Nobody loves Hoppin’ Frog Brewery in Akron more than RateBeer.
The website hands out awards each year based on millions of reviews by beer drinkers around the world.
Hoppin’ Frog, 1680 E. Waterloo Road, is always well represented among the annual RateBeer Best Awards. This year is no different.
RateBeer has named Hoppin’ Frog the best brewery in Ohio. And its DORIS the Destroyer was chosen as the best beer made in the state.
If that weren’t enough, Hoppin’ Frog also was selected as the best brewery taproom in the state. The taproom opened last year.
“I feel like a proud father in a way,” brewer and owner Fred Karm said. “It’s amazing, man. It puts a smile on my face. I’m always amazed when I look at those awards.”
RateBeer will announce its “top brewers in the world” on Friday.
Hoppin’ Frog usually makes that list, too, along with Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland and Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery in Athens. Last year Hoppin’ Frog was No. 17.
Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron made the list of “The Best Beers By Style Category.” Its Rail Dog, a smoke beer, was ranked as the ninth best dark lager in the world.
Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold, Great Lakes Eliot Ness, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald and Fat Head’s Head Hunter IPA also were honored.
Meanwhile, Rhinegeist Brewery in Cincinnati was named the seventh best new brewery in the world. It’s quite an accomplishment considering there were more than 2,600 new breweries that qualified.
In some ways, the RateBeer awards are more valuable than medals handed out at beer festivals because they are based on so many reviews by different people.
To check out all the winners, go to www.ratebeer.com/RateBeerBest.
Winter Warmer Fest
The upcoming Winter Warmer Fest — a showcase and fundraiser for the Ohio Craft Brewers Association — will feature some Ohio breweries rarely, if ever, seen in the Akron-Cleveland area.
The eighth annual event is set for 2 to 6 p.m. March 1 at Windows on the River, 2000 Sycamore St., Cleveland.
The festival will include Actual, Wolf’s Ridge, Seventh Son and North High, all from Columbus; Homestead from Heath; and Weasel Boy from Zanesville. Overall, about 30 craft breweries will be there, including local favorites Great Lakes, Hoppin’ Frog, Thirsty Dog and Fat Head’s.
Tickets are $45 and include a tasting glass. For more details and a rundown of all the breweries and beers, go to www.ohiocraftbeer.org.
Big fat cans
Some big fat cans are showing up at beer stores and bars in Ohio.
Mission Brewery of San Diego has released its 32-ounce cannons — yes, that’s what it calls them — in the state following their popularity in California.
“We’re the little brewery with the huge package,” Martin Saylor, Mission’s national sales director, said in a prepared statement. “The idea of our luscious beers in a gigantic quart can cracked us up, and no microbrewery has ever done them before.”
Shipwrecked Double IPA and El Conquistador Extra Pale Ale are available in the big cans.
Ballast beer dinner
D’Agneses at White Pond, 566 White Pond Drive, Akron, will hold a five-course Valentine’s Day Beer Dinner with Ballast Point Brewing at 6 p.m. Feb. 12.
The dinner will feature Wahoo White, Calico Amber Ale, Big Eye IPA, Sculpin IPA and Victory at Sea Coffee. Tickets are $35, plus tax and tip. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 234-678-3612.
Cleveland Winter Beerfest
Beer drinkers in northern Ohio enjoy high-alcohol brews.
That’s one of the anecdotal findings from the inaugural Cleveland Winter Beerfest. The event, held last weekend at the Cleveland Convention Center, was a big hit, attracting 7,000 people over two nights.
“We would have been very happy with 5,000,” said Craig Johnson, director of events for Festivals Unlimited, which puts on similar festivals in Cincinnati, Columbus and Pittsburgh.
Asked what he learned about the Cleveland area, Johnson replied: “The consumption of the higher alcohol beers and higher quality beers was definitely a bit higher than the other markets.”
He attributed that to more widespread knowledge about craft beers in the region. Cleveland is home to Ohio’s first craft brewery — Great Lakes Brewing, which opened in 1988 — and for years Northeast Ohio was the center of craft brewing in the state.
Johnson said the Cleveland Winter Beerfest will be back next year, bigger and with more food options, he said.
Next up for Festivals Unlimited are the Cincy Winter Beerfest (Feb. 14-15) and the Pittsburgh Winter Beerfest (Feb. 28-March 1).
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeacounjournal.com. Read his beer blog at www.ohio.com/beer. Follow him on Twitter at armonrickABJ.