Cincy Travels Pt. 2: When You Goetta Wet to Get Even Wetter

A view of the Cincinnati skyline from across the river in Newport, Kentucky

Though it may not be as prevalent as other vehicles, the what I'll call "slab of something" side order can be found in many cultures.  For many in this country, a slab of bacon or sausage is common, but variations can be found with Spam and scrapple.

However, when it comes to the Greater Cincinnati area, the king of the plate in this little niche realm has to be goetta, a mush of ground meat, pin-head oats plus herbs and spices that originated with German immigrants to the area in the 1800s. We had a little sampling of this very regional specialty during our visit to the Sleepy Bee Cafe, a local eatery popular for its unique and often healthier takes on breakfast and brunch dishes. But for the full immersive experience, we figured we need to dive straight in to the frying pan with the 18th edition of the Glier's Goettafest.

Return to the Trails (Pt. 3): Seeking The Paddle-Tested - Year 3 of the Columbus Ale Trail

Earlier posts from this current "Return to the Ale Trails" series:
Part 1: Jumping Onboard The Trail Train - Newcomers to the Scene
Part 2: Ales for what Ails You - A Closer Look at Fresno, California's Ale Trail promotion

Part 1 of my original 4-part Ale Trails series (written in November 2016) can be found here.

A strong finish was in the cards for Year Two participants in what's turned
out to be a very popular and successful Columbus Ale Trail promotion

As it turned out, Columbus area craft beer seekers proved they know how to pace themselves, at least in regard to the second year of the Columbus Ale Trail promotion.

According to Jim Ellison, owner of Columbus Brew Adventures and co-organizer of the Ale Trail, April saw a huge surge in those completing the entire trail of 28 breweries for the ultimate prize of a specially-designed card deck, with many cards featuring logos of the participating breweries and trail partners. Starting with just over 300 redemptions at the beginning of the month, participants turned in enough completed passports to push the number to over by April 30th, the last day of Volume 2 promotion.  In addition, Ellison added that over 1,700 pint glasses were awarded to people who visited at least four of the participating breweries.

My spouse and I were one of those who finished strongly and claimed both the card deck and pint glass. When the card deck had been initially announced as the ultimate prize for completing the Volume 2 Ale Trail, I personally thought it was one more unique (and coolest, IMHO) offered by any ale trail. That feeling seemed to be validated by my research revealed in a series of posts last November which looked at ale trail promotions across the country.

I also wondered what could Columbus Ale Trail promoters could do the top themselves. As it turns out, the third edition of the trail I believe is the most fun yet.

(Ale) Trailblazing Across The Country: Part 1 - A Focus on the Locals

Pretty much since the beginning of our relationship with my spouse, craft beer has been part of our tourism experience. One of our first memorable experiences was a brewery tour of San Francisco's Anchor Brewing, one of the originators of the modern craft beer movement. A subsequent visit into Oregon was equally as memorable as we dropped by Deschutes Brewing in Bend. Not only were we greeted by the smell of freshly harvested hops (courtesy of a day-of-visit shipment), but also had the opportunity to sample the not-released-for-general distribution Black Butte XXII.

"Beer Tourism" is a Thing Now
These trips were long before the term "craft beer tourism" came into vogue. All-encompassing beer tourism economic stats are a little hard to come by, but hints of the economic impact that craft beer has had can be found in many places. For example, a 2015 report released by the Vermont Brewers Association estimated that craft beer contributed over $50 million dollars to the total tourism take for the state in 2014.

Even closer to home, a study released by Experience Grand Rapids in Michigan estimated an over $12 million dollar impact from 42,000 beer tourists. Most recently, the travel booking site Travelocity, in partnership with the Brewers Association, released a Beer Tourism Index, which not only uncovered some impressive statistics related to craft beer in the United States, but also revealed their poll results on the Top 6 Large and Small Metro Areas for craft beer in the country.

One tool that cities and regions have used to promote their areas has been the ale trail or beer trail concept, where incentives are offered to folks who visit a certain number of breweries. When individuals involved with the Columbus beer scene adapted the concept in 2015 to promote the area's booming industry, they expected a fairly modest response from the public.

