Branch & Bone Artisan Ales | Black Razzath

Since opening in June 2018, Branch & Bone Artisan Ales in Dayton, Ohio, has created eye-opening beers in a wide range of styles, including bright and juicy IPAs, crisp and inquisitive session sours, and velvety smooth stouts and coffee beers. Head brewer Brett Smith loves them all, having carried many recipes over from his homebrewing days, but the beers that really have his heart pour from two wooden vessels in the back room of the brewery: oak wine foeders Smith picked up from American Solera in Oklahoma City. They once held Italian Vin Santo.

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North High Brewing | Cover Crop Beer

A new beer from North High Brewing in Columbus, Ohio, is shining a light on the importance of agriculture in the world of craft beer. North High has partnered with Ohio Farm Bureau to brew Cover Crop Beer, a blonde ale brewed in honor of the centennial anniversary of the latter organization, which exists to promote and support Ohio farmers.

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Taft’s Ale House | Gustav Vienna Lager

Ryan Blandford, head brewer at Cincinnati’s Taft’s Ale House, won his first gold medal at the World Beer Cup while working for crosstown brewery Fifty West in 2016. When he heard Fifty West’s 10 & 2 Barleywine announced, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I was jumping up and down and swearing,” laughed Blandford when we spoke on the phone last week. “As a young brewer you look up to these guys who are winning all these medals and when you’re fortunate enough to win one, well, you’re kind of freaking out.”

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The OGs of Craft Beer | Great Lakes Brewing Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

“It just feels right that this is a beer that comes from Cleveland,” says Great Lakes Brewing Company co-founder Pat Conway of his brewery’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. The iconic dark brew is named for the ill-fated iron ore freighter that sank on Lake Superior with all hands during a vicious storm on November 10, 1975.

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Hoof Hearted Brewing | Konkey Dong Double IPA

This is my first official summer in California. Seattle gets warm, but with the level of sunburns I have gotten has skyrocketed! I mean, where are the clouds? Where is the rain break we get in the PNW?

How do we beat the heat? Beer! What else am I supposed to do? Beer is a whole lot cheaper than an AC unit… or at least that’s how I’m justifying it. Therefore, the only way to beat the heat is to drink some Hoof Hearted Brewing.

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Carillon Brewing | Coriander Ale

I don’t have a pretty photo of Carillon Brewing Company‘s Coriander Ale to show you. Carillon’s beers and, more importantly, the brewing techniques used to craft them, are from a time when the appearance of beer was only just beginning to matter with the emergence of pale malts and clear glassware. Their anachronistic visual appearance—often a bit murky—is part of the authenticity of enjoying a flight of beers inside Carillon’s reproduction 1850s barn brewery on the grounds of Carillon Historical Park, a living history museum by the banks of the Great Miami River in Dayton, OH.

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Rivertown Brewing | Raspberry Flicker

The first time I tasted Rivertown Brewing’s Raspberry Flicker in their airy Monroe, Ohio, taproom on a sunny day in late January, it reminded me of childhood. I realize that’s an odd thing to say about an alcoholic beverage, but stay with me. No, my childhood did not involve me throwing back refreshing lagers. But it did involve raspberries.

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Book Review & Interview: 50 Must-Try Craft Beers of Ohio

50 Must-Try Craft Beers of Ohio by Rick Armon (Ohio University Press, 2017)

I sincerely believe Ohio is among the most exciting beer states in the country right now, though I am undoubtedly biased. I’ve lived in the Buckeye state for all fifteen years of my legal drinking life, and I’ve watched Ohio’s craft scene explode along with the rest of the country’s. While many of our breweries have gained national recognition, many more truly excellent breweries remain largely unheralded outside of our state borders. To be honest, it’s one of the things I love about our beer scene here; visitors don’t expect the incredible Belgian beers of Rockmill Brewery, or the farmhouse prowess of Little Fish, or the world-class lambics of Rivertown, or the all-around brilliance of Jackie O’s.

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MadTree Brewing | Ye Olde Battering Ram Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine

MadTree Brewing is a major player in the Ohio beer scene, and among the largest breweries in Cincinnati’s thriving craft market. The company built a new production brewery in early 2017, and have grown rapidly, but sustainably in the half decade since their founding. Their quirky but smart beer portfolio and attractive packaging are now available all around Ohio, as well as some areas of Indiana and Kentucky.

