This past Saturday medals were given out at the annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver. This year’s competition featured 9,497 entries from 2,295 breweries representing all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Of those entries 318 medals were awarded, spread across 283 breweries. I'm pleased to report that... Continue Reading →
Reflections on Ohio’s strong showing at the 2018 GABF
At the most recent Great American Beer Festival Ohio took home 14 medals, shared by no less than 13 different breweries, both numbers exceeding high water marks from previous years. Cincinnati’s Brink Brewing picked up two medals and was recognized as the best very small brewery of the year [1]. Fathead’s medaled for an impressive... Continue Reading →
Ohio Celebrates Strong Showing at the 2018 World Beer Cup
Nine Ohio breweries were recognized at last night’s World Beer Cup award ceremony in Nashville, TN. This year’s competition featured a record setting 8234 entries from 66 different countries, almost double the 4754 entries at the 2014 competition. Only 302 medals were awarded, which means that less than 4% of the entries were honored with... Continue Reading →
Ohio-brewed Double IPA Blind Taste Test
Time for another blind taste test, this one focused on double/imperial IPAs. American craft beer lovers are crazy about hops, and the double IPA style is an ode to the glory of the humulus lupulus plant like no other. Although DIPAs are released throughout the year, they seem to peak in mid to late winter... Continue Reading →
Beer Review – Hop JuJu by Fat Head’s
Craft beer enthusiasts have a strong tendency toward what some might call stamp collecting. Constantly seeking out new beers, the harder to find the better. Making convoluted justifications for spending their weekends queuing up in nondescript industrial spaces and muddy farm fields. Violating the 10th commandment in a way that would make Robert Redford’s character in... Continue Reading →
Breaking Down the 2016 GABF
Awards were handed out this past weekend at the Great American Beer Festival. The popularity of the 30 year old festival continues to grow with a total of 7,227 beers entered by 1752 breweries. That’s up from 6,647 beers and 1552 breweries in 2015. Out of that sea of beer only 286 entries, roughly 4%, were... Continue Reading →
King of Ohio contest rounds out busy beer weekend in Ohio
Tomorrow afternoon at the North Market Beer Festival the King of Ohio contest returns. Organized by beer bloggers and writers from throughout Ohio including Rick Armon from The Beer Blog Ohio in Akron, Tom Aguero from BrewMinds in Cincinnati, Cory Smith and Ron DeGregario from the Brew Review Crew in Toledo, and yours truly. Every... Continue Reading →
Beer Review – Sunshine Daydream by Fat Head’s
A session beer is defined as a beer with a “low enough abv” that you can drink it continuously over an extended period of time and not end up stumbling drunk. Exactly how one defines “low enough abv” is a matter of some debate. In Britain a session beer would typically have an abv less than... Continue Reading →
Picks from the Pumpkin Patch
As Halloween comes and goes the pumpkin beers are rapidly giving way to the Christmas beers. As a new beer blogger it seemed my duty to sample a variety of pumpkin beers and offer up my opinions. Back in early October that seemed like a good idea, but after starting the project the appeal of... Continue Reading →