Fest-Of-Ale 2017 – Penticton

May7 by Mike

April has come again and one of my favourite beer festivals has come and passed. This was the 22 annual Fest-Of-Ale in Penticton. This years festival was held on April 7-8th 2017 (Friday and Saturday). This festival is held at the Penticton Trade and Concention Centre and is comprised of a large indoor area and a small outdoor section. Both areas have live music as well as food options.

This festival continues to grow every year. This year had an extra 15 breweries bringing it up to 65 and and a total of 6 bringing it up to 71 cider and beer producers.

This year the list included:

4 Mile Brewing Co.
Bad Tattoo Brewing Co
Banff Ave Brewing Co.
Barley Mill Brew Pub
BC Brew Co. and Distilling – New
BC Tree Fruits Cider
Beau’s All Natural Brewing
BNA Brewing Co
Bomber Brewing
Boundary Brewing Company – New
Bridge Brewing
Britannia Brewing – New
Cannery Brewing Co.
Canuck Empire Brewing
Category 12 Brewing
Coal Harbour Brewing
Coronado Brewing Company
Crannog Ales
CrossRoads Brewing – New
Dead Frog
Detonate Brewing
Doan’s Craft Brewing Company – New
Dominion Cider Co
Dogwood Brewing – New
Double Mountain
Fernie Brewing Co.
Field House Brewing Co. New
Firehall Brewery
Foamers’ Folly Brewing Co. New
Four Winds Brewing
Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks – New
Glutenberg
Hearthstone Brewery
Highway 97 Brewing Company Ltd
Howe Sound Brewing
Howling Moon Craft Cider
Hoyne Brewing Co.
Kettle River Brewing Company – New
Lighthouse Brewing Company
Longwood Brewery
Marten Brewing Co.
McClelland Premium Imports
Moody Ales
Moon Under Water
Mt Begbie Brewing Co.
Naramata Cider Co. New
NOMAD Cider – New
Orchard Hill Estate Cidery Ltd.
Parallel 49 Brewing
Persephone Brewing Co.
Phillips Brewing & Malting Co
R&B Brewing Co
Ravens Brewing Company
Red Arrow Brewing Company – New
Red Collar Brewing Co
Red Racer
Red Truck Beer Company
Spinnakers Brewpub
Steamworks Brewing
Steel & Oak Brewing Co.
Strange Fellows Brewing – New
Summerland Heritage Cider Co.
The Parkside Brewery – New
The Tin Whistle Brewery
Torchlight Brewing
Tree Brewing Co.
Twin Sails Brewing – New
Twisted Hills Craft Cider
Victoria Caledonian Brewery – New
Whistler Brewing
Yellow Dog Brewing

This year there were more than 175 craft beers being poured over the Friday and Saturday with over 5000 people in attendance. Once again this was an amazing festival with great beer and lots of great people! Here are some of the beer and food that I tried while at the fest.

This year I spent more time working on episodes of Pacific Beer Chat than I did taking photos for the blog.

Episode 12 Found us talking with Crannóg Ales out of Sorrento. Website, Google Play Music, iTunes, Stitcher.

Episode 13 Part 1 found us talking with a selection of breweries as seen below. Website, Google Play Music, iTunes, Stitcher.

Cannery Brewing, Detonate Brewing, Bomber Brewing, Steel & Oak Brewing, Untapped Craft Imports, BNA Brewing, Kettle River Brewing and Torchlight Brewing.

Episode 14 Part 2 found us talking with a selection of breweries as seen below. Monday May 1, 2017

R&B Brewing, Crossroads Brewing, Tin Whistle Brewing, Marten Brewpub and Yellow Dog Brewing.

Like every year this was an amazing event. There are a ton of people but you never have to wait in line long for a beer. So many beer festivals get so crowded that you almost need two samples glasses to make it to the front of the line. In the years that I have attended this has never been an issue.

This festival has become one of my absolute favorites every year. Most of the best breweries come to this festival every year and the people really love that fact! This year there were so many new beers to boot! It may not have been requested but this year so many breweries brought out North East Style IPA’s the super cloudy and juicy beers. These beers are all the rage right now and I am very happy that this is the case.

