This year is our 5^th year of taking part in Cincinnati Winter Beer Festival and we absolutely love it. Hard to believe this is their 11^th year running the Cincy Winter Beerfest. The show is top notch with live entertainment, food, and of course a bounty of beer that King Gambrinus himself would blush over. 

It is an amazing gathering of people of all walks of life upon our very own Duke Energy Convention Center downtown Cincinnati. 

Thousands converging on a convention floor in the dead of Winter to discover, play, experiment, indulge, socialize and connect over beers, food, music and more. Our kind of party. 

Hundreds of beers being poured, dozens of styles to try, all in about four hours on a Friday Night, Saturday Day or Saturday Night. It is like speed dating through the beer universe, you and your cup/liver are in for a ride. Be warned however if you haven’t gone before, this date can bite back (eat and hydrate well, bring spare liver).

There is a strategy to these things, people spend all week figuring out the beer release schedule, looking at the tap lists, carefully “crafting” their itinerary to include their favorites, new releases, or rarities that won’t be back again. 

It got us thinking, what have Beer Festivals looked like since the dawn of our favorite alcoholic beverage? 

Imagine thousands of Sumerian’s waiting in line with their reeds to dip straight into the vats for Ninkasi’s newest Barrel Aged Barley Juice (see photo). She runs out about three quarters of the way into the event leading to angry mobs to write bad reviews in Cuneiform on stone tablets and walls. 

What about Viking times? Those Beer Festivals had to be EPIC. Hundreds of dudes that look like Thor trying to kill each other over the newest Gruit style Ale and Sahti, meanwhile the ladies were smart enough to go to the mead booth and proceed to make fun of said dudes (oddly familiar).  

What about those Monks in Belgium? Have you ever seen an angry Monk depicted on a beer label? I bet it looked like that area at Beerfest where it is totally quiet but everyone is dancing with headphones on, smiling ear to ear.  Beer spilling on their cloaks and St. Benedict wants to yell but he can’t so they just keep dancing and drinking their Dubbels and Triples..for sustenance of course. 

We all know what happened with the Germans threw a Beerfest….chicken dances, drinking from your own boots, more dancing, pretzels, drinking from your steins, more dancing…drinking, you get it, chances are you have probably seen it here in Cincy every September (fun fact: we have the largest Oktoberfest outside of Munich here in Cincinnati). 

We are looking forward to another great weekend of carrying on these and other newly founded traditions right here in our own backyard! 

Stop by and see us over at the Bus, we have it parked inside the beer hall at the front Elm Street Entrance. You can’t miss us. 

We will have games, prizes, chances to win tickets, you can chill in our bus lounge, and we will have some pretzels from our partners Servatii for sale! 

As always check out our Local Cincinnati Craft Brewery Tasting Tours Monday Through Sunday each and every week all year long!