I've never really been into beer or spirits, and I'm not that much of a drinker, but over the past couple of years or so I've developed a love for scotch and an appreciation (if not love) for craft beers. So, it was a no-brainer that I'd be attending this year's
Hopscotch Festival - a scotch, whisky and beer and spirits extravaganza, which took place this year at the PNE Forum. Even though it was completely not Dani-diet friendly, there was no way I was missing this.
With your $45 admission ticket to the Grand Tasting Hall, you are given, upon entrance, a large shot glass and 5 tokens. You are then set loose in an arena of exhibitors offering tastes of their various products. You can buy more tokens and taste to your heart's content. After doing two back-to-back hot yoga classes yesterday, I decided I had sweat out enough toxins to merit an evening of semi-debauchery. I showered then met my friend E. at the PNE Forum, and the Hopscotch madness began.
We were overwhelmed when we entered the Forum. First, the place was packed. This was Hopscotch's first year at this venue, and it was clear they needed a bigger one next year. Second, the map showed that there were about 70 vendors to be visited, and we had no idea where to begin. We decided to start with the local brewers and distillers.
Our first stop was
Parallel 49 Brewing Company. They make my favourite Seed Spitter Watermelon Witbier. The line for their booth was huge. We ended up talking to the guy in line in front of us, who said he was waiting as his friend was one of the owners and he was sure he'd get a free taste.
"Oh, we're with you then," I said.
"Of course," he said, immediately playing along, pretending to introduce us to his friend. "Meet Jessie (
me) and Claire (E.)." We were more than happy to be Jessie and Claire if it meant free beer. As it happened, we made it into a shorter line at the booth and were happy to fork over one token each for a taste of the Salty Scot, a scotch ale infused with seasalt and caramel. It was to die for, light and malty. It smelled great, too.
The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur (and became even blurrier as we made our way amongst the booths), but highlights included:
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Kucch Nai, a blended scotch whisky finished in a sherry cask, that we were told is marketed primarily to the Indian market;
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Lighthouse Brewing Company's Dark Chocolate Porter, which features fair-trade cacao nibs from Guyana;
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Spicebox's Canadian Spiced Whisky - and also their amazingly decadent Pumpkin-Spiced Whisky - imagine an alcholic pumpkin spiced latte - without more alcohol and less latte.
I saved my favourite, favourite scotch for last - Ardbeg, a 10 year old Islay scotch that inspired my interest in whisky - I've yet to find anything I like better than this scotch.
We avoided a lot of the "big brands" that were represented at the festival - mostly because they had staffed their tables with good looking girls who didn't know anything about the product they were serving. Given our fellow festival-goers were about 70% dudes, this was probably a wise decision, but we enjoyed speaking to people who were either connected to or knowledgeable about the making of their product.
There were plenty of food vendors on hand as well as water stations, to make sure people didn't get too drunk, but there were inevitably quite a few happy people staggering around by the time we left the festival. Two drunk guys approached me and E. as we were going to hail a cab and asked if we wanted to share a limo back downtown with them. We looked at each other, shrugged, and then said, "Well, why not?" In the end though, the bus came before the limo, and we ditched our would-be consorts for public transit.
It's a good time, Hopscotch. Taste a little, talk a little - I'll definitely be back next year!
