October means it’s Cleveland Beer Week! The week kicks off on October 14th with “Grains vs. Grapes” at the Crowne Plaza with Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and Marianne Franz of the American Wine School doing their best to make a pairing with Michael Symon’s menu that will wow you! The week continues with events all over town including various beer dinners, tastings, special keg tappings, featured breweries and brewers, etc. There will be a Beer Sensory Evaluation Class at Willoughby Brewing, a special beer and cheese pairing event at the Market Garden Brewery, a beer tasting train ride, and many, many more events. The week culminates with Brewzilla, a monster beer tasting, on October 22 at the Galleria. To find a list of all the events, and to purchase tickets for those events that require it, see their web site at www.clevelandbeerweek.org.
New this year will be a basic pale ale recipe formulated by Matt Cole (Fat Head’s brewer) and Andy Tveekrum (Market Garden brewer) that will be brewed by 14 area brewers, each with a different hop variety. All of these will be served at one location at Brewzilla, and are not allowed to be poured prior to Brewzilla. The brewers chose their hop variety in a blind drawing. Participating are: Chardon Brew Works, Fat Head’s, Cornerstone, Market Garden Brewery, Great Lakes Brewing, Rocky River Brewing, Black Box, Willoughby Brewing, Lager Heads, Buckeye Brewing, Ohio Brewing, Thirsty Dog, Brew Kettle, and Cellar Rats. Same recipe, 14 different hops!
The 2011 Oktoberfest Microbrew Competition held each year at the Berea fairgrounds saw yet another Best of Show award for Brew Kettle Production Works for their Rauchtoberfest, a smoked Märzen. Their Oktoberfest took 2nd place in the classic Oktoberfest category. In other news, the White Rajah IPA is now out in bottles and their next 6-pack offering will probably be their Winter Warmer and a new version of their porter.
The 14th Annual Microbrew Extravaganza to benefit the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland will be on Friday, November 11, again at Massimo da Milano on Cleveland’s near west side. For more info, or to purchase tickets, go to www.thefreeclinic.org. This is always a good time. Good food, good beer, good music, good raffle prizes, good cause…what more could you want?
Hoppin’ Frog Brewery is celebrating their five year anniversary with the release of their first barley wine, called Barrel Aged Naked Evil Belgian Barleywine. It is billed as an “evil concoction of savory flavors and substantial alcohol that is hard to resist.” It is aged in oak barrels adding a vanilla note to give it a combination of spicy and savory flavors. Available now, but in limited quantities, this one should keep well for aging in your cellar.
Also available in limited quantities is Canadian whiskey barrel-aged BORIS Royale. Look for the Hop Dam Triple IPA for Cleveland Beer Week, at beer week events and at the brewery. The Hop Dam Triple IPA will be Hoppin’ Frog’s super hoppy offering for the IPA Festival at Fat Head’s on Saturday, October 8. Hoppin’ Frog will also be participating in numerous CBW events, beer dinners, beer pairings, and, of course, Brewzilla.
Toward mid-October, Hoppin’ Frog will have their Fresh Frog Raw Hop Imperial Pale Ale for 2011, made with fresh hops – all locally grown. Get it while it’s in season! Other seasonals include Frosted Frog Christmas Ale starting November 1, and a very limited amount of Barrel Aged Frosted Frog Christmas Ale December 1.
Matt Cole of Fat Head’s Brewery and Saloon was recently chosen, along with brewers from Bell’s, Bend Brewing, Stone, and Firestone Walker to travel to England and brew a special collaboration beer. He will brew at Britain’s oldest brewery, Shepherd Neame in Kent, which dates back to 1698. Cole was to brew an English summer ale called Yakima Sun. He brewed about 4,000 barrels (or 800 kegs). It will all be served in J.D. Weatherspoon pubs in England. However, Cole plans to brew it again here in time for Cleveland Beer Week.
Weasel Boy Brewing Company is gearing up for the cooler weather of October and November with a few special beers and events. Fresh back from attending the GABF in late September Weasel Boy will be and preparing for their fourth annual Halloween costume ball Fright Night at the Brewery on Saturday, October 29. Full costumes, live music and special beers from the cellar highlight the evening. Special tappings will include the 2010 GABF Bronze medal winning 2009 Anastasia Russian Imperial Stout among others.
Thanksgiving week brings Weasel Boy’s third annual Harvest Week Celebration. Live music and special beer releases every night will highlight the week. Dark as night beers will be the theme of this year’s Harvest Week Celebration and releases will include Bourbon Barrel Aged Anastasia tipping the scale at almost 10% abv, 2011 Anastasia Russian Imperial Stout, 2011 Snow Ermine Holiday Ale, which is a honey/vanilla/chocolate porter, and the brand new Dark Weasel Mint Chocolate Stout.
Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. has finished its 2011 expansion, which means it now has a 20,000 barrel capacity just in time for release of their Pumpkin Ale and the October 22nd release of the 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale. Also they will release a limited amount of rare 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale aged for nine months in 19 year old bourbon barrels. Look for this beer also to be featured in Denver at the rare beer tasting on Friday of GABF week at Wynkoop Brewery. For Cleveland Beer Week and Brewzilla, they will release their new 330 Summit IPA. Summit County is 330 area code and only Summit hops will be used, hence the name of this new 70 IBU beer.
Willoughby Brewing Co. is busily brewing two batches of their Pumpkinhead Ale to be ready for early October. Watch also for their Cask Ale Blowout on Tuesday, October 18. For the first time in quite a few years, Willoughby is entering the GABF. They’ve entered five beers that they will also be pouring from the show floor.
Jackie O’s in Athens is also working on some interesting new brews. First is a Greek dessert-inspired brew called Baklava Braggot. It is brewed with local honey, walnuts, and lemon verbena, and fermented with a blend of Belgian and American ale yeasts, and conditioned on cinnamon sticks. Barking Pumpkin is brewed with organic pie pumpkins grown on Jackie O’s farm, some brown sugar, and spiced with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, and allspice. Also to be released in October will be Funky Gold Verbena, a light golden ale brewed with heaps of organic lemon verbena, also grown on their farm. Burnin’ Hill will be a smoked amber ale brewed with peated malt, local honey, and local maple syrup. Brewer Brad Clark is a busy guy! He’s also planning a Scottish Ale, a big malty fall warmer made with tons of caramel malts, a long boil, a touch of peated malt, and fermented in the low 60’s to keep the fruity ale yeast esters at bay. Lastly, he bringing back his signature robust porter, Smoked and Portered, which has a healthy dose of smoked German malt. Jackie O’s has also started serving two nitro versions of their brews at the pub. Time for another visit to Athens, it seems. They are planning to participate in a few Cleveland Beer Week events at Rozi’s and the Beer Engine and maybe others. Check the calendar.
Portsmouth Brewing Company brewmaster Tony Thompson has a new apprentice, Emily Uldrich. They are planning on start up a bottling line in the next few months and begin distributing their beer which has previously only been available at their brewpub.
Main Street Grille & Brewery in Garrettsville now has a new brewmaster in Joe Kearns.