I mentioned back in early March that Municipal was already planning for their first anniversary party on June 10th. Arguably, the centerpiece of the anniversary party is the release of their first packaged beer, a big Imperial IPA in a 22oz bomber. Well… the label for the beer has finally popped up in the ttb – and it’s time to dig in and see what we can learn about the beer from it.

Anniversary Series #1

First off, this gives us a little clue that we might be seeing a series of beers released at each anniversary party (Think Rookie, Deuce, and Trips from Rhinegeist). I don’t know that we can assume that every single one of these will be an Imperial IPA, but this one certainly is. According to the label, this comes in at 9.5% ABV.

There aren’t a lot of details about the beer itself on the beautiful label, so I reached out to the brewery to see what they’d be willing to tell me, and the answer was… very little. They’re being pretty secretive about what this beer is going to taste like – mostly because they haven’t gotten a chance to taste the final version yet. After rolling through a few test batches of different recipes, they’ve settled on one, and we’ll have to wait a little while before we get our first sneak peeks at it.

The design of the label is pretty sweet, even more so if you’ve ever ventured into the rest of the building that the brewery occupies. It’s a fantastic gem of a art deco centerpiece for Hamilton, Ohio. I’ve lived in Butler County for a long time, and never had any idea that such a beautiful place existed, until he brewery got me into the building to see what was going on.

There will be a lot more information about the anniversary party that’s taking place in June – but for now… just keep that calendar clear!

In The Meantime…

The very first lager to hit the taps at Municipal is being released this friday (April 7th). It’s a pilsner that’s being called ‘Walk In The Park’. It’s name references the upcoming grand opening of downtown Hamilton’s Marcum Park as well as a certain sport which may or may not take place in a ball park (see what they did there?). The beer is a celebration of spring, of easy drinking beers, and of sunshine – all things that I can certainly get behind.

It’s a traditional Czech Pale Lager (if you’re one of those BJCP nuts) and should fit in to their tap lineup damn near perfectly.