Two Brews High and Rising: Four String Brewing/Sideswipe Brewing

A more and more pertinent question for fans and member brewers of the ever growing craft beer scene in Columbus and Ohio in a general is a simple one: is the market getting too saturated with new arrivals? Based on recent visits to two of Columbus' member breweries, we believe there's still plenty of room to grow.

Four String Brewing: I have written about Four String Brewing not too long ago on this blog post, and Jim Ellison, owner of the CMH Gourmand blog and head guru of Columbus Brew Adventures, wrote an excellent summation around the occasion of the Four String's fourth anniversary of owner's Dan Cochran's unique efforts to lift his business to the heights as one of Columbus' bigger brewers.

Further proof of their success was lent to us during the first of a series of "Beer and Donuts" events, put on by the Columbus Craft Beer Alliance (CCBA) last Saturday. A good crowd came out to this inaugural event, which is meant to give attendees a behind-the-scenes look at the member breweries as well as commiserate with fellow local craft beer lovers and the brewers themselves. Four String's brand new facility on the west side of Columbus proved to be a perfect launch point, laying out what we imagine will be the general itinerary of providing event-goers a chance to sample the brewery's offerings as well as discs of delicious fried dough goodness from a local eatery.

In the latter's case, the donuts were provided by Lyric Donuts. Michael Murtha, who works as a barista at Impero Coffee, launched his line of donuts late summer at this Short North coffee shop along with pop-ups at the Old North-located Ace of Cups bar and music venue. Throughout the event, his inventory of musically-themed, mainly cake-donut-based treats were devoured by event-goers, ranging from the basic (the plain cake donut "The Boss", referencing Bruce Springsteen) to the Ozzy's Bat Head (a dark chocolate donut hole with espresso glaze named for a rather notorious incident in this rocker's long career.) Our personal favorite (and a favorite for many we chatted with, we figured out) proved to be the Lime in the Coconut (a nod to Harry Nilsson), made with toasted coconut flakes and coated by a delicious lime glaze.)

CCBA representative Jamie Gentry gave an overview of the "Beer and Donuts" events as well as the local craft beer scene as a whole before turning things over to Four String Brewmaster Larry Horwitz. Due to the number of event-goers, two tours of the facility were given by Horwitz, and we decided to hang back for the second tour. When the first tour returned, everybody was treated to the highlighted pairing - the perfectly matched Velvet Underground (a light and airy creation with a daintily delectable banana custard filling) and Four String's Vanilla Porter, A bonus treat was that we along with other members of the second group got to take this rather neatly matched duo along with us as we walked through the facility with our brewmaster.

The whole tour itself was quite informative, and Horwitz was quite welcoming and appreciative of the folks who showed up on this day. Perhaps the most revealing part of the tour for us was the sheer size of the space (the former home of a defense and space materials production company) - as he pointed out early, the brewery's existing taproom in Grandview Heights could fit several times over in various sections of the new facility.

Also revealing was the main production area, which provided a contrast between the brewery's beginnings (the line of "Frankenbrewing" tanks from their original Grandview location that actually still do play a role in the brewing process) amidst much larger and more sophisticated brewing equipment (capable of up to 8,000 barrels per year, nearly tripling the brewery's existing capacity.) This new equipment is vital in the efforts to get Four String's products distributed throughout the state of Ohio, but despite the brewery's growth, current plans will keep the brewery's unique beginnings alive. Their original Grandview location will remain open and feature the company's "Solo Series" line of oddball and one-off brews.

 

With more similar events planned for the future (a December beer/donuts pairing at downtown's Wolf's Ridge Brewing is already sold out, while an event at Lancaster's Rockmill Brewery is possibly in the works), CCBA's "Beer & Donut" series provides a unique look at the local craft beer scene, and provides event-goers fried doughy goodness as a bonus. That's a pretty hard pairing to beat.

