Noc Noc Noc-ing at Powell's Door: Nocterra Brewing

Funkwerks, circa our 2015 trip to Colorado. Like Fort Collins, Columbus'
beer scene is one where new breweries have increasingly to prove
their wares are worthy to the public early on or risk being left behind

Craft beer fans know that Colorado's breweries rate as some of the country's best. That fact did not escape our mind during our 2015 trip to visit my spouse's brother and his family in the Denver area. Thankfully, her brother (like most of the family) has been into craft beer for quite awhile - in fact, during his years in Columbus, his first homebrew kit came from the Clintonville's Winemaker's Shop from none other than Angelo Signorino, the longtime head brewer at the venerable Barley's Brewing Company.

For a day, her brother graciously chauffeured us to some of Fort Collins' finest breweries. During our journey, he mentioned that breweries there just simply couldn't open up and expect to be successful; they had to have at least a couple years planned out to even have a chance to make it in what was and still is a competitive beer scene.

Back then, that was nowhere near the case with Columbus, a beer scene that was still growing and evolving. Not so much anymore, though - in my mind, Central Ohio's scene has reached a point where a new brewery's chance to establish their footing has shrunk considerably. Indeed, many of the newer arrivals, including but not exclusive to Combustion, Somewhere in Particular, and Pretentious, have been received favorably fairly quickly by the locals. This notion was tucked in the back of my mind when my spouse and I dropped by to one of the area's newest in Powell's Nocterra Brewing for a sneak preview.

Sneak Peek: Brewcadia

This might will date me, but my first angels-singing-from-the-heavens experience I had with an arcade game was with Midway's "Sea Wolf". Peering my eyes through a fairly realistic (to a pre-teen kid, anyway) periscope sighting, my pulse hastened with each whoosh of the launched torpedo, the rhythmic tolling of sea bells (well, electronic pulses anyway) and the "thoom" that meant another sunken surface ship. I took pride in knocking off the speedy and tiny PT boat at its farthest distance, whipping my scope around to the other side with a loud thunk to get ahead of it and shooting blindly. More often than not, that marauding pest would hurtle smack dab into my LCD-enhanced streak of death.

That game was one of many in this era of modern-day arcade games. Starting with the groundbreaking "Pong" in 1972, these machines have become more sophisticated over the years, and are now in their fourth decade of providing entertainment to several generations of fun-seekers. Brewcadia, the bar/arcade hybrid that started by venerable Columbus brewpub Barley's Brewing Company, is the latest Columbus-area venue to offer this option to the public at large.