When Great Lakes threw that party

.

The good looking one on the right is Peter Bulut, the owner and
Chief Brewing Officer of Great Lakes Brewing. The skeevy one
on the left just likes cake so he brought one for their birthday...

Knowing my birthday fell on Tuesday, February 14th, I eyed the calendar at work a few weeks back. Since I usually have Mondays off from the Beer Store, I suggested to my esteemed coworker and official schedule-maker Trey that I may as well take Tuesday and Wednesday off, as well. You know, give myself a little four-day weekend as a birthday present.

That is, until I found out about Great Lakes Brewing's 30th Birthday Bash in Toronto at The Antler Room. That would be last night. Well, I certainly couldn't miss it, could I? So in the end, I looked at Trey and said, "Hell, just give me the whole week off. It'll be a Birthday Week." Why not, shrugged Trey. "That's what I do." (Also, he loves Great Lakes so yeah, he gets it.)

Now I have never had a Birthday Week before - trust me, one day is usually more than enough - so it was time to make plans. Well, loosely in my head. Nothing is ever carved in stone at Donny's Bar and Grill. Except my patio stones (more man-made than carved.)

Not gonna lie. The person at the GLB 30th Birthday Bash
that I was the most excited to meet was Garnett Gerry,
who in tandem with graphic designer Fabian Skidmore,
draws those uber wicked awesome labels for GLB beers.

But first, it was time to stock up on groceries and some weekday-fun beer from Nickel Brook. While I was grocery shopping, I noticed the cake section and suddenly remembered that February 12 was Great Lakes Brewing's actual 30th birthday. And I promised their social media guru, Troy, a week prior that I would be coming with cake. As my grandfather taught me, a promise made is a debt unpaid so I grabbed a birthday cake and some candles. Did you know you can buy birthday cake without it actually being your birthday?? They don't even check your ID. That's a pretty loose system if you ask me. Never mind our borders, people, we gotta start cracking down on cake distribution!

So I loaded my groceries and possibly illegally-attained birthday cake into my car and headed from Burlington to Etobicoke. Well, there was one helluva snowstorm on Sunday and it was a slow crawl in, bumper-to-bumper. Oh well, I had coffee, the tunes were blaring, not to mention it was the first day of vacation. Frankly, my time is not all that valuable.

Just in case we forgot what we were celebrating,
my buddy Drunk Polkaroo had a handy way to
remind us right behind him. Hey, with some
of the high-test brew being poured, it would be
ridiculously easy to forget why we were there!

So off I went. Ninety minutes later, a chocolate-caramel cake and I landed at GLB's doorstep. (The drive home? About 20 minutes. The snow stopped and no one was on the highway. Life always evens out.)

Once inside, I was happily greeted by Vanessa and Chris, who frankly were a little starved for company during the storm. And their eyes lit up when they saw what I was carrying so perhaps they were also starved for (alleged) illicitly-obtained cake. Hey, eat the evidence, I say! Chris happily poured me a Canuck Pale Ale for my efforts while I stayed to chat. Vanessa gamely posed for pictures with the cake but before long, a man I recognized came through from the back. I knew instantly it was the brewery owner but true to form, drew a blank on his name. Fortunately, Peter Bulut was good enough to introduce himself. So then, pictures of me and Peter were taken. He thought it was pretty cool I brought a cake whereas I thought it was pretty cool that he'd come out to personally greet me. But our social media posts would not be without clothing controversy.

You see, forgetting where I was going that day, I threw on my Nickel Brook t-shirt. And when Troy posted a pic of me, Peter and the criminal cake on Twitter, one buddy, Chris, howled with delight, "Get the man a new shirt!" Minutes later, my former coworker, Jay-Dawg, texted me that he had seen my pic. "You're on Great Lakes' Instagram! Wearing a Nickel Brook shirt! Hahaha!"

That would be my Newmarket Beer Store buddy Paul on
the left holding up clearly intoxicated Beer Bro Glenn on
the right. Actually, believe it or not, we were all fine...

Honestly, I haven't see an article of clothing get this level of attention since Janet Jackson's Halftime Show at the Super Bowl.

Fortunately, Troy was quick to tweet "We're all friends" while Nickel Brook's Manager of Corporate Sales Matt happily chirped in, "Love the Nickel Brook shirt. Two great Ontario breweries!" Given that I'm as likely as not to show up at Nickel Brook, growlers in hand, wearing Batman pajama pants (What? They're right around the corner! They're like family!), Matty was probably just happy I was finally wearing actual pants.

