2012 Cincinnati Beer Week

by Kevin

February is shaping up to be a great time to be a beer drinker in the Cincinnati area. The weather’s cold and the nights are long, but there are an amazing number of events coming in the next few weeks. Here’s a quick rundown:

In a few weeks, it will be the inaugural celebration of Cincinnati Beer Week. An official site has popped up to try and track the various events around the city, but I recommend hopping over to the Hoperatives blog for their take on the latest information. Here are a few of the events about which I’m excited:

Thursday February 2
Party Town Local Breweries Backroom Brawl from 6:00 – 8:00pm
Party Town kicks off Cincinnati’s Inaugural Beer Week with a “Backroom Brawl” of only local craft brews featuring the “Cincinnati Beer Week Barleywine,” a collaboration between local brewers, and our 18 tap growler program voted “Best of 2011″ by Cincinnati Magazine! Cost $2.00

Friday February 3
Arnold’s Bourbon Barrel 1861 Porter Happy Hour Tapping at 5pm
In honor of beer week Christian Moerlein has remixed a batch of the Arnold’s 1861 Porter. Arnold’s is already the only place that you could get the Porter, but for this special release, Christian Moerlein will be aging the same beer in a bourbon barrel.

Saturday February 4:
Cincinnati Brew Ha-Ha! from 07:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Cincy Brew Ha-Ha Winter Edition will bring all that has been enjoyed over the past 5 years indoors to the Cintas Center on Xavier University’s campus for its Winter Edition. This one-of-a-kind local event features top beers and top comedians creating the perfect recipe for a great time. From ales to lagers and pilsners to stouts, there is something for every type of beer aficionado – including 6 firkins! Cincy Brew Ha-Ha Winter Edition will feature over 80 selections of beer to sample and multiple comedians on 2 stages.

Additionally, there are a bunch of other events, including a 3 Floyds beer dinner at Tellers (2/8) and a selection of Left Hand beers on tap at the Hyde Park Cock and Bull (2/9) . This all leads up to the Cincinnati Winter Beer Festival on the 10th and 11th. Last year, this event was a great time and apparently it’s going to be even bigger this year. Click over to their site for more information and tickets.

On Feb 25, the Moerlein Lager house will be opening as part of the Banks, adding the first alternative to the Holy Grail, which opened last March. Tickets are $150 and the doors open at 6:30. More information can be found over on the Lager House official website.

I’m off to drink a Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere. That should help keep me sated until next month.

Buy Local…Three Great Wineries in your backyard

By AngelaL

This Saturday I decided to go the Ohio River Valley 6th Annual Barrel Tasting. First off it was a beautiful day and what a lovely drive. Since I live in Northern Kentucky, I decided to go to Harmony Hill Vineyards  in Bethel, then to the Ripley to Miranda-Nixon Winery and then end at Kinkead Ridge Winery.

Disclaimer: When sampling wines that are still aging in the barrel are not complete or finished products. So when tasting them you can taste the potential of what they will be. All of the wines I will will be talking about came straight from the aging barrels.

My first stop was Harmony Hill Vineyards. As we drove back to the tasting room and the barrel tasting all we could think of was how beautiful and quaint it was. Harmony Hill is a Certified Wildlife Habitat and everywhere you look there are donkeys, fawns, birds, and many other wildlife. The Barrel tasting was held in the underground wine cave. We tried 2 wines a Sauvignon Blanc and a Chambourcin. The Sauvignon Blanc was good you could tell when it’s done aging it would be a crisp medium bodied wine. The Chambourcin was decent, but when you tried the finished product in their tasting room it was yummy. A great bold red wine with tastes of oak, currant, and pepper. My suggestion if you go to Harmony Hills go during their summer months, pack a picnic basket and buy a bottle of wine and listen to the live music. Its a whole entertainment experience.

Second was Miranda-Nixon Winery, this place was beautiful too! Not only can you see the acres of vineyards its next door to a horse farm. We sampled 3 wines from the barrel a Chardonnay, a Sangiovese, and a Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chardonnay was amazing and it will be even more amazing once its finished aging. The Sangiovese was young of course but you could tell it had great potential when finished aging. I liked the Cabernet but I really thought the other 2 had more potential. There tasting room overlooks the hills of the vineyards and the horses on the farm. We tasted some of the wines in the tasting room and I fell in love with 3 of their wines. The 2010 Traminette (a crisp white wine that has a hint of sweetness), 2010 Catawba (a blush wine with hints of citrus and sweet), and the American Cabernet Sauvignon (a balanced cab with hints of berry flavors with a semi-dry finish). My suggestion go to their Saturday night tasting dinners $55 per couple accompanied with a bottle of wine with your choice of Salmon or Steak.

