I was completely unaware of what I had gotten myself into (my own fault I realize). Friday afternoon and the clock was winding its way towards quitting time, and I was getting psyched to get my tasting on. I checked my twitter feed and found an article over at Circle 3 Concepts about the errors in the ways of the upcoming event’s organizers. It was kind of a bummer to read that what I thought was going to be another great craft beer tasting was going to be more of a BMC promo event with a lot of extraneous booths and only a handful of quality brews I hadn’t sampled.

Here were my notes from the event, some of which I will elaborate on below:

I understand that in order to prevent people from getting hammered there needs to be a way to control alcohol consumption, but tasting tickets is not the way. At GABF, I typically sample over 100 beers every day, and guess what, I don’t need a full sample of every brew. Yes, I enjoy as much IPA and Barleywine as I can, but sometimes I’m curious about a smoked stout or cherry porter, and I don’t need a 2 oz. sample to try it. But at this event you had to give your ticket up even if you wanted a half-pour.

It’s pretty simple really, if you advertise unlimited samples, don’t hand me 35 tasting tickets at the door, that’s BS. I wouldn’t make a big deal about this except the guy at the Meet+Greet was pumping that info hard (someone correct me if I’m making all this up, but I swear he bragged about unlimited sampling). Now, to be fair, by the end of the night people were handing us tickets, and I had as many samples as my stomach could handle. But what does that tell you when people are giving you tickets and leaving early? I think the quote below describes my view.

I did hear some awesome music, including Oakland Blackouts by Hieroglyphics….if early ’90s hip-hop is your thing you know that’s a pretty bangin’ track.

As far as people asking what’s popular at a beer booth, that doesn’t bug me itself, I do that all the time. It was the fact that I heard it over and over again at booths that had regular commercial beer. Have you really never heard of Becks before? I guess that was the crowd the organizers were going for, and good for them, they did a good job. It’s not that I expect everyone to know everything about beer styles and what they like (I learn plenty at every tasting) but this whole event just caught me a little off guard.

The last travesty on the list is something I couldn’t get over…it was a problem that stemmed from having a catering/event company manning the booths and not brewery reps or volunteers. I watched as a guy poured a sample for a patron, looked at the glass, and poured some beer out because there was too much in the glass. Excuse me, but COME THE FUCK ON. Even at GABF, where they enforce a one ounce sample rule (but you can have as many as you want), if a pour goes a few drops over the line they won’t pour it out! If college taught me anything it’s that pouring out beer is the worst case of alcohol abuse known to man (unless it’s for your dead homies, in which case, respect).

Enough bitching, let me tell the rest of the story in pictures.

Listermann finally got a license to start making their own brews, and they had some pretty good stuff to sample. My personal favorite was the cask conditioned IPA pictured below.

Craft beer in a Peroni labeled mug...sigh....

Und Becks? Ja, beer for the masses

Love Barrelhouse

I really hope the guys at Rivertown get control over their quality. When we tried the Hop Bomber at the Meet+Greet I thought it was a nice, well balanced pale ale. When I had it here smelled like pure butter. Diacetyl much?

Butter Bomb

Shiner had cool tap handles

Of the non beer-related stuff I found a few things that were cool:

Goofy Costumes, always a winner in my book

There were also Makers stogies....

At least there wasn’t a food debacle like the winter beerfest. We knew going in that there would be food inside for purchase, and that was OK. What has become a Cincinnati staple, Taste of Belgium, was on hand with crepes and waffles, joined by long-lived Cincy relic.

Mmmmm...the Inn.....

In the end I still had fun at the event (great company never hurts =) and I certainly ended up with my fill of beer. But when I’m evaluating which Beerfest to go to next year, I think I’ll leave this one with the suds on the floor.

Being a nice, slow, 6 mile cruise that finishes with beer, the Tweed Ride is a perfect precursor to Sunday’s Mini-Marathon (it’s a 15k, not even a half marathon) which starts and finishes at the Mason High School. Like most races, it benefits a charity (in this case the Epilepsy Foundation), and the course looks pretty flat, so it should be a nice easy cruise (that is, if you can ever consider moving 9.3 miles with your feet easy). Unlike the last two races I’ve run, there won’t be any costumes (although it would be hilarious if someone showed up as a strobe light), and it will be nice to get back into the groove of regular racing without dragging my camera with me on the course.

More information can be found here.

And much love to The Smoke Store on Jefferson, the costume would have been nothing without your contribution =)

Waiting for the gun

My triumphant return to running events was the Reggae Run, and it was a great race/party to attend. I had been missing the feeling of me and a few thousand of my closest friends taking off at the sound of a pistol, slowly working our lungs to the point of heaving air in and out of our mouths. The run started off by winding our way downhill out of Ault Park until we hit Delta, where we climbed back up to Observatory and did the roller coaster that is the entry back into the park.

Haulin' ass and taking pix

A quick 3.1 miles without a single flat step. This is the type of race course that fits Cincy so well. It kept a smile on my face the whole time. Although I got a few odd looks for running with my camera. It was well worth it though, especially to capture the after party.

The after party was full of goofy hats-mine included

The way I describe the after party to people that haven’t been…a mini, all-you-can-eat version of taste of Cincinnati, including four drink tickets. What a way to end a race =)

Full bellies partying to the soothing jams of The Ark Band

Check the slideshow up top for the food pix.