Tag Archives: Cincinnati

Beer Review: Helles by Moerlein Lager House

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Beer Name: Helles
Brewery: Moerlein Lager House
Beer Style: Helles
ABV: 5.2%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 78
RateBeer: 32

I have a bunch of vacation days remaining this year, so I took a couple to celebrate my mom’s birthday this past weekend.  Unfortunately my dad wasn’t feeling well, so they had to leave earlier than expected, which left me with an entire day at home with nothing do to…the perfect opportunity to drink some beers.

I found this beer in the back of my fridge…and sadly I cannot even remember when I purchased it.  I’m sure it was sometime over the summer, but I’m not entirely sure when…so I wanted to be sure and drink it before it wasn’t good anymore.

Moerlein states lists their Helles as “Brewed to the same standards that made Moerlein the first American beer to certifiably pass the Reinheitsgebot Purity Law, this Münchner-styled Helles is a remarkably balanced lager featuring a lightly toasted, yet defined malt character, and a touch of hops for a clean finish.”  While I didn’t get much of the “lightly toasted” taste, I really don’t think any of this is an exaggeration at all.

The Helles poured very smooth and left little head behind.  It smelled exactly as I would expect a true Helles to smell – very light and sweet.  Helles is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite style of beer, because I tend to like lighter beers that have a clean/crisp/refreshing flavor with little aftertaste or bitterness on the back-end.  This Helles delivered exactly that…though there was a little more bitter taste on the back-end than I expected, it was still very pleasant.

Without a doubt this would make a good cookout/tailgating beer.  It is something you can drink all day and it will easily quench your thirst.  If you like Helles style beers, give this one a go. I’m sure I’ll pick it up again in the future.

Ratings:
Sessionability: 6-pack. You could easily drink these all day in the summer.
Overall: 4-pack. Good, not great.  While I enjoyed it, and will likely pick it up again in the future when I’m craving a Helles style beer, I wasn’t “blown away” by it.
Would Best Be Consumed: Anytime.

Beer Review: Saengerfest Maibock Lager by Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.

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Brewery: Chrisian Moerlein Brewing Co.
Beer Style: Maibock
ABV: 6.5%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 82
RateBeer: 80

I’ve been absurdly busy for the past several weeks…so I had one goal for this past weekend: to do as little as possible.  It was 100% mission accomplished, but I felt a little guilty for not doing anything at all, so I decided to review a beer.  Terrific end to a relaxing weekend.

Moerlein describes their Maibock as “a well balanced Maibock characterized by spicy and floral noble style hops.” It’s a deep golden lager, what is called a “blonde bock.” It was created in commemoration of Cincinnati’s Saengerfest choral celebrations which began in 1849. This celebration lead to the construction of the Music Hall in 1878.

The beer pours a dark gold color with little head.  It smells very sweet with a hint of caramel.  The taste was almost exactly what I expected from the smell – light, sweet and crisp, with a hint of caramel (and a slight bitter aftertaste that I didn’t expect, but it fades quite quickly).  The carbonation was very light and barely noticeable.

I’m fairly new to the Cincinnati region, and honestly I had never heard of many of the local breweries, but I continue to be pleasantly surprised.  Kudos to Moerlein for a delicious Maibock.

Ratings:

Sessionability: 5-pack. Light, crisp, and refreshing.  You could drink this all day and continue to enjoy it.  The 6.5% abv could cause problems after a while though.

Overall: 5-pack. Very good.  I would go 4.5 pack if we did half-ratings, but since we don’t I feel this is worthy to round up.  Very sweet and caramel-y taste that I enjoyed.

Would Best Be Consumed: Any time during the spring or summer.