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Little Fish Brewing | Sunfish

Little Fish Brewing sits at the western tip of Athens, Ohio, a small college town in the southwest region of the state. It’s at the very edge of town, with the county fairgrounds and a small state park separating it from the city proper and its compact and cozy downtown. The location geographically represents the philosophical space Little Fish occupies as a brewery, straddling the culture of the college town and the wilds of the southeastern Ohio Appalachian foothills. Little Fish Brewing Sunfish Saison serves as a shining example of the brewery’s dedication to conserving the resources found within that unique, beautiful location.

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Event Recap | Dayton’s Ale-O-Ween 2017

The Steam Plant on Third Street just east of downtown Dayton, Ohio, was built 110 years ago by Dayton Power & Light to provide heat for the small Midwestern city before being closed in the 1980s and falling into disrepair. It appeared destined for a date with the wrecking ball until a recent renovation restored this art deco industrial building to its former glory and turned it into a premier event space.

The first public event to be held in The Steam Plant? Ale-O-Ween, a one-day beer festival put on by the Ohio Craft Brewers Association and showcasing some of the best beers in the Buckeye State. Read More

Event Preview | Dayton’s Ale-O-Ween Features 30 Ohio Breweries

On Saturday, October 21, Ale-O-Ween will take over the recently renovated Dayton Steam Plant in downtown Dayton. From 6-9 p.m. (with a VIP hour beginning at 5), attendees will be treated to beer from over 30 Ohio craft breweries, including Dayton breweries Warped Wing, Fifth Street Brewpub, Carillon Brewing, Dayton Beer Company, Eudora, Toxic Brew, Star City, Lock 27, Lucky Star, Yellow Springs Brewery, Hairless Hare and Heavier Than Air. Other excellent breweries from around the state include Fat Head’s Brewery, Great Lakes, MadTree, Little Fish, Seventh Son and many others. A complete list is available at the Ale-O-Ween website.

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Jackie O’s Brewery | Scrip

Athens, Ohio, is a small college town hidden in the hills of southeast Ohio’s coal country that plays host to several excellent breweries, the oldest and most notable of which is Jackie O’s Brewery. Jackie O’s beers cover the spectrum of styles, from sessionable pale ales to barrel-aged behemoths, and rustic saisons to elegant barleywines. Nothing is off limits for this eclectic brewery, and it’s fitting that one of their most celebrated new beers this summer is a style that’s just beginning to creep into the consciousness of American craft beer drinkers—Grisette.

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Event Recap | Warped Wing Trotwood Derby

One of the highlights of each year when I was between the ages of 10 and 12 was the annual AWANA Pinewood Derby (AWANA was like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for church kids—I had a weird childhood). I would give my dad an impossible car design on paper, he would do an impressive job of cutting that design from a three dimensional block of wood, and then on a Saturday morning in February—car in hand and hopes high—we would head to the track to get our asses squarely kicked. We never won anything and never came close, but it was a lot of fun. Read More

Warped Wing Brewing Co. | Trotwood Lager

Image courtesy of Full Frame Studios.

ABV: 4% | IBU: 20

When the temperatures begin creeping into the 70s here in Ohio each spring, we begin shedding our winter coats and making plans for summer. As we put our fuzzy mittens into storage, we start opting less often for stouts and other heavy beers and reaching instead for lighter, sunnier fare. For those of us in the Dayton area, that often means Warped Wing Trotwood Lager.

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Streetside Brewery | Suh, Brah? New England Style IPA

ABV: 6.7%

Are you on the haze train? If you enjoy a craft beer that looks more like a glass of juice than a glass of beer, Streetside Brewery’s Suh, Brah? is the hazy beer for you!

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Great Lakes Brewing Begins Canning, Adds Rally Drum Red to Rotation

Canning beers, so hot right now. Even for an old guard Midwestern stalwart like Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC), the practice of canning beers has become so ubiquitous and widely adopted that after 28 years, the Cleveland-based brewery has shifted to offer a new option toward their packaged beer products.

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Streetside Brewery | Raspberry Beret

ABV: 4.2%

What a year 2016 has been! Cincinnati has welcomed multiple new breweries all throughout the Queen City. While I haven’t been able to make it to them all, … Read More