Zauber Dog Days of Summer Beer Festival

Zauber Brewing on Fifth Avenue has been running little mini-beer-festivals monthly since the weather got warm enough to warrant it.  This month’s event, the Dog days of Summer, was held on July 19 in the Goodwill parking lot next door to the Zauber brewery on Fifth Avenue.

Several food trucks were on hand, including the Paddy Wagon, Explorers Club, Loops, Schmidt’s Sausage Truck, and the Herb’n Food Truck.

There were raffles, dog biscuits, and water dishes for the dogs.

The Lovetown Mavericks provided great live music throughout the event as well, playing a mix of music from the past and present.

Actual Brewing featured their Rye IPA, Berliner Weiss, and Saison.

Zauber offered their Stodgy Brown Ale and Buxom Blonde Ale.

Although it was an overcast day, there was no rain for at least the first 90 minutes of the event (I left after that) and the temperatures were very reasonable.  Turnout was light for the first half-hour, then picked up after that.

I had a FetaFire sandwich from Loops, which was good.  My wife loved their Chicken Gyro.

Later, when the Schmidt’s truck showed up, I had a bratwurst and a cream puff.  Those were excellent, as usual.

On the beer front, I sampled two of Actual Brewing’s beers.  The first, Curiosus, is a German style Berliner Weisse beer.  It’s got a tangy, sour note to it like fresh lemon juice.  I didn’t find it to be unpleasantly sour, but others disagreed.  I think it’s a nice summer beer.  The second Actual Brewing beer I tried was their Ingenuity Ale, a lemongrass Saison.  This was a nice beer also.  It wasn’t too hopped-up, or too plain.  The lemongrass added a nice flavor element to it.

I also sampled Zauber’s Stodgy Brown Ale, which is one of my favorite beers from this brewery.  It’s got a nice malt-forward character with some roasty, smoky elements to it.  Hops are used to balance out, but not overwhelm, the malt.  It’s quite nice and very easy to drink.

It would have been nice if some other Columbus breweries had made an appearance, but it was a fun event nevertheless.  I am looking forward to their August event.

Below are some photos taken at Dog Days…

First, a shot of the Lovetown Mavericks rocking the festival:

A shot of the Chittenden vet clinic table on the left and Actual Brewing on the right:

The Schmidt’s Sausage Truck, serving up their signature German food and Cream Puffs:

An unfortunately blurry shot of The Paddy Wagon and Explorers Club:

The Loops food truck (also a blurry shot, not sure what was going on with the cell phone camera):

And Zauber’s table:

The Herb’n Food Truck:

A Schmidt’s Bratwurst and Cream Puff, and a cold Curiosus Berliner Weisse from Actual Brewing… could summer get much better?