Beer Review: Mt. Carmel Brewing Company – Stout

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Brewery: Mount Carmel Brewing Company
Beer Style: Stout
ABV: 6.7%
Size: 12 oz. bottle
Beer Advocate: 83
RateBeer: 93

This past weekend I made a 29.5 hour round trip to Minnesota and back to help my future brother-in-law move.  When we began the trip, I wasn’t sure that my body could take it, but I survived (despite being basically useless for the last few hours of the trip).  So, after a grueling Monday at work I was exhausted and looking forward to getting a good nights sleep for the first time in days.  If you’d think any of that was going to stop me from having a beer though, you’d be horribly wrong.  When I got off work, I wanted two things: a cold beer and to go to bed early. I only got one of the two – but it was the right one.

Mt. Carmel bills their stout as “black in color, our stout enters with a dark fruit aroma atop a thick light brown head as the crown of a chocolate malt body. The beer is balanced with hints of coffee and the intense flavor of roasted grains.”  The stout poured jet black with a medium brown head.  It smelled deliciously sweet and chocolatey with a prominent coffee aroma.  The first taste floods your palate with a sweet and citrusy taste that fades to chocolate and then coffee.  It finishes very smooth with a pleasantly sweet aftertaste.  I found Mt. Carmel’s Stout to be very good, and as it warmed up it became even better.

While I’ve been underwhelmed by a few of the Mt. Carmel beers I’ve tried, I really enjoyed this one and I’d certainly recommend it.  I’ll certainly be buying it again.

Ratings:
Sessionability: 4-pack. It’s a bit thick and heavy to drink all day, and the 6.7% ABV could be dangerous as well.
Overall: 5-pack. Delicious.  Not the best stout I’ve ever had, but very good.
Would Best Be Consumed: Would’ve been excellent with a good meal, but was very good by itself.  I wouldn’t drink it on a hot summer day, but would be good just about any other time.

Beer Review: War by Rivertown Brewing Co.

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Beer Name: War

Brewery: Rivertown Brewing Co. (Cincy)
Beer style: Smoked Red Ale
ABV: 6.2%
IBU: N/A
Size: 12 oz ($2.99)
Beer Advocate Score: N/A
Ratebeer: N/A

I am starting to embrace this whole “end of days” thing. Seriously, I am a ginger who has no soul. With no soul, I don’t have to worry about being saved because you cannot save what never existed. I am just going to kick back, drink beers, and count down until the rapture. Unlike most, I think the rapture is pretty rad. See, basically the rapture will be all the non-believers left back here on Earth while all the goody-goodies go to heaven.  All the soulless gingers, beer-drinking buddies, and loose women will be left behind to rage without getting dirty looks for a Tuesday hangover. YES!

All this talk of the apocalypse has me craving a beer. Good thing Rivertown has decided to do an apocalypse series of ales. For further details, go check out my review of the first release, Pestilence.  The second beer in the apocalypse series represents the rider “War,” and is a smoked (Get it? Smoking war embers!) Irish red ale.

I will first say that two of my least favorite beer styles are smoked and red ales, but for the sake of research I sucked it up. The beer pours easily and forms a small white head. It smells nice with lots of smoke, oak, and cherry notes.  At first taste, I got serious smoke notes and thought, “Here we go again with the campfire in my mouth.” But this beer doesn’t taste like a campfire. The smoke gives way to a nice barley backbone while the smoke lingers in the background. Extremely light carbonation helps to deliver a faint cherry sour that balances well with the smoke. The beer has a medium mouthfeel and very light lacing.

Ratings

Sessionability: 1-pack. Lots a flavor; you will need a change-up.

Overall: 4-pack. I am not a fan of smoked or red ales, but I enjoyed this.

Would Best Be Consumed: With some KC Gold BBQ; the sweet would do wonders with the smoke.

