Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
This past weekend I took my birthday as an excuse to head out to Licking County and visit a few breweries. It was great to see some old friends and share a few beers together. Here are a few thoughts on the experience. Nothing too deep but some food for thought if you are considering... Continue Reading →
Now and again people in the beer industry are kind of enough to consider me part of the media. We all know that’s not really true, but the gig often includes free beer and sometime food, so I’m happy to play along [1]. On Wednesday, I mingled with the likes of Dan Eaton, J.D. Malone,... Continue Reading →
The beer portfolio at Land Grant Brewing Company features an extensive mix of beers, ranging from the year-round core beers like Stiff Arm and Greenskeeper, to one-off collaborations like Got Fuzz or Totes Liotes. The Franklinton brewery recently announced that two hop-forward beers—Quadrahopic and Concentrate—are being promoted from the irregularly recurring IPA series to year... Continue Reading →
Ohio is approaching 300 breweries, a dramatic expansion from just five years ago when I started this blog. It’s a luxury of riches that means most of us don’t have to travel very far to find tasty beer. Just about any style you crave—hazy IPAs, high gravity malt bombs, crisp lagers, barrel aged sours—can be... Continue Reading →
In its relatively short history the King of Ohio contest has consistently produced surprise winners. In 2014 when the theme was IPAs, Half Wet Musk of the Minotaur from upstarts Hoof Hearted Brewing edged out Fat Head’s highly decorated Head Hunter to win the title. When the contest resumed in 2016 and the focus shifted... Continue Reading →
At the most recent Great American Beer Festival Ohio took home 14 medals, shared by no less than 13 different breweries, both numbers exceeding high water marks from previous years. Cincinnati’s Brink Brewing picked up two medals and was recognized as the best very small brewery of the year [1]. Fathead’s medaled for an impressive... Continue Reading →
Nine Ohio breweries were recognized at last night’s World Beer Cup award ceremony in Nashville, TN. This year’s competition featured a record setting 8234 entries from 66 different countries, almost double the 4754 entries at the 2014 competition. Only 302 medals were awarded, which means that less than 4% of the entries were honored with... Continue Reading →
Most craft breweries are small businesses in the truest sense of the word, and the people who launch them are often forced to be creative when it comes to siting their breweries. In Ohio alone, I’ve visited breweries housed in old car washes (Lineage) and auto parts stores (JAFB), in pole barns (Little Fish) and... Continue Reading →
As I was scrolling through my social media accounts this morning I saw that Wolf's Ridge Brewing scored a gold medal at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers (FoBAB) yesterday in Chicago. My first instinct was to tweet to Chris Davison congratulating him and everyone else at Wolf's Ridge, but when I scrolled through the... Continue Reading →
After years of unbridled growth, the American craft beer industry appears to be entering a new phase. Over 800 craft breweries opened their doors in 2016, but the rate at which they are opening is gradually starting to slow. A small but increasing number of breweries are closing up shop, Blank Slate Brewing in Cincinnati... Continue Reading →
Many great beer styles are associated with a region—pilsners with the Czech Republic, lambics with Brussels, goses with Leipzig, saisons with Wallonia, steam beer with San Francisco, and so on. While most styles originated in Europe long ago, America has made important contributions in my lifetime. American-style pale ales and IPAs originated in the Pacific... Continue Reading →
This month marks the fourth anniversary of the Pat’s Pints blog. Looking back, I realize that I fortuitously started this adventure at a point in time when the beer landscape in Ohio was in the early days of its current renaissance. At that time there were about ten craft breweries in Franklin County, some of... Continue Reading →
Craft brewers have benefited from the eat/drink/buy local movement as much as anyone. There’s something that feels right about having a pint of beer in the place where it was made, sometimes even served to you by the person who brewed it. While frequenting local breweries undeniably helps support the local economy, it doesn't boost... Continue Reading →
This past Sunday marked another successful finish to one of Ohio’s longest running beer traditions, the Barley’s Homebrew Competition. The contest dates back to last century, the summer of 1996 to be specific. At that time I was still in graduate school in Oregon, drinking the likes of Rogue, Deschutes and Widmer. In those days... Continue Reading →
In the crowded landscape of craft brewing some aspect of your business should differentiate you from the competition. Maybe it’s your location, or your branding, but ideally the beer itself can stand out from the crowd. With over 200 breweries in Ohio that task is easier said than done, but breweries such as Zaftig (high-gravity... Continue Reading →
It’s a brisk Saturday afternoon in early March and I’m wandering through the rows of a nondescript industrial park in Whitehall, just south of the Columbus Airport. This is not the result of an out of control Friday night bender at the Actual taproom either, I’m searching for the 2 Tones Brewing production facility, with... Continue Reading →
How can you have a craft beer week without a collaboration beer? Admittedly it's not against the law, but it would like the All Star Game without a home run derby, like the state fair without butter sculptures, like Lucy without a sky of diamonds. Since the 3rd annual Columbus Craft Beer Week is less than three weeks... Continue Reading →
Last night Land Grant Brewing held their first session of what they call Land Grant University, a series of educational sessions on the key ingredients in beer. The inaugural session was devoted to yeast, future sessions will focus on hops, malts and water. Attendance was capped at 50 participants and there was a full house... Continue Reading →
Last month while attending an event at Barley's Brewcadia, Mary MacDonald, Executive Director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association (OCBA), asked if I would be interested in a media pass to attend the Ohio Craft Brewer’s Conference in Cincinnati. I think we can all agree it’s a rather liberal interpretation of the term “media” to include... Continue Reading →
For the past two years I’ve made a list of my favorite Central Ohio beers of the past year. Before this January slips away entirely it’s time for my 2016 list. To be eligible a beer should be new (or at least new to me), newly packaged, flying under the radar, or have made waves in... Continue Reading →
