The Ohio Craft Brewers Collaboration Pack

The Ohio Craft Brewers Collaboration Pack may also be named “How Not To Do It Pack.”  Last year Ohio Craft brewers paired off into teams of two and brewed collaborative beers for a mixed 12-pack.  Honestly, great idea.  However, no one thought about the distributor or government approvals that needed to happen to get this beer on the shelf.  The original goal of the collaborative pack was to have it on store shelves in October 2010, but it did not hit stores until April 2011.  While some beers were able to withstand this abnormally long period in storage, a few of the bottles exploded upon opening.  Nothing annoys me more than when you want to unwind, and pop open a beer and it ends up all over the place.

Rocky Frog Imperial American Porter- Hands down the best beer in the package.  A collaboration by Hoppin’ Frog and Rocky River this beer was able to handle the unintentional aging and may age even more.  I was a bit surprised the beer aged this well considering an ABV of  6.9%.

Hop-A-Long Cascady- The collaboration between Black Box and Fat Head’s resulted in a nice Wet Hop IPA.  The crispness that I expected was a little fuzzy, but I blame that on the age.  The nice grapefruit and floral aromas were still there, but there was almost no malt to balance it out.  I wish there had been a second bottle in the pack as I would have loved to try it again.

Indigo Dog Smoked Black Lager- The Thirsty Dog and Indigo Imp collaboration was a very chocolate concoction.  Given the description I expected more smoky flavors, I was pleasantly surprised with the overall result.

Berlot- Great Lakes Brewing company and Cellar Rats aged this beer in Merlot barrels resulting in a super sweet beer.  I shared a bit with Bro and she kept going “we cannot end the night on this sweet of a beer.”  Overall, it was a bit too sweet for my tastes but probably right on if you like sweet beer.  This was my first exposure to Merlot barrel aging, and I would like to see some other brewers try this.

Colastic Colab German Style Ale- Buckeye Brewing and Cornerstone Brewing brewed this beer that blew up all over my kitchen and was full of awful flavor.  Might try it again if it was fresh from the brewery.

WillVille Hopfen Roggen- I was excited about this Rye Kölsch Style Ale from Willoughby Brewing and the Brew Kettle.  I love Rye Beers and Kölsch are great when the weather is warming up.  First the beer exploded and then what was left barely made a quarter of a glass of beer that was so off base I dumped it down the drain.