Columbus Craft Beer Alliance
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Four String Brewing
660 N. Hague Avenue (Production Facility - Valleyview)
Columbus, OH 43204
- and -
985 W. 6th Avenue (Taproom - Grandview Heights)
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 725-1282
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Lyric Donuts
(found within Impero Coffee Shop)
849 N High St. (Short North)
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 294-2489
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Sideswipe Brewing: Although on the completely opposite end of the production scale (the term "nano-brewery" definitely fits ex-martial artist Craig O'Herron's operation), Sideswipe Brewing, located in a somewhat hidden industrial corner of West Columbus on the other side of I-670 from Grandview Heights, also provides proof that Columbus' craft beer scene has plenty of room to grow.

When we traveled up to the Denver area to a slew of Fort Collins' area breweries (for more details, check out these two posts on our visits to  Big Beaver and Odell and Funkwerks and Equinox) my wife's brother, a home brewer and Columbus ex-pat, informed us that any brewery who wants any kind of longevity in that area must have expansion in their initial business plan after a year or so or be left behind in the area's substantial craft beer wake. The fact that Sideswipe, which hasn't grown substantially since their opening in November of 2013, is still holding their own in their little industrial park space and will grow, given the opportunity, speaks just as loudly to Columbus's still untapped (no pun intended) craft beer potential.

For now, Sideswipe's growth can be measured mainly in taproom improvements. In this case, a year between visits for us was quite insightful, as the somewhat limited, slapped-together seating has now been replaced with more organization and more seating. The move of the tap system from across the space to against the wall, along with the construction of an actual bar setup, has really increased the feel-at-home factor. Keeping in the trend with other beer-oriented places, a small selection of both adult- and kid-oriented games area available for patrons' usage; snacks have also improved with the addition of items like OH! Chips. While our previous visit was sparsely attended, this Friday night was nicely buzzing with chatting, happy customers, and the taproom itself is open on more days than previous. These may be small steps forward, but they are highly welcome steps indeed.

The upper left two pictures show Sideswipe's old setup; the rest of
the photos show the current, more friendly to customer setup

For the most part, the flagship beers that we tasted on the previous visit were here on this visit, with the exception of a new OH-Kolsch (our previous visit had an experimental Mosaic/Palisade Hop Experiment available as well as the last dregs of the summer-oriented Pixelated Sun Wheat beer.) This time around, we had pints of beers we tried in flight form on the previous visit: the Fisticuffs IPA again satisfied my spouse's hophead tendencies, while my Elegant Hoodlum has the right kind and quantity of smoky characteristic which mesh well with enough hops to balance things out.

But in reality, the favorite for both of us from this nanobrewer is a beer style we're generally not fond of in general. The best pumpkin beers for us are more restrained affairs rather than the highly spiced affairs that tend to dominate; Sideswipe's Squashing Pumpkins, with its just enough clove and cinnamon flavor profiles blended with the flavors from the carmelized squash used in the brewing process, gives us that just right taste and mouth feel combo that makes this a must get if we see it on the shelves.

Sideswipe Brewing
2419 Scioto Harper Dr. (Valleyview)
Columbus, OH 43204
E-Mail: sideswipebrewing@gmail.com
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Quoth The Brewer: Columbus Brew Adventures' Haunted History Tour

Our starting point for the Columbus Brew Adventures'
Haunted Brewery and Winery Tour was the Downtown
Columbus-located Wolf's Ridge Brewing Tap Room

We have had the great pleasure in the past few months of being invited to and attending a couple of craft beer oriented tours by Columbus Brew Adventures, founded by local culinary entrepeneurs and ambassadors Bethia Woolf and Jim Ellison. Our previous experiences with their Brewery District Walking Tour and Grandview Heights Tour have provided their own uniquely fun and quite informative experiences; the latter part of which was a nice surprise for us as relative veterans of the local craft beer scene.

This Wednesday, we had the pleasure grabbing two tickets to what promises to be a very unique event in Columbus Brew Adventures' catalog of tours. The inaugural "Beer, Wine, “Boos” & “Spirits”: A Haunted Brewery & Winery Tour" promised a nice chunk of this area's haunted history mixed in with a tasty sampling of the area's locally-produced craft beer and wine.

As it turned out, the feel of this particular tour, which was hosted by Jim himself, is fairly similar to their Brewery District excursion in that a tour-goer will get an equal if not more of a focus on local history as you do the craft beer side of the equation.

