There are three events coming up in Ohio that you won’t want to miss. First is the 6th Annual Blues and Brews at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron. This event is always a popular one with its gorgeous outdoor setting (with tents in case of rain). Held on August 7th this year, ticket information can be found at www.stanhywet.org. Most Ohio breweries will be represented along with the best of the rest from local distributors. You can stroll the beautiful gardens, sip your beer, enjoy cooking demonstrations, food fare from the Winking Lizard, and listen to local musicians. Get a Brewer’s Circle ticket for an extra two hours of sampling and some exclusive beers!
Then there are two upcoming events in the Cincinnati area. On August 27-28 there will be the Cincinnati Brew Ha Ha, which combines a beer fest with comedy. Best of all the admission is free, the comedy is free, and the beer can be bought by the sample or by the glass. More information at www.cincybrewhaha.com .
On September 18 and 19, you will find what claims to be the nation’s largest and most authentic Oktoberfest, Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati USA. It’s an outdoor festival held on Fifth Street in downtown “Zinzinnati” that showcases the rich German heritage of southwestern Ohio, as well as tasty samples of German-style music, food and beer. First held some 34 years ago, it has grown to about 500,000 people attending each year. Check www.oktoberfestzinzinnati.com for details.
Hoppin’ Frog keeps releasing new seasonal beers every month or two to keep things fun for the brewery and for you! The recent release of their Turbo Shandy Citrus Ale is their most abstract beer to date; great for the heat of summer, and will be available through September. Then, Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale comes out again early September. With its assertive pumpkin pie flavor from nine spices picked just right and lots of roasted pumpkin from their own ovens, it will go quickly and hopefully will be available through November. During September, Hoppin’ Frog’s brewers are planning to make a few batches of Fresh Frog RAW HOP Imperial Pale Ale, with its excellent hoppy character from uncured, raw hops, which are only available during the hop harvest season.
Fat Heads Brewery and Saloon has two new 20-barrel fermenters which are now up and running to keep up with the increasing demand for their award-winning beers. Soon to be added will be a bottling machine. With the increased production capacity, Head Hunter IPA will begin appearing on draft in select beer bars around Cleveland and Pittsburgh. The bourbon barrel-aged Battle Axe Baltic Porter and bourbon-aged Up-In-Smoke Porter will be pouring soon. Look also for a new batch of the regular Up-In-Smoke Porter, which won a silver medal in last year’s Great American Beer Fest and more Battle Axe. Also returning soon will be the much awaited Hop Juju Imperial IPA. Watch their website or Facebook for details on their Octoberfest celebration towards the end of September.
The Brew Kettle Taproom & Smokehouse will soon be releasing Black Jack Porter and Erie Gold American Wheat Ale in bottles. Look for the Brew Kettle at the GABF this year, as they are participating in this year’s Collaborative Evil competition. Each year a base style is chosen, and each participating brewery creates their own version of the chosen beer recipe and the results are judged. Matt Cole of Fat Head’s will also be participating.
Thirsty Dog Brewing Company, sponsor of the aforementioned Blues & Brews Festival on August 7, is looking forward to opening a new tap room in October. It will feature 12 taps for sampling, two beer engines, and a 30 seat bar area. Their new Hop Dog double IPA that will only be available on draft will be featured at the new tap room.
Indigo Imp has three new members of the Imp family, but it is a limited release, so get them now. They are: Candi-Man, a Belgian style double brewed in the style of an Abbey ale with traditional Belgian candi-sugar at 7.2% abv , Devil’s Wit, a light golden wheat beer with hints of spice and orange at 5.2% abv, and Firebrand, a Belgian style India pale ale at 6.8% abv. This last one is an “Impish” take on the classic India Pale Ale, with the malt and hop flavors balanced by the Belgian yeast, ending in a pleasant bitterness. All are brewed with the same Belgian yeast in Indigo Imp’s open fermenters, but each is quite different.
At Jackie O’s in early September they will be throwing a bottle release for two or three limited high gravity/ barrel aged beers in conjunction with a barrel-aged beer festival that will feature over 40 barrel-aged beers on tap and in the bottle collectively. Brewer Brad Clark has been collecting kegs for a year now and the selection promises to be top notch!
Seasonals to look for will be Sarah Wheat which is a cherry wheat ale at 6.5% abv, Sun Village Wheat, an India pale wheat brewed with Amarillo hops at 7% abv, and Wheat’s Up, a light bodied wheat ale brewed with coriander and paradise seed, and dry hopped with palisade hops at 4.5% abv. Dark Apparition Russian imperial stout at 10.5% abv and Matriarch double IPA at 8.5% abv will also be on draft through August.
Ohio Brewing Company hopes to open their brewery on High Street in Akron by August 1. Currently their beers are being contract brewed and are still widely available. The new location at 451 S. High Street is in the historic Selle building, and will be just a microbrewery with no restaurant or pub on premises. They do plan to be open to the public for tours.
Lastly, but certainly not least, get ready for Cleveland Beer Week, October 15-23. This year promises to be even bigger and better than last year. The Ohio Craft Brewer’s Association has organized a collaboration that will produce six custom beers packaged specifically for Cleveland Beer Week. CBW will open on Friday, October 15 with an official keg tapping and dinner featuring guest speakers: Sam Calagione, internationally renowned brewer, founder of Dogfish Head, and co-author of He Said Beer, She Said Wine; Marianne Franz, president of the both the American and Cleveland Wine Schools; and master of ceremonies Jimmy Malone, of Cleveland radio’s WMJI. Calagione and Franz will discuss craft beers and wines they have selected to complement a multi-course menu created by Michael Symon, renowned Cleveland chef and past winner of the Iron Chef competition on the Food Network. There will be hundreds of events over the course of the week, including a Son of BREWzilla homebrew competition sponsored by the Society of Northeast Ohio Brewers (SNOBS) and culminating with BREWzilla, a monster of a beer tasting on Saturday, October 23 at the Galleria in downtown Cleveland. Bookmark www.clevelandbeerweek.org for all the latest information and details.
Check the events calendar so you don’t miss any of the summer beer festivals and events.