Ended up going to the first Toronto Winter Brewfest: Saturday Session this weekend. All and all I had a great time, because I didn’t let the lineups, crowds, etc get to me. Because it’s a beerfest, what were some people expecting?

Going into it, I had read some of the reviews from the Friday night crew, it was a mixed review with a divide between 1 star ratings, and 5 star ratings. Those leaning on the former complained of overpriced tokens, and long lineups.

I didn’t let these negative reviews rub off on me, as I knew tokens were going to be pricey — they want to make money, right? Also, being a “Brewfest” rather than a “Beerfest,” most of the breweries are on a smaller scale, therefore do not have the money to subsidize their product.

It would have been nice to do more “sampling” of the beer, but it’s just not plausible in a setting like this. Shout out to Muskoka, Great Lakes and Innis & Gunn for being there though.

I give this event a three beer rating, as I did in fact have a pretty, pretty, pretty good time.

They definitely have work to smooth out for 2017, if they want to be successful. This would involve ensuring volunteers show up, hosting in a larger venue, trying to have tokens at a reasonable price, and switching the cups to plastic. Booths for the breweries should also have better displays, felt too tight and you could not appreciate the beers they had to offer.

(p.s. My mason jar ALMOST made it home, but a good song came on while leaving coat check, that it slipped and broke. shame shame.)

Winter Brewfest was pretty solid. They have some work to smooth out for 2017. ???/5 pic.twitter.com/6H4Mn3GkKD

— Victoria Chiasson (@v_chiasson) February 21, 2016