However, the unique subject, combined with the time of the year (just a couple days before Halloween), made this perhaps our favorite Columbus Brew Adventures tour so far for both my spouse and I. Once again the knowledge we picked up proved to be truly fascinating and lent a little more color to both places we had visited many times (i.e. Studio 35 and Barley's Brewing) and had not known about at all previously, such as The Central Ohio Fire Museum.

In addition, the unique combination of topic and season also made me decide that a uniquely-styled write up was appropriate in this case. In many ways, a typical blow-by-blow write up as is typical in my blog posts seemed like it would spoil the experience a bit for future tour-goers. However, I did want to give a taste of what we encountered this night, and it seemed a poetic touch from a master of the macabre (the obvious inspiration from the one and only Edgar Allen Poe) seemed a perfect way do this (helpful links to the places we visited and the historical info are embedded within the poem.)

May your haunting this Halloween weekend be good for you all...

Quoth The Brewer

(inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven)

Once upon a Hallows Eve dreary

My spouse and I wandered alert and leery

To Wolf's Ridge Brewing lauded culinary score—

When we entered, beer a tapping

Suddenly, a man came a rapping

'Twas Jim of Columbus Brew Adventures lore

He met us that night clapping, clapping at the fore. 

“’The haunted tour?,” he muttered

We nodded at the brewery door— 

Only this, but a whole lot more.

Ah, distinctly it was in a bleak October; 

We with eleven other rovers

A haunted brew tour we had gathered for

We prepared for our ghostly tales

In our hands Wolf's Ridge Imperial Pumpkin Ales

Amidst the costumed CYP Club troupe

Benefiting the Columbus Literacy Council group

We'd embark for beer and wine

And to find the Columbus' ghostly lore

Frightened here for evermore. 

Now to the firehouse stately and proud

Came the members of our crowd

A Museum now lay within its core

Anticipate, our hearts a beating 

Alongside Jim, who stood repeating 

It was a visitor entreating 

Entrance at the museum door

Captain D, was he revealing

His spirit on the museum floor?

Yes, he was, and much, much more.” 

From there our souls grew stronger

Hesitating then no longer, 

We moved on despite impending horror

No one was even close to napping

Walhalla Ravine we were a mapping

A foreboding hand we had in store

Rolling into Armbruster land

Tension felt and uploading

Trapping us at the fore?   

Darkness there and nothing more. 

Deep into that darkness peering 

Under the bridge of death we're fearing

A dream like no mortal dared dream before; 

Don't go or they'll think you're loony

The cursed grounds of the Mansion Mooney

Where blood from the lion's head doth pour?

A young girl's scream

From Glen Echo whispers

A stark murmur restored!

Merely this and nothing more. 

Farther to where crowds are churning 

The theatre where ghouls are yearning

Studio 35, a projector clapping louder than before. 

Sipping on a Land Grant Kolsch

Our host Andy did not squelch

Ghostly tales from lady Kelly for

There sitting across the bar

The dapper 30's twosome

A threat traveled from afar!

Or was it the wind and nothing more?”

Down to Barley's, our nerves a fluttered 

To the Underground, dark and shuttered

When a street named High lay in the days of yore; 

Our guide serving delicious Blood Thirst Wheat

When lo! the echo of pounding feet?

Was doom the fate for us in store?

Not a hint of menace made she

Lady Erin perched next to Jim

We drank deep as they declared

The cemetery which this space had shared

Whence only gravestones moved, but nothing more

Through an ebony night compiling

To a winery quite beguiling 

Via Vecchia and the Raw countenance it wore, 

Owner Paolo, shorn and shaven

Declared "Art thou so craven,

To hear the ghastly sights in store?"