The first day of the festival I really explored the beers that the festival had to offer as I usually do. This year though the weather was very bad on the way to Penticton and you could pick out the people like me that took the Coquihalla Highway and the Okanagan Connector as were were still stressed out and drank a bit to much because of it. On Day 2 I was once again one of the as they put it Industry Expert judges for the best beers of the festival. After Juding beer from 10am on Saturday I decided like normal that the second day of the festival was far more about the food than the beer. Luckily for me the food was amazing!

If I remember correctly on Saturday around 3pm all of the judges made their way to the Main Stage for the awards ceremony. Here are the winners from this years festival.

The Awards were distributed as follows:
Best in Show, Judges’ Choice Award:
High Five Hazy IPA – Yellow Dog Brewing, Port Moody, BC

Best in Class, Judges’ Choice Awards:
Pilsner/Golden Lager Pixel Pils – Fuggles & Warlock, Richmond, BC
Pale Ale Dusk Pale Ale – Parkside Brewery, Port Moody, BC
Wheat Ale Summer Ale, Witbier – Steamworks Brewing, Burnaby, BC
Saison Sirens Chai Saison – Britannia Brewing, Richmond, BC
Amber/Dark Ale Brave Liver Scotch Ale – Mt. Begbie Brewing, Revelstoke, BC
IPA Street Legal IPA – Twin Sails Brewing, Port Moody, BC
Specialty IPA High Five Hazy IPA – Yellow Dog Brewing, Port Moody, BC
Dark Lager Dark Lager – Steel & Oak Brewing, New Westminster, BC
Stout/Porter Dry Irish Stout – Ravens Brewing, Abbotsford, BC
Sour Nectarous – Four Winds Brewing, Delta, BC
Cider Pippin’s Fate – Twisted Hills Craft Cider, Cawston, BC
Fruit Beer Park Life Passionfruit Ale – Bomber Brewing, Vancouver, BC

The People’s Choice Awards, voted for by guests at the event:
Best Beer Old Style Lager – Red Arrow Brewing, Duncan, BC
Best Cider Pears & Peaches – BC Tree Fruits Cider, Kelowna, BC
Best Food Brodo Kitchen, Penticton, BC

When it comes right down to it if you can only make it to one beer festival in British Columbia in a year then the Okagnagan Fest-Of-Ale is that one festival. They also have an amazing pop up liquor store to boot!

Fest-Of-Ale Day 2 2015 – Penticton

Apr21 by Mike

Day two of the Okanagan Fest-Of-Ale April 11th 2015 brought much less drinking for me. After being a beer judge for the festival between 10am and around 2pm and judging between 40 and 50 beer (small samples luckily) I was more looking for food and people watching. Day two of the festival ran from 12 noon to 6pm.

I think it will be obvious beer wasn’t my first thought with my photo choices as there are more food and people photos than beer.

Luckily for me Kim of DogLeg Marketing was on her photo taking game so I have lots of photos of hers to share (all following photos are Kims). Once finished judging we had about an hour to grab food and mingle which I spent both finding food and finding my friends. At 3pm we were to be on stage while they announced the winners of the best beers in all categories.

Best of Each Category:

Ale: Rum Runner Red Ale, Persephone Brewing (Gibsons, B.C.)
Belgian: White Bark Witbier, Driftwood Brewery (Victoria, B.C.)
Cider: Kingston’s Twist, Twisted Hills Craft Cider (Cawston, B.C.)
Fruit Beer: Berried Alive, Longwood Brew Pub (Nanaimo, B.C.)
Hefeweizen: Hey Day Hefeweizen, Granville Island Brewing (Vancouver, B.C.)
IPA: Right Kind of Crazy Double IPA, Powell Street Craft Brewery (Vancouver, B.C.)
Lager/Pilsner: 1516 Bavarian Lager, Okanagan Spring Brewery (Vernon, B.C.)
Other: Super G, Longwood Brew Pub (Nanaimo, B.C.)
Pale Ale: Coast Trail Pale Ale, Canuck Empire Brewing (Aldergrove, B.C.)
Stout/Porter: Smoke and Mirrors Imperial Ale, Coal Harbour Brewing (Vancouver, B.C.)