Now I have saved the best for last! My favorite Winery was the Kinkead Ridge Winery, they have their wines mastered. These wines will stand the challenge against of any wines anywhere. We first tasted wines as the finished product and then we tasted them out of the barrel. The first wine we tried was their Cabernet Franc and I all ready knew I wanted to buy a bottle. We tried 4 wines from the barrel and all of them were showing strong characteristics of big red wines. We started off with the Cabernet Franc which all ready had some tanins, a hint of cherry, and a little spice aftertaste. This was by far my favorite out of the barrels. I then tried the Cabernet Sauvignon which was on its way to be a full-bodied tanic cab. It was of course still in its young stage but it sure showed potential. Next we moved onto the Syrah which was a little more fruitier tasting or lighter tasting than I would expect from a Syrah. I’m sure after it’s fully aged and bottled the wine will be great after a few years of aging in the bottle. The last barrel tasting was a Petit Verdot this was also showing strong tannins and a spicy aftertaste. This will be the wine to buy when it gets released next year. Trust me when all of the wines get released next year, I’m going to be the first in line to purchase them.

] Pictured: I’m with the winemaker of Kinkead Ridge Winery, Ron Barrett, I bought the last bottle of Viognier/Roussanne which he autographed for my collection.  Here it is on their website.

Cheers and remember support all your local vineyards/wineries. You’d be surprised what’s in your own backyard.

Angela

Join Angela this Thursday and Friday for free wine tastings

By Angela

Hello fellow wine lovers,

I just wanted to inform everyone that starting Thursday I will be pouring and hosting FREE wine tastings at Liquor City Bakewell in Covington KY.  Thursday and Friday, November 17 and 18, from 4 -8 p.m. I will be pouring the big six grapes. The tasting will be Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah.

The big six wine tasting will get you to:

• taste the difference between each grape varietal
• taste the difference between light, medium, and full bodied wines
• see the color difference between the three whites and the three reds
• and you’ll be able to know a few basics about wines

If you happen to be in the Covington/Northern Kentucky area this Thursday or Friday please come and see me. Future wine tastings: November 21st & 23rd at Liquor City Bakewell.

Cheers.

For Historian Beer Drinkers, Beer Drinkers, and Historians

By Angela

Last night I went on the Queen City Under Ground Tour from American Legacy Tours and I was amazed. I’ve been on at least three of their tours and every time I go I learn something new about the greater Cincinnati area. This tour was focused on the Over the Rhine area where there were over 163 saloons, beer gardens, theatres, and breweries were on Vine St. in the late 1800s. The breweries would store and make their beer underground the buildings in these huge tunnels/rooms (the rooms are the sub and sub-sub basements). Some of the tunnels/rooms I was standing in were at least 20 feet high, it was amazing. They had tunnels that were underneath the streets that go in between the barreling and bottling buildings and onto other buildings.

Pictured: One of the tunnels underneath the Guild Haus on Vine Street. This was one of the barrel tunnels underneath the Barreling room.

Did you know that Cincinnati drank over two and a half times more beer than the national limit in the late 1800s? That’s a lot of beer! Besides seeing the underground breweries and historical buildings we saw where the new Christian Moerlein brewery will be located. There was a tunnel that was boarded up from the one building that led into the Christian Moerlein brewery but we didn’t get to see that tunnel. The future home of the Christian Moerlein Brewery was once the Malt and Lager house of the Kaufman Brewery that was one of the breweries during the late 1800s.  Christian Moerlein Brewery was the only Cincinnati beer from that time that was exported internationally.

The tour was a great history lesson and shows how much Over the Rhine have developed in the last decade.  Please note that the tour is a walking tour and to get to the tunnels you will have to go down a few flights of steps. The tour runs till the end of November every Saturday and Sunday. Please check their website for more information.

The New Haunted Covington Tour by American Legacy Tours

by Angela

I was so excited to hear that American Legacy Tours was finally doing a Haunted Covington Tour. Considering I grew up in Covington and I grew up in a haunted building in Main Strauss.  Not only did this tour share great ghost stories that I myself heard over the years but also some great history about the Covington area. Like for instance, did you know that Ulysses S. Grant’s parents lived in Covington? He also lived there during a part of the Civil War and his kids went to a school on Greenup St.

This tour walks you past some of the most beautiful historic homes in the Tri State area. Two great spots that have great haunt stories on the tour are the Baker-Hunt Art and Cultural Center and the Booth Hospital. The Baker-Hunt house has a history of ghost sightings and as I was standing in the living room listening to the stories and history about the house I got the creepiest feeling like someone was watching us. The Booth Hospital has so many different ghost stories and I even shared a ghost story with the tour guides that I saw first hand when I was little.

– This is a picture of Dr. Baker-Hunt; visitors and psychics have described seeing him in the house.

This is a tour that has a beautiful scenery, wonderful ghost stories, and great history. I strongly suggest this tour even if you don’t believe in ghost just to take in all the historic homes and vibrant history.

Disclaimer: This was a free event that I was invited to for press night. This tour has nothing to do with wine or any wine events, it’s just really freaking cool.