Ohio Brewery News
4.3.2020
CENTRAL
Small businesses are hurt disproportionately harder by the necessary efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus, especially traditional public gathering places like restaurants, bars and breweries. As small businesses nationwide seek relief from the federal and state governments, small communities also band together to keep each other afloat. The Heart of Grove City, the downtown business association, created Project Altogether to raise funds to help struggling small businesses pay utilities, payroll and other expenses during this downturn. Grove City Brewing Company is pitching in by donating all proceeds of Altogether Adventure brown ale bottle sales to the cause. The beer is available for carry out from the taproom Tuesday through Sunday or for delivery orders at grovecitybrewery.com. Read more about Project Altogether or make a direct donation at heartofgrovecity.org
GREATER CLEVELAND
More than 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in March, many of them bartenders, servers and kitchen staff laid off in the wake of government orders closing bars and restaurants. Saucy Brew Works teamed up with CodeRed to develop the Cleveland Tip Jar, a crowdfunding portal that allows users to directly contribute to individual service industry workers. The site facilitated more than 3,000 tips in its first five days of operation. Cleveland-area service industry employees who have been laid off or had hours severely cut can add themselves to the list along with their PayPal, Venmo or Cash App links. Saucy Brew Works is matching tips to their employees up to $5,000 and other employers have the option to do the same. Find out more and donate to your favorite bar staff at clevelandtips.com
NORTHEAST
From the outset, Ignite Brewing Company dedicated themselves to donating 11% of their sales to organizations that improved their community. In light of the sudden economic downturn caused by coronavirus, Ignite is using that commitment to fight food insecurity in northeast Ohio. While limited to to-go sales, the brewery will donate 11% of their total proceeds during this emergency to the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank and the Barberton Community Foundation. Ignite’s Barberton taproom is open for carry out beer daily from 3-8 p.m. with the first hour of operation reserved for the elderly and customers who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Online ordering for curbside pickup or home delivery is available at ignite.beer
NORTHWEST
On Wednesday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the establishment of the Ohio Manufacturing Alliance to Fight COVID-19, a public-private partnership that encourages manufacturers to repurpose production to fill the state’s urgent need for personal protective equipment and other medical supplies. The list of needed items includes alcohol hand sanitizer, which can be produced by distilleries. Maumee Bay Brewing Company’s spirits arm has shifted production to produce hand sanitizer, offering free bottles to those in need as a public service. The response has been overwhelming: Maumee Bay is pumping out as much as they are able and highly suggests checking their social media accounts to confirm if sanitizer is available. For more info on availability and pickup details, follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mbaybrew/
SOUTHEAST
We’ve talked about the impressive barrel-aging program at Jackie O’s Brewery here before, and soon you’ll have the opportunity to have some bottles from their cellar delivered to your doorstep. Starting Monday, April 6, Jackie O’s will begin direct shipping to customers in Ohio, Virginia, Washington D.C. and Alaska, offering a selection of more than two dozen limited release bottles. Dark beer enthusiasts can look forward to variants of Dark Apparition and Oil of Aphrodite imperial stouts, while sour and funky fans can avail themselves of several variants of Perpetum Berliner weisse and Polycephaly saison. Some bottles from the full list have never been sold outside of Athens, so this is an excellent opportunity to explore the depth and breadth of the Jackie O’s catalog. Online ordering begins Monday at 9 a.m. at jackieos.com
SOUTHWEST
Samuel Adams has partnered with the Greg Hill Foundation to create Restaurant Strong, a grant program to help support service industry workers who have been laid off during the COVID-19 emergency. To qualify for a $1,000 grant, a restaurant, bar, café or nightclub worker must have been a full-time employee (30 hours per week minimum at one or more establishments) and employed for three months or longer at the same business. The fund is soliciting donations for service industry workers in 19 states, including Ohio. If you are an eligible employee and would like to apply for the grant, or if you would like to donate to the fund, please visit restaurantstrong.org
WEST CENTRAL
It’s no big secret here in Ohio that Branch & Bone Artisan Ales has been knocking it out of the park since they opened their doors in June of 2018, but now the word is out across the nation. 10Best.com, a project of USA Today, has named Branch & Bone as one of the top ten new breweries in America after a nationwide poll. The brewery also won the best new brewer in Ohio award from RateBeer.com earlier this year, as well as earning a bronze medal at the 2019 Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer for Silence Mill foeder-aged mixed fermentation saison. Libby Ballengee and Mark Fisher have more about Branch & Bone’s 10Best accolade at dayton.com