Kudos
The last couple of months have honored Ohio’s fine brews (and brewers) in a number of venues. February’s Winter Warmer Festival at Cleveland’s Rock Bottom Brewery had Northeast Ohio’s breweries pouring their biggest and best beers. The People’s Choice award for best beer was Frog Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale from Hoppin’ Frog Brewery. Coming in second was Hoppin’ Frog’s Hop Dam Triple IPA. This was truly an awesome beer with massive amounts of Amarillo and summit hops! Ratebeer.com has recently honored Hoppin’ Frog brewer Fred Karm as one of the best brewers in the world at #24 in their top 100, out of over 9,000 brewers rated. Look for the April release of DORIS the Destroyer, a double imperial stout, which will be a darker, stronger, and hoppier transmogrification of the gold-medal-winning BORIS the Crusher.
Also voted one of the top beers in the People’s Choice awards was another hoppy favorite, Head Hunter IPA from Fat Head’s Brewery and Saloon. This is the same Head Hunter IPA that Draft Magazine recently picked as one of its top 25 beers in the world for 2010! As this is being written, the Brewing News National IPA Championships are in progress, and Head Hunter IPA is in the final “elite eight” from a field of 128 IPAs from across the US.
Cole’s Restaurant and Bar in Buffalo, New York, recently held its 5th Annual Barleywine Competition. This competition included barleywines from all over the U.S., and the Jackhammer Barleywine from BREW Kettle Taproom and Smokehouse won the title of best barleywine in America!
It should also be noted, while were counting the “bests” in Ohio, that two other Ohio brewers, Great Lakes Brewing (#35) and Barley’s (#74) made Ratebeer’s top 100 brewers list. Also Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. reports that they have received three medals at the 2009 World Beer Championships; a gold for its Siberian Night Russian Imperial Stout, and silver medals for both Old Leghumper Robust Porter and 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale.
What’s on Tap?
Matt Cole at Fat Head’s is busily working on more potential award-winning beers with the return of his VooDoo Monkey Chocolate Stout, a brew made with Belgian chocolate, milk sugar and Madagascar vanilla. Then watch for variations including a Caribou coffee version called Shock the Monkey, a hazelnut version called Monkey Nuts, and a bourbon-aged version called Barrel Of Monkeys. Cole is also getting a reputation for his excellent lagers, including upcoming brews such as SpringFest, a toasty German style Landbier; GudenHoppy Pils, a crisp, snappy lager that packs a Hallertau and Saaz hop bite at 44 IBUs. Their Goggle Fogger Hefeweizen is now on tap and will remain so due to popular demand, along with BumbleBerry the light refreshing blueberry brew. Sonoma Aroma IPA will make a return in April in time for Buckeye’s 420 Hop Fest.
Buckeye Beer Engine is having its fourth annual 420 Hop Fest from April 16 through April 20 with an enormous selection of pale ales, IPAs, other hoppy treats, and an IPA challenge. On Tuesday, April 13, the Beer Engine will host a beer/food pairing dinner featuring Clipper City from Baltimore, Maryland. These spectacular six course dinners are just $50, tax and gratuity included. Beer Engine continues with its 9 pm Tuesday keg tappings. The big news is their new brewing system and bottler are now online. They will focus on Hippie, ’76 IPA, and Bling Bling Pale Ale, and will release Aquarius Double IPA in April.
Visit the BREW Kettle soon and you may find some Blarney Stone Irish Stout left from St Patrick’s Day, a Spalt Bomb Pils, and a strong Scotch ale. Also upcoming is an imperial stout to be bottled and distributed by May. What I’m looking forward to are a couple of limited edition kegs of Cherry Sour, and maybe some other sour, farmhouse, and funky beers they are working on. Speaking of sour ales, Indigo Imp Brewery should have the sour version of their Gatekeeper (porter) for sale in their store by mid April.
