One thing we've learned as we have visited more and breweries across this region and around the country is that you can set one up in just about any style of building, Some buildings are truly modern affairs (two that come to mind for us is Odell's in Fort Collins, CO, and Firestone Walker in Buellton, CA), while others lie at the opposite end of the spectrum (the small business park spaces of Columbus-area locals Sideswipe Brewing and Zaftig Brewing, though for the latter that is soon to change with a soon-to-be-completed expansion.) But no matter the building, great tasting beer is where you can find it.
A subset of the breweries we have visited are places that may give people pause to those who aware of their history, especially if they have a tendency toward the supernatural. As we learned on Columbus Brew Adventures' annual Haunted Brew Tour, the underground section of downtown's Barley's Brewing once held a graveyard. Unfortunately, the relocation of said graveyard succeeded in moving all the gravestones but not so much those buried along with them.
On another trip into Michigan, we found out that the building that houses Grand Rapids, MI, Brewery Vivant was the chapel for a former funeral home. And in a similar vein, our recent trip up to visit Mansfield, Ohio (most famously known for The Ohio State Reformatory, the filming location that continually draws fans of the film The Shawshank Redemption to this day) found us at The Phoenix Brewing Company, which resides in the former home of the Charles Schroer Mortuary. Even more creep-inducing, Schroer committed suicide on the first floor chapel level back in 1932.
