OCB Week, Governor General

I survived Ontario Craft Beer Week! (barely). I co-chaired the OCB week planning committee, so it was important to me to get to a large number of events, to lead by example, as it were. So this week I was out at the Black Tomato, Arrow and Loon, Cheshire Cat, Magpie, Highway 61, Victory, Bar Volo, Session beer festival and more (probably...its a bit of a blur). It was a great week of meeting beer fanatics, making new ones, trying other brewers beers and generally living malt, hops, water and yeast. Physically taxing and emotionally inspiring at the same time. I love my job.

I think OCB Week was a complete success. My partner in this mayhem, Jason (from Cameron's) and I put in a tonne of work along with our other committee members from Great Lakes, Mill Street and Muskoka, our OCB suppliers Colleen and Christine and all the breweries that really went out of their way to make this an awesome week (Special shout-out to Port Credit, who booked lots of events and really got involved). Next year promises to be bigger and better and will hopefully have fewer G20 summits happening, too.

On Wednesday, I took some time out from OCB Week (my apologies to Nick and Nat at Uptown 21 for cancelling) to spend time at the Governor General's. My Dad and I were invited to attend the first ever Governor General's award for the Nation's Table. This new award is presented to the visionaries and leaders in sustainable food production in Canada. I think this might be a game changing development for organic, local food in our country, and I'm completely honoured and humbled to have been in attendance at its inception. After the ceremony the entire residence was opened up and we were able to roam from room to room sampling delicious tidbits and listening to the different bands set up all over.

I can't wait now to get back to more regular week stuff - I am in serious need of spending time at the brewery, and I need to remind my children that they do indeed have a Father.