Beer day!

Tuesday

Woke up and roasted my own coffee in the cast iron skillet…Awesome, though I realized I did not have a grinder so I made do with a large stick and the skillet pressing it to a fine powder lots of work but hey it tasted amazing. Left camp took a shower at the community showers, for a campground I was impressed one button no charge and hot water with lots of pressure, one of the best showers I’ve taken so far. After that I left to go meet one of the Rate beer guys at the brewery he works at. Black Oak, it’s small but they make a fine brew and Jeremy was very generous with the free samples he had me leave with. First beer downed at 11:30 there and then off to the “go” station to grab a train downtown. 9 bucks Canadian I think and all day rides if I wanted. Really nice, very clean and pretty fast. Got off downtown realizing I had forgotten my good map I paid for in Minnesota to get about in Toronto, so I ended up with a crappy tourist map. Pretty much for 4 hrs I walked, too much to see and too much to be tempted to buy so I didn’t bother, and just walked. Neat town with lots of cool shops and markets, wish I had more time to just spend hanging out. Ended up at one of the markets and got some cheese, bread, proscuitto, and some fixings for a potato hash sometime in the future. Ended meeting Joe, another ratebeerian, at Smokeless Joe’s, a beer bar with an amazing bottle selection and good JUJU. Had a Denison Weiss, and a Braintickler. Both awesome check out my ratings. Next off to the Beer Bistro for some grub, though I would say it was some mighty fine grub. Amazing tap selection, and bottles, I had a sampler of local IPA’s that were ok though I think I’m just used to more hops than most. I had a Mussel dish with in house smoked bacon, and a Belgian Brune to braise it with. Amazing the sweet/sour of the bruin did the right stuff with the mussels and on the side some Frittes with smoked ketchup. Truly wonderful! Finished with a Petrus Brune, that was also great though I was enjoying it so much I forgot to rate it. Next we headed to C’est What, a local brew pub, and I forgot to mention, we had off and on 6+ people, these Canadian Rate beer guys are great and amazing hosts. There we tried some well I need to check my notes but I do remember trying one of the worst beers in my life that we got as a joke to rate. Called Point nine, as in the alcohol, it tasted of Chlorine and diluted malt extract; maybe wallpaper paste would be a better description. Next, yes there was much beer drunk and no I was not wasted yet. We headed to another place that really had an amazing selection of taps and bottles, there Doug, another rate beer guy, assaulted us with multiple beers to rate, including the whole Hoegarrden line. Wow that was great though I do admit at that point I was getting a bit tired from all the walking and the beer. But in the end the guys were awesome and really left a great impression of Toronto on me. I then with the help of all was shown where to grab the last train back to my car which was not to far from camp, thankfully, and I headed home. Sleep came easily!