Things move fast in the Queen City, and summertime means a raft of new beers flooding the market, both locally and regionally. As they say, when it rains it pours … beer.
New Local Beers
• Every season, Blank Slate has been collaborating with Orchids at Palm Court on a special-release beer — one that’s only available at Blank Slate’s taproom and Orchids at Palm Court (their happy hour is great, so get one there). The follow-up to this spring’s Bloom is
Orchids
Flourish, a German-style Altbier
brewed with agave nectar and finger limes.
•
For the All-Star Game,
Braxton Brewing Company
brewed 1957, an English malty beer meant to taste like Cracker Jacks. Check their taproom for it on draft.
• Ei8ht Ball Brewing
is finally in the canning business — their Prodigal American Pale Ale is now available in aluminum cans.
• Fifty West is now serving Bropocalypse Wow! Yes, that exclamation point is meant to be there. It’s Belgian rye ale brewed in collaboration with Yellow Springs Brewery. Then there’s Tastee Whip Ice Cream Ale (ICA). It’s made with toasted pecans and a housemade bourbon-vanilla bean extract. At the taproom, they combine the Tastee Whip with their Coffee Please beer in what they dub “Tastee Please.”
• Do you like beets, pink-hued beers and/or wheat beers? If so, drink Listermann’s new Beets Me.
• MadTree
is now serving
Shade, a low-alcohol gose made with blackberries and sea salt,
which debuted last week. And
Joon, aged in Watershed-bourbon barrels (from the Columbus distillery) with added juniper and ginger, generating gin and pine flavors. It tastes so unusual that it’ll knock your flip-flops off.
• Rhinegeist partnered with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Music Director Louis Langrée to create a beer for the upcoming Lumenocity (August 5-9 in Washington Park) and to sell in various bars and bottle shops. Glow Lumenocity Pale Ale’s label even has Music Hall’s signature rose window etched on it. Made with Hüell Melon hops, the beer tastes like melon and berries. Rhinegeist is also releasing
Emergency Hop Kit, a collaboration with Indianapolis’ Sun King Brewery. As Rhinegeist describes it, “
citrus flavors with supporting notes of pine and tropical fruit.” It’s available on draft, with cans coming soon.
• Taft’s Ale House is now offering Caruso, an American brown ale made with vanilla bean and Wee Donker, a Belgian session ale.
• New to Urban Artifact is Keypunch, a gose made with key limes. It’s extremely lime-y and sessionable. Besides beer, they now have Deeper Roots nitro
cold-brew coffee on tap.
New Breweries
• Bob and Betty Bollas opened Mount Healthy’s Fibonacci Brewing Company in mid-July. The minimalist taproom features hop-shaped lights and their beer samples are served in miniature beakers. Right now they’re brewing Earth Daisy IPA, Dummy Tripel, The Tollhouse American Stout and a strawberry Compton Cream Ale — named after the nearby street, not the infamous L.A. neighborhood.
Beer Events
• Every Thursday this summer, Party Source hosts a Burgers & Beers event. For $15, you get a burger and a chance to sample five to six beers, with each week featuring a different brewery and a different burger. (thepartysource.com/beer_tastings.php)
• Gomez Salsa and HalfCut have teamed up for Sunday brunch. Try Gomez’s breakfast turtles, stuffed with syrupy waffles, eggs, meats and cheese, and wash it down with a Beermosa from HalfCut.
•
The city’s putting on yet another craft beer fest, but this one at least has an apropos name:
Just Another Craft Beer Festival
. It’ll be held 1-6 p.m. on Sunday at
Thirsty’s Oasis
in Mason. Local and regional beers will be poured, including Seventh Son and Actual Brewing from Columbus. (justanothercraftbeerfestival.com)
Beer Road Trip
Athens, Ohio has suddenly become a hotbed for breweries. Jackie O’s and new Devil’s Kettle Brewing and Little Fish Brewing Company are a part of the emerging Athens Beer Trail. Devil’s Kettle, which opened in June, has fun-named beers such as Eric the Red (red ale), Spider Silk (blonde ale) and Prince of Darkness (porter). Little Fish deals in milk stouts and an impossible-to-pronounce sour ale named Reinheitsgewhat!?.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2015.