It’s a brand new year, which means new beers and new breweries. Nine Giant just released Save Ferris, a cranberry-orange Berliner weisse. It’s available on draft at the taproom. Monocle is the latest in Urban Artifact’s Midwest Fruit Tart Ale series. The mango-enhanced beer is available on draft at the taproom (no cans). MadTree’s hoppy porter Identity Crisis is back in cans and on draft for a limited time. Streetside’s latest beer in cans is the hashtag-able #blessed, a hoppy New England IPA.
Each quarter, Braxton Labs is partnering with Starter Coffee to brew a coffee stout. A couple of weeks ago, they released the first one, Cycle Coffee Stout, available on draft at the taproom. Braxton also released Snow Shovel — a winter warmer brewed with cinnamon, honey and ginger and finished in rum barrels — in both bottles and on draft.
Mardi Gras festivities take place Feb. 9-13, so BrewRiver GastroPub and Brink Brewing have teamed up for this year’s King Cake beer, which will begin pouring at both locations around that time. Last year’s King Cake iteration tasted better than the actual cake and came with a plastic baby on the rim.
Fairfield will get its first brewery on Jan. 27 when Swine City Brewing opens to the public. Oxford’s Quarter Barrel Brewery & Pub recently opened a second location in Hamilton. They brew their own beers on-site, like “pretentious foreign language” beers Chapeau Girls grissette and Consigliere American pale ale.
Finally, in beer expansion news, East End’s Bad Tom opened a location in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood in early December, and MadTree started serving in Nashville this winter.
Events
- Repro Health Happy Hour is a monthly networking event for people working on sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, and issues of gender and sexuality. On Jan. 24, Urban Artifact hosts the happy hour for the kick-off of the Cincinnati chapter. A $5 cover will go toward Women Have Options Ohio.
- On Jan. 25, West Side Brewing will join forces with Babushka Pierogies for a pop-up dinner at the brewery. The menu includes potato-cheddar pierogies, stuffed cabbage rolls and kielbasa bowls. No reservations or tickets required.
- On Jan. 26, Rivertown will release new beer Uncle Andy in bottles. “Uncle Andy” is Andy Grigg, uncle of founder and brewmaster Jason Roeper. Andy even helped brew his namesake beer, a bourbon-barrel-aged Russian imperial stout.
- For the past few Fridays, Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. has been releasing new beers on tap and in cans as part of their New Brew Friday. On Jan. 12, they released Emancipator Doppelbock for the first time in cans. Then Jan. 19 saw the release of Power Stoutage Milk Stout. On Jan. 26, the brewery will release Big Hazy, a New England-style IPA. It’s described as having a “cosmic blend of Pacific Northwest hops” with aromas of passion fruit and mango.
- At noon on Jan. 27, Streetside continues its obsession with Stranger Things with A Day in the Upside Down/Firkin Fest. Local beer bloggers and local news stations will infuse a firkin of the Demogorgon stout with different adjuncts.
- Bockfest isn’t until the weekend of March 2, but Moerlein’s taproom will host Bockfest Carnivale on Jan. 27. The event will include art, “unique Bockfest experiences” and Arnold’s Bar and Grill food with beer pairings. Tickets are $55 per person or $95 per couple and include dinner, drinks, free parking and a Bockfest poster.
- Fifty West is getting into the canning game. On the morning of Jan. 28, they’ll co-host a brunch with the Colorado-based Oskar Blues. Brunchers will enjoy three courses of food — cornbread donuts, pork belly biscuits and braised brisket — alongside beers from both breweries. After the meal, brunchers will be able to take home a six-pack of Fifty West beer, included in the $45 ticket price.
- Winter Beerfest, Cincy’s largest beer festival, returns to the Duke Energy Convention Center Feb. 2-3. Expect hundreds of craft beers from across the nation, with a focus on local breweries such as 13 Below, 16 Lots, Fretboard, MadTree and many more. Tickets range from $20 (designated driver) to $95 (connoisseur level).
- On Feb. 3, Braxton is relauching their popular Graeter's collab Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip Milk Stout. Read more here.
- Radio Artifact is an indie radio station that Urban Artifact owns and operates inside the brewery. On Feb. 3, they’ll host a fundraiser at the taproom. They’ll have live music from Go Go Buffalo, Lipstick Fiction and other bands, along with “a smorgasbord of menagerie.” Make a donation at the door.
- Every Thursday, Middletown brewery FigLeaf hosts a made-up game night called FigSix. Order one of their beers, roll a dice and pay the amount shown on the dice. Because each dice has numbers ranging from 2 to 5, the most you’ll pay is full price.
Contact Garin Pirnia: [email protected]
