Really, it’s hard to believe we’d never been to a Cask Days event before. On this, the tenth year, we felt that needed to be rectified. We bought tickets, and yesterday met up with Nellie’s friends Adam and Alicia and joined the 1:00 masses at the Brickworks. Here’s what I drank:

1. Bottle Logic “Calf-Life” milk stout w/ rum soaked oak
2. Magnolia “Cole Porter” robust porter (when the Noble Aleworks “Cinnamon Roast Crunch” milk stout was out)
3. Ballast Point “Victory At Sea” imperial porter w/ cacao nibs & bhut jolakia ghost peppers
4. Bad Apple “Operation Green Ring” cucumber mint pale ale
5. Siren Craft / Magic Rock brown ale w/ coconuts
6. Sawdust City “Blood Of Cthulhu” imperial stout w/ cranberry, raspberry, and cherry
7. Great Lakes / Bar Hop “Hanlan’s Point” porter w/ coconut and coffee (when the Great Lakes / Bar Hop “Sweet Zombie Jesus” peanut butter milk stout and Innocente “Chocolate Rain” chocolate & peanut butter oatmeal stout were out)
8. Dunham “Saison Du Pinacle Reserve” wine barrel-aged hoppy saison w/ brett
9. Le Castor “Citra Weisse” hopfenweisse
10. Innocente “Until Proven Guilty” Russian imperial stout
11. Broadhead “Mommy Kissing Santa Clause” mint stout

My eighth beer was actually a mistake. I had ordered #139, the Brasseurs Du Monde English Porter w/ cascade hops & coffee, but clearly what the server handed me wasn’t a porter. I figured she’d just heard me incorrectly, and a few sips of the saison told me it was actually quite good, so I didn’t say anything. But then Adam ordered #139 later and got the very same incorrect drink. We guessed that they swapped in a new one, or mixed up a couple of kegs. A comment on Untappd would seem to confirm that.

While it wasn’t exactly easy to drink, the Ballast Point was the definite winner on the day. Every sip produced a serious ghost pepper burn in the back of my throat, but the overall flavour was excellent, and it was amazingly smooth for a 10% porter.

Cool space, cool atmosphere, great luck with the weather (apart from a few showers while we stood in line), ribs from Uncle Smoke, espresso from Propeller, and no untoward bathroom situations. Probably the best beer event I’ve ever been to. Pretty much a lock for next year too.

We moved on a little after 5 and cabbed over to Wvrst for some more beers and food. After a nice light Weihenstephaner to go with my sausage Adam and I shared a couple of bottles of Le Trou Du Diable: the Volo 25th Anniversary Ale and La Grivoise Du Noël (Merry Christmas!) to finish off the day.

Excellent, excellent beer fest. See you next year, cask days.