Weasel Boy Brewing Company is welcoming the spring weather by taking part in several special events and with the release of two seasonal offerings. The first weekend of April the brewery will celebrate ‘National Ferret Day’ with some fun promos and great entertainment. Check their website for details and performers: www.weaselboybrewing.com
In May, Weasel Boy will be pulling out two of their bourbon barrel-aged beers for a Bourbon Barrel Beer Fest to be held at Jackie O’s Brewery in Athens. For the occasion brewers Jay and Lori Wince have a barrel aged Brown Stoat Stout and a barrel aged Super Genius Barelywine. On May 22, Weasel Boy will be participating in the 8th annual Mini Real Ale Festival to be held at Barley’s Smokehouse and Brewpub in Columbus. This festival is an all cask ale festival that features real ale from a number of breweries from Ohio and beyond. Weasel Boy will be taking a firkin of their Dancing Ferret IPA dry hopped in the cask with warrior and summit Hops.
Seasonal beer releases for the late spring include the third annual installment of Wiesel Junge Koelsch followed by the brewery’s immensely popular Mango Wheat that debuted last July at Ohio Brew Week in Athens.
Brewery News
Ohio Brewing Company reports their brewery is nearing its completion in downtown Akron and is targeted for an April opening with a bottling line to follow. Their planned brewpub, OBC’s Pub and Grille, will likely be located in the Merriman Valley area of Akron, but nothing is set in stone for opening date as yet. In the meantime, Ohio Brewing’s beers are widely available and being distributed by Tramonte Distributing.
Rocky River Brewing Co. has just installed new beer towers that will allow them to server eight of their own beers plus four guest beers. Upcoming in April and May are Hoptimus Prime, an Imperial IPA, Hell of a Bock, a Mai bock, and Clocktower Wheat.
Elevator Brewing Company, in the 14 months since moving from Marysville to downtown Columbus, has nearly doubled its overall beer production. They have also added a monthly specialty beer program to accompany a massively popular one already in place, introduced a barrel-aged series and brewery tours, hosted two homebrew competitions, and purchased a mechanical bottling line.
In January, the brewery unveiled its Professor of Hearty Drinking (PHD) program. Coupled with the existing Masters of Beer Appreciation (MBA) curriculum, the brewery will release 24 limited small batch brews in 2010, in addition to the ten always on tap at the Elevator Restaurant. Dick Stevens, Elevator owner, proudly refers to his establishment as “The School of Beer.”
The brains behind the beers are Masterbrewer Vic Schiltz and Brewer Mark Beery (yes, that’s his real name). Schiltz designed the recipes for Elevator’s year-round beers, and is also responsible for the MBA batches; Beery has been officially unleashed to concoct the 12 PHD selections. Potions planned for exclusive release include a Smoked Porter, Chocolate Cherry Wheat and an Eisbock. Schiltz makes his magic at the Elevator Brewery, while Beery operates on a 3.5-hectoliter system two blocks west at the Elevator Restaurant. (You can’t really call it a brewpub; the restaurant is housed in a landmark building recognized by the National Register of Historic Places, and the renowned menu includes items such as a filet cooked table-side on a tulikivi stone.)
With Elevator’s new bottling line now in operation, their products are becoming available throughout central Ohio. The current runaway success is Horny Goat, a smooth porter aged for three months in whiskey barrels, which is the first entry in a planned barrel-aged series, with more surprises to come in 2010.
Beer Fests
Friday, April 23 will be Beer on the Vine, a beer/food pairing event at Cellar Rats Brewery in Madison, which will include beer from four area breweries, and a tour of the wine cellars and brewery.
Saturday, April 24, will be the first Big Tap In, a craft beer festival in Boardman. For details check their website. (www.bigtapin.com). It promises 30-40 breweries, 20 food vendors, a general session, and VIP session, all coordinated by Vintage Estates Wine and Beverage.
The Erie Microbrew Festival will be held on April 17 (www.wqln.org); mentioned here because of participation by several Ohio breweries. Main Street Grill and Brewery will be there, pouring Aphrodite (Belgian chocolate maple oatmeal imperial cream stout), Kevin’s Big A.R.S. (Big A – - Rye Smoked) Imperial Porter, Black Watch Ale (a heather ale with peat smoked malt), and Early Christmas (12 Daze of Christmas-Belgian quad style aged on dried cranberries). See website for details: www.msg-brew.com.
To celebrate American Craft Beer Week and to showcase the art of craft brewing, Fat Head’s will host their first annual Heavyweight Brewers Brawl on Saturday May 22 which will feature over 50 extreme brews from 25 craft breweries.
Marietta Brewing closed in December 2009, but was scheduled to reopen on March 19, so should be back open by now.