Then again, I already knew they were all friends even earlier when Chris looked at my shirt and asked excitedly, "Have you got their Cafe Del Bastardo yet?" Ahh, yes, one day earlier, Nickel Brook had just released their 14.5% bourbon-barrel-aged Imperial Stout aged with Columbian coffee beans, courtesy of Burlington's Tamp Coffee. It is always highly anticipated and yup, I have mine. I had pants on, too, when I bought it. Probably. But that "friends" point was further driven home when I was on my way into the GLB birthday bash on the GO Train.

Three-time Ontario Beer Writer of the Year
Ben Johnson (not the Olympic cheat) shares a
beer moment with GLB social media star Troy.

Nickel Brook buddy Tony had texted me a funny picture and while responding, I mentioned I was on the train, heading for the GLB party. "Oh, can you grab me a shirt? Black, please," he texted. He got dark grey - all the men's large blacks were snapped up. But the point is these Ontario craft beer guys all seem to genuinely like each other.

Hopping off the GO Train at Union Station, it was playtime as the venue, The Antler Room, is literally a five-minute walk from Canada's largest and busiest train station. (Again, I have no idea if that's true. I just like getting called on my "fake news" because my name is Donald. Well, when my Mom is pissed at me.) First up, I had to meet with Beer Bro Glenn as I had his ticket. He told me he was at the fancy-Dan Royal York Hotel and to text him when I was there. Meeting him, I asked why on Earth he'd wait for me at the Royal York. "They have really comfortable chairs," he shrugged. That Glenn - he's so Raven. And off we went, dodging traffic and being surrounded by far better looking people than us. One of them was Newmarket Beer Store Bro Paul, just outside. The first two people I saw inside the party were (hey now!) Troy and owner Peter. In fact, it was Peter who told me where I'd find beer writing-videographer Drunk Polkaroo and his lovely wife Kat. We'd searched the room to no avail.

Good Golly Miss Molly, if ever there were an Unholy
Alliance, it is this one! In fact, Drunk Polkaroo even
suggested a warmer weather, get-together at Donny's
Bar and Grill. I should start warning the neighbours.

Anyway, it was a crazy fun night. It was like the Emmys or the Grammies or the Oscars, whichever one of those is actually good. Among those I had never met before was GLB label artist extraordinaire Garnett Gerry. He walked by me and I thought, "Holy shit! Is that was GLB label artist extraordinaire Garnett Gerry, the man with the last name first and the first name last?" Minutes later, he walked up to me and asked, "Do you write a beer blog?" He's been the revered subject matter in this space several times. I had two answers. 1) "Yes!" And 2) "Can I get a picture with you?" A true craft beer superstar!

Before long, Polkaroo introduced me to three-time Ontario Beer Writer of the Year Ben Johnson, who also, very much to my surprise, knew me. The only plausible explanation there is the Canada Post Offices in London, Ontario are the last in the country to put up Wanted posters in the foyer. We'll get back to Bashful Ben in the very near future as a recent blog he wrote about sexism on Ontario craft beer labels was really impressive to this old journalist for reasons he may not even know. Also, the guy's a lot taller than I would have guessed - like 6-foot-11 or someshit. I'm guessing he looked around, went full Zoolander and bellowed, "What is this? A party for ants?"

When my birthday fell on Valentine's Day, long-
time friend Ingrid posted this on my Facebook as an
appropriate birthday greeting. She knows me well.

Anyways, to our friends at Great Lakes Brewing... man, that 30th Birthday Bash was an outstanding time! Next up, count on a review of your 30th Anniversary Barrel-Aged Belgium Style Quad. And hey, it would be impossible not to throw some serious and loving praise in the general direction of The Antler Room, the hosts of this shindig. You people are braver than you know. I hope you never burn down like that time Chachi burned down Arnold's on Happy Days. (My brain: "Do you have even the faintest idea of how stupid that sentence makes you sound?")

But there was more to Birthday Week with me than Great Lakes Brewing's awesome celebration as I also made on-my-actual-birthday stops at Black Oaks Brewing, the Indie Alehouse, Junction Craft Brewing and the new Big Rock Brewing in Etobicoke. And if I get the roads-are-plowed, you-probably-won't-die all-clear from my Barrie friend, A-Bomb, a trip to Flying Monkeys, Barnstormer and Redline is in the works this weekend. Why? Because I've never done Birthday Week before so I'm kinda winging it. (My brain: "Yeah, that's new.") So that's up next in a few days. But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!!! Until next time, I remain...