Ohio Brewery News
8.21.2020
CENTRAL
Cheers to five years of beers from Ill Mannered Brewing Company! Back in 2015 when Ill Mannered first opened the doors of their brewery tasting room in Powell, there were about 140 breweries in the state. Since then, more than 200 breweries have come online in Ohio, bringing the current total to 345. Ill Mannered even managed to be one of those 200 breweries, opening a new brewing facility, taproom and beer garden across the parking lot from their original taproom in 2018. They’ll commemorate two years in their new home and five years total with a five-day celebration starting Wednesday, August 26, kicked off with the can release of Bitter Ex double IPA. A new beer will be tapped each of the five days, including a version of Tremendous Slouch wee heavy that was aged in bourbon barrels for 15 months (that one hits the taps on Saturday, August 29.) For the full list of birthday beer tappings, go to facebook.com/illmanneredbeer
GREATER CLEVELAND
When the coronavirus pandemic forced the shutdown of bars and restaurants in Ohio and delayed the start of baseball season, The Jolly Scholar made the best of a bad situation. Pivoting their business model to beer delivery, they teamed up with iconic Cleveland ballpark beer vendor Les “The Beer Guy” Flake to get their tasty brews out to thirsty customers. Flake pulls up to your house, makes his signature call and drops off your Jolly Scholar order. The amazing public response prompted the brewery to create Cold Beer Here, an American craft lager that pays tribute to “The Beer Guy” and happens to be a perfect beer to crush while watching a ballgame. Demand for it has been so high that The Jolly Scholar had to enlist the help of Sibling Revelry Brewing to scale up for a 16-ounce can run. Those cans are expected to hit stores in early September. In the meantime, The Jolly Scholar is offering a one-time sale through this weekend on their other brews, and then will take a break from deliveries for a few weeks. Details at facebook.com/jolly.scholar
NORTHEAST
Cheers to a year of beer from Eighty-Three Brewery! Owner/brewer Chris Surak has some big plans for the celebration on Saturday, August 22 at the brewery taproom inside the old Goodyear World Headquarters in Akron’s East End neighborhood. Eighty-Three held their first bottle release (as well as their first barrel aged beer release) last month, and is back at it for their anniversary brew, Good Kind of Funky. The beer is a Brettanomyces-fermented saison aged in Sauvignon Blanc white oak barrels, available in wax-sealed 22-ounce bottles. It will also be available for pours in the taproom, alongside a special collaboration beer also brewed for the event. Giant Beach Ball, brewed by Surak and John McGroarty of the Butcher & the Brewer, is a 7.4% imperial wheat ale dry hopped with Citra and Cashmere hops. The collaboration will be available on draft and in crowlers on Saturday. Bottles of Good Kind of Funky can be pre-ordered at eightythreebrewery.craftcellr.com
NORTHWEST
We frequently get asked by beer beat writers and craft beer enthusiasts about the largest or fastest-growing breweries in the state. But what has fueled the dramatic rise in Ohio’s brewery count – more than 200 have opened in the past five years, as noted above – is the number of very small breweries that serve neighborhoods, rural towns and small cities all over the map. One of those small breweries, possibly Ohio’s smallest brewery, has just joined the Ohio Craft Brewers Association this week. Crafted Nano Brewery in Findlay makes beer a half barrel at a time: that’s one 15-gallon keg, or 120 pint pours, give or take. Brewing in such small batches gives the brewery a lot of leeway to experiment and gives customers a wide variety of choices, though some may not stick around on the tap for long. Today, Crafted will release their new hazy IPA, Just Pushin’ O’s, brewed with a citrus note-heavy hop bill that makes the beer resemble fresh squeezed orange juice. Pay them a visit and don’t forget to stamp your Ohio On Tap brewery passport, available for free download at ohiocraftbeer.org/app
SOUTHEAST
Ohio’s independent craft breweries are vital parts of their communities: OCBA member breweries collectively donate more than $1 million and volunteer in excess of 13,000 hours annually to charitable causes. Often, this is done in the form of a charity pint night with a portion of sales going to a non-profit organization, or a unique fundraising beer that with a dedicated percentage committed to a cause. Trek Brewing regularly uses both approaches to support their community; this week, they released a new brew to combat homelessness in Licking County. SMaSH Homelessness is a single malt and single hop IPA brewed with Red X, a Munich-style malt known for its intense red color, and Amarillo hops for intense floral aromas and orange citrus flavors. Trek will be donating $1 from each pint of SMaSH Homelessness to the Licking County Coalition for Housing, a non-profit that provides housing services for homeless and low-income residents of Newark and surrounding areas. Learn more about Trek’s charitable mission at trekbeer.com
SOUTHWEST
West Side Brewing has teamed up with the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) for a first-of-its-kind collaboration. On Thursday, August 27, West Side will release Braille Ale, a German-style gose brewed with raspberries, in cans that feature raised Braille type on the label, one of the first beers in the U.S. to include it. The seeds of the collaboration were planted in late 2019 with the relatively simple idea to design a can label that would aid the blind or visually impaired. However, West Side did have one unanticipated obstacle to overcome in the process: in order to ensure that the Braille print was not flattened or damaged when affixed to the cans, the brewery had to order a special part from Germany for their labeling machine. After Thursday’s taproom release, West Side will begin limited distribution of Braille Ale to area retailers. A portion of the beer’s proceeds will be donated to CABVI to fund their radio reading program, audio mobility services and other efforts. Read more about this collaboration at wcpo.com
WEST CENTRAL
Munich’s traditional Oktoberfest, a two-and-a-half week celebration of German beer, food and culture, has been cancelled for the first time since World War II due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, that doesn’t mean that Ohio breweries can’t throw their own responsible, physically-distanced Oktoberfest celebrations replete with festbiers and Märzen lagers. Dayton’s Lock 27 Brewing released their Loktoberfest Märzen, a traditional, full-bodied, malty brew that was cold conditioned in the brewery’s lagering tanks for 45 days before packaging. The beer is available in six-packs to go and on draft to enjoy alongside the kitchen’s special German-inspired menu, featuring Bavarian pretzels, smoked bratwurst, German chocolate cake and more. Liter and half-liter steins are also available for purchase if you’ve got a Maßkrug-sized hole on your proper glassware shelf. Lock 27 plans to keep this party going through September and up to the traditional end of fest season on the first Sunday in October. Get your Loktoberfest updates at facebook.com/lock27brewing