Ohio Brewery News
10.23.2020
CENTRAL
Saucy Brew Works announced plans to expand into Columbus in early 2019. Since then, the project encountered delays from fire, pandemic… seemingly everything short of a plague of locusts. That all changes today when Saucy swings open the doors of their new brewpub in the Harrison West neighborhood. The new Columbus outpost will serve up draft favorites from Saucy’s Cleveland homebase as well as beers brewed on-site across their 20 taps, all paired with the brewery’s signature apizza and pub grub offerings. Housed in the building formerly occupied by Caffé Apropos, Saucy will also operate a neighborhood coffee bar from the location opening at 6 a.m. daily. If you’re using the Ohio On Tap app – Do you like free stuff? You should be using this app! – you can get your passport stamp from Saucy Brew Works Columbus starting today. Read Dan Eaton’s coverage and see photos of the new brewpub at bizjournals.com
GREATER CLEVELAND
Homebrewer David Cousino continues to rack up accolades for his beers, including a recent win at Lorain’s Brewfest Waterfront District competition in 2019. Now, Avon Brewing Company has invited Cousino in to brew a large batch of his championship recipe for Blackberry Bam-Ba-Lam, a blackberry saison. This isn’t the first time he has had one of his beers picked for production by a brewery: in 2016 Cousino’s saison was selected as a winner in Samuel Adams’ Longshot national homebrew competition. Look for Blackberry Bam-Ba-Lam to be tapped at Avon’s brewpub – and possibly also at sister locations ZZ’s Big Top and Medina Brewing Company – in the next few weeks. Get more details at facebook.com/avonbrewingcompany
NORTHEAST
About a month shy of their third anniversary, Paradigm Shift Brewing is offering up their first ever bottled beers this weekend. With several customer favorites to choose from for an inaugural bottle release – including their 2018 Great American Beer Festival bronze medalist Neighbor Girl Belgian tripel – owner Mike Malinowski decided this was the perfect opportunity to honor one of his brewery’s biggest fans: his grandmother. Evelyn, the woman, was a fixture at the brewery from the outset, even helping with the initial buildout before the 2017 opening. Evelyn, the beer, is a 9% ABV Russian imperial stout offered in four variants: Ethiopian coffee-finished, peanut butter and coffee-finished, bourbon barrel aged and maple bourbon barrel aged. Individual bottles go on sale this Saturday, Oct. 24 at the brewery taproom in Massillon. Learn more about Evelyn – the woman and the beer – at facebook.com/paradigmshiftbrewing
NORTHWEST
Cheers to a year of beer from Aistear Brewing! It’s only appropriate for the table top gaming-themed brewery to eschew the traditional birthday party in favor of something more fitting their clientele. Aistear Con 2020 kicks off today at the brewery taproom in Bowling Green with game tournaments, exhibitions by local artists, live music, costume contests, prize raffles and tons more fun in store. Spanning two days, Aistear Con is less a marking of the brewery’s anniversary and more a celebration of the community that has supported them over the last 12 turbulent months. Aistear opens at 4 p.m. today and 2 p.m. on Saturday with six beers on draft. Get all the Aistear Con 2020 details at facebook.com/aistearbrewing
SOUTHEAST
Ohio is home to several fermentation science programs, including one at Hocking College in Nelsonville. Over two years of coursework, students receive instruction in all aspects of running a brewery, from ingredient analysis, microbiology and chemistry to business management and marketing. Of course, there are also opportunities for hands-on brewing experience as well, including the chance to put their learning to the test at a professional brewery. Earlier this year, Hocking College students collaborated with Little Fish Brewing on a final project for one of their courses. The results of that project, a grisette named FERM 2200, is now available at the brewery in Athens. The beer is a light, dry-hopped saison featuring Ohio-sourced barley, wheat and oats from West Branch Malts and Haus Malts, bottle conditioned with Brettanomyces yeast to impart a slight earthiness. FERM 2200 is Little Fish’s first foray into the six-pack format, packaged in 375 mL bottles at an attractive price point. Read more about this brew at facebook.com/littlefishbrewing
SOUTHWEST
Cheers to two years of beers from Sonder Brewing! This Saturday, Oct. 24, the brewery will pull out all the stops with the release of seven beers to mark their anniversary. It’s difficult to pick a highlight from among these seven as they all sound delicious, but barrel aged stout fans should be very pleased with the bottle release of Illuminati, a double oak barrel aged chocolate stout, and Black Forest Otto, Sonder’s versatile tiramisu stout aged in apple brandy barrels. Fans of the brewery’s Frosted series of milkshake IPAs can avail themselves of a new vanilla birthday cake variant as well as a mocha latte version made with cocoa and coffee from Script Coffee, Sonder’s in-house craft coffee arm. The brewery will also feature a schedule of timed beer tappings starting bright and early at 9 a.m. at Sonder’s brewery taproom in Mason. For the full list of anniversary releases and more details, head over to facebook.com/sonderbrewing
WEST CENTRAL
It’s been one week since the 2020 Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony and we’ve given a lot of our social media bandwidth to celebrating the breweries who brought home medals from this year’s competition. Seven of this year’s eight medalists have earned accolades on the highest stages in previous years, earning awards at either GABF or World Beer Cup contests. The lone exception is Lock 27 Brewing, which earned a bronze medal for its Belgian witbier, Wolk. The brewery’s first medal was somewhat unexpected: “I was watching the results, but I had turned it off to go do something else,” owner Steve Barnhart told PorchDrinking.com’s David Nilsen. “Then my phone started blowing up and I realized we must have won.” According to Nilsen, Lock 27 submitted Wolk primarily to get detailed feedback from the judges and didn’t expect to win an award. “We work hard, but it’s a hard category to win a medal in,” Barnhart said. Read the full story of the development of this award-winning beer at porchdrinking.com