We marveled at discourse that plainly 

Discussed ghosts that quite so ungainly 

Flung bottles and brooms 

Flung so hard, across the floor

Past spooky mirror to the back

Eyes alert for sudden attack

To see their winemaking at its core

Zulu Nation stood on the wall

Ready to heed the call

Should specters rise and come to the fore 

Grape skin splatter seeing

We found ourselves agreeing

Being scared is better

Much better when the wine does pour 

Driving down a street named Mound

With its numerous burial grounds

To return to the place we had been before

Unflustered by the stillness broken

Disembarked, the night had spoken

Haunted lands we did indeed explore

And yet still, a voice did utter

"Do not leave, come have another"

One more ale with a ghostly brother"

Quoth the Brewer, evermore

Columbus Brew Adventures
Tour and ticket information can be found on their website at
www.columbusbrewadventures.com
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A Grand View of Local Brewing: Columbus Brew Adventures' Grandview Tour

Both newcomers and those well-versed in the Columbus craft beer
scene can learn a lot about the area's Grandview-based breweries,
courtesy of Jim Ellison and Columbus Brew Adventures' guided tours.

Earlier in the summer, my spouse and I had the opportunity to tour the Brewery District, an area we knew about but had not yet had the opportunity to explore in detail, via the folks at Columbus Brew Adventures. This brew-oriented touring company, founded in September 2013 by Columbus Food Adventures co-founder Bethia Woolf and local culinary maven Jim Ellison (aka the CMH Gourmand), provided us a rather informative and quite enjoyable tour of this historic neighborhood, giving us a history lesson of Columbus' original craft beer companies which once resided here mixed with a sprinkling of the here and now, sampling the wares of various neighborhood-based eateries and currently operating local breweries.

We would have considered ourselves quite fortunate and extremely grateful that this singular opportunity came our way, but as events would conspire, another opportunity came our way again as something of a bookend, with the phenomenon known as Ohio State Football playing a huge part. Coming off a somewhat unpredictable but wholly satisfying championship run last year, the team had seemingly all of Buckeye Nation rapt for their first home game against the University of Hawaii, and that meant another chance for my spouse and I to tour with Columbus Brew Adventures again, this time on their Grandview Brewery Tour.

There are several breweries in the area that are typically in the rotation (including Sideswipe and Actual Brewing), but on this tour we were routed on the traditional threesome of Smokehouse, Zauber, and Four String Brewing, with a closing session at the growler-based Ohio Taproom. Unlike the last tour, where we had a new employee giving her maiden tour, Jim himself provided our escort/knowledge guru for this weekend afternoon.
\

Smokehouse Brewing's platters were full of their tasty appetizers as well
the seemingly endless beer-related insights of founder Lenny Kolada

Smokehouse Brewing: Coming into this trip, my spouse and I were slightly worried that numerous previous visits to two of the three breweries on this tour, including Smokehouse, would end up going over a lot of familiar territory. In fact, I had previously written about the tasty new menu changes at the Smokehouse on this previous blogpost, brought upon by owner's Lenny Kolada's attempts to take this venerable barbecue-oriented menu into more diverse territory.

However, Kolada himself, known affectionally as the Brewdood and grandfather of the modern Columbus craft beer scene (being a co-founder of Columbus' first modern era brewpub, Barley's Brewing, in downtown Columbus) pretty much put that notion of trampling over lots of familiar territory to rest. Our tour guide Jim "warned" us that Lenny would be more than willing to ramble about just about brew-related, and that is exactly what we got. While munching on a sample platter of Smokehouse's tasty appetizers (mmm...Sauerkraut Balls), Kolada expounded enthusiastically on numerous topics, including the story of his inspiration to establish the original Barley's in downtown, the ABC's of the brewing process, and the numerous ways Smokehouse Brewing serves its beer.

The lacing of a well-crafted Smokehouse Brewing ale is a pretty sight indeed

Of course, we did not come on the tour simply to eat and listen: samples of Smokehouse's current brews were delivered to us tour-goers in well-spaced out waves. Along with familiar favorites like their Scottish Ale (both regular and dry-hopped in a firkin) and their Centennial IPA, we were also pleased with a well-made Oktoberfest and perhaps our favorite of the group, their brand new Maeve Gruit.

