Winter Warmer 2013 Recap

On Saturday, February 23rd, my wife and I attended the 7th Annual Winter Warmer Fest at Windows on the River.   This year the space was spread out to three different areas, two indoor and one outdoor. This allowed the event to not feel as crowded as in years past.  The two indoor areas contained 25 different craft breweries from Ohio, while the outside area was set up for the cask ales.

7th Annual Winter Warmer Fest Info/Giveaway

On Saturday, February 23rd from 2-6pm the Ohio Craft Brewers Association will be putting on the 7th Annual Winter Warmer Fest at Windows on the River.    The fest will feature breweries from all over Ohio.  This fest always brings out some of the tastiest cask, winter and big beers that our Ohio brewers have to offer.   You'll also have a chance to meet and talk with many of the Brewers themselves at this event.  

This year there are some positive changes happening that I think you'll all be pleased with.  First, the event will be taking up a larger amount of space this year which will allow the fest to grow in size, but also offer more room for attendees to walk around.   Next, for the first time ever, the event will feature an indoor/outdoor set up.   The outdoor set up will feature a Cask Area.  Many of those brews are still TBA, but we do know which breweries have committed to the fest.   Here is a list of what we know so far, I'll update it as I get more information.

CASK Area
Brew Kettle: TBA
Buckeye: Liquid Foodie Truck Stop
Cellar Rats: BBA Rye Rat
Columbus: TBA
Cornerstone: Basil IPA
Elevator: Coffee Infused Double Oatmeal Stout
Fat Heads: "No Jolokia" Imperial Stout
Great Lakes: Phoenix Coffee Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
Hoppin' Frog: Barrel Aged BORIS the Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout
Thirsty Dog: Coffee Infused Dry Irish Stout
Willoughby: Dry-Hopped Supernova Double IPA

For the indoor portion, here is the brewery list so far, I'll update this as I get new information!

Participating Breweries

Black Box: ReHive Ale, Cleveland's Own Christmas Ale, 2012 IPA, Plummer's Crack
Brew Kettle: Dark Helmet Imperial Schwarzbier, MacDaddy Scotch Ale, White Rajah, 4th beer TBA
Buckeye: Warm Fuzzy, 76 IPA, Nighty Night, Cleveland Porter
Cellar Rats: Rat Rampage, Black Rat Imperial Stout
Chardon BrewWorks: Pride of Geauga Maple Porter, Chocolate Pomegranate Milk Stout, Belgian Lace Belgian IPA, Ironworker IPA
Columbus: Bodhi, Creeper
Cornerstone: Evil Entity X, Rowan Scotch Ale, 7 IPA
Elevator: Winter Warmer, Horny Goat Barrel Aged Porter, "Big Vic" Imperial Mogabi Wheat IPA, Chipotle Nut Brown
Fat Heads: Hippy Sippy Imperial Stout, IBUsive Experimental IPA, Head Hunter IPA, Sorceror Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Great Black Swamp: Equinox Imperial Red
Great Lakes: BBA Blackout Stout, Alberta Clipper Raspberry Chocolate Porter, Alchemy Hour, GLBC/Fulton Baltic Porter Collaboration, Tripel Dog Dare, Loch Erie Scotch Ale
Hoppin' Frog: DORIS the Destroyer Double Imperial Stout, Hopped-Up Goose Juice Rye IPA, Hop Heathen Black IPA, Cafe Silk Porter, Karminator Imperial Dopplebock, Natasha Rocks America Collaboration Imperial Stout
Indigo Imp: Blonde Bombshell, Winter Soul, Gatekeeper, Dragon
Jackie O's: Brick Kiln Barleywine
Lager Heads: Wild Banshee Barleywine, Savage Stout, Bed Head Red, Tyranny, Barnburner
Market Garden: Market Centennial Extra IPA, Wallace Tavern Scotch Ale
Nano Brew Cleveland: Citramax IPA, Namber Ale
Neil House: Cranberry Cider
Ohio: Verich Gold, O'Hoppy Ale, Double Irish Red, Steel Valley Stout
Portside: Double IPA, Imperial Maple Stout, Hops Session Ale
Rocky River: McConick's Export Ale, Old Man River
Sam Adams: Double Agent IPL (India Pale Lager), Chocolate Squirrel (Chocolate Nut Brown Ale)
Thirsty Dog: Citra Dog IPA, BBA Siberian Night, Hoppus Maximus, Smoked Black Lager, Raspberry Ale
Weasel Boy: Bitter Sable Imperial Black IPA, War Dance Wheat IPA, Anastasia Russian Imperial Stout (2012 GABF Gold Medal Winner!)
Willoughby: Supernova Double IPA, Cosmic IPA, Peanut Butter Cup Coffee Porter, Little Dipper Extra Pale Ale

Tickets prices are $35 each and include a tasting glass, 20 4 oz samples, 1 deli lunch ticket and live entertainment with Austin Walkin' Cane. Designated Driver tickets are also available for $12 each and include 1 deli lunch ticket and non-alcoholic beverages.  There will also be 2 food trucks in the Cask Area that you can also buy food from. 

Now for the Giveaway!  I have 2 tickets to the event to give away to one lucky person!  

And we have a winner...Random.org has picked comment #30 which was left by Lee M!  Congrats!

There are 3 ways to Enter The Giveaway

1. Leave one comment on this post telling me who you are and what beer from the list you are most looking forward to trying. 

2. Share this post on Facebook by posting this link: http://hops.me/5hq5

Then come back here and post a comment with your Facebook link.  You can only do this once, and it counts as one entry.

