Beer and Football in Cleveland

Well, the Browns pulled one out vs. my Seahawks in OT, a good game but that was the worst part of my weekend in Cleveland. So lets skip the game and go back to the beer.

We got into Cleveland around 6pm on Friday night. Relaxed at the hotel and then took the hotel shuttle down to the Great Lakes Brewing Company. Had dinner there. The burger was ok, but the beer was great. I tried their Christmas Ale, a Commodore Perry IPA and then hit the Nosferatu, which is an awesome hopped up Ale (75 IBU). An 8% ABV big red Ale with a big cascade whiff that will knock you on your butt. This is out there in seasonal 6-packs. If you can pick some up, I highly recommend it.

On saturday I took a little drive around town and found a bottle shop that I had looked up online. I wanted to score a few brews to bring back to Illinois with me that I can't get out here. I scored pretty big.

The haul that made it home with me:


6 pack - Stone IPA
6 pack - Stone Ruination IPA
3 bombers - Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
2 bombers - Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale
1 bomber - Moylan's Hopsickle Triple Hoppy Ale
6 pack - Atwater Block Dunkel (never heard of it, but I like Dunkels so WTF)
3 12oz bottles - Founders Harvest Ale

What didn't make it back from Cleveland:
6 pack: Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
3 bombers - Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
4 pack + 1 - Founders Harvest Ale
6 pack - Two Brothers Heavy Handed IPA (Wilmette Lot), brought that one with me

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We had dinner at a decent Mediterranean place where we a few plates to share. A nice plate of lamb, rice, salad, pita, hummus, falafel, etc. Then it was back over to the Great Lakes Brewing Co. to meet up with a group of fellow Seahawks fans and take a private tour that we had prearranged.





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This stunning bar resides in the private pub at Great Lakes. You can rent it out for banquets, private parties, etc. Restored, the original bar dates back to 1885.


Drinking Nosferatus outdoors at the Great Lakes Brewing Co. with my friend Joe from Michigan on the left and Terry Ryan, Great Lakes field rep and tour guide in the middle. That's my big no pain feelin' ass on the right. terry was a very cool guy, told me a lot about the history of brewing in Cleveland and had more Irish drinking jokes than any man alive.


The party continued pretty late... the last photo of the night. Most of the beer has been replaced by gatorade, water and soda for the morning. I think I killed one of those SN Harvests before I called it a night.


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Nice pics. I actually watched Superbowl XL at a sports bar in Cleveland. There were definitely more Seahawks fans in Cleveland that night.

As much as I didn't like the outcome, that was a great game yesterday.

Did you happen to find the Belgian beer bar around the corner from Great Lakes? I can't remember the name of it but was there in '06. They had a decent beer selection and you could buy bottles to go.

Sunday around 1pm. Seahawk fans "indoor" pregame tailgate party. Most of the brew was Miller Lite bottles, so no good beer pron here but there was a small keg of Molson Canadian there that I pulled a few cups out of. Plenty of pizza, wings, potato skins and who knows what else was at this thing. I was a bit hung over so I was good with a few cokes to get me started, then pulled a few Molsons before going for a few more Founders Harvest Ales and a Heavy Handed IPA. Bud Lights were $6.75 at the game. No thanks.



Yeah... I'm skipping the game photos.... damn you Cleveland Browns and Shaun Alexander with your non-running ass!

anway... I am safely back in Chicago and since this is a homebrewing forum, here is a pic of my homebrewed Alpha King clone that I enjoyed while making these posts. Damn...i gotta go back to work tomorrow.

Brewtopia said:

Nice pics. I actually watched Superbowl XL at a sports bar in Cleveland. There were definitely more Seahawks fans in Cleveland that night.

As much as I didn't like the outcome, that was a great game yesterday.

Did you happen to find the Belgian beer bar around the corner from Great Lakes? I can't remember the name of it but was there in '06. They had a decent beer selection and you could buy bottles to go.

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Yeah, its still there. We totally missed it on friday night. Spotted it on saturday after we ate dinner at the Mediterranean place but it was almost 8:00 and we were meeting up for a tour so we never made it into the place. I'd already spent about $100 on beers to bring home with me, so probably best that I didn't know you could get bottles to go. SWMBO was with me and she loves the Belgian stuff. She could've gotten away with murder given the money I spent between the bottles and the rounds at Great Lakes this weekend. Gives me an excuse to get back to Cleveland sometime.

I actually went to Detroit for Superbowl XL. Man... I gotta stop going to games. Bad luck lately.

Great Lakes Christmas Ale ROCKS! We were there when they tapped the christmas ale kegs a couple of weeks ago! Sorry that the Browns had to beat the Seahawks (Well, not really!) Drink on!

Great pics.

Is there a correlation here; I was born in Brookpark, own all of those Bukowski books, and have been hounding the local distributors about gettin me some SN Harvest Ale - how is that beer anyway?

Ever read the Painted Bird by Kozinski?

When I was a kid, by Dad used to drive downtown to buy a local beer called Silver Top; red old-fashioned flip-top case with a crude silver top spinning there.

Ya know, the real world series was between Cleveland and Boston this year.