Every single year, one of the biggest parts of Cincinnati Beer Week is the beer that all our local breweries get together to craft, and then send out to the thirsty masses of Cincinnati to drink, and cellar away for years to come.  It’s become increasingly interesting to see how the collaboration grows and changes as it shifts from it’s original 6 brewery’s to today’s version… which I’m still not clear how many of our “local brewery’s” are participating.

Let’s start with a little refresh… a blast from the past of all our previous collaboration beers, just so you can really start to see how they have grown over time, shall we? (Keep scrolling if you’re only interested in this years beer)

CincinnatiBeerWeekLabelYear One – Barleywine Ale

This was brewed at Mt. Carmel Brewing Company.  The beer was an Imperial Barleywine, super big and hoppy at first, but stash this baby away in the cellar for a little while, and it’s big full bodied maltiness really starts to dominate.  Great fresh… fantastic after a year – I loved this beer, and unfortunately have no more left in my cellar.

Participating Breweries

  • Christian Moerlein
  • Listermann
  • Mt Carmel
  • Red Ear
  • Rivertown
  • Rock Bottom

CincyBeerWeek2 - EmbreesYear Two – Embree’s Northern Dark

This was brewed at Rivertown.  The beer was a Baltic Porter, rich… malty and sweet.  This was a big beer that hid it’s ABV very well, I cellar a bit of this away, and after finishing the last of my batch earlier in 2015 I can say that none of them ever got any better than the fresh version.

Participating Breweries

  • Blank Slate
  • Christian Moerlein
  • Fifty West
  • Great Crescent
  • Listermann
  • Moerlein Lager house
  • Mt Carmel
  • Rivertown
  • Rock Bottom
  • Samuel Adams
  • Triple Digit

CincyBeerWeek3 - HostavitYear Three – Hostivit

This one was brewed at Christian Moerlein.  Hostivit was a big Imperial Pilsner, which I didn’t even bother to stash away to see how it would change with some cellaring, although the high abc of this might have protected it with a little bit of time, I wanted to drink it fresh…

Participating Breweries

  • Blank Slate
  • Christian Moerlein
  • Double Barrel (now Bad Tom Smith)
  • Fifty West
  • Listermann
  • MadTree
  • Moerlein Lager House
  • Mt. Carmel
  • Rhinegeist
  • Rivertown
  • Triple Digit

CincyBeerWeek4 - BlackTartYear Four – Black Tart

Brewed at MadTree, Black Tart was a big departure from what had been done before it.  The beer was the first in the series to be packaged in cans, instead of bottles.  The “style” was a dark ale, brewed with cinnamon, lactose and blackberries.  Cellaring… I’m not really sure how one goes about cellaring a can of beer, but regardless I still have some stashed away to see how it changes… and I may just be cracking one open in the next day or two now that it’s on my mind.

Participating Breweries

  • Bad Tom Smith
  • Blank Slate
  • Cellar Dweller
  • Christian Moerlein
  • Ei8ht Ball
  • Fifty West
  • Listermann
  • MadTree
  • Moerlein Lager House
  • Mt. Carmel
  • Old Firehouse
  • Rhinegeist
  • Rivertown
  • Rock Bottom
  • Triple Digit

2016 Cincinnati Beer WeekYear Five – Changing Things Up

As you can see… the list of participating breweries just grows, and grows each year.  The very nature of how big Cincinnati’s beer scene is getting makes doing a collaboration beer between all of them next to impossible.  So… the board made the decision this year to change things up.  Here’s what you need to know:

  • There will be 5 different beers brewed for Cincinnati Beer Week
  • One of those beers will be packaged
  • All of the participating breweries will be split into teams to brew their respective beers.
  • “Team Captains” were “randomly chosen” and are:
    • Blank Slate
    • Braxton
    • Ei8ht Ball
    • Mt Carmel
    • Listermann
  • Listermann will be doing the packaged beer (this was decided prior to this year
  • The makeup of the teams, the beer styles, and ingredients will be decided for each team at an NFL-style draft.

The Draft

The participating breweries will use the draft event as an opportunity to select a few different things:

  • The teams, they will select one at a time, the breweries that they’d like to work with.
  • The beer style – it sounds like there will be different styles for each beer being made.
  • Malt – What malts will they be able to use in their beer?
  • Hops – What hop variety will be available to the brewery?
  • Local Ingredient – I’m not positive, but it sounds like each brewery will be required to use some local ingredient in their final product.

The event is taking place at Rhinegeist on 2/29 from 6:30-10 pm.  You can urge your favorite breweries to choose what you desire… or you can just sit back and see which team brewery is chosen last if that’s more of your cup of tea.

I’ve got my gripes with how this is going to go this year… but at the same time, this is going to create a really fun event and should be pretty fascinating being “part” of the discussions of what each brewery wants to choose off of the board.  Interesting stuff.

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