Saengerfest Maibock Tapping - Christian Moerlein

Moerlein announced the tapping of their Saengerfest Maibock. Here's the info straight from the Facebook page:

Join us for the ceremonial keg tapping of the Moerlein Saengerfest Maibock at The Famous Neon's Unplugged - the tapping will happen at 6 pm. sharp! For added entertainment, the Kolping Saengerchor to perform in the beer garden just prior to and after the tapping at 6:00PM. ABOUT MOERLEIN SAENGERFEST Moerlein’s Saengerfest is well balanced Maibock characterized by spicy and floral noble style hops. This deep golden lager is a stellar example of what is often referred to as a “blonde bock” and has an original gravity of 16.5, alcohol by volume of 6.5% and moderate bitterness at 25 units. Moerlein Saengerfest Maibock will be available starting May 1st at participating retailers and be available in draft and six pack packages

with a suggested retail of $8.99 per six packs.

This sounds like it will be a very fun event, as all of their tappings are. Click HERE to go to the official event page on Facebook. Hope to see you all there

Arnold's 1861 Porter

About a week or two ago I had a post mentioning that Arnold's was celebrating their 150th Anniversary this year and to celebrate, they decided to throw a birthday party last night. Well, Christian Moerlein also wanted to share in their celebration of 150 years in Cincinnati, so they decided to brew a beer in honor of this accomplishment and I was there to check it out.

Before I share my thoughts on the beer, there are some things to note. This beer was the first beer that Christian Moerlein brewed in  Over the Rhine! This is fantastic news because it brings them one step closer to getting their brand new brewery fully operational (it's still going to be a little while, but they're working on it). Also, because this beer was brewed in the new brewery that isn't full of fermenters and mash tuns, there was only so much of this beer to go around at the party. The event started at 6:00pm and the beer was gone by 7:00pm. I believe that this says something about Cincinnati's rising beer scene, but more on that on a different day.

On to my thoughts:

This beer pours a dark brown, with a thin, tan head. The smell is of a coffee and chocolate beans and was very nice. The taste was much the same, roasty, coffee, and chocolate. The more I drank, the more the chocolate starts to come to the front. The beer had light carbonation, but it was a nice drink. The taste was a little softer than I was expecting it to be, but it was definitely enjoyable.

If you had a chance to try this beer on New Year's Eve or on New Year's, what did you think? Do you agree with my assessment?

Arnold's 150th Anniversary/ Christian Moerlein 'Arnold's 1861 Porter' Release party

For those of who will have recuperated from a late night of celebrating the new year, on Saturday, January 1, Christian Moerlein and Arnold's will be hosting a very special birthday, Arnold's 150th year in operation! Don't worry though, if you partied to hard bringing in the new year, this birthday party doesn't start until 6:00pm. In order to celebrate, Christian Moerlein is releasing a new porter in honor of this accomplishment. Here are the full event details:

On New Years Day, Saturday January 1st, Arnold’s and Christian Moerlein are having a Birthday Bash to honor Arnold’s 150th year of continuous operation. We are more than honored to announce that this will also be the release of Arnold’s 1861 Porter, the first beer brewed in Christian Moerlein’s new Brewery in Over The Rhine. We are not shooting for some fancy-shmancy anniversiary party. We want to have a blowout for everyone. For this duel event, 12 oz drafts are just 1.50 in honor of our 150th year. Keeping with the 1.50 theme Arnold’s will also have a 1.50 specials menu. On the menu, hamburgers, veggie burgers, french fries, Spaghetti and Meatballs, and Vegetarian Spaghetti and Marinara. That is not a typo, all will be just 1.50. You can effectively get an entire gut-busting meal and several craft beers for under ten bucks. Oh, and did I mention? Free Cake! A Birthday party is nothing without free cake. Keeping with the party theme, The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs are on stage from 8-10 singing all the drinking songs that they are known so well for. This is just an event for Cincinnati’s oldest tavern to say Thank You to Cincinnati for keeping this old codger around so long. So please come celebrate with us. For those that can’t wait for the new beer, we also will be making it available at midnight on New Years Eve at the stroke of Midnight, for the same 1.50 special price.

Christkindl Tapping Pictures

Today I had the opportunity to go to the tapping of the Christian Moerlein Christkindl Ale. The event was held at Christy's in Clifton; this building was originally given to Christian Moerlein's daughter as a wedding gift. What a great place to hold a tapping for a Christian Moerlein beer!

