It’s the most wonderful time for a beer. Now that the year’s almost over, it’s time to take a look back at everything that happened in Cincinnati beer in 2019. This is one of my favorite features of the year, because it gives me the opportunity to look back on what transpired through the year and what we can expect in 2020.
New Breweries
Cincinnati added a whopping 12 new breweries (depending how you define ‘breweries’) in 2019. It was definitely a banner year for the Queen City, with all types of new places showing up.
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| HighGrain Brewing |
The locations that opened that are unequivocally breweries were Anderson’s Big Ash Brewing, Lockland’s Cincy Brewing Co., California’s Dead Low Brewing, Anderson’s Happy 2 Brewing Co., Silverton’s HighGrain Brewing Co., and Northside’s Humble Monk Brewing Co.
Cincinnati also saw the addition of a few friends from out-of-town in BrewDog Cincinnati and LOCOBA by Platform Beer Co. Technically, neither location is currently brewing beer, but both have brewing licenses. More on Platform later.
Books & Brews, a chain based out of Indiana, opened in the former Quarter Barrel location in Oxford. The other former Quarter Barrel location in Hamilton became the second location for Fretboard, titled Fretboard Brewing & Public House. Fifty West also obtained a brewing license for the former Pizzelli location right next to their Production Works, but it’s not exactly clear what they’re planning there just yet.
In Kentucky, Braxton opened their third location with Braxton Barrel House making Ft. Mitchell its home.
Bad Tom Smith also relocated from the East End to Madisonville.
Heading out of Cincy
This year also saw the expansion of a couple of our best friends into other areas of the state. Taft’s opened up a second Brewporium location in Columbus’ Franklinton neighborhood, while Fifty West announced expansion plans to beer-desert Chillicothe.
Closed Breweries
Despite the continued massive growth of craft beer, there is bound to be some attrition. The Cincinnati area saw multiple breweries close in 2019, including Williamsburg’s Old Firehouse, Blue Ash’s The Queen City Brewery of Cincinnati, and both Quarter Barrel locations.
Sellouts and Buyouts
This year was a crazy year for acquisitions across the beer landscape, with Anheuser-Busch InBev purchasing the remaining portion of Craft Brew Alliance, Boston Beer Co. purchasing Dogfish Head, Founders selling out to Mahou San Miguel, New Belgium selling to Kirin/Lion Little World, and Kings & Convicts purchasing Ballast Point.
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| AB buys Platform |
We weren’t immune to acquisitions here locally, with Platform selling out to AB in August. It wasn’t necessarily a shock to many in the industry, as people generally thought that the Cleveland-based brewery was started to eventually be sold to a big player.
On the other end of the spectrum, we also saw March First purchase Middletown’s FigLeaf. The announcement came with the assurance that the FigLeaf staff will remain on and they’re also currently undergoing an expansion.
Cincinnati finally gets its respect
Cincinnati may have been the Rodney Dangerfield of the craft beer landscape over the past few years or so. It has produced some of the best beer in the world, but rarely gets mentioned alongside craft beer Meccas like Asheville, Portland, Grand Rapids, or even St. Louis. Well, that’s all over.
In December, SmartAsset ranked Cincinnati as the No. 1 city for beer drinkers in the country. The ranking was ahead of the places mentioned above as well as Cleveland, which came in at No. 10.
Rhinegeist also had one hell of a year, earning Brewbound’s Craft Brewery of the Year, as well as moving up to No. 28 on the Brewers Association’s Top 50 Craft Breweries by volume list (Boston Beer is No. 2 and Great Lakes is No. 20). Paste Magazine also named them one of the Top 50 American Breweries of the 2010s.
Fifty West was named as one of Brewbound’s six “Rising Stars” and as one of BA’s 50 Fastest-Growing Breweries in the U.S.
Brink took home the No. 4 spot in USA Today’s 10best Best New Brewery competition.
Bringing home the hardware
This was yet another banner year for Cincinnati breweries winning medals at major beer festivals.
Brink once again cleaned up at Great American Beer Festival, winning Best Very Small Brewery of the Year for the second year in a row, as well as winning gold for Hold the Reins English Mild and Moozie Milk Stout. Listermann also won gold for Scoring Discrepancies, while Rhinegeist won silver for Quid, and Taft’s won silver for Are You Pricklish?.
16 Lots, Brink, Fifty West, Fretboard, Listermann, Madtree, Municipal, Narrow Path, Rhinegeist, Streetside, Swine City, and Taft’s also won medals at the 2019 U.S. Open Beer Championship.
For a full list of awards won by Cincinnati breweries, check out The Gnarly Gnome.
The rise of hard seltzer
Is hard seltzer beer? Who cares…it’s delicious and probably here to stay. Braxton went all-in with hard seltzer in 2019, launching Vive and immediately cementing its spot as a brewery to watch not just in Ohio but across the country. They landed big-time sponsorship deals with the Cincinnati Bengals, FC Cincinnati, Indiana Pacers, and Columbus Blue Jackets, and even a feature in Forbes.
Not to be outdone, March First and Platform also both released hard seltzers, and much of Boston Beer’s Truly is made locally. If you love hard seltzer, there’s a festival for you coming to Cleveland in 2020.
Other fun things that happened
Madtree had a ‘gnarly’ re-release of Knotty Brown
Fibonacci opened an Airbnb
Moerlein has a new leadership team and renewed focus on Little Kings
The Brewing Heritage trail opened its first phase
Hoping to save the burned former Jackson Brewery
Del Hall drank only beer during lent and is doing it again in 2020
Ohio moved back up to No. 4 in craft beer production by state
Fretboard released collaborations with Bootsy Collins and Klosterman
Taft’s teamed up with Gold Star to release a Cincinnati chili beer
My Favorites
Favorite brewery: Streetside
Favorite new brewery: HighGrain
Favorite beers:
3 – Sonder Orange Julius You Betcha!
2 – Madtree Local Blend Cincinnati – Deeper Roots Coffee
1 – Fifty West Barrel Aged Saturday Morning Cartoons Breakfast Stout
Favorite event: Fifty West Punch Out Round 4
Favorite story: Local breweries joined forces to collect donations for victims of the Dayton tornado