Head Tale

I was heading downtown for a different social event after work yesterday when I decided to pop into Rebellion Brewing to have “a couple” samples from the many unique brews at their 4th Annual Cask Fest before carrying on my way.

Rebellion is a great local craft brewery but I don’t think their tap room allows kids [edit: I think their license has changed so kids can go during the daytime] so I rarely get to go unless we have a sitter and make specific plans to head there.

Instead, I usually get my fix from their off-sale or growler fills (it wasn’t “daily” but I stopped in an embarrassing amount of times last December for growler fills in the lead-up to Christmas.)

Anyhow, the tap room was packed and I was resigned to standing along a wall, awkwardly sipping my samples when a regular who’d earlier introduced himself, waved me over to an extra seat he’d found at the bar.

We talked beer for a while over some different samples, he introduced me to a few other people he knew including some of the staff, then he left to wander and his seat was quickly filled by someone else.

While chatting with this new person, we realised we shared an acquaintance – someone who I used to work with at RPL is her cousin.  (And coincidentally, when I’d looked at the FB event page for Cask Fest, the cousin had indicated she was interested in attending – though it turns out she wasn’t going to be there that day.)

That person left with her friend to go to a “Girl’s Night” and once again the seat was quickly filled by another person.  Somehow, this conversation quickly became about his many visits to Hawaii (possibly inspired by my recommendation of Rebellion’s own entry in Cask Fest, “Tropical Milkshake“?   Oh, and I may have been biased with it being a Rebellion event but “Tropical Milkshake” also got my vote for best beer of the ones that I sampled.)

[Edit: A few days after Cask Fest, I saw that “Lemon Meringue” beer from Medicine Hat Brewing which is run by Mitch who was the long-time head brewmaster at Bushwakkers and who has won Cask Fest two out of the three previous years, was this year’s winner.)

By this point, I decided I’d had too much to drive to the other event (honestly, twenty years ago, I might have but with the current DUI rules, you can barely drink a single pint without risking having your vehicle impounded, let alone the equivalent of three or four) so decided to try a Designated Driver service for the first time (I’m not positive but think Rebellion had partnered with First Choice Designated Driving to offer a $25 max flat rate ride home anywhere in the city.)

As opposed to a cab, these services send a team of two people – one who drives your vehicle home for you and one in a trailing vehicle who picks up the driver when they get you home.  Plus I ended up having another fascinating conversation – this time, covering everything from current economic conditions in Regina to the opiate addiction epidemic to testicular cancer! 🙂

It was slightly more expensive than a cab would be but cheaper than taking a cab both ways (or taking one home then having the inconvenience of going back for your car the next day) so all was well worth it to have my car safe and sound in the driveway this morning.

(Oh, and should also note that it was cool to see Rebellion using buns from my hometown Indian Head Bakery for their bratwurst & sauerkraut special!)

This was the first time I managed to make it to Cask Fest but it won’t be the last.  I’m already looking forward to trying some very unique beers next year! 😉