Christkindl Keg

 The event was a very cool event, literally. It was held outside in the biergarten and it was only about 40 degrees in the sun. However, there was plenty of beer to be drank, which helped all forget about the cool temperature. Mike Morgan, author of "Over-the-Rhine: When Beer was King" was the events emcee and did a great job getting everyone ready for the event. Greg Hardmann spoke a little bit about the history of Christy's and share a bit about the beer too. The tapping was done by a member of the St Francis Seraph, with $1 of all beers sold going to their ministry. In all, it was a very fun event. 

Greg Hardmann with the mallet of tapping

Keg has been tapped! Let there be beer!

Christkindl tapping - 11/6

Tomorrow, Christian Moerlein will be tapping the Christkindl Winter Ale at Christy's in Clifton:

Christian Moerlein November 5 at 1:27pm Reply • Report

Hello beer lovers!

Tomorrow at 1 p.m sharp the tapping of the seasonal Moerlein Christkindl Winter Warmer Ale will take place at Christy's Bier Garten by Brother Tim Sucher of St. Francs Seraph Ministry - $1 from every beer purchase will benefit the Christmas fund.

Christy's will have special food available for purchase - this event will go from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Hope to see everyone out and about!

CM

ABOUT THE KEG TAPPING
More Info Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. is pleased to announce in conjunction with Christy’s and Lenhardt's the Moerlein Christkindl Winter Warmer Ale keg tapping on Saturday November 6th, 1 - 4PM at Christy’s Biergarten in Clifton.

The honored tradition of the tapping of the keg will be held by Brother Tim Sucher of St. Francis Seraph Ministry commencing at 1PM, "We are honored to celebrate the new release of Moerlein Christkindl in the spirit of the holiday season," said Brother Tim Sucher of St. Francis Seraph Ministry. $1 from every pint sold that day will go towards St. Francis Seraph Ministry's Christmas Fund.

The actual building of Christy’s was built as a wedding present for Christian Moerlein’s daughter in 1890.

Christy’s Biergarten will have a special happy hour with $3 pints of the new Moerlein Christkindl and a specially priced happy hour food menu, serving Bratts, Metts, Potato Pancake, German Potato Salad – Rueben and Sauerkraut Balls.

Author/ Brewers Dinner - a review

Tonight was the Brewer's/ Author's dinner for Christian Moerlein. This event was 2 of 6 total Brewer Dinner's that will be held to celebrate Christian Moerlein, Over the Rhine, and Mike Morgan's new Book, "Over the Rhine: When beer Was King".

This event was a very well done event. Upon arriving, I took my seat at a table and began to talk to my friends about beer. We received a pleasant treat as we found out that Little King's Cream Ale was a pre-event taster, and boy was it delicioud. Once 7:00pm rolled around, the event began. Greg Hardman, CEO of Christian Moerlein began to talk about the history of how he acquired the Little King's Brand, a very interesting story. The staff at the Pub of Crestview began to bring out the appetized: Jerk Shrimp and Northern Liberties IPA. Boy, was this appetizer delicious. The shrimp was good and the IPA matched up nicely.

The second course was a salad with mandarin oranges paired with Christian Moerlein Lager House. The salad was sweet, but tasty. I am not much for mandarin oranges, but it paired well with the Helles. I enjoyed this dish.

The 3rd dish was a Mediterranean Slider with red peppers. I'll be honest, I enjoyed the think fries more than I enjoyed the sandwich. (I have no idea what the fries were made of, but they were delicious) The burger was made with goat cheese and red peppers and was only alright. This dish was paired with the Hudepohl Amber Lager. It was a good pairing.

The 4th Dish was fish and chips. I must confess, I may have ruined my palate on this one as I tend to only eat fish n chips with malt vinegar; tonight was no exception. The beer pairing was Moerlein's OTR which I have always enjoyed. Despite the vinegar, the beer paired nicely with the meal.

The final dish of the evening was a Jamaican cheesecake; bananas, banana liquor, and oreo crust made this delicious. The pairing was the Barbarosa. I'll be honest, I didn't think the pairing was all to good, but the cheesecake was delicious by itself as was the beer.

All in all, I had a great time. Both Greg Hardmann and Mike Morgan shared some great stories about Moerlein and the history of Cincinnati. There was still 4 of these dinner's left and I would recommend everyone go to one of them. Greg did take some time to visit each table and thank everyone who showed up and make sure they had a great time. I was very impressed by this event. Thanks to Christian Moerlein and Greg Hardman for a job well done. I look forward to future events!

I will follow up with pictures later.