper, a guitarist/singer from Oshawa.

Justin, who (with his fellow musician buddy Greg) would join our table later, started off covering Ed Sheeran and Garth Brooks before bringing in the uber talented Sarah Fazackerley on flute for a country-rock cover of New Orleans is Sinking by the Tragically Hip.

Musicians Justin and Greg with the very
silvery King himself

I can tell you that this number - the greatest song in rock 'n roll, in my humble opinion - made me sit up and take notice. It took half a minute to get used to Justin's version but by the end I was really digging it, thanks in no small part to Sarah's flute playing.

Sarah took over the stage next (with Justin helping out on the beat box) and performed Sublime's What I Got before killing it with a soulful cover of Jolene, the song that made Dolly Parton a star.

Problem was no one, except our table, seemed to be paying attention.

Between sets Sarah came by for a chat with Josh, who she remembered from nights performing at the Atria in downtown Oshawa, back when my boy was booking acts and working sound for the club.

I needed more beer, so back I went into the breach, hitting up Chronicle again for their Harvest Ale and Falcon Brewery for ... damn, I didn't write it down and don't remember.

It was good, though.

Next up was Bancroft Brewery for their Black Quartz Dark Ale.

Owner Logan - a super nice guy - promised a "smoky coffee" flavour and he wasn't wrong, as I got campfire smoke and bitter coffee.

We chatted about the festival - he just shrugged when he looked at the sparse crowd, pointing out it was "the same last night" - and we talked long enough for me to try another of his beers. Ironman was an IPA that Linda had said was "really malty, but really good" and it was indeed, very British and pretty damn good.

As I had hit up every brewer - some twice - and I still had tickets left, I decided I'd plunk down a token at the Oshawa Brewing Company booth. I wanted to see if the beers had improved since I sampled them at Buster Rhino's shortly after this Brew-Your-Own business became a brewery a few months back.

Still some carbonation issues but Mango Sensation was fruity on the nose with plenty of mango. It tasted like mango fruit juice, so I guess that's something.

And then it was time for Sarah's second set, which included rousing renditions of Son of a Preacher Man and Go Ask Alice and an original tune called Say Nothing that was seriously fantastic.

I still had two more tickets - thanks to Josh - but as my legs were getting wobbly and I was starting to leave my sample glass in strange places, I figured these to be my last.

I had a Black & Tan (a mix of Creamed by Bickell and Ketchin Zeez) at the Manantler booth and finished with something from Bancroft (probably another Ironman) before heading out to the parking lot for a nosh (a monstrous grilled cheese sandwich called a Big Daddy) to fuel me for the ten minute wobble walk home.

All in all, not a bad pre-birthday bash. Thanks Josh!

Cheers!