pdjcrawford, I am glad you could decipher your notes within 24-hours of imbibing. I needed 48-hours before I could interpret what I wrote on Friday afternoon! Anyhow, did find a few gems in what otherwise was a sea of contrasts, from the big boys [it was a bit sad seeing all the Molson's hoopla in light of the stories on the business pages, and their sorry TV ad campaign for Canadian, in the shadow of their long closed, semi-demolished Lakeshore Drive brewery]. But what is best about this gathering is the presence of several true micro breweries, like the aforementioned Church Key. For me there was a small Ottawa brewery called Scotch Irish, and their Glengarry 90 Shilling Ale was a winner if you favour this style. They also had a few other interesting ales which were so intense in their hops that it was hard to go onto any other booths without downing a bottle of water. Fortunately, I had checked out a couple of other goodies before hitting S/I, including dosing up on a short BIG ROCK Trad for old times sake. GRANITE also offered up its Old Peculiar, though I still prefer their IPA and Pale.

While the weather wasn't hot, I found it much more pleasant to sip brews with a soft cool breeze wafting in from the lake.