Beer Review: Pumpkin Ale – River Town Brewing Company

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Beer Name: Pumpkin Ale

Brewery: River Town Brewing Company (Cincinnati)
Beer Style: Pumpkin Ale
ABV: 5%
IBU: ?
Size: 120z Bottle
Beer Advocate: 83
RateBeer: 74

For the last few years, it seems like all the seasonal beers are coming out earlier and earlier. So it was no surprise to me when I received several calls this week from beer reps letting me know that Oktoberfest and pumpkin beers are now available. As far as seasonal  beers go, the fall-winter time is my favorite, because the darker the beer gets the more I like it. I’m not to huge on pumpkin beers, but when I saw that River Town Brewing Company put out this beer, I was excited to review it for this site so I couldn’t pass it up.

Pumpkin Ale pours a nice dark amber with a quarter-inch off-white head.  The aroma smells of sweet molasses or caramel with faint hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and maybe some clove dancing around. The taste up front is very sweet with the molasses flavor shining, but it slowly mixes with the spices that were present in the nose, and then finishes with a nice hint of vanilla and spices.

It’s a nice offering from an Ohio brewery. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s far from bad. As I stated above, I’m not huge on the pumpkin beers, but my girlfriend loves them and she seemed to really enjoy it. She also compared the finish to a pumpkin cheesecake, which I feel is a good comparison.

Ratings

Sessionability: I’ve had multiple pumpkin beers in the past that were either too heavy on the spice or alcohol; this is neither and at 5% abv it’s very drinkable. 5-pack.

Overall: While the beer was easy to drink, it was more sweet than flavorful. But it was a nice beer overall. 3-pack.

Would Best Be Consumed: On a fall night around a fire pit or while catering to the trick-or-treaters.

Beer Review: Summer Wheat Ale – Mt. Carmel Brewing Company

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Beer Name: Summer Wheat Ale
Brewery: Mt. Carmel Brewing Company
Beer Style: American Pale Wheat Ale
ABV: 4.8%
IBU: 34
Size: 12oz Bottle
Beer Advocate: 85
Untappd: 3

Work was unexpectedly busy, my girlfriend is gone for a week on a cruise with her mom, and we have a useless Wednesday holiday this week.  Is it any surprise that I wanted to drink tonight?

When I bought Mt. Carmel’s Summer Wheat Ale, I was expecting a “normal” wheat beer.  I guess that’s what I get for not reading the label.  I was instantly surprised upon pouring this beer: It smelled light and citrusy (which was expected), but I was momentarily confused by the amount of hops I smelled.  Mt. Carmel describes their Summer Wheat Ale as “bright, citrusy and hoppy, this summertime ale salutes the flavor of the American hop and gives way to a smooth refreshing finish.” Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by this.

The beer poured very easily and left little head that went down very quickly.  Summer Wheat is nicely carbonated and has a distinct bitter taste – almost like an IPA, but more mild.  There was a definite wheat flavor, along with citrus, caramel, and spice in addition to the bitter taste from the hops, but it all worked together nicely.  At first, I found the bitterness overpowering (we all know how much I hate IPAs), but once the beer warmed up a little and I started taking bigger gulps to allow the Summer Wheat to hit my palate differently, I found that I quite enjoyed the beer.

Summer Wheat won’t be making my short list of favorite summer beers, but it was interesting and different, in a good way.  If you like summer-style beers and IPAs, I would venture a guess that you’ll enjoy Mt. Carmel’s Summer Wheat as well.

Ratings:
Sessionability: I’m not a huge fan of the bitter taste, but I can see most people drinking these easily. 4-pack.
Overall: I’m going to go with a 4-pack. I didn’t like it much at first, but it really grew on me and I ended up enjoying it overall.
Would Best Be Consumed: Straight-up summer beer. Perfect for a hot day/night when you want something refreshing.

Beer Review: Barbarossa – Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.

