Ohio Brewery News

Friday Six Pack with John Loose, Loose Ends Brewing

Every Friday, we ask an Ohio craft brewery owner or employee to answer six questions about their path to the brewing industry, what sets their brewery apart and their thoughts on craft beer in Ohio.

Today we’ll chat with John Loose, owner and head brewer at Loose Ends Brewing in Centerville.

 

What made you decide to get into the craft brewing industry?

As a former electrical engineer, I really enjoy science and production processes. Brewing beer was a great combination of those two. After being open for a little over a year, one of the most gratifying parts of the industry is the customers’ satisfaction when they are enjoying our beer and food.

 

Which of your beers do your customers enjoy the most and why?

We make a wide variety of different styles, but our customers tend to gravitate to our Belgian-style beers with our Belgian dubbel, Coriolis Effect, being the most popular.

 

What should a craft beer fan expect when visiting your brewery for the first time?

Customers on their first visit to Loose Ends Brewing should expect excellent and friendly service from our servers and bartenders who will help guide you through our 24 tap list and our unique food offerings. Our kitchen, led by Chef Adrian, is 100% scratch where we make everything from our own burger meat to all of our sauces daily.

 

How have beer tourism programs like the Dayton Ale Trail and the Ohio On Tap brewery passport app helped your brewery in its first couple of years?

The tourism programs have helped out quite a bit. Especially the Dayton Ale Trail Passport in the early part of the year. As soon as the new passports are released we typically see a large number of people coming in to get a stamp and most people tend to come back again throughout the year.

 

Besides your own, what Ohio craft breweries impress you the most and why?

At Loose Ends, we are big fans of Crooked Handle Roadside peanut butter porter and Trinity Haze. Roadside has a delicious chocolate and peanut butter flavor that I enjoy having after dinner instead of a dessert. Trinity Haze is a smooth and tropical NEIPA that I go to whenever I first sit down in their taproom. Branch & Bone Visage and Dimmer. Visage is my favorite sour around town. It is light, refreshing, with a well balanced tartness. Dimmer is their golden ale that is my go-to beer whenever I am visiting their brewery.

 

Where do you think craft beer is headed? What do you think craft beer will look like five years from now?

Craft beer is still a growing and booming industry with new breweries opening every month. Though there are 8,000+ in the country, I think that we are far from saturated and there is plenty of room for more breweries.

It is hard to predict where the craft beer industry will be in five years, but from what we are noticing in our taproom people are reaching for more classic styles of beers, in particular, lagers. Breweries that are to come should strongly consider providing a food offering, not only because customers will tend to spend more, but it is slowly becoming the expectation. No matter what comes down the road, it will be exciting to see when it gets here.