Rolling Mill Brewing Company has been open for a few years now, but Middletown is a bit of a hike from my house in the East End in Cincinnati, so it took until now for me to make it there. I visited this past weekend with my wife, and we also checked out N.E.W. Ales Brewing during our trip to Middletown.
Rolling Mill is unique in the Cincinnati landscape in that it’s Ohio’s only gluten-free brewery and one of only about a dozen in the U.S. (side note: Wild Ohio Brewing is located in Columbus and they brew a gluten free “tea beer”).
The idea of the brewery started about a decade ago when founder Josh Laubach was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and became gluten-free himself. He and his wife began researching a way to brew beer without traditional grains, and they opened the brewery in 2017. Instead of sorghum which is typically used in gluten-free beers, they use rice, millet, and buckwheat to brew their beers.
Rolling Mill is located in a large industrial building, with an open view of the brewhouse and a small bar in the corner. They’ve recently expanded their outdoor patio in response to coronavirus limitations.
Rolling Mill has a selection of “traditional” beer styles, including a light lager, a pilsner, brown ale, a pale ale, and even a brown ale. These gluten free beers definitely taste different than beers featuring gluten, but the general sense is still there. The seltzer was good, and I’d love to see Rolling Mill continue to brew more seltzers and maybe even some cider.