10th Annual Cincy Winter Beerfest

So stop by the Mick Noll’s Covington Haus booth for some goetta balls, potato pancakes, super bratwurst, smoked metts, curry wurst or a hot dog. With additional collaboration from Urban Artifacts breweries and brewed with Paw Paw fruit, Tricorne will be debuting simultaneously at Oktoberfest Zinzinnnati and the Ohio Pawpaw Festival in Albany. It’s also hard to believe that we can get 16 locals brews on tap at the same time here, but every August we manage. It’s hard to believe we’re on our 5th Made in Cincinnati Beerfest this year.

The event was packed full of amazing beers from local breweries, like Two Brothers, Perennial, and Hopfen and the rest of the fest was filled with more than a hundred other breweries. When it comes to craft breweries, Cincinnati is one of the most fun cities to visit. But it’s also known for having some of the wildest beer in the country. It’s the biggest craft beer mecca in the state and you can get some of the most amazing brews in the country at one of the city’s many breweries.

Proceeds from the festival will go to support the Big Joe Duskin Music Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting the music programs in public schools across the Greater Cincinnati region. Since it started 10 years ago, Cincy Beerfest has raised more than $181,000 for the Foundation to date and its donations to the Foundation will surpass $200,000 after this year’s Beerfest. Part of putting on a successful event is knowing how much of each beer to buy. Johnson said they bought more than one million ounces last year. It’s a delicate balance between having enough of a beer that it’s still pouring on the second day and not being left with large quantities of leftover beer to send back to wholesalers at the end. “We saw that Cincinnati was five to 10 years behind the curve on craft beer,” back then, Johnson said.

The 14th annual Cincy Winter Beerfest is brewing to kick off at the Duke Energy Convention Center Feb. 11-12, 2022. Before passing away last November at cincinnati beer run 2015 the age of 74, Mick Noll had owned Covington restaurants since the mid-1970s. Every year, he donned his lederhosen and served food at area Oktoberfests.

New this year is an afternoon session that organizers hope will not only ease Saturday night crowds but will also offer a different experience. The Cincinnati Beer Fest is another one of those events that I’ve actually been to before. In fact, I’ve been to a handful of them, and I was also able to meet some of their brewers and learn a little bit more about their business. I was especially impressed with the fact that they serve food. It’s not an uncommon thing to hear that a brewery is serving up food to their customers. Now in it’s 11th year, Weekend of Fire is back – bigger, bolder and better than ever!

In honor of the anniversary, organizers have also added giveaways and collaboration brews into the mix. The former will raffle off prizes like a trip to the new Sierra Nevada Brewery in Asheville and lifetime tickets to the festival. The event was held this year in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and is one of the oldest and largest. It is held every year, usually on the weekend before Fourth of July, usually on the weekend after Labor Day. The event is held at the Cincinnati’s oldest continuously operating brewery, the Ohio Brewing Company. The brewers are all there, and I think the beer itself was pretty tasty.

We’re bringing in more booths to explore, awesome food to eat, heating up the contests and adding some exciting and enticing new elements to make this the hottest weekend of the year. In addition to tapping that first keg during the open ceremonies, Jim Koch will be debuting the latest Sam Adams craft beer, a tart New England IPA called Tricorne (yes, it’s named after the hat). Despite the company’s growth, its festivals continue to have a charity component. Festivals Unlimited essentially serves as each event’s producer, taking a flat fee for its efforts, and the event proceeds go to charities. As for the collaborations, festival staff partnered with five local breweries – MadTree, Rock Bottom, Braxton, Rhinegeist and Taft’s Ale House – to create a beer with each.

With over 500 craft beers and about 160 breweries, there plenty of brew to go around. Each year, I attempt to assemble the most comprehensive list of beer festivals in the Buckeye State. Note that I used the word “attempt” because there are always a few new ones that pop up or organizers don’t get back to me. The event was held October 1-2nd at the Riverfront Park, home of the Cincinnati Zoo, and featured over thirty of the citys top craft breweries.