The clock is ready to strike 12 and I have five more breweries to visit by Midnight March 31st. With everyone into March Madness, The midwest region of the NCAA Tournament is taking place in Cleveland. So as they compete for a spot on the final four, I'm going to cleveland to complete the Quest's Final Five. In addition to my beer wife who has tolerated me during this quest we were joined by friends Bruce and Marilyn Kidd.
- Great Lakes Brewing- #296....what a great brewery to start my final five. The large Brewpub is located across the street from the production brewery. The place was packed, but we found a trouble in the bar area. Great Lakes has such a large selection of brews, so I focused on the brews only available at the brewery. The Wolfhound Stout, Chillwave Dbl IPA and Hop Madness were the samples that I enjoyed the most. They also have a great food menu, I enjoyed the clam chowder and a great grilled cheese sandwich with fig spread. Bruce enjoyed a very large sandwich with kielbasa and pierogi, all on a larger hoagie roll. By chance the VP of Marketing of Long trail Brewery was sitting at the table beside us. So we had some great beer discussions.
- Market Garden Brewery- #297- located across the street from Great Lakes. Market Garden Brewery is another large brewpub with a large selection of house brews and guest brews. They also have a nice food menu, but we just ate and we need to keep space for beer. The Citramex IPA was excellent, I also enjoyed the IPA Trouble and Friar Power Tripel. Great place, the beer servers were very friendly and were very knowledgeable on the beer they were serving. Two very good breweries within site of each other.
- Nano Brewery- #298...... thank goodness this brewery was just down the street from the Market Garden Brewery, it is cold and snowy outside. Oh thats right its Cleveland, it's always snowy and cold. Nano Brewery has a nice tasting room and bar with a nice tap selection. However, there are only 4 house brews and a large selection of guest brews. So Bruce and I order a flight of the house brews, hey where did the Beer wives go. Oh they are visiting the homemade Ice cream store next door. I did say that it is 20 degrees and snowing.......ok back to the beer. I enjoyed their Altbier Strecker Checker and also sampled Kolsch, Teddy KBG-EKG and the Namber Ale. Well its time to find our ice cream lovers and find the car.
- Platform Beer Co.- #299........ recently opened this is Cleveland's latest entry into the Beer Revolution. If you like dark beer this is your brewery. The Goon oatmeal stout was outstanding and they also served the Goon brewed with six shooter coffee.....the perfect breakfast beer. I also enjoyed the Ardan Stout and the Speed Merchant IPA. The tasting area was very large with a nice size bar. OK the bowling machine didn't work, but the great beer made up for that. Oh I forgot Bruce does not like Dark Sh*t beer, I think he liked this dark beer, there may be hope yet.