With Cincinnati Beer week in full swing I thought this would be the perfect excuse to get out there and check out some of the things that I've always been meaning to, but for whatever reason haven't yet. Namely, Fifty West. Now, I've had a few of their beers. I had their hefeweizen at the Cincinnati Craft Beer Oktoberfest, and I had their Coast to Coast IPA at the Cock & Bull in Hyde Park a few weeks ago. Both were quite good and definitely left me wanting more. To get more I would have to go to the source. So this past Saturday my girlfriend Meredith, and my friends Devon, Brian, Courtney, and I headed out past Mariemont on 50 (appropriately) to drink some beer. To the beer!
As soon as we walked in the door I could tell it was going to be a good night. Not because of the great beer, or the awesome location, or the good crowd, or the friendly bartenders. Not that any of those were lacking. But really, Thickfreakness on vinyl blasting as soon as I walked in. Talk about setting a tone. At Fifty West, rather that hooking up an iPod there's a record played behind the bar and a couple cartons full of records. The bartenders were taking requests from the crowd. In addition to The Black Keys we also heard some Led Zeppelin, some blues, good stuff all around.
Time to get down to what we came for. The beer menu was written on three big chalkboards. There's a good varitey, IPAs, stouts, brown ales, wheats. Something for everybody. I decided to go with the Armadillo Crossing, a session brown ale brewed with local maple syrup. Meredith went with a tasting flight that ran the gamut of their styles. Everything from a very light, approachable kolsch, to a big bitter IPA. The beer is excellent. The brown ale is absolutely delicious, but we'll get to more about that later in the week. Among the other beers I tried was their Coast to Coast IPA on nitro which was wonderful as well. I love seeing brewers experiment with more than just stouts on nitro. There's no reason why the roasted malts are the only beers that should be able to enjoy the decadent creamy smoothness that only nitro can provide. I would love to see a brewer experiment with a nitro barleywine or a nitro Belgian dubbel. I bet those would be amazing!
The brewing facilities are right there on site, around the corner from the taproom. I'm definitely going to have to try and get back there another week to get a tour and talk to some of the brewers.
The taproom is a great place to hang out. Low, wide beamed ceilings, plenty of comfortable high top tables and a lower room with booths and a fireplce, walls of plaster and exposed brick, tasty bar snacks. It's a downright cozy place to be! The crowd on Saturday was large and lively but I never felt like I had to shout to talk to my friends and it never took too long to get a beer at the bar. Fifty West is a great place to get a beer. In fact, after just one visit, i'm quite confident in saying that the Fifty West taproom is one of the best places in the city to get a beer. I can't wait to go back. This place is great.
If you needed any more convincing that this place is cool, check out their delivery vehicle.
I mean, come on!
EDIT: I was extremely remiss in failing to mention two huge things that I enjoyed about my visit to the tap room. One was the delicious Loneliest Bourbon Road. A lovely stout aged in Buffalo Trace barrels. This one definitely had all if those fabulous bourbony aromas and flavors that were so sorely lacking in the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Stout I looked at the other week
Another thing I appreciated about Fifty West was the quality of their glassware. Most of the beers were poured into standard shaker pints, but when appropriate the beers were poured into tulips, like you can see above holding Coast to Coast Nitro, snifters, and an absolutely gorgeous tall weizen glass. I'm glad to see Fifty West takes as much care with their glasses as they do with what goes into them.
