Gatineau's beer-loving 'Festbière' continues to grow
Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: May 20, 2014, Last Updated: May 28, 2014 1:21 PM EDT
The annual Gatineau Festibière is ready to open its doors to the masses at Jacques Cartier Park this weekend, featuring 55 vendors, 350 different beers to sample and 15 workshops on various topics to educate people about beer. The Citizen’s Vito Pilieci sits down with Mario D’Eer, one of the events key organizers, to find out what’s in store.
Q You’re expecting around 40,000 people to show up this year, which is more than the 38,000 you had last year. How else has the event expanded when compared to last year’s offering?
A It’s a little bit bigger than last year. We have a couple of new breweries like Lac St. Jean (a well-known Belgian-style brewer), and the theme is myths and realities about beer.
Q Why ‘myths and realities about beer’? What topics will you be discussing?
A For example, the beer belly. No one ever talks about ‘wine belly’, ‘cheese belly’ or ‘chocolate belly’ everyone only talks about beer belly. It’s a reflection of the prejudice that beer has compared to wine. We’ll be talking about things like is dark beer stronger than pale beer, or what’s an older beverage beer or wine.
Q What about drinking beer in bottles? Nobody would ever drink wine straight from the bottle.
A It shows the hierarchy of wine and beer when you compare how people drink it. It’s a fact of life. That’s the way it is. From a tasting point of view, there’s a big difference between drinking from a bottle and drinking from a glass. When you drink from a glass you are smelling at the same time. The fact that you don’t smell it, you don’t get the nose. So, your perception of the flavour is not the same.
Q There is talk about a beer ‘throwdown’ between Microbrasserie Gainsbourg (a microbrewery co-owned by D’Eer) Les Brassuers Du Temps (Gatineau’s founding microbrewery) and a third surprise brewery?
A We will have a battle between BDT, Gainsbourg and a guest brewer along with some Montebello cheese which will be paired with each beer. The people in the crowd will vote which is the best. The fact is all three will be good. They will be different. And some people will prefer one and some people will prefer the other, that’s the way life is. But, we will have the battle of the breweries.
Q It seems like there are more people talking about the Festibière this year. Have you noticed?
A The market for micro breweries is still very young. We are being taken seriously this year, more so than in previous years. We feel that now we have more credibility. There is something different this year, there is more excitement from people. It’s like an annual event for people, they celebrate the first beer festival of the season.
Q There was talk that the reason organizers picked Jacques Cartier Park is because of its proximity to Ontario and how that help to attract more people from Ottawa.
A Events on the Gatineau side, don’t usually attract Ontarians. It’s a reality that we’ve faced since the beginning. The Ontarians who come bring friends, we know that. That’s what brings new people to the festival, word of mouth. As far as publicity, we still have a challenge there. We think that the people in Ontario that want to discover new beer will have tonnes to discover at Festibière.
The festival will take place Friday through Sunday at Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau. Tickets are $15 each, a three-day pass costs $30.
Vpilieci@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter: Vpilieci
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