If you’ve been tossed and left for drowning in a beer vat, then there’s a possibility you might not have heard about Cleveland Beer Week. In all its awesomeness, CBW promises HUNDRDS of events, scheduled at local restaurants and bars, breweries and beer/liquor stores, among several other locations around town.
Here’s Part One of our Cleveland Beer Week tastings:
Friday night, after meeting some friends for a late Happy Hour at La Strada, we took off to Tremont for The South Side (one word or two? I never know) for what was pegged as the “Dogfish Landing” event, sponsored by Dogfish Head, of course. We tried all the beers on the special list (which would explain the beer silliness I felt later that night): Raison D’Etre, Pangea, 8oz shared samples of Sah’Tea (10% ABV… yikes!) and Midas Touch… and even saved some sobriety for the 90 Minute (mostly finished by AB).
Saturday, we picked up our (ahem, wholly inappropriate) costumes from Chelsea’s in Lakewood (cannot WAIT for Halloween parties this year!), then headed over to Buckeye Beer Engine for a “lunch” of Ommegang Beer & Cheese pairing. For $10, we shared four 4oz samples of the following: Abbey Ale with Knights Vail, 3 Philosophers with cranberry Stilton (and dried cranberries), Rare Vos with a 4-year aged Quebec Cheddar and finished with Rouge and a Goat Beemster. I really enjoyed the Rouge and Beemster together — the cheese melted and paired fantastically with the beer. While not being “melt in your mouth,” the cheddar was a GREAT cheese, which wholly changed the taste of the beer and cheese, in either tasting order. But there’s something about Stilton of which makes me not a fan.
All of it was delicious. Our clam bake wasn’t until 4pm, so we stuck around and tried a few other of the beers: De Dolle Dulle Teve (or “Mad Bitch”) and AB had some Brown Dog Islay-infused (??) or casked brew (after distancing himself from the $38 bottles “Just to try”). I dislike the petey scotches, so I was obviously not a fan, and selected a lighter Kolsch — Buckeye’s Madison draft to round out my “lunch.” We stuck around long enough for me to gleefully say hello to Cleveland’s Horror Host, “Big Chuck” Schodowski.
The clam bake was a riot. Our hosts made like 400 pudding shots – a Bailey’s chocolate, ”Orange Julius” and something made with Cherry Vodka. They also had a Guinness tap on their fridge. When our cab showed up to take us back to Tremont, she opened up my purse and threw in like 30 additional “Carry Out” shots. They were so delicious, and we passed a few out to friends at South Side (and thankfully had no melted ones in my purse the next morning). Our friend Jackson Rohm was performing again Saturday night, and not matter how much we pressed, he would NOT play REO Speedwagon. I also bumped into a couple local bloggers (which is always hysterical) and became overly-huggy like we were pals who hadn’t seen one another in years. Oh, those pudding shots!
And we had yet another hilarious cab driver. This one was in a Thrash metal band, and invited us to his benefit concert November. Sure. Like I needed another reason to go to Brookpark Road.
I had a little surprise in store for AB on Sunday – as I knew our friends from Indy would be in town — so they met us for the Trappist Beer Brunch at Tremont Taphouse. He was a little lost for a second when I went over to say hello to “friends” at the bar.
Again, I ordered the bacon cheddar omelet for breakfast, which for the second time has left me unimpressed with brunch at the Taphouse. Everyone else left really satisfied with their brunch choices (”Whose got crabs?!” Hilariously awesome), so I was alone in my disappointing experience. I loved my dinner at the Taphouse last year, so perhaps I need to select another menu item — it’s just that for brunch I CRAVE omelets (well, anytime really, but hangover brunches especially), and the omelets are just not craveable. One of the female bartenders was also kind of snotty, and more so than just taking my ketchup away without asking if I was finished.
We certainly learned a lot about Trappist beer. Orval was by far my favorite of the tasting, which was followed by Westmalle Dubbel & Trippel, then three versions of Rochefort (6, 8 & 10). I was seriously impressed with our “beer guide” for the morning. And more so that I was even able to drinkanother beer. My friend and I shared a Rogue sampler afterward: Morimoto, Chocolate Stout, Hazelnut Brown Nectar and one other which escapes me at the moment.
Oh, but there’s five days left of Cleveland Beer Week! Hooray, beer! Stay tuned…
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October 19th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
wow, you are kicking cleveland beer week’s ass at this point.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
[...] to make this a inaugural event a success. And that success was HUGE! We went to one or two events EACH AND EVERY night of Cleveland Beer Week. So, who is in charge of CRW, and why does it seem to be a [...]