This unique beer style, who is named after the Irish queen whose name means "she who intoxicates," featured a combination of hawthorn, elderberries and dandelion roots and was prime example of what Kolada described as "beer that wasn't beer" i.e. beer from an era when hops had not established its typical place in the brewing process due to lack of availability. It was also a prime example of how Smokehouse Brewing, similar to its food menu items, is striving to reach beyond their core brews to venture into more novel creations for its brewpub visitors into the future.

Zauber Brewing's founder Geoff Towne may not be as flamboyant as
his compatriot Kolada at Smokehouse, but his passion for
the art of brewing was equally as evident

Zauber Brewing: The second brewery of Columbus Brew Adventures' Grandview Tour was again quite familiar to us; in fact, it was the subject of one of the very first few blog posts (in conjunction with the very popular Columbus-based food truck Paddy Wagon) on this particular blog.

Brewery founder Geoff Towne, our host at Zauber on this day, acknowledged it has been a tough haul at times, but slowly but surely his dream to offer his German- and Belgian- styled beer at a beer-hall-styled venue came to fruition when Zauber made its move into its current West 5th Avenue location early in 2014. Even after the move, the growing pains were still evident: originally, there was only enough capacity to tap the brewery's newest offerings once a week on Thursday, with taps always running dry fairly soon after.

However, things are more than looking up these days, as evidenced by our original beer sampling. Described by Geoff as American-styled takes on German and Belgian brews by Geoff, our samplers of the brewery's Myopic Red, Vertigo Hefeweizen, Oktoberfest and the Berzerker Belgian IPA were refreshing, solid brews. These beers, along with their other offerings, are available now on a regular or seasonal basis.

In addition, the brewery's main space, again meant to be an American take on a German-styled beer hall, has emerged into a consistent destination for sports-oriented fans and board game aficionados alike (Towne said it was roughly only a 20-30 minute walk from the brewery to the C-deck at The Shoe at The Ohio State University.)  Also, their association with food trucks (typical of the fairly unique brewery/food truck relationship that has emerged in Columbus, noted Jim) has resulted in a more permanent relationship with the recently displaced Explorers Club, which will be opening up a kitchen space inside in the very near future. Caffeine heads can also rejoice with another addition: Lithopolis' Das Kaffeehaus, who similarly has adopted an American take on a German coffeehouse, will be opening up a branch of their operations in the near future as well.

With beer sampler glasses in hand, guests were escorted by Geoff into the
Zauber's production area, where he gave folks his take on brewing basics
as well as a close up sensory experience with brewing ingredients

Geoff invited us to take our last beer sampler with us as we ventured to the brewery's production area. Glistening metal tanks proved to be an attractive backdrop as Zauber's head brewer went over his m methods of brewing. A theme that started here, and would be continued at our next stop (Four String Brewing), was the philosophical differences in what was essentially the same general process, such as the how long you would keep reusing particular batches of yeast. Geoff also gave a nice bonus for us tour-goers in allowing us to smell and taste some of the hops and malts used in their production (though both he and Jim warned us emphatically to NOT eat the hops.)

The uniquely Ohio-oriented growler shop The Ohio Taproom
provided our final stop on this Columbus Brew Adventures tour

The Ohio Taproom: After stopping at our third brewery on the trip (Four String Brewing, who is covered in this separate post), we ended our tour at a place we had actually not had a chance to visit before in the growler-based Ohio Taproom.

As our tour host Jim hinted before our arrival, The Ohio Taproom essentially has two main credos: to serve Ohio-only beer, and to serve a beer from every Ohio craft brewer there is out there. Even with Columbus' more-or-less central location, the latter is a Herculean task at best, but the hand-painted map outside this former barbershop shows that the Taproom has made quite a bit of progress in that regard since its opening in mid-2013 with over 70 different breweries represented.

Our samples included the pale ale from Pigskin Brewing in Gahanna, a more hop-forward rendition of the style than most, as well as Athens' Devil's Kettle and their very intriguing Spider Silk blonde ale. Jim also hinted that some fairly obscure beer makes their way here through the Taproom's efforts; sure enough, that factoid was hammered home when one of our samplers contained the Abbey Pilsner of the Moeller Brew Barn from out of the tiny western-Ohio township of Maria Stein. The spouse and I are not typically pilsner fans, but the smooth mouthfeel and pleasant malt and hop zing of this brew made it our growler takeaway for the tour (Columbus Brew Adventures conveniently provides space for your growlers in their vans...hint, hint.)  

