Cleveland Beer Week

The Ninth Annual Cleveland Beer week kicked off on October 13th and as usual, we attended as many events as we could. It’s a fun week but its nearly impossible to hit all of the events. The week is full of rare keg tappings, brewery takeovers, and food-focused events spread out all over the greater Cleveland area.

Collaboration Kickoff 
Beer week officially kicked off on Friday, October 13th at bars in the following neighborhoods: Ohio City, Tremont, Downtown Willoughby, Lakewood and Flats East Bank. Thirty-three local breweries were partnered up to create seven small-batch collaboration IPAs just for the event, and you can try them all on this bar crawl. A passport ($25) allows you to walk around the bars in the neighborhood of your choosing.

We chose Lakewood (where we live) and started the night at Winking Lizard which is where you pick up the passport and try the first two beers: a Session IPA and a  Black IPA. Both were surprisingly delicious. The next stop was Forage for the New England Style IPA. These IPA’s that have gained popularity in the New England region over the last couple years are a cloudy, very fruit forward take on the classic India Pale Ale.   Then we ran to Rozi’s (they close at 9:00 p.m.) for the Belgian IPA, which was very tasty. These generally start off as a typical IPA recipe, but are fermented with a Belgian yeast strain to lend some different, fruity characteristics to the beer. Then we backtracked to Melt for the Imperial IPA (pretty damned strong, but tasty) then finally across the street to Burgers 2 Beer for the Wet Hopped India Pale Lager. That one came across a bit too hoppy for Broad. We didn’t hit O’Toole’s because honesty, it’s a little out of the way.

This is a great way to start Beer Week, and the weather was amazing for walking around the city. Ideally, we would have liked the breweries to have a bit more freedom to make different styles of beers other than IPAs, but it was still interesting to taste different takes on the style.

Donuts & Beers
This is one of our favorite beer week events that we look forward to every year. We love donuts. We love beer. The two together, phenomenal. The event is held at Edison’s Pub in Tremont and starts at 11:00 a.m. when they open. For $20.00 you get 5 gourmet donuts from Donut Lab and 5 craft beers from Platform Beer Co. The pairings this year were just perfect.

• Cinnamon sugar with blueberry glaze + Becky Blueberry Cider
• Whipped cheese, prosciutto & peaches + Sailing to Nowhere Peach Berliner Weisse
• Pulled pork w/ pickle donut sammie + The Project Dr. Rudi Dry Hopped Pale Ale
• Traditional powdered + The Way to Death Weizenbock
• 5th Anniversary Float with Donut Lab coffee ice cream + Chocolate Nightmare Chocolate Milk Stout

The savory donuts were definitely our favorite, they were a dream come true. You also can’t go wrong with a traditional powdered donut. Come to think about it, it’s hard to pick a favorite.

Burgers & Beer
We had lunch at B Spot Burgers in Westlake for the burger and beer special. They had Platform’s Yammy Yammy on tap and you got to keep the glass. If you haven’t been to B Spot and you are a burger fan, head there immediately. The burgers are so amazing and they have one for everyone. They also have a pickle bar!

Southside TV Dinner
Now, this isn’t your normal salisbury steak and cold mashed potatoes tv dinner. This is gourmet style. For $30, you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert all on one tray paired and made with specialty beers. They highlight a different brewery Monday-Friday during beer week. We went to the Platform night.

• 1st Course: crispy sweet potato, goat cheese, pecan, dried cherries paired with Yammy Yammy Spice Sweet Potato Ale
• 2nd Course: sesame ahi tuna with sweet soy and daikon radish salad paired with New Albion Pale Ale
• 3rd Course: Grape sorbet, pineapple coulis paired with Loose and Conversational Pale Ale

Pie & Pint Night
The last thing we attended was the Pie & Pint Night at O’Toole’s Pub and Restaurant.  For $10 you get a 9″ one topping pizza and a pint of Platform beer, and you get to keep the glass!

We went out of town Friday for the weekend, so we missed some of the other fun beer week events we normally would attend.  But, we had so much fun at the ones we did go to! Make sure to start checking the interwebs around the beginning of October next year so you can start planning. One of the best parts of the whole thing is that there are events all over the Cleveland area, so you don’t have to venture far to drink some good beer and have some fun!

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