What a year 2020 has been. I know that at times it felt like this year took five years to happen, but there has actually only been one extra day with it being a leap year and all.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic rocking our worlds, as well as some social unrest, a wild presidential election, and more, a lot has gone on in the craft beer world here in Cincinnati. Check out my yearly recap below.
New Breweries
Despite such a crazy upside down industry and economy as a whole, Cincinnati actually gained a good amount of new breweries this year.
Blue Ash’s Firehouse Grill added a brewery to their already running restaurant, and they were able to open early in the year just before the pandemic hit.
Fifty West Brewing Company opened their new Burger Bar during the height of the pandemic, taking advantage of their wide open space with room to distance.
N.E.W. Ales Brewing became Middletown’s third brewery, starting a small operation in a catering business and adding a big outdoor beer garden.
Once restaurants and bars were allowed to reopen in May after a shutdown of more than two months, the brewery openings came fast and furious. MPH Brewing became Montgomery’s first brewery, Northern Row finally opened their space in an awesome 1890s era building in OTR, and Third Eye Brewing ended Sharonville’s brewery-free run.
Wooden Cask opened a second location at Bridgeview Box Park at a revamped Newport on the Levee.
The fall saw a quad of openings, as Esoteric opened as Walnut Hills’ first brewery with minority owners, Rebel Mettle became the first new brewery to open in the Central Business District in decades, Braxton took over the former 3 Points spot in Pendleton, and Cartridge finally opened up after years of construction in Maineville. If you’re up for a bit of a drive, Dayton’s Warped Wing opened their Barrel Room & Smokery in Springboro. The Cincnnati area’s first meadery also opened, as Dysfunctional Delights opened their doors in Lebanon in November.
Big Year for Braxton
What a year for Braxton. Perhaps no Cincinnati brewery had a more newsworthy year, as they were named the fourth-fastest growing brewery in the country by the Brewers Association, and their brewer and co-founder Evan Rouse was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
Braxton also made their first foray into food, as Braxton Cincinnati added Pendalo Wingery in December.
And then they did it. They released a freaking Pumpkin Spice Seltzer.
Awards
Cincinnati breweries are no strangers to taking home awards at the biggest beer festivals in the world, and this year was no different. Brink and Fretboard won medals at Great American Beer Festival in October, carrying the flag for the city.
Brink won a gold medal in the Sweet Stout or Milk Stout category for their Moozie Milk Stout. This is the third straight win for Moozie in this category at GABF, an impressive feat of consistency.
Fretboard won a silver medal in the Belgian-style and French-style Ale category for their Crazy Train. This is the first GABF win for this beer, but Crazy Train also won medals at the US Open Beer Championship over the past two years.
Then in November, Cincinnati breweries took home a whopping 39 medals (nope, not a typo) at the US Open Beer Championship, including 15 gold, 14 silver, and 10 bronze. A total of 18 breweries won medals, including Narrow Path taking home 3rd best brewery overall. More than 6,000 beers were judged at this event, so winning so many is no small feat.
The Covid-19 impact
While it seems as though most local breweries have been spared from closing (for now) despite the pandemic, some local and local-ish places were not so lucky.
Downtown’s Rock Bottom Brewery closed in March after parent company CraftWorks Holdings filed for bankruptcy and laid off some 18,000 employees. The brewery had been open on Fountain Square since the early 2000s.
In December, the Cincinnati Beverage Co. announced that it had let go of its entire brewing staff – including founder Greg Hardman – and will now outsource the brewing of its beer to another local brewery. Cincinnati Beverage, which was purchased by new owners in late 2019, owns iconic brands like Christian Moerlein, Little Kings, Hudepohl, and Burger. Their taproom in OTR on Moore Street has been closed since June and doesn’t seem likely to reopen. The Moerlein Lager house, which has different owners, remains open.
East Walnut Hills Woodburn Brewery also continued a tumultuous run as it closed temporarily in June and has not reopened.
While some places closed for good, many local breweries got creative as they attempted to stay connected to their customers. Many local breweries began offering home delivery and shipping across Cincinnati and Ohio, while Urban Artifact took it a step further and now ships to ten states and D.C.
Madtree introduced their “adult ice cream truck” that drove around and sold beer and pizza from Catch-A-Fire. After suspending it over the summer, it returned for a holiday edition in December.
Mt. Healthy’s Fibonacci used their space and got really creative, instituting a drive-thru option to pick up beer. They also offer home delivery.
Boston Beer expansion
Boston Beer Co. has called Cincinnati home since the 1990s, and the group behind the Samuel Adams brand made a huge commitment to the Queen City in 2020 by announcing plans for an $85 million expansion of its brewery in Over-the-Rhine. The investment, the largest ever for a Cincinnati brewery, will see the addition of two canning lines and additional equipment that will quadruple production. The expansion is a result of the success of brands like Truly hard seltzer and Twisted Tea, which have helped transition Boston Beer into diversified adult beverage company.
Local low-cal IPAs
Last year at this time we were talking about seltzer taking over the world, and it pretty much still is. This year’s trend in beer was undoubtedly the rise of low-calorie IPAs, a sort-of re-branding of session IPAs.
We saw low-cal releases this year from the likes of Braxton (HopFit), Rhinegeist (Mathlete and Lodo), Madtree (Ramble On), Fifty West (Quencher), Listermann (Bier Leicht), and HighGrain (Low Cal Pale Ale). Each one of these seemed to get varying degrees of push, and they were all at least decent. The low-cal beer trend is also big nationally, with some good options and some not-so-good options.
Fun stuff
- Cincinnati was once again named the Best City for Beer Drinkers in 2020 by SmartAsset
- Rhinegeist gets the vote out by teaming up with the Ohio Secretary of State on their Every Vote Counts initiative
- Taft’s and Frisch’s teamed up to make a Pumpkin Pie Ale inspired by the popular fall treat from the restaurant
- Taft’s also let fans design cans for their Paint the Town Hoppy Beer
- March First’s Sycamore Distilling won four medals at the US Open Spirits competition. It rebranded as Cincinnati Distilling in November, and will open a stand-alone distillery in Milford in 2021.
- MadTree joined 1% for the Planet to amplify their community impact
- West Side Brewing and FigLeaf had some awesome re-designs of their cans
- The Ohio Craft Brewer’s Association hosted the first ever Ohio Pint Day in October, with breweries selling 10,000 unique glasses designed by artist Adam Hernandez
- Fifty West installed a 40×80 foot ice rink at their brewery to create a fun Winter Wonderland
- Grainworks expanded their taproom
- Karrikin expanded into canning, and so did Big Ash…oh, and so did HighGrain
- Tons of Cincinnati breweries had Black Friday releases, including the first bottles for Third Eye
- Sonder teamed up with Kings Island to release a collaboration lager called Giga Coaster
- West Side partnered with CABVI to release “Braille Ale” to raise awareness for the visually impaired
- Columbus’ North High Brewing will partner with COhatch co-working startup to open a taproom in Hyde Park
- Northern Kentucky’s Bircus announced it will open a wedding venue in a former propane plant in Ludlow
- Pleasant Ridge’s Nine Giant came up with a new pay model for employees during the pandemic, including tip sharing for kitchen staff
- March First purchased the closed Woodburn Brewery with plans to reopen it in 2021
That’s the big beer news for the year. Let me know if I missed anything! Also check out a full list of Cincinnati breweries here.