Blake proved to be a loquacious host at the Taproom for us tour-goers
as he showed off their state-of-the-art growler filling system as
well as their inventory of Ohio-based food and drink products

Our buying a growler of the Moeller Brew Barn pilsner meant we got to see The Ohio Taproom's state-of-the-art growler fill system in action. Unlike many others that offer growler fills, the Taproom's system purges your growler with carbon dioxide prior to filling it with beer, theoretically keeping your beer fresh with proper storage for up to 90 days. At the time of our visit, the Taproom was in the final stages of obtaining permission to serve pints of beer to visitors (as it turned out, their efforts have proven successful based on this Facebook post; their first pints will be served on Friday, September 18.)

The Ohio Taproom also has a select variety of non-beer Ohio-based products for sale, including the hot sauces and salsas of CaJohns Fiery Foods, Cincinnati-based Wild Joe's Beef Jerky, and Grandview's own terrific creator of pies Honeykiss Bakery.

In terms of the tour itself, we found that both people of all types can enjoy these tours. Some members of our group were intrigued with the chemistry and biological processes that go behind the art of brewing of beer. Another tour member, a beer enthusiast who commuted to work from southern Ohio to Grandview but was otherwise unfamiliar with the area, was really pleased to get a more clear picture of the some of the area's beer and food options.

And for us relative veterans of the Columbus beer scene, we actually learned a lot more than we figured we would on this roughly four hour excursion into what seemed like familiar territory. Much of that was due to our fine hosts, but we equally have Jim to thank making the tour as satisfying as it turned out. Should Jim be your host for a Columbus Brew Adventure tour, his knowledge of the craft beer scene as a whole and experience with Columbus' culinary arena is something that any tour goer should tap and enjoy equally as much as any of the brews you might imbibe that day.

Columbus Brew Adventures
Tour and ticket information can be found on their website at
www.columbusbrewadventures.com
Other Social Media Links:
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Smokehouse Brewing

1130 Dublin Road
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 485-0BBQ (0227)
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Zauber Brewing

909 West Fifth Ave,
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 456-7074
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The Ohio Taproom
1291 W. Third Ave.
Columbus, OH, 43212
(614) 487-9224
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A Gambrinus Gathering: Columbus Brew Adventures' Brewery District Walking Tour

A Brewery District welcome sign and a stone relief depiction of the old
Hoster Brewery found in Brewers' Alley

In September of 2012, my spouse and I had our first experience with Columbus Food Adventures (CFA), a food tour company offering numerous ways for both locals and visitors alike to explore the culinary gems of this area. The first tour, which was a walking tour through Columbus' picturesque German Village, not only touched on the culinary treats within this area, but also gave participants a nice introduction to the rich history of the area.

Flash forward to the summer of 2015. Now reaching its fifth anniversary, this tour company has grown, increasing its offerings both in terms of neighborhoods (Grandview Heights has become another neighborhood-related tour offering, for example) and themes (Nick Dekker, author of the well-known "Breakfast With Nick" blog, now leads area breakfast- and brunch-oriented area excursions.)

In addition, CFA has expanded into another growing part of the area's food scene with Columbus Brew Adventures. Started in September 2013 by CFA co-founder Bethia Woolf and writer Jim Ellison (himself involved in numerous area culinary ventures including the Alt Eats Columbus and Taco Trucks Columbus websites and his own blog (The CMH Gourmand)), these tours offer novel ways to to explore the area's flourishing craft beer scene along with other aspects of Columbus' culinary scene (for example, their "Pitchers and Pizza" tour offers an exploration of iconic area pizzerias along with tasty local brews.)

As a pair who likes to seek out beer-oriented destinations in their travels, I think it was surprising to both of us that we hadn't actually taken a tour with Columbus Brew Adventures when we received an invite by Mr. Ellison himself to join us as guests on their Brewery District Tour, held on a what turned out to be an against recent trends sun-soaked Saturday.

