There’s a lot to be said about this years fifty fest from Fifty West Brewing Company.  The brewery has been hinting to us that cans were in the works for a while, and I know a lot of people here in Cincinnati have been pretty excited to get their fridge stocked with packaged beer from them for a while, so I suppose that this is as good of a place to start as any.

RainbowRoadThe Cans

If you have been hiding under a social media rock for a while you might have missed that 50 West has released their first canned beer this weekend.  They put out a VERY limited run of Penny’s Pilsner and Rainbow road in 12 ounce cans for the thirsty masses to devour.  Like I said, though, this is a VERY limited run…from what I was told you’re looking at less than 1000 cases of this beer making it’s way around Cincinnati, so if you want to get your hands on some, you might want to jump on it before it’s all gone.

Penny'sPilsThere are a lot of people that just love to have them some fifty west at home in the fridge to drink…to share to travel with, whatever their reasons might be, but this is where things get exciting and fun with the beer.  Fifty west is including “golden tickets” on the labels of their cans.  A golden ticket will get you into this years Fifty Fest for free (with regular admission being ten dollars).

What? Not familiar with Fifty Fest?

What’s Fifty Fest?

This is the third year for Fifty West’s festival…known as fifty fest.  The festival is a celebration of local music, local beer, great food and even better company.  This festival speaks to me so deeply of what fifty west stands for… I’m not sure that it’s easy to put “community” into a good description but that’s what you feel when you are crowded into the property around the historic brewery of fifty west.

Music

They have three stages at the event to provide a constant stream of great local music to keep your ears happy while the flowing beer keeps the palate full of joy.

  • Todd Hepburn w/ special guest Conner Clark
  • Tickled Pink Electric Trio
  • Young Heirlooms
  • Moon Shine & Wine
  • Heavy Hinges
  • Backbeat
  • Pike 27
  • Newbees
  • Mark Utley and Bulletville
  • Noah Wotherspoon
  • Elmtree Levity Project

Beer

You can be assured that there will be plenty of delicious beer from Fifty West flowing at the event, but keeping with the idea of community here in Cincinnati’s Craft Beer world, they have invited others (local and not so local) to participate as well:

  • Taft’s Ale House
  • Urban Artifact
  • Braxton Brewing Company
  • MadTree
  • Listermann/Triple Digit
  • Weasel Boy
  • Great Lakes
  • Christian Moerlein
  • Cellar Dweller
  • Rhinegeist
  • Seventh Son
  • DogBerry
  • Ei8ht Ball
  • Blank Slate
  • Yellow Springs Brewery
  • Goodwood Brewing
  • Rivertown
  • Fat Heads
  • Mt Carmel
  • Bad Tom Smith
  • Tap & Screw
  • The Old Firehouse
  • Jacki O’s
  • Thirsty Dog

FiftyFestHome Brewers! Listen Up!

As if the festival isn’t enough this year they are offering a great deal for any of Cincinnati’s extremely talented home brewers.  They are putting on a competition that they are calling the Brewmaster’s Choice.  This is a BJCP/AHA sanctioned event and will be judged accordingly.

The Prize, though…the prize:

  • There will be Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in each category as well as…
  • Best of Show – This is given to the highest scoring beer in the competitioin, and will give the winner the opportunity to brew their beer as a commercial batch at Fifty West, along with being entered into the Pro-Am category at this years Great American Beer Festival in Denver!

The judges of the contest are all going to be professional brewers from breweries in the Greater Cincinnati area.

If you think you’ve go the brewing chops to win, you can enter the competition here on their website for $15 for the first beer you enter and $5 for each beer after that.

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