3. Share this on Twitter: 

I love #Ohio #CraftBeer & want to win 2 tickets to the Winter Warmer Fest from @CleFoodandBrews http://hops.me/5hq5

Then come back here and post a comment with your Twitter link. This will count as one entry. You can do this every single day.  Just make sure to leave a comment each time you tweet!

Rules:

--You have until Friday, February 8th 2013 at 11:59pm EST to enter.

--Comments that do not include a way to identify the poster will not be eligible , examples--Unknown and Anonymous entries do not count. 

--The winner will be picked at random using Random.org.   
--Only comments  with links left on this post will count.  If you tweet, facebook or enter in any other way be sure to leave a comment here telling me you did it with the link to that post.  
--You must leave a SEPARATE comment for each Entry, otherwise your entry will only count once.  

--Winner has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. 
--Tickets will be emailed to the winner.

Voodoo Brewing in Meadville, PA

Just about an hour and a half away from Cleveland is a small town called Meadville, PA where you'll find Voodoo Brewery.  The brewpub didn't catch our eye from the street, but when you enter and have a few beers you'll understand what Voodoo is all about!  Thanks to a very good social media presence, we knew ahead of time what beers would be on tap when we arrived.  Six different year round brews and four different seasonal brews were on the menu for the day.  In order to try all of the different brews we decided to do a sampler of all 10.  

Cleveland Beer Week 2012 in Review Part 2

If you didn't have a chance to read my 2012 Cleveland Beer Week in Review Part 1, please check it out!  It recaps Friday the 19th through Tuesday the 23rd!

Now, on to the last 4 day of Cleveland Beer Week 2012!

Wednesday the 24th--Columbus Brewing Night at Taphouse and Bells Black Note at Edison's Pub
We kicked off Wednesday with a trip to the Tremont Taphouse for Columbus Brewing night.  One of the best beer people you'll find, Tony Corder of Columbus Brewing was coming to town and bringing some really cool brews with him.  First, they had a Double Dry-Hopped Cask version of their Bodhi Double IPA.  The cask version of this didn't come through as good for me as the regular version. The carbonation in regular Bodhi really helps the hops to pop more than on cask.  There was also a Bodhi with Habanero that was pretty impressive.  It had a very nice balance of heat and pepper that didn't overshadow the DIPA portion of the beer.  The last Columbus brew I had was the Sohio Stout.  With a bit more body on this beer, it would have been outstanding.  Tony told us they were going to up the body on this beer, so I'm looking forward to trying it again because the flavor was delicious!

Bodhi on Cask

After spending some quality time at the Taphouse a large group of us made our way to Edison's Pub for a very rare tapping of Bell's Black Note!  Bell's words about Black Note: "One of the most sought-after stouts in Bell's history, Black Note Stout blends the complex aromatics of Expedition Stout with the velvety smooth texture of Double Cream Stout and ages the combination in freshly retired oak bourbon barrels for months." I don't think there was one person at Edision's that night that didn't love this beer.  In fact, I liked it so much I had to have a couple!

A double pour of Black Note!

Cleveland Beer Week 2012 in Review Part 1

Wow...what a week, and by week I mean 9 days!  When Cleveland Beer Week rolls around, I come up with a plan for each and every night.  In this "Part 1" post, I plan to share with you what events I took part in during the first 5 days and my thoughts about the events.  I hope you enjoyed your Cleveland Beer Week as much as I did!

Friday the 19th--Winking Lizard Bedford and the Tremont Collaboration Crawl
Cleveland Beer Week started out for us with a very quick stop at Winking Lizard Bedford for a few pints of the Founders Harvest Ale cask!  This beer is so tasty when fresh, I have never had the cask version before, and it was every bit as good, if not better than the bottle!

Founders Harvest Ale Cask

My Cleveland Beer Week BREWzilla Beer Guide

Each and every time I go to a beer event like BREWzilla I have to come up with a plan. Today I'm going to give you a couple lists that will hopefully guide you around while you are at BREWzilla.

If are you are attending with a Brewer's Circle pass, most of the options in there are "can't miss", but there are a few notable standouts

Brewer's Circle Beers I won't miss: 

• Alesmith: Old Numbskull Barley Wine
• Bell’s: This One Goes to 11
• Buckeye: Aquarius
• Cellar Rats: Barrel Aged Sour
• Great Lakes: Big Black Smoke
• Jolly Pumpkin: De Viente
• Sierra Nevada: Wine Barrel Aged Oliva Dubble
• Stone: Mint Chocolate Imperial Stout
• Victory: Saison du Buff
• Weyerbacher: 17 Anniversary Bourbon Barrel Aged Grand Cru

Cleveland Beer Week Giveaway--Brauhaus in a Beer Garden

First, Cleveland Beer Week has gotten off to a great start.  We had a blast doing the Collaboration Crawl on Friday night (more details on that to come), and yesterday we bounced around the west side all day!  We managed to hit Fat Head's for the Victory Beer Brunch, and the United brew that Matt and Bill from Victory made was excellent, and so was the brunch food.  Afterwords, we went to Lizardville in Rocky River for a few sour brews with our friends, then ended our night at Brew Kettle for the tapping of 2010 Expedition Stout.  This beer was well worth the trip, simply outstanding!  Today we are heading to the Tremont Tap House for a bit of the Browns game with Victory Brewing, then we are off to Culture Yourself at 2pm...Can't wait!   I will have a more in depth write up done about the opening weekend coming soon, in the meantime, get out and enjoy some great craft beer around Cleveland!  Not sure where to go, check out my Guide to Beer Week!

Now...on to the Brauhaus in the Beer Garden Ticket Giveaway!