Last week Jackie O’s Brewery  out of Athens, Ohio began distribution in Cincinnati with  Cavalier. I was shocked to find both of their initial offerings, Firefly Amber and Chomo-lung-ma (honey nut brown), at my local deli last night. I couldn’t decide between the two so I decided to buy them both.

Beer Cans

The beers are in canned six packs and have a very eye-catching design. My wife and I both sampled each beer last night, starting with the Firefly Amber. I found this amber to be a bit hoppier than a traditional amber ale, but not so much that my wife (a non-IPA fan) didn’t enjoy it. In fact she said she preferred Firefly over Chomo-lung-ma, which is sweeter with the addition of wildflower honey. I found the subtle sweetness from the honey to be wonderful and preferred this beer over the Firefly.

According to Jackie O’s comment on my Instagram photo, their Mystic Mama IPA will be hitting shelves next week. I will definitely be on the lookout for that one. Additional details of Jackie O’s and reviews of these two beers are available on Queen City Drinks.

Mike over at Brew Professor has shared the following:

This hit my Facebook feed and I nearly had a heart attack. It seems a member of the craft beer community was in an accident and is currently in the ICU. Naturally, medical bills are piling up quick and an EXTREMELY generous craft beer community has donated an insane beer cellar to be raffled off. 100% of the proceeds will be given to the family. Tickets are $5 each.

He has agreed to pool together money and buy some raffle tickets. If a member of the group wins, we will somehow split the amazing beer cellar listed at the link above. I just donated to the cause and wanted to help spread the word.

The latest Cincinnati Craft Brewer’s festival took place this past weekend at the Listermann Brewing Company. From the event website, “VolksFest is a festival for the people of Cincinnati, brought to you by your favorite local craft breweries.” You may recall the StarkBier Fest I attended earlier this year, well the idea was the same with VolksFest, a celebration of Cincinnati area breweries.

Beer Truck

The breweries involved were Blank Slate, Fifty West, Christian Morelein, Rock Bottom, Rivertown, Mt.Carmel, Mad Tree, Cellar Dweller, Wiedemann, Quaff Bros, Rhinegeist, Triple Digit, and Listermann.  The idea behind Volksfest is lower ABV and session beers for the hot summer days in July.

Crowded Afternoon

Fortunately the weather was not all that hot on the day of the event, so a very large crowd was assembled by the time I finally made it over at 4:30. The festival space appeared larger than at StarkBier Fest, so there was plenty of room to spread out. Unfortunately due to a time constraint, I was only able to sample a couple of beers. I guess I’ll have another shot at the soon to be announced craft beer Oktoberfest, assuming it is happening again this year.

Cincinnati has yet another brewery open and creating great beer, Rhinegeist Brewery.

Outside

They opened two weeks ago in the old Christian Moerlein  bottling facility just two blocks north of Findlay Market on Elm Street.

Bar

They are pouring four different beers currently. I just tried Truth, their take on the very popular IPA, and I was very impressed.

Mural

My friends who have tried all of their beers are partial to Truth and Uncle, their English mild.

Brewing Equipment

The brewery space is slightly elevated but barely separated from the massive tasting area.

Huge Space

I can’t wait to check it out again and taste more of their beer offerings.

Today I was reading about The Six-Pack Project  from the author of  This Is Why I’m Drunk. Basically the idea is to get six beer bloggers from six different states to post a list of six beers  that best represents each state and/or the state’s beer culture. I first heard of this today while reading Queen City Drinks’ post for Ohio  and Hoperatives’ post for Kentucky. Tom, the author of the Queen City Drinks post, picked a couple of Cincinnati beers for his Ohio selections. This got me thinking about my favorite beers from Cincinnati. The two that he picked would also be in my list (the first two) and it didn’t take me too long to think of my other four.

• MadTree  PsycHOPathy IPA – the best IPA brewed in the Cincinnati area
• Triple Digit Chickow! – a very powerful hazelnut porter, clocks in at 10%
• Blank Slate Fork In The Road – an India amber ale, more maltier than typical IPA
• Fifty West Kelly’s Roadhouse Stout (Nitro) – just had this for the first time last week and I am still thinking about it
• Mt. Carmel Amber – the flagship beer from one of the area’s first craft breweries
• Rivertown Roebling Porter – vanilla and espresso fill this nearly black porter

So far The Six-Pack Project has had two editions, meaning twelve states have been covered. I know that I look forward to searching for some of the South Carolina beers mentioned by Drink. Blog. Repeat. on an upcoming trip to Hilton Head.  What would be in your six pack?

