EBGA on Rails

*2014 EBGA on Rails events and tickets can be found here.

I managed to poke my head up from Folk Fest madness long enough to secure a couple tickets to the late August version of Edmonton Beer Geeks Anonymous' rail car cask session with Hog's Head Brewing.

As we pulled away from the Strathcona street car platform, a volunteer from the Edmonton Radial Railway Society gave us some history about the area and the streetcar itself. Once we reached the High Level Bridge, Shane from EBGA let us know that we would be stopping in the middle of the bridge so we could tap the keg and hear from the head brewer at Hog's Head. From there we continued to hang out for an hour or so, mingling and taking photos. It was a lovely way to enjoy some beer.

This was similar to a cask night at Sugarbowl or Next Act. The brewer came up with a one time only brew for the evening - Hog's Head Death by Pumpkin with some blood orange added. The citrus and spice made for a perfect 'transition to fall' beer, and I'm going to make sure I check tap lists for their Death by Pumpkin this fall.

The evening ended back in Strathcona, where we all left with a bottle of Yukon's Saison. Definitely looking forward to more of these events next summer!

Cask Day

It's sort of amazing that at our very first Edmonton Beer Geeks Anonymous meeting in April, they announced that along with Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus, they would be hosting a Cask Day on the afternoon of June 23rd. Thankfully we purchased our admission tickets for $15 a piece right on the spot - the event sold out in under 24 hours.

Last Saturday afternoon felt much like today - hot and sunny - and beer fans packed the patio at Wunderbar whilst enjoying casked conditioned ales from Phillips, Yukon, Alley Kat, Amber's and Jasper Brewing Co.

We enjoyed all the beer on offer and savoured the luxury of having so many great local-ish microbrews to choose from. I loved Ambers' Ginger Lemongrass beer - it was perfect in the heat and had some great flavours going on that didn't overpower the base beer too much. Charles went the opposite way and chose Yukon's Mr. Monk's Stout as the winner for the day.

The favourites.

We also won this lovely door prize signed by everyone who contributed casks that day:

This was a fantastic event and we're glad to have made it out. Thanks and congratulations to everyone involved in the planning and to all the volunteers. Can't wait for next year!