Archive for the 'Beer' Category

Dutch’s Blackout Lukemia Tapping
Friday, June 1st, 2012 No Comments Beer

Last night I took a walk down to Dutch’s  for a tapping event benefiting the  Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with proceeds going to help  fund the fight against blood cancers. For the event, they tapped  all five beers of the Dark Horse Holiday Stout Series, 2012 Stone Imperial Russian Stout, Epic Brewing Big Bad Baptist, and Dogfish Head Black & Blue.

I started my tasting with Epic’s Big Bad Baptist. This is ranked as a world-class beer on BeerAdvocate and it did not disappoint. There was quite a bit of coffee flavors, so beware if you aren’t much of a coffee fan. However I really enjoyed the coffee flavors as well as the subtle tastes from the barrel aging process.

Next I sampled the Tres Blueberry Stout from Dark Horse on suggestion from a friend in attendance. I could smell the blueberry as the beer was being poured from tap. However, on first state the beer wasn’t nearly as sweet as I had expected. It seems that most of the blueberry is in the nose, with just faint fruit flavors in the taste to go along with the dark chocolate and coffee flavors. It’s a unique beer that is worth trying.

Finally I had a glass of the Stone Imperial Russian Stout, another world-class beer from BA. This was not nearly as coffee flavored as the other two, with much more chocolate and burnt malt taste. The alcohol taste is also more prevalent than in the others. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Big Bad Baptist, but still a very solid beer.

It was a great event with some really wonderful beers available. As I spend a lot of time trying a wide variety of craft beer, I’m hoping to make beer a more prominent feature here on the blog.

Bockfest 2012
Monday, March 5th, 2012 No Comments Beer | Events

This past weekend I was able to finally attend my first Bockfest. According to their website, “Bockfest is a celebration of historic Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati’s brewing heritage and the coming of spring.” In my own words I would say that it is a really big party, second only to Oktoberfest.

The Goat!

After a scary storm ripped through the area on Friday afternoon, I was a little unsure of the status of the Bockfest parade that evening that would kick of the weekend of events. As it turns out, nothing stops Bockfest, and I was glad to hear it. Kim, Trey, and I made a quick decision to get downtown so that we could catch the parade up Main Street.

More Goat

Christian Moerlein Beer Truck

CEO of Christian Moerlein, Greg Hardman

I held Trey for most of the 30 minute parade, so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked, but it was a fun way to kick off the night. All of the local bars were serving various bock beers in plastic cups so the crowd could enjoy them outside on the sidewalk while enjoying the parade.

Once the parade was over we spent some time on the back patio of the new Mayberry location hanging with friends and enjoying more drinks. Later in the night I went out with some of my friends to some of the other participating venues nearby to sample other beers and party with thousands. I never made it to the Bockfest Hall, which was my only disappointment of the night. I heard that it was really crowded though, so perhaps skipping it wasn’t a bad thing. Next year I do hope to see the inside of the hall though. Put it in your calendar now to join me, the first weekend of March.

Cincinnati Winter Beer Fest
Monday, February 13th, 2012 2 Comments Beer | Events

I spent the majority of the last weekend down at the Duke Energy Convention Center for both nights of the fifth annual Cincinnati Winter Beer Fest and the first 5B: Believers in Better Beer, Bites, and Blogging Conference, which  I hope will become an annual event. In addition to great presentations and conversations, the 5B offered cheap admission to both nights of the Beer Fest. I will write more about the conference in future posts, but for now I will keep my focus on the Beer Fest itself.

A couple of things I saw that need immediate attention are the overall lack of organization to the entire event, and the extreme crowds that were present on Saturday night. Fortunately there were so few people in attendance on Friday night, that I was able to sample nearly everything that I wanted in just one night. Top beers for me included the Tazza Mia Espresso IPA from Rock Bottom Cincinnati, as well as the X-Hop IPA from Fat Head’s  and D.O.R.I.S. the Destroyer Double Imperial Stout from Hoppin’ Frog. It was also nice to have some special release beers from local breweries Rivertown, Listermann, and the soon to open Blank Slate. I also have come to the conclusion that I do not care for cask conditioned IPA’s.

Packed House For Beer Fest

On the organizational front, it all starts with the terrible website that is in place for the event. Not only is it flash based, but navigating the site to find information is nearly impossible. No where is it mentioned if food would be served inside. A map of the festival was promised on one page but was never posted, or if it was I could never find it. Once inside the event center, there were signs directing people where to go based on their ticket type, but I was given the wrong type of wristband on the first  night and completely missed the  connoisseur session that I had paid extra for. I had assumed that it would be inside the main festival floor, but when I finally tracked down a map I could not find the connoisseur section listed. Turns out it was on a separate floor away from the rest of the festival.

Obviously I will likely still attend an event like this in the future, but it doesn’t hurt to hope for some improvements that are much needed. And if a stricter limit isn’t placed on the number of tickets sold for each night, I would definitely opt to skip the Saturday night session. It was much too crowded and every single booth had at least a ten minute wait for a beer. Plus a number of breweries ran out of beer before closing, some even packing up their booth and heading home early. I joined them and was back home by 10pm on Saturday night after having tasted less than ten beers on the main festival floor.

Cincy Beerfest Cake

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