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

Lunchtime Party

Hints of sunshine and blossoms on the trees remind us it's time to part from our desk and eat lunch outside.

Make midday a celebration with weekly Walnut Wednesdays, starting tomorrow through Sept. 25 at the up-and-coming NineTwelve District at  East 12th Street and Walnut Avenue.

From 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. this week, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance brings food trucks, including Umami Moto, Fired Up Taco Truck, DonutLab and more to the district as local band Faction plays covers from a wide range of musical genres.

Samantha Severo, DCA marketing and public relations specialist, sees the events as a way to bring some added excitement to the city's central business district. "We want to show that neighborhood and that side of town that there is foot traffic," she explains.



And on May 16, don't miss the first of four once-monthly Pop-Up Parties taking place in Perk Plaza. Delight your ears from 5-8 p.m. with the sounds of Justo Saborit Latin Soul as you dine on food truck treats and sip local brews from Great Lakes Brewing Co. This year's after-work parties feature a new element: shopping. Treasures from Cleveland Handmade and other local artisans will be available during a sidewalk sale with a flea market feel.

The E-Line trolleys now have extended hours in the NineTwelve District, making it even easier for Clevelanders to get their weekday lunch fix.

Walnut Wednesdays and Pop-Up Parties give the downtown workforce something to look forward to this summer while bringing new energy to the neighborhood surrounding renovated Perk Plaza. "You can see people who pour out of these buildings," Severo says, "just showing how lively it is."

Let the Yuletide cheer begin!

It’s only October, but in Cleveland, the Christmas season starts today. At 4 p.m., Great Lakes Brewing Company puts its Christmas Ale on tap at its Market Avenue brewpub. Six-packs hit stores next week.

The holiday brew’s cult following grows every year. Bars, notoriously, run out long before the holiday arrives. The combination of cinnamon, ginger and honey is sweet, but not too sweet, a little spicy and very smooth. As popular as the beer is, you have to be careful with it. At 7.5 percent alcohol by volume, it packs quite a punch and often leads to headaches and regret (“I said what last night?”).

I’ve been a fan of Christmas Ale since college, but last year, its return upset me. I was in living in Paris, and Christmas Ale was not on the list of imported beers at my favorite pub. Then, miracle of miracles, Christmas came early. Generous friends sent me a trans-Atlantic six-pack through Rozi’s Wine House in Lakewood.

I was so ecstatic, I posted a picture of myself on my personal blog holding a bottle for the world to see. I enjoyed it with a baguette and cheese.

The worst part about this beer is (surprisingly) not the hangover. Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. Great Lakes only produces a certain amount each year, and after it’s sold out, we’re all doomed to wait another ten months until we can taste this sweet, sweet nectar.

Christmas (Ale) in January

Since Cleveland Magazine endeavors to serve as this city's definitive guide to the joys of Cleveland beer, we feel compelled to report this important find:

Harvey's, the hotel bar at the Hilton Garden Inn at Carnegie and East 9th, is still serving Great Lakes Christmas Ale on tap.

Careful, though. A month after Christmas, we'd forgotten what a woozy kick a single pint of the stuff packs. (7.5% alcohol is like two beers in one.)

Still Hopping

I went to a media gathering in honor of Great Lakes Brewing Company's 20'th anniversary. The socially and environmentally conscious local beer maker has crafted about 50 varieties of sudsy goodness since 1988. To mark their double-decade shelf life, six new brew tanks were installed.

Easier said than done. Their historic building on Carroll, off Lorain and West 27th, already cramped, doesn’t offer much room for maneuvering. To get the three-story steel cylinders in place, holes were cut in the roof. A sky-high crane was positioned on site and some seriously skilled guys hoisted what looked like space capsules up and then ever so carefully and slowly lowered them down into the tank farm. It was a pretty dramatic way to deliver the message that GLBC is growing better and bigger and doing it right there in Ohio City. My pro photographer husband Barney captured the moment with a cell phone. There was definitely a happy vibe rippling through the crowd of invited onlookers. But things definitely got even more cheerful when our brewery tour guide and host Pat Conway, who co-owns the business with his brother Dan, announced “Time for some beer.”

We raised seven (not so big) glasses of lagers, ales, and stout to toast the occasion, each one paired with menu favorites from the past including pretzel chicken and chocolate torte made with Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. It was a great night of eating and drinking (sensibly of course). But don’t assume the fun is for professionals only. Tomorrow, September 4, Happy Hour lasts all day and into the evening until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday are designated Customer Appreciation Nights, and on September 9, there’s a special brewmaster’s dinner, open to the public by reservation.