Ohio brought home four medals from the Great American Beer Festival this year. Fat Head’s Brewery and Saloon won gold medal in the Baltic-style porter category for their Battle-Axe Baltic Porter and a bronze for their Head Hunter IPA (which won a silver medal last year). Hoppin’ Frog Brewery won a gold medal for BORIS the Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout (which also won gold in 2008). Hoppin’ Frog also won the bronze medal in the wood and barrel aged strong beer category for their Barrel Aged Naked Evil Belgian Barleywine, their first barley-wine brewed in celebration of their five-year anniversary. Congratulations to these two fine breweries!
October also saw the return of Fat Head’s annual IPA festival: Celebration of the Hop. This year’s winners were Eric Bean of Columbus Brewing Co. in the double IPA category with his Bohdi Double IPA, and Jack Kephart of the Brew Kettle Production Works with his White Rajah for the IPA category. White Rajah also took Best of Show. The People’s Choice award went to Columbus Brewing’s Super Fresh H-O-P wet-hopped IPA, part of their Hop Odyssey series of beers. The competition included hoppy beers from breweries across the nation. Kudos to these guys, too!
With the holidays and snowy season approaching, look for the beers to get darker and stronger. We need to keep warm! BrewKettle will have their Winter Warmer Christmas Ale available in six-packs at local stores along with their Four Cs Pale Ale and White Rajah IPA. At the Brew Kettle Taproom and Smokehouse in December and January look for Kitka Coconut Chocolate Milk Stout, Spalt Bomb Pilsner and of course their Winter Warmer Christmas Ale.
Cornerstone Brewing Co. says the holiday season means lots of things including warm tidings of joy, laughter and cheer, overbearing families, crying children and Christmas shopping, when all we really want to do is sit back and enjoy some holiday brews. Brewer Jay Cox suggests that a growler of Xmas Ale might be the answer you are looking for; the perfect gift and it’s refillable! Along with their infamous Xmas Ale they will have some upcoming brews that embrace the snowy season that will soon be upon us, such as the Rusty Pheasant Rye ale, the imperial porter by the name of Big Sexy and other such brews that have not been thought up yet or brewed before.
At Market Garden Brewery, they have laid in a goodly store of firewood to keep the indoor and outdoor fireplaces going. Stop in for a pint or two of their Festivus Ale, which is spiced with ginger, cinnamon, allspice, vanilla beans and some muscovado sugar, and is about 8% abv. As the winter progresses they will beef up the beer list with some bigger beers like Cleveland Illuminator Doppelbock, big malt flavor and very smooth, and their Winter Porter at 10% abv, and bold in every way. Also Trouble, a homebrew recipe favorite of brewer Andy Tveekrem for many years, will make its commercial debut. It is a strong honey India pale ale at 7.5%. Most of the honey ferments out and makes for a dry, delicious, and hoppy ale.
Elevator Brewing Company in Columbus is gearing up for the third annual release of Horny Goat. This porter is aged for three months in whiskey barrels, provided this year by the esteemed Woodford Reserve Distillery. Production of Horny Goat doubled in 2011 from 20 to 40 barrels. The brewery is targeting a January 1, 2012, release. And for December, the specialty beers on tap at the historic Elevator Restaurant include a Barrel-Aged Chocolate Oatmeal Stout and the reprise of Elevator’s popular Yule Lager.
Other breweries offering winter and/or holiday beers include Rocky River Brewing’s Santa’s Lil Helper Christmas Ale, Reindeer Red, and an oatmeal stout in time for Christmas. Maumee Bay Brewing has already released their 2011 version of Blitzen, and Ohio Brewing has their Jingle Bell Ale available in draft and in six-packs. Chardon Brew Works has an interestingly named holiday ale called the Third Gift which they explain with a story about the three wise men’s gifts being gold, frankincense, and beer . . . so we never have to wonder “What the heck is myrrh?” anymore.
Weasel Boy Brewing has a most unusual beer on tap, Dark Weasel Mint Chocolate Stout which is aged on cacao nibs and infused with chocolate mint. This, along with the return of their Snow Ermine Holiday Ale, which is a honey vanilla porter aged on cacao nibs, means a visit to Zanesville for me.
All in all it looks to be an interesting winter for Ohio beer-lovers. No events were submitted for December and January, but I’m hoping the Winter Warmer Fest, traditionally in late February or early March, will return for its 7th year.
Did you enjoy Cleveland Beer Week in October? It’s the highlight of the year for Northeast Ohio beer-lovers. This year did not disappoint. There were so many events all over the region that it was impossible to catch them all, but I hope you got to a few of them. Highlights for me were Brewzilla – the monster beer tasting, the “Grains vs. Grapes” event with Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery, the beer and cheese event at the Market Garden, and the Winking Lizard/Magic Hat liquid scavenger hunt. I heard that I missed a few great beer dinners, though. Plan now to attend next year.