Day 1 Continued.....

After we finished up with the tour and the samples at Garrison, the group of us piled into Johns jeep and headed to Maxwell's Plum for Garrison's weekly Firkin Friday. On the way Titus let it be known that he wanted Enright to tap the cask to officially kick things off. It wasn't even five minutes after we arrived that we had a fresh pint of Twisted Wheat, this week's feature, after Enright hammered in the tap in one swift motion.

The beer was nice and thirst quenching, a wheat base infused with a generous amount of lime. No, it didn't taste like Bud Light, so let's not compare the two. We took our positions beside the cask and stayed there talking to Halifax beer lovers for a good hour and a half. You can imagine how many pints we had. It was a pleasure meeting Bobby, who's handle on Bar Towel/Beer Advocate is Bobbyok. We lived in the same city for a year and never had the opportunity to meet, so it was nice to finally put his face to his name.

We did our best to put a dent in the cask before heading off to a new pub a block or so away - Durty Neily's, where Garrison is the only micro on tap. The pub was put together by the Irish Pub Co. so you can imagine what it looks like. Think Prime Pubs etc. We sat up at the bar and had some pints of Garrison Irish Red and shared some Ontario stories with the owner of the pub, who mentioned it was a pretty penny to open up.

Enright, Kebbel, and I were feeling pretty good at this point, and Titus had to get going, so we decided it was time to go and get some dinner. Rogue's Roost was the chosen establishment for more drinks and food, so we made the small hike to the brewpub on Spring Garden. It was a busy night so we were forced to sit up at the bar. We ordered some flights of all their beers (samples), which from what I can remember, contained an IPA, Raspberry, Black Lager, Stout, and a Red Amber. The IPA was very hop forward and nicely balanced, but the favourite went to the Black Lager, which had a lot of smoke in the nose and mouth.

By this point in the night we decided that we had been drinking straight since 1pm so back to the hotel we headed to have a beer at the hotel. Thanks to the Four Points we had a couple to choose from, from the gift bag they provided us. Enright picked out the Sea Level Planters Pale Ale and poured us a glass. Not very nice. Steamed vegetables in the nose, mouth, finish. To be fair though, this was the last of the many many beers we had over the course of the day, so a bottle will be coming home with me for a second try.

More to come tonight on how we spent day 2.