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Beer Name: Barbarossa 

Brewery: Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. (Cincinnati)
Beer style: Double Dark Lager
ABV: 5.0% (from BA)
IBU: Unknown
Size: 12 oz bottle
Beer Advocate Score: 86
Untappd Score: 3 caps

I consider myself, when compared to most Mormon children at least, to be relatively well-versed in U.S. craft breweries and the beers that they make; however, one of my very favorite things about craft beer is that all it takes is for one short walk down an aisle of any well-stocked beer store for me to stumble upon a beer, or in some cases a brewery, that I have not heard of. So I was more than pleasantly surprised while at The Andersons to find not just a brewery that I had not heard of, but one from Ohio to boot. This particular brewery is in Cincinnati: Christian Moerlein.

According to the bottle, the beer, Barbarossa, is named after this guy for his red hair/its color, and in fact this beer pours a see-through reddish-brown with a nice white head that left nice light laces on my glass as I tilted it from side to side.  There is little smell to this beer; if anything, you notice a little bit of both the sweet and the toasted malts. It’s delicate but nice. It tastes like a full-flavor lager, but it might be slightly more complex than your standard dark lager. Not much of an alcohol taste, which one might expect from a beer calling itself a double anything. There isn’t much of a hop taste, but the hops that are there do a very good job of leaving the mouth with just enough of a bitter flavor that makes you want to have another sip.

All that said, this is not an overly flavorful beer – unlike the beers I usually go in for – but it is not supposed to be either; it succeeds in its balance and light feel for a darker beer. I thought I wouldn’t care much for this beer after the first sip, as it is not in a style I usually seek out, but the more I drank it, the more I like it; if I had another one cold right now, I would absolutely have another to see if it kept getting better.

Ratings:

Sessionability: I give it a 6-pack. At 5% and as light and balanced as this beer is, I could probably sit down and watch a game with a six-pack.
Overall: I give it a 4-pack, and this was hard for me; if we gave out half points, this beer would get one.
Would be best consumed: Football Saturdays or Sundays in early October with maybe a mustard-loaded brat.

Beer News: The Boston Beer Company to Invest and Expand Cincinnati Brewery

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The maker of Sam Adams beer is expanding its operations in Cincinnati!

Jess Paar, a spokeswoman for the Boston Beer Co. announced  that they are adding new tanks for fermentation and aging to its Cincinnati based brewery “so that we can keep up with the brewing demands as we introduce new, innovative styles like our Barrel Room Collection and small batch beers.”

Additionally, they are reading property at Central and Findlay (just North of where the tanks are being installed) for future expansion.

Sam Adams currently employs about 100 people at it’s Cincinnati brewery, which is the companies primary brewery for most of their specialty and lower volume products.  Paar also noted that they are hiring in Cincinnati.  Details can be found on their website (http://www.samueladams.com/index.aspx)

Source:
BeerPulse on Twitter (http://www.samueladams.com/index.aspx)
and
Bizjournals.com (http://www.bizjournals.com/mobile/cincinnati/blog/2012/05/sam-adams-adding-huge-tanks-for.html)

This is particuaraly exciting news for me for a few reasons:
1. I love Ohio, and its great to see any jobs coming to our state.
2. I live near Cincinnati, and I know how much this area can use jobs like this.
3. Sam Adams is my favorite “big” brewery. They make a lot of beer that I really like, and despite their size, they’ve shown that they’re not afraid to experiment and expand their brand.

Now, if they’d just open a tasting room and/or allow tours, I’d be in heaven!

 

Review: Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery – Cincinnati, OH

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My girlfriend is awesome. Even before I knew that Cincinnati’s Rock Bottom Restaurant Brewery had won a 2012 World Beer Cup Gold Medal for Sarah’s Two Headed Buffalo Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer, she had already made plans to take me to Rock Bottom for our anniversary so I could try this beer.

Rock Bottom is located at Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati.  Parking garages are nearby, so it’s a short and easy walk to get to the restaurant.

We ordered nachos as an appetizer, and we were shocked when this arrived:

They were basically a meal by themselves. A delicious meal (aside from the jalapenos that tried to kill me).

After we finished the giant serving of nachos, dinner arrived.