Best Of Show:

Smoke and Mirrors Imperial Ale, Coal Harbour Brewing (Vancouver, B.C.)

After the awards were given out we all dispersed back into the crowd. I met up with some friends again for a few samples and some more food. Day two of the festival has a much younger audience than day one from the looks of things. Just like last year costumes were everywhere you looked. There were Pokemon to Batman all around. I really wish I had taken more photos so I could show some of the costumes that I saw.

The crowd was a bit younger and it was a bit more vocal on day two but like always it seemed that everyone was having a great time! I did have to laugh at one point when a guy sauntered up to Powell Street Craft Brewery’s tent saying the last beer was trash and to fill his with something better. Just before taking a sip he said he only drinks bud. I am not sure why he was even at the festival but he still seemed to be enjoying himself. I ended up taking my leave of the festival early around 5pm to get ready for the cask event later in the evening. I thoroughly enjoyed my second go around with the Fest-Of-Ale and look forward to being back in the future!

Here are my photos of Day 2 of the festival.

Fest-Of-Ale Beer Judging 2015 – Penticton

Apr20 by Mike

For a second year in a row I was honored with the invitation to be a judge again at the Fest-Of-Ale in Penticton. Last year I had reservation about saying yes to the invite as I had never done any beer judging before but this year I jumped at the opportunity. The judging again this year took part on Day Two of the festival on April 11th, 2015. This year we had 10 Categories to judge from including Ale, Belgian Ale, Cider, Fruit Beer, Hefeweizen, IPA, Lager/Pilsner, Other, Pale Ale and Stout/Porter. This year there was a huge spike in the amount of entries into the judged competition. I do not know if it was the extra 10+ breweries and cideries or what but last year only had 42 beer and 3 ciders while this year had a whopping 83 beer and cider to judge! With so many beers to judge the panel of 8 judges was split up into two groups this year. Each group sampled half of the beer that was to be judged. Once all the beers had been sampled the groups came together and we all sampled the top two beers/ciders in each category. The following Head Shots are from Kim of DogLeg Marketing.

Meet the Judges.

Joe Wiebe – Author

Alan Moen – NorthWest Brewing News

Jim Martin – Metro Liquor (Senior Wine Consultant)

Jan Zeschky – Beer writer with The Province

Jason van Rassel – beer writer with The Calgary Herald

Josh Oakes – RateBeer.com

Sunshine Kessler – LoveAndBarley.com

Like all other beer competitions this one was a blind tasting. The only differentiation that we had between the beer was the number on the glass. This year the Director of Judging was Warren Everton as Martin of Bad Tattoo Brewing had to pass the torch as he had beer in the competition. This year we stepped away from the very official judging sheet as it seemed to take to much time overall. This year we had very toned down score cards and we sampled all the beer in a category and chose our top two beer. If we had a majority consensus of the top two we gave our results right away. If not we discussed as a group to come up with our top two. This seemed to actually work quite well and made the whole process move along at a pretty decent pace. Once we brought the two groups together we re-sampled the top two beers from our group as well as the top two beers from the other group of judges and came up with out winners. Only one category caused trouble for the judges and surprisingly it was not IPA but Fruit Beer. We argued long and hard with a serious stale mate and it was very hard to come to a consensus winner. To say this category was contentious is an understatement! We did finally come to an agreement luckily and there were no punches thrown (totally kidding there but we did joke about it). We started the judging at 10am and we ran to somewhere in the neighborhood of 2pm.

Once all the deliberation we were told the winners of each category and what beer we chose as best of show. The best of show may come as a surprise to many to be sure and it may not be the most approachable beer of the bunch for the person new to craft beer. What it was though was a standout in the crowd of beers that were judged.

Best of Each Category:

Best Of Show:

Smoke and Mirrors Imperial Ale, Coal Harbour Brewing (Vancouver, B.C.)

Here are my fill sized photos.

After all the judging was done we had a few group shots taken by Kim of DogLeg Marketing..

Once all was done we were released into the festival although we had to be at the stage for 3pm for the announcement of the winners. The following photos are taken again by Kim of DogLeg Marketing.