I was recently given a free  Draftmark Tap System  from BzzAgent for my evaluation. It didn’t come with any beer in it, but I finally got around to buying a refill bottle of Goose Island Honker’s Ale today. The store I went to had that along with Budweiser and Michelob Amber Bock refills available. Other varieties can also be found such as  Shock Top, Shock Top Wheat IPA, and Bass Pale Ale.

Honker’s Ale

The sales clerk at the store commented that not many of the Draftmark systems or refills have been sold. I had to agree with her judging from the dust that was collected on top of each box. That left me wondering about the freshness of the beer, and I could not find a born on date or expiration on the box. All it said was that the beer would stay fresh for 30 days once installed in the system. I would really like it if there were born on dates available that way you know how fresh the beer is.

Draftmark

The Draftmark operates using a rechargeable battery pack and uses air to keep the right pressure for the flow-rate. The pressurizing is a noisy process that you can hear even through the closed refrigerator door, but at least you know it is working. It was a little deep to fit on some of my refrigerator shelves, and I found it worked best on the top shelf of mine.

In The Fridge

Pouring the beer should be just as you would do with any draft beer. Start with a tilted glass, pour the beer so it falls a short distance on to the side of glass, and straighten the glass as you pour. Unfortunately I found it impossible to not get at least three fingers of head, most of the time I wound up with even more than that. Using a very bad pour form would result in nearly an entire glass of foam. It does settle quickly, but definitely not the ideal way to pour a beer.

Lots Of Head

The beer itself was nothing extraordinary, but it goes down easy. Honestly it reminded me a lot of one of my homebrews. Each refill has one gallon of beer in it, or around 8 pints. At around $15, the refills are a great deal considering what the equivalent amount would cost in a bar. I’m curious to see if the beer truly does stay fresh for a month, or could it even go longer, even though I doubt it will last that long anyway.

Yum!

Overall the Draftmark system is a neat idea. However it doesn’t seem to have caught on with the general public. And I have a couple of issues with the design and functionality. If more styles of beer were available, I could see myself using it, but with the current lineup I don’t think I will be refilling it again anytime soon.

Today I had a great day in beer acquisition. This week Founder’s released their KBS, which is basically Breakfast Stout cave-aged in oak bourbon barrels for an entire year. After a couple of near misses earlier in the week, I finally was able to buy a bottle at the Dilly Café. I would have liked to get more than one, but rules are rules and they are trying to spread the very limited supply to others. So if you are quick, there still might be some there this evening, though it was going fast.

What A Shelf

While there I also noticed that they had a pretty nice selection of Three Floyds beer available. Since their beers are still hard to find in Ohio, even though we are directly next to their home state of Indiana, these were also limited to one bottle per person. I was able to snag one each of Zombie Dust pale ale, Jinx Proof pilsener, and finally their Behemoth barley wine. I’ve had Zombie Dust a handful of times and it is a must buy when available.

My Purchases

Word on the street is that Dutch’s will be getting a case of KBS tomorrow. So I’m hoping I can score another bottle. For even more availability and a nice review check out Queen City Drinks.

Before skipping town for the majority of the weekend, I made a quick afternoon stop at the first ever Cincinnati Craft Brewer’s StarkBier Fest that took place this past Saturday at Listermann Brewing Company. This festival featured beers from local Cincinnati breweries only and most were  7.5% or higher. Fortunately small samples were available so I could try a few beers and still be able to drive out-of-town.

Beer Trucks

Among my favorites that I sampled were  Mt. Carmel Brewing Company’s latest Snapshot Series, Ardennes Belgian Quad, and Blank Slate Brewing Company’s Shroominous, which is a brown ale brewed with  shiitake mushrooms. There were also some barrel aged beers on hand such as Quaff Bros.’ Corn on the Knob and a very boozy Bourbon Barrel Aged Brown Ale from Rock Bottom.

Live Entertainment

The festival had a nice little crowd during my early afternoon visit, but from pictures that I’ve seen online it got much more crowded. Though I missed the Cincinnati Craft Beer Oktoberfest completely, I’ve also read very favorable reviews. It too was held at Listermann’s and I hope that they continue with these mini beer festivals. They not only are pouring some great beer, there is also live entertainment, food trucks on site, and it is all family friendly. It makes for a great way to spend your Saturday.

Fifty West Logo

To kick off my birthday weekend I finally made it to Fifty West Brewing Company, which has been operating out of the old Heritage Restaurant space on Route 50 since late last year. The historic building that now houses the brewery was built in 1827 and while it still has some of its original charm a lot of work has been put into modernizing the structure. It is really beautiful both inside and out.

