Maria Stein-based Moeller Brew Barn is slated to open in the shuttered Rivertown Brewing Company space, with a goal to be open by September 2022.
Moeller Brew Barn has expanded rapidly in recent years after opening their original location in tiny Maria Stein (population 2,100) in northern Ohio in 2015. They opened a location in a former church in Troy in 2019, and have plans to open a location in Downtown Dayton across from the Dayton Dragons DayAir Ball Park in June. The Rivertown location will be their fourth, and they also plan to open a location in Plain City northwest of Columbus sometime soon.
Moeller Brew Barn plans to do minimal changes to the location that Rivertown built ground-up in 2017, but they’ll still end up investing more than $4 million in the space. They plan to add a garage door to create an indoor-outdoor feel, add new kitchen equipment, and change the branding.
The brewing capacity is very large, and Rivertown was doing contract brewing in addition to brewing their own beers. It’s unknown if Moeller Brew Barn will do the same, but they plan to keep the food program in place.
Rivertown originally opened in Lockland in 2009, before expanding to the larger Monroe location in 2017. They were sued by multiple vendors seeking $1.5 million, and eventually closed their doors in 2022 after a rocky run through the pandemic where rumors had swirled about the future of the brewery for years.