Fest-Of-Ale Day 1 2015 – Penticton

Apr18 by Mike

Time flies when you are having fun so I must have been having fun this year as it feels like I just attended last years Fest-Of-Ale recently. I was lucky enough to get Friday April 10th, 2015 off work so I headed up to Penticton first thing in the morning to take part in the festivities for my second year in a row. This year was the 20th Anniversary of the festival and it brought some new exciting things to the table this year. First off this year had a large outdoor section as well as the main festival inside the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre. The Fest-Of-Ale fan from 4pm to 9pm on Friday.

Both the indoor and outdoor parts of the venue had stages with live music as well as lots of beer and food venders. With a growth in the space for Fest-Of-Ale this year the breweries and Cideries went from 35 to 47. Its never bad to have more than 10 more breweries at a festival!

This years brewery and Cidery list includes the following:
4 Mile Brewing Co.
BC Tree Fruits Cider
Bad Tattoo Brewing
Barkerville Brewing Co.
Barley Mill Brew Pub
Big Rock Brewery
Bomber Brewing
Bravo Beer Co
Cannery Brewing
Canuck Empire Brewing
Central City Brewers & Distillers
Coal Harbour Brewing Company
Crannog Ales
Creemore Springs
Dead Frog Brewery
Driftwood Brewing
Fernie Brewing Co
Firehall Brewery
Four Winds Brewing
Granville Island Brewing
Hoyne Brewing Co.
Lighthouse Brewing Company
Longwood Brewery
McClelland Premium Imports
Mill Street Brewery
Moon Under Water
Mt Begbie Brewing Co
Okanagan Spring
Old Yale Brewing Company
Orchard Hill Estate Cidery
Scandal Brewing
Parallel 49 Brewing
Persephone Brewing Co.
Phillips Brewing
Powell Street Craft Brewery
Red Collar Brewing Co.
Red Truck Beer Company
Spinnakers Brew Pub
Stanley Park Brewery
Steamworks Brewing Co.
Summerland Heritage Cider Company
Tin Whistle Brewery
Torchlight Brewing Co.
Tree Brewing Company
Twisted Hills Cider
Vancouver Island Brewery
Wards Hard Cider

Much like last year I was able to get a sneak peak at the festivities before the general public as I was part of the media and industry. Here are my photos from before the public was let in.

Once 4pm hit and the doors were opened to the public it didn’t take long for the place to really fill up! The after work crowd really came out to support the Friday night. I would have to say that the average age on Friday would probably be much higher than on the Saturday afternoon event and was quite noticeable. Friday had a different feel than Saturday with little to no costumes an a bit more subdued atmosphere. Here are the photos from once the doors opened.

The other new thing at the Fest-Of-Ale this year comes thanks to one of the new Liquor Reforms (one that actually worked). This year there was a popup liquor store at the festival! Now when you leave the festival for the night you can leave and pick up beer or cider from all of the venders at the event. This includes breweries that do not distribute their beer to the Okanagan!

Day one was once again a blast with so many great people to meet and chat with. It was also great to catch up with so many of the Okanagan people that I have not seen in a year! This years festival had just that much more great beer to sample and people really seemed to respond to that fact! I tried to take Day one fairly easy as I knew that I had to be up early Saturday to once again be a judge at the event.

Full Sized photos can be found here.

The following photos are Kim’s of DogLeg Marketing.

Whistler Village Beer Festival (Industry Event) – Whistler BC

Sep17 by Mike

On Friday September 12th, 2014 the Whistler Village Beer Festival held and Industry Event in the Whistler Olympic Park which was the Festival Grounds. The event ran from 6pm – 8pm and was targeted to the beer and hospitality industry. Being a blogger and a Beer Buddy (Beer Buddy’s were media and industry members) for the event I was able to attend this closed event. Many but not all of the breweries involved in the main event on Saturday were present and all were more than happy to talk at length about their beer, breweries and their direction!

The idea of this event was to meet the breweries and make connections be it the local Whistler hospitality industry or the media. The group of people present was quite small as would be expected but it made for a very intimate event. It may have been short and sweet but I was able to catch up with many breweries, brewmasters and brewery reps that I had not seen in quite some time and also meet new ones and make new connections. Overall the event was a success as the people that attended this small intimate event were able to taste samples and chat at length without holding up lines that were present at the actual event.