I’ve been really, really excited to talk to you about this beer festival for a while now, and am thrilled that today is the day I get to unleash upon you the excitement that is ‘Beer, Booze and Bonks’ – a curated beer festival unlike anything that you have seen before.

This has been a labor of love for Cincy By The Pint and myself for the last few months. We were approached by the folks over at the Fowling Warehouse in Norwood about the possibility of planning a festival that takes the standard model and flips it around a little bit (I’ll get to more of the twists in just a minute… hang in there).

For details about the 2022 festival – head over here…

Why Plan A Beer Festival?

Beer festivals are about a lot more to me than just drinking a bunch of cool beers (though… that’s certainly part of it). A great beer festival starts to become a social event, and a way for people like me and you to spend a little bit of time in a room where we are able to talk beer, think beer, and drink beer with folks who are as geeky about it as we are.

As time goes on, and it gets easier to get great beer around Cincinnati, the concept of a beer festival has lost a bit of steam. Festivals that used to be amazing places to hang out are now filled with beers that are also on tap at your local gas station. The novelty doesn’t stand up in 2021 the way that it might have ten years ago.

Who wants to stand in a conference room with an itty bitty cup of a beer that you’ve had 20 times before and talk to your friends about how things used to be? The answer is that we don’t. If you want to throw or attend a beer festival – it’s gotta be different.

Things just have to be done in a new and exciting way if we want to help do our part to restore the ‘joy of the beer festival’. We need to look at this from several different angles and find a way to restore the idea that festivals are a feeling. Both Cincy by the Pint and I want to restore the glory of the beer festival – especially for some of you who don’t remember those glory days.

A Curated Festival?

To create a beer festival that meets the standards of what we knew we wanted, you have to start with the drinks. We knew we wanted to have great beer available, with none of the standard stuff that you see on tap every day, and to accomplish that we’re hand-picking all these beers.

Every single brewery that you’ll see at Beer, Booze, and Bonks was hand selected by either Merrell, or myself (or both of us) because we knew that you guys would want to drink some of their beer. Beyond that, the beers that are being poured have to be vetted by us before we’ll agree to have them hit your glassware.

All of these beers are great, and we can actually promise you that.

But to keep with the theme of making this festival something really different – we wanted to have something else, too. Booze… Seltzer… these products are as much a part of Cincinnati’s brewery scene these days as the beers are. We knew that that could be showcased, too. There will be a bunch of fun stuff available to sample during the festival to help you see why we love this community so much.

We’ve got a couple other surprises in store for you too that we’ll share as we get closer to the event, so make sure you’re following us on social media! (can you say Mystery Beer Machine?)

The Fowling Warehouse

The location was important for the festival, too. If you’ve never been fowling before you’re in for a treat. Fowling is a game that has to be seen to believed. The concept is pretty easy. You have to throw a football at the other team’s bowling pins to knock them all down. It’s also the source of the term ‘Bonk’ in the festival’s title. It’s a quick way to win a game by hitting only one pin… rare, but definitely a blast when you nail one. Fowling, much like any game that can be played while you’re drinking, doesn’t take long to learn, and anyone can do it.

That’s good news, too… because it’s a vital part of the beer festival. You get open access to the Fowling lanes during the festival – sip away while you throw!

The Beer

I can only assume that you already caught wind of the full brewery list that’s going to be attending the event (you can see that below). It was TOUGH narrowing this down, and there are some great breweries that we weren’t able to include (who knows… maybe next year?). But the beers? We’ve been pretty secretive about those, until now.

If you’ve been watching – you’ll most likely have noticed that both Cincy By The Pint and I have been slowly leaking out beers one or two at a time for you over the last week or so… and we still have plenty to go! We wanted to release them this way so that as you see them on social media you can actually get a little bit of a glimpse into why the beer made the list, why the brewery made the list, and why we think you’re going to be as excited about it as we are!

  • Cartridge
    • Brewing The Future – DDH Fruited Hazy IPA
    • Hollow Point – Hibiscus Ale
    • Escape – Piña Colada Wheat Ale
    • Motto: This We’ll Defend – BBA Chocolate Brown Ale
  • Third Eye
    • Marshmallow Kandy Milkshake Sour – Exclusive to BBB
    • Dark Sorcery – Belgian Quad
  • Fifty West
    • The Best of Times – BBQ Rub Porter
  • Rhinegeist
    • Pyriscence – Oak Aged Lavender Smoked Helles
  • Rebel Mettle
    • Zwickelpils – Italian Style Pilsner w/Mandarina Bavaria
  • Brink
    • Maiden Voyage – NE IPA
    • Strawberries and Cream – Milkshake IPA
  • Braxton
    • Vive – Punch
  • Fretboard
    • Bananas Foster Fugee – Breakfast Ale
    • BBA Cool Meditation – Imperial Stout
  • Sam Adams
    • Fresh Pops Scary Berry – Blackberry, Boysenberry and Raspberry
    • Avena Columbiana – Ale with Oat Milk, Lactose and aged on Vanilla and Cinnamon
  • Five Stories
    • Rosie’s Secret – Cocktail from Molly Wellmann – White Rum, Grapefruit
  • Karrikin
    • Keylime Sparkling Spirit
  • West Side
    • Fowl Down DIPA – Exclusive Festival DDH DIPA
  • 16 Lots
    • Burnt Orange and Rosemary Beast – DIPA
  • Northern Row
    • Riveter – Dortmunder Lager
  • Sonder
    • Otto – Coffee Stout
    • Carmen’s Carrot Cake – Dessert Ale
  • Streetside
    • Situation Normal – Blueberry Pancake Berliner Weisse
  • Nine Giant
    • Trendy – Barrel-Aged Saison
    • Lost Positives – West Coast IPA
  • March First
    • Baja Blast Off – Seltzer
  • MadTree
    • Tropical Psychopathy – IPA
  • Urban Artifact
    • Love Letter – Midwest Fruit Tart
  • Paradise
    • Night At The Opera – Opera Cream Coffee Sweet Stout
  • Grainworks
    • Orange Dreams – Creamsicle Witbier
  • HighGrain
    • Enigmatic – Double Dry Hopped NE IPA
  • Listermann
    • The Adventures of Hobo Swaggins – DDH Triple NE IPA
  • Wooden Cask
    • Newport Punk – Wine Barrel Aged Farmhouse Ale
  • Darkness
    • Toastanut – Coconut Black IPA

The Details

The festival goes down on 11/20, with two sessions available for you to choose from… plus a “kick the keg after party” that is gonna be freaking insane.

You can add on early admission or the afterparty for $10 – and there are a couple different group packages that are perfect if you’ve got a few friends that you wanna go with (and actually have a table to sit around while you sip away).

Each standard admission comes with 20 tasting tickets, 2 mystery beer machine tickets, and access to open Fowling for only $39.99. Make sure you snag your tickets as soon as possible, because we’re hoping this sells out – and you’re gonna be upset if you miss it! Grab your tickets right here!

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