Again, I will repeat this because it bears repeating – DON’T EVER NOT GO TO THIS!

September 23rd & 24th past was the 8th edition of the famous Beau’s Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill, Ontario and was attended by almost 20,000 beer lovers. For those of you that don’t know Beau’s, it’s a wonderful, established, entrenched, craft brewery from just over the Québec/Ontario border that brews incredible, unique, entertaining and very well designed organic beers. They often team up with other brewers and breweries and produce some of the greatest beer to ever go in my face (oh, hello Kissmeyer NPA). A perennial powerhouse here at Beerstitution, we remain in love with Beau’s since the very first Beerstitution.

A few of the highlights from this year’s edition:

• Beau’s Beer everywhere: You cannot walk more than 5 metres without hitting a Beau’s tap. And that my friends is pure genius.
• Cask House: This is where the real magic happens at Oktoberfest. Craft Breweries from all over the world (but focused on local brews) offer up their finest and we, our mouths, happily drink em up!
• School of Bock: I signed up for another School of Bock class: Luxy’s Beer-Cathalon with Crystal Luxmore. The goal of the class was to learn the art of the perfect pour (learnt!), how to pick out the hops in your brew (not so learnt), and what to pair with your favourite beer style (semi-learnt). The greatest thing about this class though was exposure to my very first Blonde Imperial Stout… that’s right, a Blonde Stout… mind blowing.
• Recycling & Composting: All of the “food stuff” used at Beau’s was either recyclable or compostable. There were myriad recycling and composting stations set up everywhere, all throughout the grounds so I was never looking for more than a moment for a bin to drop my stuff into. Every detail was genius and hyper-organized!
• Food: Man… these guys deliver on the food front! I ate well over my body weight and every morsel was wonderfully wonderful! Edit: To prove what I have said about the awesomeness of the food scene here, Beau’s Oktoberfest 2016 won the CULINARY TOURISM EVENT OF THE YEAR BY THE 2016 ONTARIO TOURISM AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE!
• Games and Music: There were tons of beer-themed midway style games, a skateboard park (more or less) and music from dusk til closing time. K-OS put on a great show to close out the festivities too!
• Douchebag factor zero: Once again, it turns out that douchebags don’t go to Oktoberfest. Plain and simple. And that is pretty damn awesome.
• Bus ride: The bus transportation to and fro Montréal was very well organized, on time and just as wonderful as last year (personalized drop off spots en route once we hit the city too!).
• The App: This year, most of us downloaded the app and it proved to be quite helpful! I recommend doing the same by clicking here.

As far as favourite beers of the day, here are my big winners:

1. Beau’s Party Line: A Blonde Imperial Stout that was so disambobulating and amazing that it scored a 4.5/5 for me. Unbelievable, and one-of-a-kind execution
2. Elora’s Elora Borealis: An American Pale Ale that is well balanced, slightly sweet and perfect in its execution. 4/5
3. Indie Alehouse’s Instigator IPA: A very good hoppy, wet and smooth IPA. I scored this liquid pine tree a 4/5
4. Brimstone’s Sinister Minister: This High ABV IPA has a nice caramel touch, but with nice floral and citrus filled hop characters. I scored this one a 4/5 as well.

Go ahead and join us next year as I know for certain that 2017 will be one for the ages!

Corey
That Guy from Beerstitution