Archive

Brewzapalooza features suds, pond hockey, ice fishing at Island Lake

February 15, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

When is a frosty beer too cold? When it freezes before it’s even in your beer mug.

After several years that Brewzapalooza took place at a downtown Orangeville location, the popular festival moved to the Island Lake Conservation Area this year and made a few changes in the way the suds was dispensed to visitors as well as adding some new fun activities on the lake.

After finding that the cold mid-February weather played havoc with the lines that dispense the beer through the taps, organizers came up with a solution where a single heated trailer would hold tanks of beer from several craft brewers and be poured through select taps.

This is the fourth year in a row the beer festival has been held.

The festival gives craft brewers a chance to introduce their product to new customers as well satisfying some thirsty patrons who are already familiar with there brand.

Visitors had a chance to try several of the different suds.

“One reason we moved was to increase capacity,” explained organizer Megs Connell. “We wanted to simplify things and we wanted to do a fundraiser for the Orangeville Wolves – that’s the pond hockey tournament. All the proceeds from that are going to the team. We also have an ice fishing tournament on the lake.”

On the lake, pond hockey was played with three-person teams with each team guaranteed four games.

“It’s a free event this year. We are just asking donations, not just monetary but non perishables for Habitat for Humanity,” Megs said. “It’s much easier than past years where we had issues with the severe cold and keeping the beer flowing. The beer being too cold was an issue. The first night (Friday) was just three hours but we had 50 or 60 people show up and play some hockey.”

Several craft brewers took part and had their brews available.

“We’re going to nine p.m. tonight so the hockey tournament goes all night long. We have 20 teams playing.”

Those who didn’t play hockey on the pond were content to find a good spot on the ice in hope of reeling in a big one in the fishing tournament.


Readers Comments (0)





Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.