PUMPKIN_TAPPING.JPG

It's that time of year, when a brewer can have a field day with pumpkins. This photo shows Elysian Brewing Company brewmaster Dick Cantwell preparing to tap a 100-pound pumpkin used to ferment and serve his Night Owl Pumpkin Ale in 2005. Elysian is not part of any local festivities, but there are several events planned around fall-fest beers.

(PRNewsFoto)

Fall means seasonal beers, and there is no shortage of fests throughout Greater Cleveland. Beer news and notes:

‘Tis the season

Sam McNulty likes this season. The self-proclaimed hophead has all his Ohio City places in the spirit. The Parade of Pumpkins will begin Sept. 19 and run for seven consecutive Thursdays through Halloween. At 4:30 p.m. Sept. 26, McNulty's Bier Markt will host a Celebration of Cider Festival. In honor of the apple harvest season, special ciders will be available on draft and in bottles. And Franklin Castle Spiced Pumpkin Ale is back. It’s a wonderful concoction at 7.2 percent alcohol and brewed with cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and muscavado sugar. It will be available at Market Garden Brewery. (Last year it was site to see several straw-sipping brewers drinking the ale that had been poured into small pumpkins.) McNulty owns

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Market Garden Brewery sampler.

All-day beer

Spots still remain for the all-day seminar to help distributors and brewery staff market beer more effectively. It’s 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, at Market Garden, and is sponsored by the Minnesota-based Master Brewers Association of the Americas. Cost is $275 (advance), $300 (at the door). The seminar is considered a Beer Steward Certificate Program. For details, go to

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Beer fest

The second

is scheduled for 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at Williams on the Lake, 787 Lafayette Road, southwest of the square. Tickets are $25 ($22 for Main Street Medina members). More than 25 Ohio craft brews (and three ciders) will be featured. Tickets include a commemorative tasting glass, and there will be live music, raffles, drawings and snacks. Food will be available for purchase. Call 330-952-0910.

More pumpkin ales

The first one went so well,

decided to hold another. Its second annual pumpkin beer tasting is 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, at 14900 Detroit Ave., Lakewood. Tickets are $15, with just more than half of the brews set: Southern Tier Pumking, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Ace Pumpkin Cider, Hoppin Frog’s Frog’s Hollow and Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin. About six more are to be determined. Call 216-221-1119 for details; reservations are not necessary.

Cleveland Beer Week coming up

The annual

in Cleveland will be here faster than you can say “I’ll have another pint.” More than 350 events are scheduled from Friday, Oct. 18, to Saturday, Oct. 26. Beer tastings, food pairings, limited-edition tappings and more will be featured. Collaboration Kickoffs will usher in the week. They take place 7-10 p.m. in five locations – East 4th, Lakewood, Tremont, Ohio City and Cedar/Lee. Sixteen breweries collaborated on some ambitious small-batch brews:

Collaborator -

Willoughby Brewing and Brew Kettle; dopplebock, 9 percent alcohol.

Tallboy Wheat -

Market Garden Brewery, Indigo Imp and Rocky River Brewery; cocoa and hazelnut dunkelweisen, 6 percent.

Evil Monk -

Thirsty Dog Brewery and Portside; bourbon-barrel-aged black Belgian tripel, 11 percent.

Pancake Porter -

Lagerheads and Cornerstone; maple, bacon and coffee oatmeal porter, 6.5 percent.



Wango Tango Mango -

Fat Head’s and Chardon BrewWorks; India Pale Ale, 7.5 percent.

Tripel Cherry Delight -

Buckeye Brewing, Black Box and Ohio Brewing; Belgian tripel with cherries, 10 percent.

Berlot -

Great Lakes Brewing Co. and Cellar Rats; strong ale aged in wine barrels, 9.5 percent.

"World Beer" is due out from DK Publishing Monday, Sept. 16, 2013.

New book out

“World Beer,” a $40, 300-page coffee-table style book is due Monday, Sept. 16 from

. Written by Tim Hampson and other authors, it’s a decent primer, with beautiful photography, informative capsules and full-page synopses on brewers. In all, 1,000 brews from 800 breweries in several continents are discussed. (One full page is dedicated to Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland with the three usual suspects written about – Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Dortmunder Gold and Christmas Ale.) I have to wonder, from the steady procession of books hitting my desk, if there is an end to the beer-book market, which seems a bit flooded. But my supply-and-demand mind says the market keeps asking for it. Besides, the holidays are not that far off …