A TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN: CROOKED RIVER BREWING COMPANY, CLEVELAND, OHIO

The Swill: Black Forest Lager
The Still: Crooked River Brewing Company
Cleveland, Ohio
(Out of business since 2000)
The Drill: Lager, 12oz bottle, ABV unknown
The Spill: I really don't remember much about this beer, other than the fact that I was unimpressed by it in the 90s when I drank it. It was presumably mild, mellow, and yellow, and lacking the oomph that I was looking for, having already turned my tastes almost exclusively to dark beers, and not having gained any appreciation for a well-made light one. The bottle's label promised "a medium-bodied, golden lager with a malty sweetness and hop aroma that characterize a true Bavarian-style lager."
Says Bill: If there's one thing Ohioans--particularly Clevelanders--are proud of, it's their own kind. We brag about those things that are native to the City On the Lake. Arsenio Hall, born in Cleveland. Did the arm-twirling-bark-like-a-dog-schtick every time he came out on his late-night talk show. That move was invented in Cleveland Municipal Stadium, then home of the Browns and Indians. "The Drew Carey Show"? Oh yeah. You better believe we were all over that back in the day. In fact, I used to proudly tell people that I graduated high school with Drew's second cousin, Mike. True story. Even Bob Hope, while born in London, attended high school in Cleveland. He thus became ours, if you grew up there, and even attended the closing ceremony of Municipal Stadium in 1993 to sing "Thanks For the Memories." Anyway, good or bad, we Clevelanders reveled in all of that which was Cleveland lore. Sometimes all we had was the bad things to cling to, particularly with sports:
The Drive.
The Fumble.
The Shot.
Anyone from Cleveland knows what those refer to, and I was unlucky enough to watch all of them happen live on television. Some folks still refer to Cleveland as "The Mistake By the Lake," and "The City Whose River Caught Fire." (More on that later.) In any case, the point I'm driving at is that we Clevelanders loved our Cleveland beer just as much as anything else that came out of our hometown. The Crooked River Brewing Company was a small distillery that we could all call our own. It wasn't great, but it was ours, and that was enough. I'd tasted a good many of their beers, and wanted to like them, even if I didn't. In fact, in a town that identified with underdogs and losing, it may even have been the fact that they often produced less-than-stellar beer that endeared them to us so. Crooked River was served at Cavs games. You could find it in any grocery store. It was on tap at a good many local bars. Yet, because of bad business decisions, the company eventually folded in 2000, but not before leaving behind a respectable legacy of beer that was dedicated to the attributes that put Cleveland on the map. (I'll touch on a lot more of that in following posts as well.) Some may look on this as just another Cleveland failure, but some of us remember the Crooked River Brewing Company with more romance: another outfit from our great city with the cards stacked against them, who ultimately failed, but not before leaving their mark on our memories, as well as our hearts.
Refill?: If only. For the beer: 2 taps out of 5. For the chance to try it again: 5 taps out of 5.