Karen Bujak and Karl Boettger took it as a challenge.
With the inaugural Summit Brew Path kicking off last weekend, the Guilford Township couple were determined to complete the new Akron-area beer trail on the first day.
And they did.
Bujak, 68, and Boettger, 72, spent 10 hours Saturday sipping beer and having their passports stamped at the 14 brewery stops in Summit, Stark, Medina and Portage counties.
“We planned it very carefully,” said Bujak, a beer writer with the Great Lakes Brewing News who goes by the nickname the Muse of Brews in the beer newspaper.
The Summit Brew Path, organized by the Akron/Summit County Convention & Visitors Bureau and only the second official beer trail in Ohio, appears to be a smashing success.
About 4,000 passports were distributed on the inaugural weekend and organizers are already talking about printing more. They had an initial run of 5,000.
Many believe the unseasonably warm weather on the first weekend helped fuel interest even more.
“This is quickly exceeding our expectation and we’re thrilled that everybody is tasting the great local craft beer that this community has to offer,” Convention & Visitors Bureau President and CEO Gregg Mervis said Monday.
Many breweries, including Royal Docks Brewing Co. in Jackson Township, ran out of passports and were clamoring for more. Royal Docks handed out 200 and was planning to get another 100 Monday.
Organizers reported that the beer trail website www.summitbrewpath.com had more than 7,500 hits as of Sunday.
The Mucky Duck Brewing Co. in Green reported record sales, while Akron’s BrickOven Brew Pub, which sells specialty pizzas, ran out of pizza dough Saturday.
“We had people standing outside the door when we opened Saturday and it didn’t stop until 11 at night,” owner and brewer Joshua Bringman said. “Far and away the busiest day we’ve ever had.”
As for finishing fast, the Convention & Visitors Bureau would rather people savor the visits and take their time completing the trail. There is, after all, no special prize for finishing first or quickly, and people have until the end of the year.
Everyone who completes the trail receives an “I completed the Summit Brew Path” T-shirt and an entry to win a grand-prize overnight stay in Akron.
“It’s impressive what people will do for a T-shirt,” Royal Docks founder John Bikis said.
It seemed inevitable, though, that someone would attempt to complete the trail on the first day.
“It was a challenge,” Bujak said.
She and her husband started at 11 a.m. at Hoppin’ Frog Brewery in Akron and finished up around 9 p.m. at Wadsworth Brewing Co. in Wadsworth.
They mapped out their route in advance, noting opening and closing times of each brewery.
They also opted to focus on low-alcohol brews and not to drink a full beer at many locations, instead ordering just a sample. At several places, they didn’t even finish their beers.
A pizza from BrickOven helped fuel them through the day.
Bujak noted that Royal Docks Her Majesty, a Flanders red ale, was her favorite of the tour. Boettger cited HiHO Brewing’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter as his favorite.
The couple said they were both sober at the end of their day of beer sampling because of the time involved and the fact that they weren’t drinking full pints at each stop.
Bujak and Boettger — who also completed a beer trail in Traverse City, Mich., in two days — said they hope to do the Summit Brew Path again next year. But given the fact that it likely will include more breweries because more are opening this year in the area, they don’t think they’ll be able to do it in a day.
The 14 Summit Brew Path breweries are: Aqueduct, BrickOven, Hoppin’ Frog, Ohio, R. Shea, Thirsty Dog and Two Monks in Akron; HiHO in Cuyahoga Falls; Mucky Duck in Green; Canton in Canton; Royal Docks and Scenic in Jackson Township; MadCap in Kent; and Wadsworth.
The passport also encourages beer drinkers to check out other regional breweries such as Lager Heads in Medina, Maize Valley in Marlboro Township and JAFB Wooster in Wooster — all of which have won medals at the prestigious Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his beer blog at Ohio.com/beer. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ .