Despite inclement weather sabotaging attempts to patio-drink so far this spring, local breweries have been reintroducing their seasonal beers. Streetside brought back the sexy and colorful Raspberry Beret Berliner weisse, and Urban Artifact resurrected the summery Keypunch, a gose brewed with tart key limes. Brink revamped their Tropical Wheat by adding blackberries, mangos and pineapples. And Moerlein’s Strawberry Pig cream ale is back on tap and in cans.
Cinco De Mayo, America’s favorite culturally appropriated drinking holiday, and the Kentucky Derby both fall on May 5 (think of all the crossover potential!). Streetside and Grainworks will both throw (separate) Cinco de Mayo fiestas, and Braxton will host their annual Derby party, featuring bourbon-barrel-aged Kentucky Home mint julep ale.
New Beers
• Little Miami Brewing, which opened earlier this year in Milford, just released their first stout. High Plains Drifter is brewed with mesquite honey and prickly pear juice. They also released Misty Mountain IPA, brewed with “a truckload of hops.”
• April 26 is National Pretzel Day, so Listermann will release The Works, a sweet stout brewed with chocolate, peanut butter, cinnamon and marshmallows. Try it at the taproom with a pretzel from Brezel OTR.
• On April 28, MadTree will release the first two cans in their quarterly Sensorium Series. Heroes, a double dry-hopped unfiltered IPA, will complement Voyagers, a Berliner weisse brewed with real peach and apricot purées. The four-packs ($17.50) and a limited amount of draft pours will only be available at MadTree’s taproom.
• On May 2, Fibonacci will release their final entry in the Employee Collaboration series. Employee Chelle Magin helped brew Tilia, a cherry-lime radler named after the genus of lime trees. The cherries come from Ohio’s Eshleman Fruit Farm.
Events
• As of this writing, Alexandria Brewing Company in Alexandria, Ky. should be open for business. It’s the town’s first brewery since the 1880s. The taproom features beers like Brothers in Arms, a Russian imperial stout that benefits veteran charities. Besides beer, they also have craft sodas, pinball and vintage arcade games.
• On April 26, Rhinegeist will host the official Homecoming music festival kick-off party at the taproom. For the inaugural fest, held April 28-29 in association with band The National and MusicNOW, they brewed Lit Up, a lager named after a National song. The beer will be available during the party and at the fest. At the kick-off, festgoers can also pick up their credentials, shop for vinyl and eat food from Sartre. (Read more about Homecoming and MusicNOW on page 11.)
• On May 3, Braxton and OTR cheese shop The Rhined come together for a night of beer and cheese pairings (no beer cheese, though). For $30, cheeseheads can sample five cheeses and five Braxton beers in Braxton’s upstairs event space, The Loft.
• On May 4, aka May the Fourth Be With You, Darkness Brewing will celebrate nerds’ favorite holiday with “all things Star Wars.” Fans are encouraged to cosplay and indulge in a tribute beer release.
• Urban Artifact — which just turned three — does a parfait tapping every Saturday at noon. A build-your-own yogurt parfait bar pairs with a weekly parfait beer. So far, they’ve tapped a cherry-lime parfait and a sour/hoppy guava parfait, which used Post Card IPA as its base.
• Sprouts and Stouts will take place May 11-12 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington. May 11 features the sprouts part, with a plant sale during the day. May 12 will focus on an all-day music festival. Five bands will play alongside a garden mart featuring beers from Rhinegeist, Platform, Darkness, Wooden Cask and Braxton.
• Entries for Listermann’s second-annual Hip Hop Battle Home Brew Competition are open until May 14 and the winners will be announced on May 19. Listermann is accepting NE Pale Ale, NE IPA and NE IPAs. The entry fee is $10.
• The Oakley On Tap Beer Festival takes place May 18-20 on Oakley Square. The three-day event is divided into daily sessions. Beer lovers get 15 sampling tickets and can choose from more than 100 local, national and international beers, including Ballast Point, DogBerry, Mirror Twin, Sierra Nevada, Fretboard, Grainworks and Peroni. Tickets range from $20-$50.
• Even though beauty pageants are kind of sexist, here’s your chance to become Old Firehouse Brewing’s Miss Firehouse Pin Up 2018. The contest takes place at their taproom on May 19, and is sponsored by Patriot Pin Up Cincinnati, an organization that boosts morale for troops and veterans. Registration begins at 1 p.m.
Contact Garin Pirnia: [email protected]
