With so many breweries popping up in seemingly every corner, it’s important for a brewery to do things to stand out. One such brewery that stands out is the Dayton area’s Eudora Brewing Co., which provides beer drinkers the ability to brew their own beer on premises. It’s a great way for those who are interested in homebrewing to dip their toes in the water of brewing their own beer.
Thanks to her brother Joe and his girlfriend, my fiance Angie and I were able to experience brewing at Eudora over this past weekend as an engagement/Christmas present. They selected an IPA for us to brew, since we both like hoppy beers.
Brewing at Eudora is definitely a unique experience. Our guide Nigel walked us through the brewing process, from milling grains to adding the sugars and hops. Brewing is definitely an interesting process, and one of the things that struck me is how simple the recipe was. That makes it even more amazing that professional brewers can create so many flavors with so few ingredients.
The bottling part was very different than the brewing and took much less time. We put the labels on our bottles (harder than it looks), and then sanitized the two cases of bottles.
Bottling was a little challenging, especially because our beer decided to foam up after about the first 10. Angie handled the filling part while I handled the capping part.
And now, the final product!
The beer itself is very good. It’s not as hoppy as most IPAs, but it’s a little smooth with a darker amber color. It’s a very drinkable, fairly malty beer.
We also were able to sample some of Eudora’s beers. With a 3bbl system, they’re one of the smaller breweries in Ohio, and it’s nearly impossible to find their beer outside of their taproom. Although they’re small, they produce some high quality beer.
Their Bangarang IPA is in the upper echelon of IPAs that I’ve tried, with a classic West Coast style and nice level of hops. As a fan of darker beers, I also loved their Thunderball Oatmeal Stout and Holy Cacao chocolate porter. They even had some nice experimental beers available, including the Experimental 18.6 strawberry farmhouse ale/saison, and Worm Burner Scottish ale on nitro.
I’d definitely recommend Eudora for someone who wants a different craft beer experience and the satisfaction of brewing your own beer.
Check out reviews of more Dayton breweries here.