Bockfest

Hops littered the ground after the parade!

All for this...Geneseeeeeee!

I might have to ride this in next years parade

St. Patty’s Day

The Square was jammed!

Good times had by all. If only we had that St. Patty’s (parade) Day weather all year!

I liked last years 1 night, crazy venue, tons of great-beer-I-had-never-heard-of event. This year just felt a little more corporate; big box space in Duke Energy, still plenty of awesome beer, but c’mon Bell’s no Hopslam?!?!

Still had a blast though, and went both nights to see the difference. Friday was way more relaxed, Saturday had lines snaking all through the convention center.

Good times, good people, life is good.

Plenty of selection, that’s for sure:

Like I said, more good times:

Oh yeah, and some friends had us over for homemade late night sushi afterwords….

Still well worth the price of admission!

The kicker for me was looking at last year’s post and seeing this picture:

A shot of Arnolds from inside the front door, it captures three of my favorite bartenders in one of the best establishments in town. My caption from last year read “What I imagine (or at least hope) Laura, Pam, and the other Bartender who’s name I don’t know were thinking.”

The best part is now “the other Bartender who’s name I don’t know” is actually my girlfriend….what a difference a year makes. At least now I should be able to get a drink a little faster….

Check out last year’s post for more pictures of Monks and Drunks.

And to the-bartender-who’s-name-I-now-know: thanks for being so awesome. While this won’t technically be our first Bockfest in each other’s presence, it should be even better than the last!

Thus, I figured I better post some beer related content today….Beer Blog Fridays…. [Update: It's now Fermentable Friday aka Friday? BEER!]

The quintessential Cincy blogger said it best. It was good, but Hopslam and good company were the real reasons you were there.

Brought to you by the fine folks at Clipper City Brewing in Maryland this 7.25% ABV combination of hops, malt, water and yeast is right up my alley. The nose wasn’t overly hopping, but I could tell I was going to enjoy this even as I was pouring it.

It had a decent head on it, but it’s all about taste and this sucker has it. Citrus, bitterness, a great lingering finish, I could drink this all night. Finally after trying a bunch of new beer (most of which was decent) my perusal through the singles section of The Party Source landed gold.

I can’t say enough great things about this beer, so I’ll let the fellow beer geeks spout off on the Beer Advocate page for me.

Cheers to a delicious beer….and here’s hoping your adventures into the great unknown (be that beer or otherwise) pay off like this has for me!

Earlier Posts:

Captain Sig’s

Chainsaw

Imperial Barley Wine

Hell Hath No Fury

Rogue calls this an India Red Ale, and while the color is certainly a nice amber, it’s unlike any other red I’ve tried. There is certainly a floral nose to it, and the hop bitterness is there, but the most pronounced taste for me was chocolate. Real, dark, bitter chocolate due to a nice grain bill, it’s flavor was a great compliment to the Kroeger and Sons Parma sausage and Ohio City Rosemary Linguini I whipped up for dinner that night.

I love the fact that Rogue lists all their ingredients on every bottle, including that “Free Range Coastal Water.” This beer is definitely worth the purchase….it can appease hop heads like me just as easily as it can malt lovers….check out the beer advocate page for more info.

Neons: We pulled it off, but Holly figured us out towards the end.

Arnolds: It was hard, since Garfield used to work here, but we managed to keep our identities secret for the first drink….

This was a heady beer, and after the last beer (Mendocino Barley Wine) which was practically headless, I poured this in such a manner that I was beyond the two finger foam rule. Maybe I was overzealous with the first pour, but this being a duece-duece I made sure to share the love, and the second glass was still well foamed.

Caramel, that’s what I got first on both the nose and the taste followed up by a definite toffee flavor. Some of the Beer Advocate profilers commented on a grapefruit note, but I didn’t get a lot of fruit at all.

Overall: pretty decent beer, didn’t leave a super lasting impression on me other than the sweet artwork on the label. The regular sawtooth, and ESB, isn’t on my list of favorites either, but once again, this is an exercise in venturing to new taste territories, one certainly accomplished with this fermentable.

Moving in no particular order, this week I tackled (with the help of a friend) Mendocino’s Imperial Barley Wine.

Part of their Imperial Series (which immediately piques my interest as it normally indicates a high gravity brew) this brew holds true to an Olde Style Barley Wine and clocks in at a knockout 11% ABV. Luckily I had a friend in town, and we split this sucker up in tasting glasses (gotta love beerfest schwag).

When gently pouring into a 6 oz or smaller glass I never expect a lot of head except for wildly over carbonated beers, but this faded so fast I never even got a picture of it.

Barley Wines and Imperial IPAs (the latter of which I will be trying from Mendocino at a later date) are both strong beers with loads of malt and hops competing for balance. As a general rule I always consider Barley Wines to be tipped towards a maltier profile, and this was no exception. So much so in fact, that as one person on the Beer Advocate page noted it had “hints of tawny port”, and as I will now note, hints of alcohol (what can I say, it’s a strong beer). The hops kicked in towards the end leaving you with a nice bite at the finish.

Much like the Hell Hath No Fury, I don’t need more than one of these in a sitting, and splitting one with a friend before we moved on to more reasonable brews was the right decision for the night. Even half of this brew contains the intoxicating capacity of most standard IPAs. Hell you’re probably over the legal limit to drive the moment you start catching the aroma wafting out of the glass.

