Sudburians celebrate all things beer at new festival (6 photos)

O'Reilly's pastime paid off during the Northern Ontario Microbrew Festival, a new event organized by Sudbury's Stack Brewing. It took place Feb. 21 at The Grand Night Club.

His English-style dark beer beat out 28 other entries to win Stack's homebrew competition. As Home Brew Champ, O'Reilly was presented with a trophy shaped like a miniature beer keg.

He was also able to professionally produce his beer at Stack, which was in turn served at the festival. O'Reilly's beer is also for sale at the brewery.

“This is pretty cool,” he said. “I'm very happy. I wasn't expecting that at all, especially hearing there was a whole bunch more people that entered. I never thought that mine would win anything. I got lucky, I guess.”

Stack owner Shawn Mailloux said there was a lot of good entries in the competition, but O'Reilly's stood out. “It did not taste like home brew,” he said. “It tasted like it came from a production brewery.”

Beyond the crowning of the Home Brew Champ, the festival also gave people the chance to taste beers from seven breweries from across Northern Ontario, as well as spirits from a northern distillery.

Participants also had a chance to listen to a panel discussion by participating breweries as well as as talks by beer expert Mirella Amato.

Gravenhurst's Sawdust City Brewing Co. was among the breweries that made the trek to Sudbury for the festival.

Head brewer Aaron Spinney gave Stack props for organizing the event.

“It's really cool, especially in Sudbury, where you wouldn't think craft brewing's alive and flourishing,” he said. “It seems like craft beer is just everywhere now.”

Marcel Rheault of Hearst's Rheault Distillery was there too, selling whiskey and vodka samples.

“I was very happy that they asked me to come down,” he said. “I'm the only one in Northern Ontario that has a distillery. Everybody else is Southern Ontario. I have nobody to be associated with.”

Rheault said he sells his Loon Vodka in 200 LCBOs across the province, but can't yet sell his whiskey through the LCBO, because it must age another year.

Matt Alexander, who dropped in at The Grand Saturday afternoon to check out the festival, said he thought the event was “fantastic.”

He said he had plans to try several different beers, as well as Rheault's vodka and whiskey. “I'll be stumbling home,” Alexander said, laughing.