The Buckeye Beer Engine

Recently I moved back to the Cleveland area for foreseeable future to try to find or make a job. However, as is my modus operandi for whenever I end up in a new area, I had to start asking and looking around places to great some great drafts. Fortunately, I have discovered that craft beer in my area is the norm rather than the exception and so I feel I have made the correct choice in my move.

On the first night I arrived, on a recommendation from my apartment manager, my family (who were helping me move) and I headed to a place called the Buckeye Beer Engine. Not really expecting much we were a bit surprised when we were greeted with a very unassuming fastfood looking joint with its windows covered in custom neon lights. Even more surprising was when we walked inside and we saw the absolutely huge U-shaped bar tucked into the place and the ceiling lined with old taps handles. Surprised continued with the incredible selection of beers on tap (and in cask!) and bottles available not to say anything about the fantastic burgers and sandwiches we ate for dinner.

If are ever in the Cleveland area and are looking for great food and great beer, I highly recommend checking this place out. They even have a Bike-In special on Monday where you get a discount on your order and so I will definitely be back before long and (un)fortunately, probably pretty often thereafter.

Bier Markt

For the past few months I have been hearing about this "Beer Store" in Cleveland, across the street from West Side Market (a foodie paradise nestled incongruously Ohio City), and yesterday, when I was in the area with some friends I finally decided to go check it out. And it was a good thing that I did.

Embarrassingly, the first time I walked into Bier Markt, I left and wasn't planning on coming back. The reason was that as soon as you walked in, you are not greeted with shelves of beer, or even a store at all; the foyer instead opens into a cute little restaurant/cafe with little curtained off booths (presumedly for a more intimate dining experience). Needless to say, having thought that I was going to a beer grocery store, I took the concierges' blank and awkward stares as a sign that I was in the wrong place. Fortunately,  one of my friends was determined to figure out where we had gone wrong in our directions and so, ignoring our protests, went back in to inquire about the actual whereabouts of this purported beer selling establishment.

It turns out that our directions were correct after all, the place we had stumbled into was a cafe/restaurant, but it also had a make your own six pack deal of the beers available for to-go purchase. So armed with this new information, we walked through the curtain booths, and awkwardly gawking employees, to a what looked like a small bar at the back. It quickly appeared that this assumption, like our first one, was also flat out wrong.

The bar at the back was easily as big, if not bigger than the opening room, it also demonstrated succinctly why the place deserved the moniker "Bier Markt." As you walked into the back room, you were greeted by a massively long bar counter and a veritable army of taps (23 beers at any given time). There were small refrigerators behind the bar stocking and incredible amount of bottled beer, and what looked like a high-end champagne cooler meets gun-case storing especially rare brews. The walls were lined with empty bottles, and the decorated with vintage beer paraphernalia. Even though it was barely one on a Saturday, almost all of the bar stools were already taken. However even more impressive than all that was the wall behind the bar. Normally reserved for your liquors, especially top shelf brands, it was instead full of empty glassware

My suspicions were confirmed when inquired one of the bartenders about this particularity; "We like to serve each beer in their specific glasses," she informed me. Now, for those who don't know, often times beer companies have branded glass were, ranging from your boring pint glass to the elaborate glasses for drinking Kwak. Many of glasses are pricey and hard find, for starters, and so to any place, even a bar catering to beer drinkers to make that kind of investment, is something truly awesome indeed.

Unfortunately, we were on a schedule and so didn't have time sit down for a pint, but we did pick up menu to check out what we could buy for our do-it-yourself six pack. To our delight, In their bottled beers, they didn't skimp out either. Though they did have shitty beers (my opinion) like coors light, bud light, and pabst blue ribbon, their entire selection was mostly imported and currently rounded out at 76 bottles! Also, if you bought them to go, you got $1.50 off the retail price of each bottle. I was flat out speechless. I just now looked up the restaurant to double check by beer count and it was apparently rated in the Top Bars in America by Draft Magazine in 2009 AND 2011. Seriously, I have no idea how I never been to this place until now, if I lived closer to Cleveland I would basically live out of this place!!

