Toledo’s Maumee Bay Brewing Company will be among the 29 Ohio breweries involved in Ohio Brew Week, an annual, weeklong craft beer festival in Athens, Ohio. This is the third year Maumee Bay will attend; it will take four of its best beers to the event.

Ohio Brew Week will take place from July 12 to July 18, featuring a home brew contest, the Brew BQ Cook-Off Competition, the Brew Choo Choo tasting ride on the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway in Nelsonville, musical performances at the hosting bars in Athens and a free community festival, Boogie on the Bricks, which starts at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 18, in the Court Street area of uptown Athens, according the Brew Week’s schedule of events.

Ohio Brew Week, when it was started four years ago, was the first event of its kind in the country, said the event’s director, Dan Gates.

“Athens was the first place to do it in the country,” Gates said. “Now there is one in New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Seattle.”

The idea for Brew Week, he said, was spawned by Jon Sparhawk, an Athens resident and local restaurant owner, at a meeting for the National Restaurant Association with several other members of the Athens community.

“He [Sparhawk] said, ‘There are corn festivals, apple festivals and other festivals in small communities in Ohio that people flock to. Why don’t we have a craft beer festival?’” Gates said.

For more information on events and tickets, visit www.ohiobrewweek.com.

Along with the historic Buckeye Beer, Maumee Bay Brewing Co. will take three of its microbrews to Ohio Brew Week: its India Pale Ale (IPA), Russian Imperial Stout and the Oliver House’s 150th Anniversary Ale, Strawberry Kolsch.

The brewery’s beer will be featured at the bar 19 South (19 S. Court St.) all week long. Brew master Jon Koester of the Maumee Bay Brewing Co. said he will head down to represent Maumee Bay Brewing Co. on July 17, with beer sales manager Justin Pritchard and Clint McLaughlin, a volunteer who helps out at the brewery, as well as a few others.

There will be a meet and greet with the brewers from Maumee Bay Brewing Co. from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 19 South on July 17.

Koester said he is looking forward to meeting the other brewers and beer lovers at Brew Week. He also is eager to “hang out” at Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery-Athens’ hometown representative among the various participating breweries.

Koester has been with Maumee Bay Brewing Co. for two years, but before he started brewing there, he started brewing at home.

“I basically brewed everything you could imagine,” he said. “I didn’t do very many lagers, though. I didn’t have a fridge to keep it [a lager] at the right temperature.”

Below is the list of the Maumee Bay Brewing Co. microbrews that will be featured at Ohio Brew Week as described by Koester:

IPA (India Pale Ale): “A really hoppy beer (80 International Bittering Units [IBUs]) with high alcohol content (7 percent). A lot of citrus and grapefruit flavor and aroma, mainly because of the use of centennial hops. Nice balance with crystal malt to balance out the bitterness.”

Russian Imperial Stout: “Really big beer, more on the tame side, with 8 percent alcohol. We used lots of warrior hops, giving it 91 IBUs. We also used lots of chocolate, black malt and roasted barley, which gives it its opaque coloring. The Russian Imperial has a roasted flavor, like coffee, espresso or dark chocolate.”

Strawberry Kolsch: “Our 150th anniversary beer for the Oliver House. Kolsch is a light and spritzy German lager-a beer geek’s ‘lawnmower beer’*. We put in 90 pounds of strawberries after fermentation.”

*Brew Week director Dan Gates defines a ‘lawnmower beer’ as, “one that’s wet, not too hoppy, one that quenches your thirst when you’re out cutting the grass. A lighter, more refreshing tasting beer.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Arts and Life.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.