Triple-Hopped: On The Ohio Summer Brewery Prowl

Despite signs of slowing growth, craft breweries are most certainly still a thing. According to an article in USA Today, the craft beer industry surpassed the 7,000 operating breweries by the end of 2018, according to the Brewers Association. Furthermore, the Association expects another thousand or so breweries will join the fray by the end of 2019. And while Ohio may not match the sheer numbers of craft breweries found in other states, they are more than holding their own in volume, ranking fourth in the country according to the Brewers Association.

These sheer numbers have made it more important than ever to tune in to their surrounding community. If you can’t draw the locals in on a regular basis, your chance to achieve that next level of destination brewery pretty much rates as nil.

In many ways, that had changed way of writing about the breweries from here on out. A few select ones are going to be just plain outstanding and likewise a few select ones are going to just plain terrible. Most are going to fall in that big bell curve area in the middle, and as long as they’re keeping the locals happy, they can be quite successful.

Five Years in the Books

Filipino Halo Halo is but one of the culinary treats you can get at
Columbus's Asian Festival, held annually during Memorial Day weekend

Columbus’s Asian Festival, set again for Memorial Day Weekend this year on May 25th and 26th, represents a couple of important reference points for yours truly. One was finding out how truly few of folks like me were here during my first visit: the city where I grew up in California, despite having numerous times less folks than Central Ohio's population, has roughly eight times more folks with my background.

The second is it marks off another notch on the years I’ve been doing this blog. With this upcoming weekend, that will have been five in the book, the furthest I’ve ever taken a blog.

There are hundred of ways I could branch off from here, but I thought I’d just leave it simple. Thanks to all of you who have followed along, and I hope I can keep you entertained by our ventures and my writing as we go into year six.

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.

Cincy Travels Pt. 4: A Fifty-Fifty Brewposition

Just one of the several photographs one can find of famed highway US 50
at Fifty West Brewing, located on the eastern outskirts of Cincinnati

When it comes to US highways, Route 66 generally has the most ballyhoo and mythos attached to it as this country's ultimate road trip experience.  But based on my travels, I think US Route 50 might be the more satisfying road trip route.  Once stretching coast-to-coast, US 50 still meanders just over 3,000 miles through the middle of the United States, offering all manner of towns and cities of all sizes and just about every prominent geographical feature that this land has to offer, including a section in Nevada dubbed "The Loneliest Road in America."

Unlike the major Interstates, US 50 in Ohio is a pretty affair, playing tag with the Ohio River through Cincinnati. Once out of the Queen City, the route winds through forests and over rolling hills into the college town of Athens and then beyond, finally crossing over the river proper into Parkersburg in West Virginia.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, one can launch into a pretty fair tour of breweries nestled on this route, and we figured a visit to a couple of them would be a perfect coda for our Cincinnati weekend.

All I Owe O-Hi-O: A Return to the Ohio State Fair

It's taken a few years, but now I think I've come to truly appreciate the entity that is the state fair.

I visited California's version of the state fair a few times both as a college student and later as young adult, but during those years my enjoyment of carnival and roller coaster style rides was waning, and the more informational exhibits weren't all that interesting to me at that time.

My first visit to the Ohio State Fair was something akin to the movie/musical "State Fair", where my spouse and I were still deeply experiencing the thrills of a young romance alongside the midway. The next couple of visits were more for the concerts, with Dolly Parton in 2016 (a fabulous show that I wrote about on this blogpost) and then comedian Gabriel Iglesias the following year.

This year, we got the full on fair experience, with a little help from some long time fair participants.

Brews and 'Ques: A Wooly Good Day in Coshocton

Two faded advertisements fight for the notice of passers-by
on the side of this downtown Coshocton building

It turns out the modestly-sized town of Coshocton, where the Walhonding and Tuscawaras Rivers merge into the Muskingum, at its largest was never more than 15,000 people in population. Despite its size, this town has brought forth a few surprises from within its borders, including being the birthplace of the modern promotional company  (Novelty Advertising Company was the first) as well as the birthplace of Steve Earle's favorite stalk-ee in alt-country artist Lydia Loveless.

So on a recent weekend with the urge to roam a bit and some time had passed since our last Brews and 'Ques venture, we decided it was time to pay this part of Ohio a visit for the first time ever.

'Ques and Brews: Viva Antiques! (Tallmadge, OH)/Madcap Brewing (Kent, OH)

With our journey into the Kent area for the first time, we figured we had to throw in a little bit of our favorite pastimes in antique- and craft beer-seeking into our journey. With plenty of fuel for the journey provided by the fun and kitschy joint that is Mike's Place (the subject of my last blogpost), we first dropped by into nearby Tallmadge for a visit to Viva Vintage!

Recently relocated from Cuyahoga Falls, the listed address for Viva Vintage is slightly deceiving (while it may be post office correct, it's almost better if you plug in neighboring Wire Wizards into your GPS system if you drop by for a visit.) 

The vintage silver Christmas tree outside was a good sign for this place's potential, and really it didn't disappoint for the size.  In a way, the size and decor reminded me of some of the vintage shops lining High Street to either side of North Broadway: just a little of everything organized in a relatively neat manner.