Anyway, after much deliberation and talking we eventually decided to just pick up a single six pack, because though the beers were awesome, their imported and uncommon nature made them a bit more on the expensive side. The beers we choose were:

• La Trappe Quadruple
• Unibroue la fin du monde
• Unibroue don de deu
• Ommegang Three Philosophers
• Kasteel Rouge (x2)

I am really excited about all of these beers and they will definitely be showing up on this blog soon But that is for the future. In the mean time, if you find yourself in Cleveland (or the great lakes area in general) and are looking for a great place to have a pint or get some beer to go, you have to check out the Bier Markt!

(for directions click here)

Beers of 2012

After starting to keep track of the various beers that I drank over the course of 2011, I found that it was a bug that I couldn't shake off. I just had too much fun looking back through the list, comparing it to what was available in whatever bar I was hanging out in, plus, it really helped me just remember more about beer.

So this is definitely not as well laid out and organised as last years list as I decided to try a different tact this year, listing them in the chronological order in which I consumed them. I am not sure the real value of having this, but if you're interested,m you can check out some of my reviews and some beers I definitely recommend checking out.

Enjoy my 2012.

1. Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale*
2. Kasteel Rouge
3. Sarnac Chocolate Lager
4. Sarnac Bohemian Pilsner
5. La Trappe Quadrupel*
6. Miller Highlife
7. Sarnac Lake Effect Lager
8. Sarnac Vanilla Stout
9. Unibroue La Fin Du Monde*
10. Poppy Jasper Amber Ale
11. Anchor Steam Beer 
12. Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale
13. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
14. Kasteel Donker**
15. Anchor Christmas Ale 2011
16. Anchor Breckle's Brown
17. Anchor Porter
18. Anchor Old Foghorn Ale
19. Full Boar Scotch Ale
20. Goose Island Matilda
21. Tröegs HopBack Amber Ale
22. Stone Self Righteous Ale
23. Harpoon Black IPA
24. Boulder Obovoid Oak-Aged Oatmeal Stout
25. Stone Vertical Stout 11.11.11^
26. Sixpoint John Dory Oyster Stout (Cask ale)
27. Brookyln Brewery Blast
28. Ithaca Cascazilla
29. Great Lakes Elliot Ness Amber Lager
30. Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout^
31. Hel & Verdoemenis (Brouwerij de Molen)*
32. Thirsty Dog Old Leghumper^
33. 21st Amendment Back in Black^
34. Bell's Third Coast Ale
35. Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA
36. 21st Amendment Allies win the War
37. 21st Amendment Brew Free IPA
38. Yuengling traditional lager
39. Great Lakes Edmond Fitzgerald Porter^
40. Great Lakes Burning River Pale Ale
41. Great Lakes The Doppelrock 
42. Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold Lager*
43. Hebrew Messiah Nut Brown
44. Bell's Amber Ale
45. Peace Tree Rye Porter
46. Peace Tree Red Amber
47. Shiner Bock
48. Lone Star Beer
49. Live Oak Pilz
50. Live Oak Big Bark Amber Lager
51. Pabst Blue Ribbon
52. Smithwick's Irish Ale
53. Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale^
54. Yuengling Black and Tan
55. Founder's Porter
56. Flying Dog Old Scratch
57. Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat  
58. Flying Dog Doggy Style  
59. Flying Dog Snake Dog  
60. Sierra Nevada 2012 Bigfoot Ale
61. Leinenkugels Fireside Nut Brown 
62. Brewery Ommengang Three Philosphers
63. Magic Hat Number 9
64. Left Hand Brewing Co. Milk Stout