Many Barley Wines (and other high gravity brews) age well over time, and I’m tempted to go buy another single and keep it around for a year or two to see what happens. In all honesty though I’ve found that hop notes fade and more maltiness comes through with aging, which I’m not sure I would be that excited about with this particular beer.

Overall a pretty decent brew, but I doubt I’ll spring for the four packs ($9.75) or even any more singles ($2.75) as it’s just a bit too malty for my humulus loving taste buds. Once again though, cheers to trying something new, and you should do the same this fine Friday!

With the exception of Founders Double Trouble and the Sammy Smith Oatmeal Stout all of the beers above are new to my taste buds. For this week’s tasting I opened up Bell’s Hell Hath No Fury Ale, mainly because I had no idea what to expect from the innards of this bottle. The labels, while enticing, aren’t much help.

Darkness…that’s what it pours and that’s where it will send you if you’re not careful. Some seriously deep maltiness and a head that resembles the hair of the woman on the front label, this brew is strong in all regards, including the alcohol (7.5% BV).

I’m not normally a Belgian Strong (Dark?) Ale guy, but I guess that’s what this is, and while I doubt I’ll ever consume more than one in a sitting, one is all you need. For beer geekiness in the form of reviews check out the Beer Advocate page.

Cheers to trying something new this Friday!

Not only do these glasses look sweet, but like other insulating mugs they keep the beer a bit colder and stop condensation from forming on the outside. They’re also handblown which makes them even cooler.

Cheers!

Happy Friday!

Part 1

Part 2

I’m speaking of course, about my father.

Still living in DC, my Dad and I don’t get to see each other enough, and the fact that I have owned a building here in Cincy for 4 months and he hasn’t seen it in person is absurd (not to mention he has a plethora of tools to bring out for me).

As excited as I am to have him out here checking out the building, we won’t be spending all weekend doing manual labor. Sure I’ll take him on a tour of the place and we’ll pick apart all the problems of the building and the busts in the plans I have so far…but this meeting of the minds will cover far more topics than homeownership and renovation.

Getting goofy with Greg Koch of Stone Brewing Co

Of the many passions in our lives that we share, beer is certainly close to the top of the list. The pictures you see are from the SAVOR event held annually by the Brewers Association in Washington DC. A higher end craft beer and food tasting, I made it to the first two in 2008 and 2009, and unfortunately had to pass this year to attend (and be a part of) a friends wedding.

Well fuck you too then

I’m excited to show off how far Cincinnati has come since the last time my Dad was here, both in its physical development, as well as its beer development (Moerlein IPA anyone?).

Adam Avery of Avery Brewing Co and former employer of my sister (who left because she is now a "glutard")

Who knows, we might even make it up to Listermann and grab some things to make a beer. It was the two of us who began our homebrewing careers together in the summer of 2006 while I was at Miami.

Hop Head

Most of all I’m just excited to have a weekend with him (and my sisters awesome little doggy who is coming along for the ride).

More photos from Savor:

RastafaRye

Raw Bar...cool, but not really my thing

Oh yeah, and we took the Metro to and from the event…..would certainly be nice if we had alternative transportation options here in Cincinnati….

This is a label on a set of drawers in a restaurant.

10 points if you can tell me what it is. (The post tag should help)

50 points if you can tell me where it is. (It’s in Kentucky)

All of a sudden we were met with a set of glass doors, on the other side of which was sweet, cool A/C. “Tickets please fellas,” called a lady at a narrow podium, slipping us pink wristbands after verification of our seats.

The next words out of her mouth really threw me for a loop. “Go ahead and help yourselves to some food, there’s stuff all along the concourse.”

To think I almost bought peanuts to bring in the stadium

I picked up my jaw off the floor and kept moving. I had been mentally preparing myself to spend loads of cash on food and beer, all the while sweating my ass off, and here I was in the A/C with free Montgomery Inn, La Rosa’s, and what’s more, 20 oz Moerlein OTR on draft for a reasonable (ballpark) price.

Club seats are the best of both worlds. Right along the first base line above the suites, the concourse has A/C while the seats are still outside. I’ve been in boxes before, they’re cool, but you’re a little detached from the actual ballgame experience (“Beer Here!”). In the club the seats are padded, and the nosebleeds above provide some shade, so you’re still on the luxury side of ballpark seating.

It is kinda crazy, I think half the people in this section were under 12.

This kid was either dancing or running up for more cinnamon breadsticks

Too bad they lost 1-0, but at least they got 2 outta 3 in the series.

Still a blast to be at a game.

And I got a new angle of QCS.

Oh yeah, and not only is there free food inside, but free icy pops being handed out in the aisles! Beer cooler anyone?

This was my first Reds game of the season….might be my last cause I won’t get to live this good at any others (unless I win tickets to the county box again like I did last year [which I just read they are not doing this year...BS!])

Of course, I was asking the wrong questions. Naturally there are people that will drink this, I’m sure AB’s crack market research team knows exactly who they are targeting with this 2.4% ABV brew.

No the real question is: Could anyone actually get drunk off of a twelve pack? Luckily there was one man who was willing to put BS 55 to the task….

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tavjcpccXOU