Erin had the Chicken-Fried Chicken, which was amazingly delicious.  Our waiter said that it was the #1 selling dinner, and I’m not at all surprised.  She elected to have coleslaw and cheddar mashed potatoes as her sides, and both were excellent choices.  We both love coleslaw and were very happy with Rock Bottom’s. As a pleasant surprise, they put apple in their ‘slaw (which neither of us had seen before), and it was fabulous.  The cheddar mashed potatoes were very good as well, though I would’ve liked to taste a little more cheddar in them.

I had the Chicken Mac & Cheese, which was good, but not nearly as good as Erin’s meal.  The spice of the chicken really overpowered the rest of the dish, including the parmesan breadcrumbs.  My meal did not come with any sides (though I did order myself a side of the cheddar mashed potatoes that I never got).

Overall, we both enjoyed our meals and had leftovers to take home.

As for the beer (and probably the real reason you’re reading this):

Erin had their Kolsch, which Rock Bottom bills as a “golden, straw-colored ale [that] is light in body with a crisp, floral hop finish.”  I only had one sip (and it was after I had already tried the inherently much more flavorful Two Headed Buffalo), but it was about what I expected: a very light, crisp beer with not a whole lot going on.

Of course, I was there for the Gold Medal winner.

And it did not disappoint.

I tend to love barrel-aged beers. Even if I don’t like the way they taste, I love the idea behind them and the flavors that you get from them.  Sarah’s Two Headed Buffalo is my current favorite barrel-aged beer.  It is much sweeter and more gentle on the palate than any other barrel-aged beer I’ve had – but it is still 8% abv, so it’s no slouch.  I had two of them and contemplated a third before I remembered that I had to drive home. Seriously, be on the lookout for this beer and try it if you can.  You’ll thank me later.

Sessionability: I’m giving this a 4-pack, even though I almost drank three.  At 8% abv, drinking too many could end up biting you in the ass.
Overall: 5-pack. As I said, it’s my current favorite barrel-aged beer.
Would Be Best Consumed: I don’t think I’d want to drink this in the middle of the summer on a really hot day, but it would be good to drink almost any other time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m looking forward to going back to Rock Bottom again – next time for the Chicken-Fried Chicken and a beer sampler to go along with a Two Headed Buffalo.

Beer Review: Springtime Ale – Mt. Carmel Brewing Company

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Beer Name: Springtime Ale
Brewery: Mt. Carmel Brewing Company
Beer style: Wee Ale
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 19
Size: 12 oz bottle
Beer Advocate Score: 78
Rate Beer Score: 43

I moved to Cincinnati a few months ago, so after settling in and smoothing out the hiccups at my new job, I decided to start looking around for local beer to try. The first brewery that I came across was Mt. Carmel Brewing Company; I was walking through the Party Source and their Springtime Ale caught my eye in the “build your own 6-pack” section, so I picked one up to try…and I’m glad that I did.

Mt. Carmel’s Springtime Ale is “A fine wee ale in the Scots’ tradition – rich and malty flavors be our brewer’s mission. The sweit aroma and frae flowerin’ heather are reminiscent of a fine spring day in Scotland.” (http://mtcarmelbrewingcompany.com). Simply put – it’s a good beer (despite the website’s poor attempt at conveying a Scottish accent) with heavy flavors of chocolate and caramel.  Finished very clean with just a slight linger of chocolate and “fresh bread.” I finished the entire glass in about five gulps, and wish I had a few more bottles in the fridge. This is definitely a beer I’ll be picking up again.

According to Mt. Carmel’s Twitter, they just had the Grand Opening of their taproom on April 23rd, so I will be heading down to there to check it out as soon as I can.

Ratings:

Sessionability: I give it a 5-pack (I could drink a few before it got to be too much)
Overall: I give it a 4-pack (4 out of 6)
Would be best consumed: Any mild to warm spring day. Too heavy for summer, not heavy enough for the dead of winter.