Tales of ales from the heart of Ohio to the ends of the Earth
Ever confuse a stange with a Willi Becher, or wonder why the Belgian’s have a different glass for every beer? Have you ever pondered the technology behind the newfangled Spiegelau’s craft beer glasses? If so, this is the episode for you. We are joined by Land Grant brewer Justin Reik and Canadian connoisseur Chris Mercerhill... Continue Reading →
Back in January I toured the Columbus Brewing Company Production Facility with Tony Corder for a story that I published a few weeks later. Of the many wonderful things on offer at CBC, the nascent sour beer program was perhaps the most exciting. At that time there were boxes and boxes of recently filled 500... Continue Reading →
The tradition of releasing a special beer for the cold, short days of December is centuries old, a tradition that has only intensified with the shift of the craft beer industry toward a rotating mix of seasonals and one offs. In the latest episode of the Pat’s Pints Podcast, Mark and I sat down with... Continue Reading →
‘Tis the season to be jolly and in this episode we do our best to spread some holiday cheer. We look at the evolution of Winter Warmers and other seasonal winter offerings stretching from the dark ages to the modern day. We are joined by our friend and Barley’s brewmaster Angelo Signorino, who has been... Continue Reading →
Let’s start this story about Columbus Brewing Company (CBC) with some indisputable facts. Fact #1: Founded in 1988, CBC is Ohio’s second oldest craft brewery. Only Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewing is more venerable, and not by much. Fact #2: CBC is Central Ohio’s second largest craft brewery (only trailing BrewDog), producing 26,840 bbl in 2019.... 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 →
I haven’t posted a dedicated beer review in well over a year, but when Columbus Brewing Company releases a new Imperial IPA it demands your attention. Following in the footsteps of GABF medal winners Bodhi and Creeper, Cowboy Bernie is a 9.3% Imperial IPA featuring experimental hops from the Yakima Valley. Given the photos CBC... 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 →
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 →
It's been eons since I posted the last installment of my Ohio vs the World series, a sporadic feature where we see how local favorites stack up against highly respected competitors from all corners of the globe in a blind taste test. In case you have forgotten the score, and who could blame you after a 20 month hiatus, the... Continue Reading →
When the Columbus Brewing Company expanded and moved out to their new location on the west side of Columbus one of the most tangible benefits to local beer lovers was the promised expansion in their lineup of packaged beers. While their award-winning hop bombs, Bodhi and Creeper, have captured most of the attention let’s not forget... Continue Reading →
Tomorrow afternoon at the North Market Beer Festival the King of Ohio contest returns. Organized by beer bloggers and writers from throughout Ohio including Rick Armon from The Beer Blog Ohio in Akron, Tom Aguero from BrewMinds in Cincinnati, Cory Smith and Ron DeGregario from the Brew Review Crew in Toledo, and yours truly. Every... Continue Reading →
Given the hot weather we’ve been experiencing it may not feel like fall is upon us, but once football season kicks off it can’t be long until the leaves start changing color. If the deluge of pumpkin beers invading the shelves has you cursing fall beers as an egregious affront to the Rineheitsgebot don’t despair,... Continue Reading →
No less than five Columbus area breweries are in the middle of either moving or expanding their brewing operations. Some have been in the news lately, while others have been silent for a while. Curious to get a pulse of what is going I reached out to representatives at each brewery for an update. Four String... Continue Reading →
In today’s post I ask Central Ohio brewers to share their opinions and experiences with locally grown hops.
This is the second installment in my three part series featuring Central Ohio brewers talking about hops. In part 1 of this series we looked at the supply and demand angle. In this post I asked the brewers one simple question, what is your favorite aroma hop? If IPAs were rock bands, malts and bittering hops would be... Continue Reading →
Of the basic ingredients in beer no component is changing faster than hops. Hop breeders are continually pushing the envelope to develop new strains of hops that express exotic aromas and flavors that range from tropical fruits to blueberries to cat shelters in pine forests. It's hard to get noticed sticking to the grapefruit and pine... Continue Reading →
What a year 2014 was for beer in Central Ohio. Three completely new breweries, Zaftig, Land Grant, and Temperance Row, opened up shop. Zauber and North High Brewing significantly expanded their capacity by purchasing new brewing systems. Cans of Four String and Seventh Son beers started showing up on the shelves. Sideswipe opened their brewery to... Continue Reading →
My Monday post on the final round of the King of Ohio IPA challenge generated quite a bit of activity in the various social media platforms. Brewmaster Trevor Williams seems to be well liked by everyone who has interacted with him and I’m not surprised. He is working hard to build up Hoof Hearted, brewing... Continue Reading →
As announced last week on this blog I’m participating in a collaboration with five other beer bloggers to identify the best Ohio-brewed IPA, and bestow the crown King of Ohio IPAs. Each blogger is tasked with identifying three beers to represent their part of the state in a showdown that will be held on November 1... Continue Reading →
