Beer for Breakfast

Even hardcore beer enthusiasts don't often get an excuse to drink beer with all the trappings of a hearty breakfast. Thankfully, the Winking Lizard has our backs. On Jan. 29, the Lakewood tavern is hosting a Founders Brewery (Grand Rapids, Michigan) event featuring Founders' seasonal Breakfast Stout, limited-edition Kentucky Breakfast Stout and the extremely rare, "backstage-pass edition" Canadian Breakfast Stout.

What makes a beer breakfast-worthy?

Well, all three are brewed with oats, a blend of coffee and imported chocolate. The Kentucky Breakfast Stout, which is usually only available in April, is also cave-aged in oak bourbon barrels. But the Canadian Breakfast Stout, which hasn't been released since 2011, is a true rarity.

"We were able to acquire a very limited number of maple syrup bourbon barrels about a year ago and decided to age an imperial stout brewed with coffee and chocolate," says Dave Engbers, Founders Brewery president and co-founder. 

When it's available, which isn't often, it's usually listed among the top five best beers in the world and given a perfect 100 rating, according to the popular beer-aficionados site BeerAdvocate.com. 

Winking Lizard Lakewood is offering all three as a flight of 5-ounce pours for this event. But only 175 flights will be available (at $15 each) due to the limited quantities available. We recommend getting there early. Doors open at 4 p.m. and kegs will be tapped at 5, but after its last release, Founders Brewery CEO Mike Stevens felt the need to apologize to frustrated fans who missed out:

"We make this beer because we are extremely passionate about creating the best liquid we know how to produce. We started this business as home brewers and still look at ourselves as such. We know that some of you might never get your chance at a CBS bottle, but we feel it would be a greater disappointment to have never shared this product at all."

Other Founders Brewery draughts will include Big Luscious, a dark chocolate and raspberry stout; Backwards Bastard, a bourbon barrel-aged Scotch ale; Black Rye rye beer; Dirty Bastard Scotch ale; and All Day IPA, Centennial IPA and Dark Pennance, all pale ales.

Draft Days: Three Can't Miss Cleveland Beer Week Events

Bottoms up, Cleveland! Tomorrow kicks off the sixth annual Cleveland Beer Week, a nine-day celebration of Cleveland’s hopping craft brewery scene with more than 350 events. Need the abbreviated tour for your liver’s sake? Here are Winking Lizard co-owner and Beer Week co-founder John Lane’s must-attend events:

1. Great Lakes Tap Takeover: Sat. Oct. 11 @ 11 a.m.

Great Lakes Brewery takes over the Winking Lizard Lakewood’s taps with 43 different Great Lakes beers. Yes, you read that correctly. In addition to the Ohio City brewery’s standards, Great Lakes' brewers have been stashing special elixirs and planning a few surprises to keep the beer flowing in the name of Lake Erie. A handful of beers will only be on tap for a few hours (or as long as it takes for the tap to run dry), with the last one hitting the bar at 5:30 p.m. “We are tapping a barrel-aged Christmas Ale. That’ll be the highlight of the day,” says Lane. “Christmas Ale is already revered in this city, but to have it barrel-aged is superb.” Winking Lizard Tavern Lakewood, 14018 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, 216-226-6693, winkinglizard.com

2. Culture Yourself, Tue. Oct. 14 @ 6-9 p.m.

What’s better than beer? Beer and cheese, of course. This ticketed event ($40 for 20 pairings) will feature 17 breweries — including local favorites Brew Kettle, Buckeye and Great Lakes — for an evening of beer and cheese pairings at the West Side Market in Ohio City. “This is the first time the West Side Market has opened their space for [any group] other than themselves in its entire history that we know of,” Lane says. One of the cheese stands will be open for some expert help. Lane’s favorite combo? “I love when you get a nice stout with a really nice blue cheese,” he recommends. “I’m a freak about blue cheese.” West Side Market, 1979 W. 25th St., Cleveland, 216-664-3387, westsidemarket.org

3. Brewzilla, Sat. Oct. 18 @ 6-10 p.m.

“A Monster of a Beer Tasting” is this event’s subheading, and for good reason. “We’ll have probably 120, 130 different breweries,” says Lane, with many breweries offering several types of beer. In the past, Brewzilla has been Cleveland Beer Week’s culminating event. It’s followed for the first time this year by a bluegrass festival on Sunday, but this is still the king of beer events. VIP tickets are already sold out, and general admission tickets ($50 per person) are going quickly. 5th Street Arcades, 530 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, 216-583-0500, 5thstreetarcades.com

For tickets or for more information about the nonprofit Cleveland Beer Week or the Malone Scholarship Fund it supports, visit clevelandbeerweek.org

Cleveland Beer Week opens tonight with ceremonial keg-tapping

This is the kind of event we can get behind. The first annual Cleveland Beer Week opens tonight with a ceremonial tapping of the keg at the Winking Lizard in Independence, featuring Jimmy Malone of WMJI and state Sen. Tom Patton.

(We'd be there, but we're heading to Cleveland Magazine's Best of Cleveland Party tonight.)

The rest of the week includes a dizzying lineup of tastings, tappings, talks, brewing demos, beer dinners, an IPA festival -- and, next Saturday, Brewzilla, a 50-brewery mega-tasting at the Euclid Arcade downtown.

To get into the festive spirit, and to remind you of all the malty liquid goodness of Cleveland's brewing culture, we recommend "Beer Ye, Beer Ye," our December 2008 package of stories celebrating the 75th anniversary of our constitutional right to beer.