great canadian beer festival

the sign of having a really good time is the serious lack of photos taken
because you were too busy having the good time to record it

so... the only photo on my phone from this year's gcbf:

i also managed to only get one from the gigantic/cider riot tap takeover at canoe pub on friday night:

the tap takeover was more of an exposition of bare chests as it turns out than it was of gigantic beers or cider riot ciders.
don't get me wrong, the beers and ciders were great, as was the music from the mcgillicuddys, it's just that there weren't many taps taken over
canoe is a brewpub, so i guess taking over any taps at all is impressive
i was just looking for more than four drink choices other than canoe's home brand
(that said, four drinks was enough to have me more than tipsy thanks to the 20oz pours!)

what was there was:
gigantic saison
gigantic india pale lager
cider riot everybody pogo hoppy cider
cider riot cask of berry cider
and it was all very happy-making indeed

what did i drink at the festival?
my aim was for cask ales, breweries i haven't tried before, and new to me beers from those i have
i managed to sample at least 17 beers
i did actually check things off on my list, so most of what i drank is listed below
and i think i can remember which ones impressed me the most...

33 acres belgian tripel - top notch
barkerville 18 karat amber ale - really, really nice
brassneck raspberry sour cask - totally awesome
cider riot never give an inch blackberry cider - so delicious
crannog spawning sockeye ale - very interesting amber
dageraad amber - i didn't like it
four mile powder keg ipa - really nice
moon under water raspberry berliner weisse - so darned refreshing
muskoka brewery detour isa - tremendous
steel & oak dry hopped esb - really enjoyed it
three ranges sacrifice red ale - superb
three ranges tail slap ipa - it was a nice ipa
tofino tuff session pale ale - i didn't like it, and i normally do
wolf brewing golden honey ale - just lovely
yellow dog play dead ipa - a very nice ipa
dogfish head sixty-one - incredibly delicious
kulshan brewing bastard kat ipa - really great ipa

there were plenty of other beers on my wish list
but i simply ran out of brain cells to pickle and time to do it in

i really enjoy gcbf
i like wandering around a big field sampling beer with my fellow beer geek
and i love how many brewers make the trek over to represent their handiwork

survival tip:  make sure you arrive with a few tokens
otherwise you line up for forever to get in the gates
then another forever to get tokens
all before you get to have your first beer