In general, this blog will focus on visits to breweries and brewpubs, but exceptions will be made. The Starkbier Festival was sponsored by the Listermann Brewing Company and was held about 50 yds from the their front door. Unlike the Mad Tree Winter Bonanza, in this case the brewery was basically off-limits to the festival goers as you weren't really supposed to carry your beer back and forth from the brewery to the festival area (naturally this didn't stop us from taking a peak). Hopefully I'll be back soon to get the "true" brewery experience.
The idea for a Starkbier Festival goes back to the 1700s when the German monks made strong beers for their nutritional values to help them get through fasting during Lent. All of the beers present were 7.5% or higher. Continuing with this tradition, most of the beers present at the Cincinnati StarkBier Festival will be 7.5% or higher and all will be made right here in Cincinnati. Being of German heritage, participating in Lenten fasting and abstinence, and a lover of big beers, this was too much of a good thing.
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| Beer List from StarkBier Fest 2014 |
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Old fashion overhead projector listing the beers on tap
at any given time. |
It's hard for me to believe, but they were selling these high alcohol beers in 16oz cups (22oz if you bought the commemorative mug). Because of that I was only able to sample a few of the many that sounded great. Those included: Word, a Scotch Ale, from
Ei8ht Ball Brewing, Old Abe, an Amercian Strong Ale, from
Bad Tom Brewing, and Planetary IPA from
Listermann Brewing Company. All were very good and I am looking forward to separate visits to each of these breweries for a more in depth analysis.
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| Many volunteers, few lines for beer. |
The festival was really well organized. There were plenty of friendly volunteers (willing to let you try the beers before buying), traditional German music (while we were there), and free samples of seafood gumbo from
Brew River Gastropub (you simply MUST go to this place. The people at the festival were beyond friendly. This was in the middle of March Madness and my wife and I were a little intimidated of wearing our University of Dayton sweatshirts at a festival just across the street from Xavier University, but lots of people came up to wish us luck as our Flyers played in the Elite Eight. We spent more time talking to strangers than the people we came with, which surely proves that this was one great event.
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| View from inside the tent. Notice the beer list on the tent roof. |
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| Lots of food trucks! |