Outside

My parents, my brother, and his girlfriend would all be joining my wife, son, and I for the evening. We asked about a table for the seven of us and were shown to a side room where two large tables take up the majority of the space. It is a little disconnected from the rest of the bar and restaurant, but it would work perfect for our rather large group. I grabbed a snifter of their bourbon barrel aged Horse and Buggy scotch ale from the bar while the staff worked to prepare our table. My first beer at the brewery was excellent and the evening was off to a great start!

Tap Wall

Once our table was set we all moved back to the side room for some additional beer sampling. Thanks to a sampling tray I was able to quickly get a taste of a handful of their 14 different beers available. Other favorites of mine included Gaddy’s Irish Red, Alternate Route German style brown ale, the Loneliest Road stout, and finally the Punch You in the EyePA.

Sampler Tray

While enjoying the beers we were treated to complimentary dough pretzels while we looked over the newly added food menu, which features mostly tapas style small plates that are meant for sharing. My favorite of what we ordered was easily the roasted poblano pepper ($8)  that is stuffed with house chicken chorizo queso fresco and topped with citrus crema. The red sauce that blanketed the pepper had a nice kick to it that really spiced up the dish.

Roasted Poblano

We also shared smoked salmon guacamole ($7) and an order of their “potato skins” ($6), which features twice baked Yukon Gold potatoes filled with house boursin cheese, parsnips, house bacon, and roasted garlic before being finished with a balsamic fig reduction. The skins were tasty, but the serving size was very small and hard to share with our larger group.

“Potato Skins”

Other items of note that I observed during our stay. The music being played throughout the bar and restaurant spaces is all on vinyl and comes from a record player near the bar. There is a shuffle board table hidden between the bar and the bathrooms. A window into the brewery can also be viewed on the same walk toward the bathrooms. The beer list is constantly changing and appears on large chalk boards with descriptions of each.

Brewery

Beer List

It is still hard for me to believe that it took me this long to check out Fifty West. It easily met my expectations and I honestly hope it doesn’t take me as long to make a repeat appearance.

I had quite a weekend as far as sampling IPA’s goes. My dad came over on Saturday to help with a home improvement project that I will likely be spending a ton of my free time on before our new baby comes in the next month or so. But that is a topic for another time. During a break in the action we cracked open a couple of bottles of my remaining stash of Bell’s Hopslam. I will admit now that the 10% beer probably isn’t the best beer to have before doing any work with power tools, but the only real damaged items were a couple of broken drill bits.

Once our work for the day was complete we sampled Great Lakes new double IPA, Alchemy Hour. Though I didn’t like it as much as my bottle of Hopslam I had earlier, there is a  noticeable  sweetness that both beers share. And even though it doesn’t live up to Hopslam, this is still a very solid beer and is one that you can still buy in stores today, unlike Hopslam which hasn’t been available for at least a month.

Alchemy Hour

From there I opened a bottle of the very fresh Enjoy By 04.01.13 from Stone. This was my second time trying the Enjoy By series and I have to admit that the novelty has worn off a bit for me. It felt more unique when the 11.09.12 batch only went to two states. This batch went out to nearly twenty states! With that said, it is still an excellent IPA with a very fresh hop flavor. I bet there are still a few bottles of this around Cincinnati and it is available on tap too. In fact I’m heading out in a few minutes to get a some from the Cock and Bull in Hyde Park.

Enjoy By 04.01.13

On Sunday we were celebrating my grandmother’s 87th birthday. The party was at my grandparents’ house, which always means BYOB. This finally gave me the chance to crack open one of my cans of Heady Topper from The Alchemist. This is one of the highest rated IPA’s out there. In order for me to get my hands on it I had to trade some beer with a friend who lives in the northeast. I received four cans of Heady Topper, four cans of Gandhi Bot, and four cans of  668 Neighbor Of The Beast in exchange for a couple six packs of Hopslam, which he cannot get in his state.

Beer Trade

The Heady Topper was my first beer at the party on Sunday evening and it was delicious! I don’t know for sure that I can say it is my favorite IPA of all time, but it is definitely up there. Picking just one favorite is something that I’ve never been able to do and I don’t see that changing even with such an amazing beer. After a can of Heady I decided to mix it up and try one of the cans of Gandhi-Bot, a double IPA from New England Brewing. This was nearly just as good as the Heady and another example of an excellent double IPA.

I still have extra cans and bottles of all  these beers which I will probably start putting a dent in this coming weekend. It is always a good idea to drink IPA’s fresh and often.