barrel-aged, habanero, coffee, pumpkin, caramel, vanilla, coconut, and cinnamon roll versions.
Fans just can’t get enough Chickow!. Triple Digit launched the League of Extraordinary Chickow!s in 2015: a membership club that allows fans a crack at four exclusive Chickow! beers released in 22-ounce bottles throughout the year, along with glassware, a T-shirt, and growler fills. Two of those were an Irish crème and maple Chickow!
Gilroy enjoys thinking up creative ways to play with the beer.
“It’s ever evolving,” he says. “It’s always that same beer but we hate to see things get stale. Not that that beer really can. But in an environment where there’s increasingly more and more awesome beer available at any moment’s notice, it’s nice to have a beer that constantly challenges you to do something new with it.”
Christmas Ale
Great Lakes Brewing Co. | www.greatlakesbrewing.com
Great Lakes Brewing Co.
2516 Market Ave.
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
(216) 771–4404
First brewed: Early 1990s
Style: Winter seasonal
Alcohol content: 7.5 percent
IBUs: 30
Available: For eight weeks starting just before Halloween on draft and in bottles
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft holiday beers to try:
• Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas
• Fat Head’s Holly Jolly
• MadTree Thunder Snow
• The Brew Kettle Winter Warmer
• Willoughby Wenceslas
GREAT LAKES CHRISTMAS ALE isn’t just a beer. It’s a phenomenon. Despite being distributed only eight weeks of the year, Christmas Ale is the brewery’s top-selling brand, thanks to a fanatical following that goes bonkers for the rich combination of honey, cinnamon, and ginger.
Market research firm IRI once pegged it as the most popular craft beer brand in Ohio and one of the top 10 selling brands in the nation during the holiday season—even with its limited release.
The funny thing is that before Great Lakes launched the brand in the early 1990s—the brewery honestly can’t remember what year exactly—there really wasn’t a Christmas beer style.
Sure, a few breweries put out a holiday brew, such as Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale. But Great Lakes essentially invented the holiday spiced category. Today, nearly every brewery in northeast Ohio—and many beyond—offers up some variation of Christmas Ale, hoping to piggyback off the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for a seasonal spiced brew.
Each year, Great Lakes hosts a massive release party, complete with a Santa Claus. There’s always a line out the door as people scramble to get the first taste of the season.
Hoisting a Christmas Ale has become a holiday tradition, as sacred to some as decorating the Christmas tree or singing carols.
The stories surrounding the beer are legendary. Great Lakes cofounder Pat Conway loves sharing the tale of a traveler who was sitting at the Great Lakes pub at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport sampling the beers. The man loved them. The bartender mentioned that he could buy six-packs to go. The man disappeared, returning later with a suitcase that he stuffed full with Christmas Ale for his journey home.
Clear Sky
Wolf’s Ridge Brewing Co. | www.wolfsridgebrewing.com
Wolf’s Ridge Brewing Co.
215 N. 4th St.
Columbus, Ohio 43215
(614) 429–3936
First brewed: 2014
Style: Cream ale
Alcohol content: 5 percent
IBUs: 14
Available: Year-round on draft and in bottles
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft beers to try:
• JAFB Wooster Wayne County Cream Ale
• Fifth Street Cure-Ale Cream Ale
• FigLeaf Basmati Cream Ale
• Star City Viking Cream
• Butcher and the Brewer The Jake
ALAN SZUTER wasn’t sold on the idea. His first brewer wanted to make a cream ale. But Szuter, who launched the Columbus brewpub and tasting room with his son Bob, wanted his craft brewery to be taken seriously.
His hesitation is understandable. With their light, easy-drinking profiles and use of corn, cream ales don’t have the greatest reputation among hardcore craft beer fans, who would prefer to gobble up a hoppy India pale ale or robust Russian imperial stout.
“My initial reaction was: Really? Cream ale?” Szuter recalls. “My correlation and history is Genny Cream, which is not a bad beer, but it’s just not a craft beer that comes immediately to mind. But he persisted and brewed it, and it immediately became one of our top sellers. We’ve kept it on ever since.”
Cream ales tend to fill a real need at a craft brewery. Not only are they easy to pound, thanks to the lower alcohol and crisp finish, but they also appeal to that beer drinker who’s into Budweiser, Miller, and Coors and is just dipping his or her toe into the craft pool.
Clear Sky, which employs flaked maize, got its name thanks to its clear appearance and the feeling that it’s the perfect brew to just kick back with while sitting in a deck chair. It was one of the first beers that Wolf’s Ridge packaged for retail sale.
“We try to focus on really drinkable beers,” Szuter says. “Even our big ABV beers are really drinkable. You don’t taste the alcohol.”
Award-winning brewer Chris Davison also has had a lot of fun with Clear Sky, creating plenty of different infused variations. They include the popular Clear Sky Daybreak, which is a coffee-vanilla version, and Clear Sky Cinnamon Toast Brunch, Clear Sky Creamsicle, Clear Sky Lemon Meringue,
