Beau’s Brewery Gearing Up for a Big Ontario Craft Beer Week
A brand-new collaborative beer, bus trips to the brewery for Father’s Day, & more than a dozen Beau’s-themed beer dinners, tap takeovers & events across Ontario for 2015
OTTAWA – (May 8, 2015) Local craft beer makers Beau’s Brewery will be taking time to celebrate all things “craft beer” in the province June 12-21, 2015, during the sixth annual edition of Ontario Craft Beer (OCB) Week. Organized by the Ontario Craft Brewers Association, OCB Week is a 10-day, province-wide festival that “celebrates the thriving locally-based craft beer industry in Ontario and exposes consumers to the premium quality and culture of Ontario craft beer.”
A highlight of Beau’s OCB Week plans is the launch of a new beer conceived and brewed collaboratively with the multi-award-winning Canadian hip-hop artist k-os, which will be launched Saturday June 13 at the 2015 Session Craft Beer Festival in Toronto. Festival goers will have to opportunity to vote for their favourite beer at the festival as part of the “Collaboration Nation” contest, with the prize being a future spot on LCBO shelves – in fact, Beau’s won Collaboration Nation in 2013 with The Tom Green Beer. Details about the new beer will be released in mid-May.
Beau’s will be hosting or participating in OCB Week events at restaurants and pubs across Ontario in the cities of Ottawa and Toronto, as well as other locales including Cobourg, Guelph, Kingston, Kitchener, Midland, Newmarket, and St. Catharines. Event themes include several tap takeovers (where all draught taps are pouring the beer of the “takeover” brewery), beer dinners featuring intentioned pairings of beer with each course, a brewery “Battle of the Bands,” a tutored cheese and beer tasting hosted by Beau’s co-founder Steve Beauchesne, and a number of onsite sampling events hosted by the Beau’s team across the province. Event-by-event details are posted on the Beau’s website: beaus.ca/events.
“The goal of OCB week is to get both craft beer fans and people new to the craft beer experience out enjoying the culture that has developed in Ontario around having one or more local breweries in your community,” says Beau’s co-founder Steve Beauchesne. The OCB estimates that this year’s Ontario Craft Beer Week will see as many as 300 unique events taking place in more than 50 communities in Ontario over the duration of the event (www.ocbweek.ca/events).
Visitors to Beau’s Brewery during OCB week will be treated as always to free brewery tours and beer samples, and weekends will feature the beer-inspired creations of Beau’s resident chef, Bruce Wood. Beau’s onsite OCB week celebrations will culminate on Father’s Day weekend with bus tour packages from Ottawa and Montréal, and on the Sunday, the Beauchesne family be on hand to serve a Father’s Day BBQ on the patio. Tickets for bus packages for that weekend will be made available in the upcoming weeks.