Don’t miss last call at Cask Days, the king of beer fests

Back in the mid-2000s, the folks at Bar Volo began a small-batch beer event on their patio and called it Cask Days. The mini-festival—which takes its name from the few days that unfiltered, unpasteurized, naturally carbonated, cask-conditioned ales are best for drinking (geeky explanation here)—eventually expanded to Hart House before moving to its current home, the Evergreen Brick Works, where it’s celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend. There will be music, food and art, but, of course, the main attraction is the beer—and lots of it. This year’s event will feature 300 different beers and ciders, many of them original one-offs, from a ridiculously long list of breweries across Canada, the United Kingdom and California. Here’s the catch: the fest’s three regular sessions are already sold out, so anyone without a ticket will have to hold out for Sunday’s “last call,” an open-admission afternoon that will run until the beer stops flowing. The brews may not be quite as fresh, but, hey, it’s still beer.

Oct. 26. $5 admission. Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave., 416-596-1495, caskdays.com.