New to Ohio (2018)

Excited to try mine as well. The names and descriptions have been as horrendous as ever, but they keep putting out better beer each year. I still wish they'd use the DORIS base for more of these one-off's, but that's my only complaint.

 

Does the club just get you a single 12oz bottle? Or is there more to it? I can't seem to find any information on their site about the rare beer club, maybe I'm just missing it though.

 

The club each year gets you an initial box of vintage bottles on day one. After that, they have releases through the year that are club only. Most releases allow a 6 bottle limit. You also get all other releases ~1 week before public release and 10% off food and merch.

 

Maybe I'm getting spoiled but I can remember when going to the Winking Lizard meant I could find something interesting on tap. So my wife and I go to the Beachwood one for our anniversary.

To no surprise the tap list is overloaded with IPAs, which I don't like, but I can usually find alternatives which I like. No Oktoberfests even in bottles, which is Strike 1. All the hefeweizens on the menu were gone, some replaced by MOAR IPAs, so Strike 2. And no kolsches, saisons or sours, so Strike 3 called. I ended up getting a disappointing Left Hand Belgian Dubbel Nitro which was deficient in everything except how it looked.

Maybe I expected too much but I don't think I was unreasonable. Has anyone had a good experience at any of their non Lizardville places lately?

 

This is the absolute state of craft beer. And a lot of people on here argue with me and say the industry doesn't have a problem and its easier than ever to find a beer you'd like.

 

The craft beer bar as we once knew it is all but totally dead.

Typically your options now are one of a few dozen (per town) local craft breweries, these typically stock about 75%+ of their taps with low quality or just plain uninteresting IPA du jour, or a large, watered down, corporate franchised "beer bar" that will bring in stuff from the large national craft breweries but will predominately sell more of those crappy local IPAs. The rest of their taps will be beers that haven't moved for 4 months.

The days of going to an independently run beer bar and having a wide selection of styles from all over the world are just about over for all but a lucky few who still have such establishments in business near by.

Its all IPAs as American beer closes in on full circle.

 

I mean, I just go to the places that serve what I like. Lizard seems to rotate pretty regularly. Just had a Melvin tap takeover Tuesday and half of that is all gone now. Granted most of the replacements are IPAs or Pale Ales, lol. Anyway...

Agree on the need for more DORIS variants. Either way, this is definitely one of the most barrel forward BORIS variants they've put out to date. It still has that thick, nutty chocolatelyness going on, but the barrel is quite forward and peppery, even bringing some heat. I have a feeling a few people here would really enjoy this version.

 

To be clear, my complaint was a specific one and based on past positive experiences at the Lizard and elsewhere. @CannedWaggoneer may be correct but he's making a more universal statement than I was.

 

Same here, but that's pretty much narrowed down to only one place now. I think the Winking Lizards in Columbus suck. I was never a big fan, but damn, I wish we could go back to the selections they had back in like 2010. Everything I've heard sounds like Lizards in Cleveland have always been better than the ones down here though.

We have more exciting distribution from out of state than ever before, but there's almost nowhere to go try this stuff unless you can leave work early on a GD Thursday to go end up getting wasted at some launch tap takeover.

 

We go every Friday to the Bedford OG Winking Lizard. We have been going for 10+ years, before we had a kid, and now it's a great kid-friendly option. While I agree the lack of rotation and IPA centricity of the draft list has been a crappy trend, you simply got screwed b/c it was the end of the month and they were out of stuff (another annoying trend - seems they don't reorder anything that kicks after mid-month).

Oktoberfests will be on tap and in bottle tomorrow with the new month. While I would also welcome them in August, if it means Pumpkin beers can wait until September as well, I'm OK with that call.

This month at the Bedford store, I've drank a ton of Ayinger Bavarian Pilsner and Victory Braumeister. They've had 3 hefe's on: MG Prosperity, Schneider Weisse and Weihenstephaner Hefe. Like I said, it's certainly trending towards more IPA's but there's almost always some good non-hoppy stuff. I just wish they would rotate more or, at the very least, tap something new each week or a couple times a month. They have the cleanest draft lines in town but when mediocre crap like Rhinegeist Truth takes up a handle for the entire year, it's hard to complete a draft-only tour.

 

Two of the 3 non Lizardville locations in Columbus have closed. Only remaining location is actually the newest one to open.

If I go there I immediately order Polycephaly 3 which is one of my favorite Jackie O's beers to come out. Fortunately, it seems like they have a never ending stash of it.

 

My experience is much more in line with @jampics2. I was at the Brunswick one last week and they had 3-4 Oktoberfests on as they must have run out of some beer and switched over early. At the same time the last week of the month is always a bit of a dice roll due to the reasons already stated.

I just finished my tour and cant say I've ever felt like there were not enough options (even in the last week of the month). I'm there almost weekly. 20ish taps, seasonal bottle list and another standing bottle list. Kind of surprised to hear someone have a "not enough options at the Lizard" take.

 

Thank you for the feedback, particularly the detail of @jampics2 's response. I was honestly afraid I'd get a bunch of "what type of idiot still goes there?" comments. Good to hear it was a perfect storm of situational shit, but it was still a pissy beer way to spend our anniversary, which will always be at the end of August.

 

Thank God for Fat Heads

 

I agree. They used to have a better variety at Polaris. All my experiences at the Canton location has been more like jampics described though.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/09/willoughby_brewing_co_to_expan.html

I’ve been out of the beer news world but this seems pretty interesting. I thought they were going to move to the old Fatheads Sheldon road location but I heard that rumor ages ago.

 

@IroquoisPlisken

Willoughby was in serious talks with FH about the Middleburg location but was outbid from whatever that place is that is now taking it over, from what I was told. So they had to find another location.

 

Rivals is taking over the old FH brewery. I expect them to be closed within 2 years if their beers don’t get better.

 

So how does Platform do it?

 

Platform has a cool space in hipster central and they allow dogs inside. Plus I don’t think Platform’s beer is all bad.

Rivals proximity to fat head’s, Brew Kettle, and their own restaurant will give them a rough road.