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icebob

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Will be in the Cleveland area for work for the week-end, any craft beers worth bringing back?
 
I go to Cleveland occasionally. Great Lakes is good to stop by, Market garden right around the corner makes really good beer & brunch and fat heads I've heard good things about.

Every trip I get brunch at Market Garden :D
 
Great Lakes Brewery is located across the street from West Side Market (most anyone in cleveland can direct you to the market). They have a full brewpub and keep alot of beers on tap with growlers for sale. In addition I believe they have a store where you can buy bottles from.

Buckeye Brewing I believe is in Lakewood (suburb of Cleveland) and it has a couple good beers.

I don't live in the area anymore but there is a handy website which i pasted below.
http://ohiocraftbeer.com/breweries/brewerymap.cfm
 
Great Lakes is an obvious choice but you can get their stuff at any store around here.

Brew Kettle is up in CLE. They just won a bunch of awards at the Berea Oktoberfest. White Rajah is a great IPA but Lupulin Luchador (sp?) is gaining notoriety.

Fatheads has a great and wide selection with a great restaurant.

Four C's is another brewery around here, their place has a selection of their own beers plus many others from prominent breweries in the Midwest.

Buckeye Brewing is good but the Buckeye Beer Engine place is a little sketchy. :p

Indigo Imp has been popping up more often around here.

Main Street Grille and Brewing Co. has a phenomenal birch beer ale.

Willoughby Brewing might be too northeastern from CLE but it has some great unique beers like the peanut butter porter.

These three might be a bit of a haul:

Lagerheads is out of Medina but Savage Stout and Kilt Em All are some of my favorites.

Thirsty Dog and Hopping Frog in Akron make some pretty good stuff. It's a 40 minute trip from CLE to Akron. TD has a tasting room, HF has a pretty gourmet brewpub.



I did a brewpub crawl back a few years ago and hit most of these places in a day. :drunk: You might have trouble finding somewhere to go on Sunday but a place like Acme will carry all of the local stuff.

Avoid Ohio Brewing Company, they have problems with quality control.
 
The Brew Kettle in Strongsville is definitely good. Good hickory BBQ as well. Fatheads in North Olmsted is good with good food. Great lakes is an obvious choice. Thirsty Dog's Cerberus triple is good when it's on. Hoppin' frog has a few I like as well.
 
Thx for all the suggestions. will try to visit a couple of those place. I want to be able to bring some back home...
 
Great Lakes...Nosferatu just came out. Fat Heads...Hopjuju is definitely one to take with you...if you can get it.
 
Thx for all the suggestions. will try to visit a couple of those place. I want to be able to bring some back home...

You can get Hoppin' Frog in good bottle stores. Make sure you get B.O.R.I.S, especially if the oaked version is out (not sure when that is, or if it's year round). I LOVE the triple IPA, but I am a hophead. If you're not, you may not love it as much.

Drink Great Lakes on tap, and enjoy it! My favorites are Nosferatu and Lake Erie Monster. Take bottles home! Otherwise, Great Lakes is pretty much everywhere.

Get a growler of Fat Heads, especially the HeadHunter IPA if you're into hops. You can get a growler of it in several places around.
 
Great Lakes is a definite Cleveland visit! My girlfriend and I go to Fat Heads weekly.. Amazing food and beer. Also yes to Market Garden. Platform Beer Co. just opened up not too long ago and is definitely worth a visit.

Willoughby is by far my favorite. Their food is outstanding and the peanut butter cup coffee porter is to die for.

As for beer to bring back if you don't go to any actual breweries, any Great Lakes is good. The Brew Kettle white rajah is great. You can find Hoppin Frog pretty much anywhere ( I recommend their pumpkin ale) Also Fat Heads is pretty wideley available and you can get bombers of Buckeye Brewing at Giant Eagles in the area. I do a lot of my beer shopping at Giant Eagle on W 117th in Lakewood. I haven't found a local brewery I dislike yet..
 
The Giant Eagle up the corner from me at the Detroit Rd & Abbe Rd intersection here in Sheffield Village has a great beer cooler/selection as well. I even found Breckenridge beers there as well as Great Lakes, Brew Kettle (white rajah is good), Hoppin' Frog's Turbo shandy, Hoppin' to heaven IPA, & their Frog's hollow double pumpkin. They have Lagunitas & DFH as well as lambics & other craft beers too numerous to mention. & you can take I90 East to exit 148 to get here from Cleveland.
 
I will say Great Lakes for sure.. Lake Erie Monster is out of season, but Nosferatu just released. Also if you get East into the Mentor area, there is Willoughby Brewing Co. and Little Mountain Brewing Co.... Both are tasty.

Edit: Also in Mentor there are a couple bottle shops with selection >3000.
 
I will say Great Lakes for sure.. Lake Erie Monster is out of season, but Nosferatu just released. Also if you get East into the Mentor area, there is Willoughby Brewing Co. and Little Mountain Brewing Co.... Both are tasty.

Edit: Also in Mentor there are a couple bottle shops with selection >3000.

We just came in last night, we will be working at the Cuyahoga county airport, our hotel is in Willoughby, do you have a name for the bottle shops? Thx in advance.
 
Lizardville has been pretty great for bottles. I go to the one in Fairlawn.

Get Thirsty Dog's Siberian Night, Cerberus, and Wulver if you can find them. The barrel-aged versions are a little pricey ($6/12oz).

Overall, I think the region has a great supply of American and German-style beers. We're lacking in Belgian styles though.
 
Red, Wine, and Brew is in concord just off of Rt. 20.
Save on is on the corner of Rt. 306 and Rt. 20 in Mentor.
Save on looks like a generic convenience store. Until you get inside. Also Melt is a restaurant right there that is definitely worthy of a visit.
 
Save on looks like a generic convenience store. Until you get inside.

You're not kidding:mug: went there after work and was like a kid in a candy store! Will be getting back to St-Louis with a lot of beers, good thing we're with the company truck!
 
You're not kidding:mug: went there after work and was like a kid in a candy store! Will be getting back to St-Louis with a lot of beers, good thing we're with the company truck!

Yeah every time I go there I wish I had a truck... I had driven by there a ton of times before I found out it wasnt a run-of-the-mill convenience store.

Glad you got to stop and liked it.
 
Every place I went to get some Nosferatu, were out! now that I have to fly back home (I know, all my bought beers traveled home without me!) there's a great lake bar at the airport and the have the nosferatu! Really tasty!

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