65. Bell's Oberon Ale
66. Bell's Amber Ale
67. Bell's Porter
68. Rouge Chocolate Stout*
69. Rocky River Brewing Flapjack Porter*
70. Rocky River Brewing Punching the nuts amber ale*
71. Rocky River Brewing Blueberry Ale**
72. Rocky River Brewing Cooper's gold kolsch
73. Rocky River Brewing Boondock Walker Saison
74. Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy
75. Holy Moses White Ale
76. Delirium Noel^
77. Thirsty Dog Stud Service Stout
78. Black Sun Stout
79. Saint Arnold's Lawnmower
80. Saint Arnold's Porter
81. Brewdow Paradox Smokehouse (Cask Ale)*/**
82. Real Ale Brewhouse Brown
83. Ridgeway Brewing Lump of Coal
84. Bad Elf Winter Ale
85. Real Ale Pheonixx Double ESB
86. Southern Star Bombshell Blonde
87. Squatter's Outer Darkness^
88. 2 Brothers Red eye Coffee porter
89. 2 Brothers Domaine Dupage
90. Half acre ale gossamer golden ale*
91. New Belgium fat tire ale
92. Fuller's porter
93. Stone Self Righteous Ale  
94. Six point sweet action
95. Iron mike's (ditka's) amber ale
96. Stanley kitchen and tap, Stan's homebrew
97. Revolution Brewing Red Scare (on cask)
98. Revolution Brewing Eugene 
99. Miller lite
100. Dundee Porte
101. Dundee IPA
102. Dundee Pale Ale
103. Dundee Nut Brown Ale 
104. Brekenridge vanilla porter
105. Black beer stout*^
106. Buckeye hippie IPA
107. Buckeye Nighty Night*
108. Bear republic heritage ale 
109. Mt. Carmel amber ale
110. Stone Arrogant bastard 
111. Rogue voodoo doughnuts maple bacon ale*
112. Boulder Flashback 
113. Avery Karma 
114. Bass
115. Harp
116. Left hand brewing nitro milk stout
117. Arcadia ales B-craft black double IPA
118. Willoughby Oatmeal stout
119. Dogfish head burton baton
120. Brooklyn Lager
121. Mt. Carmel Blonde Ale
122. Mt. Carmel India pale ale
123. Mt. Carmel Nut Brown ale
124. Buckeye Cleveland Porter
125. West Sixth Brewing W 6 IPA
126. Mendocino black hawk select stout
127. Three Floyds Robert the Bruce
128. BBC (Bluegrass Brewing Company) Amber Ale
129. Nut Brown Ale
130. Goose Island Summertime 
131. Samuel Adams octoberfest
132. Magic hat hex ourtoberfest
133. Southern tier pumking^
134. Great Lakes Nosferatu
135. Thirsty Dog BarktoberFest lager
136. Nano Brew Particle Accelerator
137. Goose Island Matilda (draft)
138. Milwaukee's Best Ice
139. Tröegs Dead reckoning porter*
140. Tröegs pale ale
141. Tröegs Dreamweaver Wheat
142. Tröegs Hopback
143. Dogfish Head Punking
144. Rogue brew 15,000
145. Woodchuck hard cider fall (limited edition 2012)
146. Third shift amber lager
147. Great Lakes Christmas ale
148. Budweiser Batch number 23185
149. Budweiser Batch number 91406
150. Budweiser Batch number 63118
151. Woodchuck hard cider Amber 
152. Woodchuck hard cider 802
153. Woodchuck hard cider Granny Smith
154. Stockyard Oatmeal stout
155. Boatswain Chocolate stout *
156. Boatswain Double IPA
157. Great Lakes Christmas Ale (Served with spiced rim)^
158. Bells Special Double Cream Stout*^
159. Southern tier old man winter
160. KBC Porter
161. Wolaver's Oatmeal Stout
162. Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout (draft)
163. 21st Amendment Fireside Chat
164. 21st Amendment Marooned on Hog Island^
165. Valley Anderson Boone Amber Ale

Homebrew's

1. Amber Ale (Cleveland Maker's Alliance)
2. Dortunder (Cleveland Maker's Alliance)
3. Stout (Cleveland Maker's Alliance)
4. Porter (Cleveland Maker's Alliance)
5. Super Inebriated Bro's Pale Ale (My cousin via Brew Kettle)

*reviewed
**didn't finish
^really enjoyed

see also beermination (determination)