Dayton Beertasting Association

Thursday night, I had the opportunity to attend one of the most interesting and unusual beer tasting events in the area.  ”Zoo Brew” is an annual event hosted at the Cincinnati Zoo and is a fund raiser forConservation & Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) department at the zoo.  Not sure what exactly to expect, the price of the ticket included good beer, lots of food samples (including BW3’s, City BBQ and other area restaurants, live animals, and special opportunity to tour the CREW research lab.  

By far, the most interesting part of the night was the short tour through the CREW research lab (which was tucked in the far end of the zoo behind the Safari Camp).   If you can picture the research lab from Jurassic Park, the only thing missing from this building were actual dinosaurs.   There is a “frozen zoo” room where they store sperm, egg and embryos at temperatures of -196C, as well as an operating room used for artificially inseminating species. You can peer through a window to the “cat room” containing successful test-tube breeding of ocelot’s and other small endangered cats.  Other CREW research projects includes reproductive breakthrough’s for endangered rhinos and cheetahs, as well successfully using in vitro methods to propagate and preserve endangered plants such as the African Violet.  You can even purchase test tube plants such as the Venus flytrap that can eventually be transplanted to soil.

But the main focus of the night was beer tasting, and they had plenty of beer samples supplied by Samuel Adams.  I have to think that Samual Adams must be the antithesis of Dogfish Head.  Where Dogfish continues to pushes the limit to make extreme beers completely different than anything else you tasted, it seems that Samual Adams thrives on perfecting a style of beer so that it is a near perfect representation of that style.  The samples (as many as you want spread out through various stations within the Safari Camp) included Irish Red, Boston Lager, Winter Lager, Imperial Pilsner, Cherry Wheat, Brown Ale, Honey Porter, Black Lager and Boston Ale. They also had two new beers they were testing, a Blackberry Witbier and a Coffee Stout. For an additional $8, you could buy a commemorative Zoo Brew pint glasses which included 2 pints of the Sam Adams Octoberfest draught.  In addition to beer, their was a table for wine as well as a table featuring Twisted Tea Originals (spiked iced tea and lemonade!).

The beers that stood out for me were the Imperial Pilsner, Black Lager, Honey Porter, Coffee Stout and Boston Ale (not to be confused with Boston Lager, the Boston Ale was a Pale Ale with a nice hoppy/citrus flavor).  But the beers tonight was just a backdrop to the amazing research and work done by this organization.  Next time you are at the zoo, be sure and make the side trip to the CREW research facilities (they do have an exhibit room that is open to the public).