Local Beer (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron: store, office, tree)

[Ohiogirl81]

Drink some for me this weekend! Wish I could be there--I do love Oktoberfest.

[ohioaninsc]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Drink some for me this weekend! Wish I could be there--I do love Oktoberfest.

Will be drinking a plenty on Saturday haha

I'll thinking of this famous quote as I do so..."Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."

[CarryOn]

I had the day off Friday, so I wandered around Pendleton and OTR, looking at murals.

On the way home, I stopped in a Listermann's on Dana. To tell the truth, I've haven't had a lot of their beers that I like, but the few of theirs they do have that I like, I like a lot.

Yesterday, they had their E. S. Bee (extra special bitter brewed with honey) on tap, so I tried that and really enjoyed it.

They're expanding, and it looks like the first phase is done - they build a little patio that extends out from the building a bit. Fairly narrow (you have to work with what you have) and no shade yet, but it's a start, although I don't see the attraction of sitting streetside on Dana and drinking a beer.

One thing I will say, I hope with the expansion they put in a glass-washing station. I despise drinking out of plastic cups, to the point that it's a large part of why I give Listermann's a miss most of the time. The only reason I stopped yesterday was that it was 2:30PM and the other taprooms don't open until 4PM and I wanted a beer.

[CarryOn]

I don't have a direct link, but if you go out to:

Celebrating the Best of American Beer | CraftBeer.com

they're showing the short film "Art & Craft: A Tale of Beer and Brushes" - it's less than 15 minutes and covers a little of the resurgence of beer production in Cincy and the making of the mural that's visible on McMicken. Included are some fabulous shots of OTR.

When you go to the site, you'll see it pop up in the rotating marquee; just click it and it'll take you to the video player.

It's worth a viewing. Hell, I got a little misty-eyed in a couple of spots!

[TeacherinTN]

I've read all 20 or so pages of this thread and I just have to comment. I am looking to move to Cincinnati for several reasons and not the least of them is the resurrection of OTR and its brewing heritage. For all you beer drinkers who truly enjoy a nice beer, feel privledged to live in Cincinnati. Not because it has the most breweries per capita (that's 50 min south of me in Asheville, NC) or because it's one of the best lands for growing ingredients and brewing (Oregon, where I grew up) but because it is rich brewing history. Not sure who made the comment that breweries in Cincy don't represent a true Cincy product, but I totally disagree. If there is any place that can stake its claim on brewing its OTR. Especially when these old brands like Moerlein are being resurrected with the utmost care in being true to history of Cincinnati and Getman lagers. Sure, most craft breweries don't have lots of lagers offered. Some of these craft breweries like Rhinegeist may be different than the beer recipes of yore but the alternative, "normal" beer like BMC is certainly no closer. They have cheapened the ingredients over the years (even using rice) to mass produce their product. Now all there money goes into advertising. BMC are not even American owned for that matter. If I finally move to Cincy my first night out I will be having a swig of some well made lager just like the generations of German immigrants in Cincy enjoyed over 150 years ago. And the can will say made in America and made in Cincinnati, Ohio. Breweries in Cincy are more legitimate than coffee houses in Seattle.

[ohioaninsc]

Originally Posted by TeacherinTN

I've read all 20 or so pages of this thread and I just have to comment. I am looking to move to Cincinnati for several reasons and not the least of them is the resurrection of OTR and its brewing heritage. For all you beer drinkers who truly enjoy a nice beer, feel privledged to live in Cincinnati. Not because it has the most breweries per capita (that's 50 min south of me in Asheville, NC) or because it's one of the best lands for growing ingredients and brewing (Oregon, where I grew up) but because it is rich brewing history. Not sure who made the comment that breweries in Cincy don't represent a true Cincy product, but I totally disagree. If there is any place that can stake its claim on brewing its OTR. Especially when these old brands like Moerlein are being resurrected with the utmost care in being true to history of Cincinnati and Getman lagers. Sure, most craft breweries don't have lots of lagers offered. Some of these craft breweries like Rhinegeist may be different than the beer recipes of yore but the alternative, "normal" beer like BMC is certainly no closer. They have cheapened the ingredients over the years (even using rice) to mass produce their product. Now all there money goes into advertising. BMC are not even American owned for that matter. If I finally move to Cincy my first night out I will be having a swig of some well made lager just like the generations of German immigrants in Cincy enjoyed over 150 years ago. And the can will say made in America and made in Cincinnati, Ohio. Breweries in Cincy are more legitimate than coffee houses in Seattle.

The beauty of Cincy's craft brew industry, and Ohio's in general is there are so many different kinds of beers being made that cater to almost any pallette. I am a huge fan of Rivertowne's Roebling Porter...as well as from Cleveland, Great Lakes Blackout Stout...Portland, Denver, and a few other cities may have more and even some possibly higher quality breweries (Rogue in Oregon is great...love Russian River Brewing Company's Pliney the Elder IPA), but Cincinnati's brewers, and really all of Ohio's brewers put out some very good beers. Cincinnati, and the state in general are just exploding w/ new good craft brews.

[flashes1]

What separates Cinti brewers like Rhinegheist and Morlein Tap Room is the historical value of their buildings.....I don't think there's another city in North America that has breweries in such beautiful buildings that were built for the sole purpose of brewing beer. How many other cities have lagering cellars and tunnels under its streets built more than 100 years ago?

Portland? Ashville? ha-ha. There beer heritage is comprised of a few miners/loggers drinking some moonshine on a hill top 100 years ago.

[TeacherinTN]

Originally Posted by flashes1

What separates Cinti brewers like Rhinegheist and Morlein Tap Room is the historical value of their buildings.....I don't think there's another city in North America that has breweries in such beautiful buildings that were built for the sole purpose of brewing beer. How many other cities have lagering cellars and tunnels under its streets built more than 100 years ago?

Portland? Ashville? ha-ha. There beer heritage is comprised of a few miners/loggers drinking some moonshine on a hill top 100 years ago.

Agreed. Cinti has bragging rights nationally on brewing heritage and the original establishments, most of which is unknown to most my beer conesseuir friends. Denver, Portland and Asheville will never have that. Now Cinti just needs to be recognized with those cities for their beers.

With that said Rogue is not highly regarded in Oregon. Its a big operation and known nationally but is viewed similarly to Fat Tire in CO. The brewery I here mentioned all the time by my Oregonian family is Ninkasi.

[flashes1]

Originally Posted by TeacherinTN

Agreed. Cinti has bragging rights nationally on brewing heritage and the original establishments, most of which is unknown to most my beer conesseuir friends. Denver, Portland and Asheville will never have that. Now Cinti just needs to be recognized with those cities for their beers.

With that said Rogue is not highly regarded in Oregon. Its a big operation and known nationally but is viewed similarly to Fat Tire in CO. The brewery I here mentioned all the time by my Oregonian family is Ninkasi.

They've got the heritage and the buildings---now they need the product and branding. Rhinegheist, 50 West and MadTree have the branding---and branding can not be underestimated in today's craft beer world---now they need to make the beer best-in-class.

I read this past week that one of the owners of Rivertown Brewing bought-out the other owner, and one of his first tasks is to improve the branding. That's encouraging...Morlein, Listermann, Blank Slate need to do it, too.

Good beer and decent packaging is not enough....it has to be great beer and cutting-edge branding.

[cincydave8]

Mad Tree and especially Rhinegeist seem to be on a mission to expand. I think Rhinegiest has some real goals on becoming a nationally known craft beer. That's one thing that Cincinnati is really missing, a brand that reaches well beyond the tri-state.