Dear Kid,

Many college students think they know all there is to know about beer (drink it). Many parents of college students think they know all there is to know about the cost of beer (82% of the kid’s food budget).

While both of these may be true for actual college kids, it is far from accurate in the World of Beer as I had the great fortune to learn this past weekend.

Huge thank you to Best Friend Errand Service for inviting me to help set up for the Samuel Adams employee Oktoberfest event. And huge, HUGE thank you to the Samuel Adams folks for showing us around and letting me see things that aren’t usually on the “you’re here to get this place set up” tour.

Samuel Adams’ Utopias® is a blend of batches in which the barrels become “an integral part of the brewing and aging process.” It’s an uncarbonated dark beer (did you even know there was such a thing as uncarbonated beer? I did not) so you can drink a wee bit and close the bottle back up for another time.

Utopias is not for the poor college student as a single bottle (complete with its very own limited edition number) will run you several hundred dollars. If you can get one. Which is not at all obvious because of the “limited” part of limited edition (they made less than 15,000 bottles in the last production year).

Not only is it rare and expensive, there are 13 states where you can’t even buy Utopias because the alcohol content exceeds the legal limit for beer. Yes, Ohio is one of the states where it is verboten.

Now you know.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Yesterday I got to help the Awesome Sue of Best Friend Errand Service (shameless plug for her business) set up for the Samuel Adams Octoberfest employee party. More about that tomorrow. One of the cool things we got to see while we were there was the new mural on the side of the brewery.

The mural was done this summer as part of the ArtWorks program with the youth apprentices (apprentici?). As in the same program that wonderful Zoe participated in (albeit on a different mural). I don’t know any of the kids who worked on this one, but it is amazing nonetheless.

The mural depicts the history of brewing here in the Queen City.

Did you know that King Gambrinus is considered the patron saint of beer? That’s him on the far left of the mural. According to My Friend the Internet, Gambrinus isn’t actually a saint of anything but since I’m not one to let facts get in the way of a good legend, I say we go with the patron saint thing.

At King Gambrinus’ feet is the Miami Erie Canal which used to transport materials and goods through Cincinnati.

Then comes the barrel room with the stain glass (I’ll show you pix of the Real Thing soon), wonderful farm ingredients for beer, and the “Louis” beer kettles.

After that Findlay Market, the Cincinnati skyline (the buildings, not the chili), and Genius of Water (better known for standing in the fountain downtown) raising her glass to King G and the people of Cincinnati.

The coolest part of the mural, however, is that there are hidden elements. Not the periodic table kind of elements, but hidden pictures (I knew to call them “elements” because the information flyer about the mural calls them elements.)

There is a big beer bottle on its side (found it), two Samuel Adams perfect pint glasses (found one so far), a flying pig (FINALLY found it), and the word CINCINNATI (still looking; it’s driving me crazy). Here’s a link to a clearer depiction of the mural if you want to try to find the hidden elements.

For the record, it is VERY cool that we have this kind of public art project in Cincinnati. It would be even cooler if someone would show me the second pint glass and the word Cincinnati…

Love, Mom

Yes, Zoe is going to update me on mural she worked on. Very Soon. (Right, Zoe?) Here are the first two parts of that in case you’ve forgotten.

Cincinnati ArtWorks Mural | Teen Interns Participate

ArtWorks Summer Apprentice Program Part II