The tour started off at the Columbus Brewing Company Restaurant,
which provided tour-goers a nice Santa Fe pizza for snacks and
a taster of the Columbus Brewery's Pale Ale and IPA.

The Brewery District tour offers participants a walking perspective around this historic area, a journey that we found touched on many aspects of the past and current district occupants. For us personally, it also helped us visualize some of the places we knew were in the area that we had heard quite a bit about. Also neat was how this tour turned out to be the perfect pairing with the previously mentioned German Village Tour we took nearly three years ago. These two areas are inextricably linked together by the German immigrants who settled on these once less-than-desirable areas across a ravine (now occupied by Interstate 70) on the south side of Columbus and set up those very same breweries on lands just to the west.

Our tour starting point at the Columbus Brewing Company Restaurant,
along with our tour guide Jenna and one half of a double-sided
hand-drawn map of the Brewery District given to participants 

We soon found out we weren't the only ones on our first Columbus Brew Adventures excursion: we discovered our tour guide Jenna was leading her first tour ever for the company, She made an excellent debut, providing a smiling and enthusiastic presence throughout the tour and relating most of the details about the landmarks and places we were visiting off the top of her head. We also had the pleasure of meeting Jim himself, who accompanied our group for roughly the second quarter of our tour and provided some extra illumination on an area and food scene overall that he knows extremely well.

In many ways, we discovered that this particular tour is, to use a university euphemism, the equivalent of "Columbus Brewing 101." Not only do you get introduced to Columbus' brewing history prior to Prohibition, which was all centered in the Brewery District, but also you get an idea of what currently exists in the area as well as an introduction to what is available in the local craft brew scene. While this tour is suited for all levels of craft beer aficionados, there is enough history and other tangential aspects given to make those either not as enthusiastic about beer (one of our party fell in that category) or are neophytes to beer (Jenna encouraged us to bring our inner "beer snob" and put our samples through the gamut of sensory tests before tasting, as well as brought up conversation starters such as what differentiated ales from lagers) and/or the local beer scene feel comfortable.

The influence of the original Hoster Brewery, once the largest in Columbus,
was seen throughout the walking tour, with numerous current businesses like
World of Beer and Via Vecchia Winery now occupying its facilities.

While the focus on the tour leans often on structures related to the Hoster (not surprising with it being the largest brewery at the time in Columbus) and Schlegel (later Schlee) breweries, numerous landmarks and points of interest are covered on the tour. This includes some of the area's eateries (Brick American Kitchen and the third location of Latin-influenced El Arepazo), beer-oriented enterprises (World of Beer and the Columbus Brewing Company Restaurant) as well as the home of Shadowbox Live, a unique performance troupe that has now been operating for over two decades. At each of these locations, participants get a taster of a local purveyor of craft brews (on this tour, local breweries such as Columbus, Elevator, and Homestead, as well as renowned crafters of mead Brothers Drake, were represented.) The eateries also serve a useful purpose in providing more than enough small bites to keep both alcohol effects and hunger pangs at bay.

Brewery District eateries like Brick American Kitchen and El Arepazo
provide tour-goers a chance to sit down, sample their culinary wares
and have a taste of some of locally crafted brews

With all the history and details related to the places and landmarks we visited, we found there was still plenty of time to chat with your fellow tour-goer. Beer is by its nature a social beverage, and that seemed to hold true at all our stops with plenty of back-and-forth between fellow tour-goers and our guide herself about beer, common experiences and just topics in general helped made the tour length of three-plus hours go by like a breeze.

For us personally, the Brewery District tour turned out to be a wonderful way to learn about what made this area important in Columbus' long history, as well as introduce us to some of the landmarks and businesses in the area that we had only heard about but never had a chance to visit. Add in the tastes of delicious local beers and eats and some good company alongside, and we had a day King Gambrinus (the patron saint of brewers) himself could celebrate.

The King Gambrinus statue (actually modeled after Columbus brewery
owner August Wagner) offered a colorful end to a great tour

Columbus Brew Adventures
Tour and ticket information can be found on their website at
www.columbusbrewadventures.com
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