Ohio Brewery News
9.30.2021
CENTRAL
Columbus Brewing Company has had great success with a wide range of beer styles, but they may be best known and most well regarded for their hoppy brews. From the Great American Beer Festival medalists Bodhi double IPA and Creeper imperial IPA to the Insane Wanderer experimental IPA series, the brewery’s reputation in the hoppy realm is top notch. Currently the Columbus Brewing Company taproom features not one, not two, but four wet hop beers brewed with fresh, undried whole cone hops. The newest of these, Cloaked in Cashmere, is a single hop IPA brewed with freshly picked Cashmere hops grown in Michigan. Other wet hop beers on tap feature Michigan Chinook, Washington Centennial and Oregon Strata hops. Order a flight of all four in the taproom to compare and contrast the different aromas and flavors imparted by the hop varieties. Also, be on the lookout for the brewery’s annual wet hop beer release, Yakima Fresh, in distribution later this fall. Get notes on all the new wet hop beers on tap at columbusbrewing.com
GREATER CLEVELAND
Cheers to three years of beers from Bookhouse Brewing! The brewery is celebrating all week long at their taproom in Ohio City, including today’s anniversary can release. The headlining release is Third Anniversary Thiol Triple New England IPA, a brew that uses a special yeast strain that releases large amounts of thiol compounds from the malt and hops and converts them into intense, wine-like aromatics. A strong dry hop addition of Galaxy hops delivers the citrus, tropical and stone fruit notes expected in an IPA to complement the novel aromatics provided by thiols. If huge, hoppy beers don’t move the needle for you, then try …Still Social Distancing, a reimagining of Bookhouse’s classic coffee stout that leans more on the malt bill for a rich, smooth, nutty body to balance the prominent roasted coffee flavor. Cans of both brews are available for pickup today and can be pre-ordered at bookhouse.beer
NORTHEAST
While there are hop growers all over the state of Ohio, there’s a particular concentration of them in the northeast part of the state. Unsurprisingly, the many breweries in the region also tend to source their ingredients from local growers when developing their beers. Every year at harvest time, breweries connect with their hop farm neighbors to get their hands on freshly picked hop varieties for unique, once-a-year beers. Minerva’s Sandy Springs Brewing Company teamed up with nearby Buckeye Hops Farm to brew OH Grown, a pale ale that also features Ohio-grown malt from West Branch Malts. Meanwhile, UnHitched Brewing in Louisville sourced Cascade hops from Barn Talk Hops in Wadsworth to brew Turnbuckle pale ale. Keep your eyes peeled for more beers – especially wet hop and fresh hop ales – made with Ohio-grown ingredients at breweries around the state this fall. Learn more about Ohio’s hop growers at ohgg.org
NORTHWEST
Cheers to five years of beers from Upside Brewing! The anniversary party on Saturday, Oct. 2 is actually a double anniversary, as J&G Pizza Palace, the downtown Sylvania restaurant that houses the brewery, celebrates 50 years in business this weekend as well. If you’ve ever visited, you know that the pizzeria is pretty cozy; no building can contain a party of this magnitude, so Upside and J&G are taking over the adjacent street to host the bash. Not only will there be pizza, live music and beer brewed by Upside, but several northwest Ohio breweries will also be pouring at the event including neighbors Inside the Five Brewing and new Ohio Craft Brewers Association members Buffalo Rock Brewing Company of Waterville and Heavy Beer Company of Toledo. If all of that wasn’t enough, tips given to the volunteer beer pourers at the event will be donated to The Victory Center, a non-profit that supports cancer patients, survivors and their families in the Toledo area. Get all the details about Saturday’s festivities at facebook.com/upsidebrewing
SOUTHEAST
This weekend marks the traditional close of Oktoberfest, which normally runs until the first Sunday of October. Wooly Pig Farm Brewery, heavily inspired by the small, rural breweries of Bavaria, won’t be wrapping up their festivities this weekend, though. Instead, they’ll be kicking them off: Wooly Pig will begin their Oktoberfest celebration on Friday, Oct. 1 and continue through the following weekend. For their own special release Festbier, Wooly Pig procured the same malt that is used in classic German festbiers made by Augustiner and Ayinger breweries. That pale, smooth lager will be on draft starting Friday at 1 p.m., and a wooden keg (a Holzfass, in German) full of it will be ceremonially tapped on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 12:30 p.m. Order it by the liter and take home the dimpled glass mug it’s served in (a Masskrug, in German) or enter the Masskrug holding competition for a chance to win prizes. Read all about the Oktoberfest event at woolypigfarmbrewery.com
SOUTHWEST
Fresh on the heels of their gold medal win at this year’s Great American Beer Festival and the national attention that it garnered, Third Eye Brewing Company has brewed a beer to honor and connect with their Ohio roots. Oh-Eye-O pale ale uses freshly harvested, whole cone Nugget hops grown in Clermont County at Boondocks Hops. That hop variety is a popular choice for bittering, but when used in its fresh state also contributes notes of pine, resin and citrus in the aroma of the beer. The beer’s malt bill is built with Ohio-grown barley sourced from Haus Malts in Cleveland, making this brew a true product of Ohio’s beer agriculture. If you like to drink beer grown here, be sure to stop into Third Eye’s brewery taproom in Sharonville while Oh-Eye-O pale ale is on tap (the pictured Ohio Pint Day glass may be sold out at Third Eye, but is still available at dozens of breweries statewide.) Read more at facebook.com/thirdeyebrewingco
WEST CENTRAL
Festbiers and Märzen lagers get all of the glory around Oktoberfest season, but there are so many German beer styles that deserve just as much attention. I’m going to assume that Rhetoric Brewing agrees with that sentiment, as they’ve taken over all of their taps to showcase German styles for this weekend’s Oktoberfest celebration at the rural Union County brewery. There’s a wide variety available, from the smooth, crisp Haybale German pilsner and its Kölsch-style ale cousin Kombine to the rich, yeasty Horsefly roggenbier and Thrasher weizenbock. Rhetorics Oktoberfest selections hit the taps today and the festivities run through Saturday, Oct. 2. Find out more at facebook.com/rhetoricbrewing