After pouring beer at the old Kindred Brewing taproom for the past 11 months, Heart State Brewing is returning on Sunday to their production facility at 750 Cross Point in Gahanna. The short hiatus allowed Heart State to recreate their taproom and bring in some fun new touches. The most apparent change is the new arcade space immediately adjacent to the taproom itself. There are currently a half dozen new Tilt pinball machines, a pool table, a pair of dart boards, and some very cool vintage games including a 1981 Ms. Pacman machine. The décor in the game room is an eclectic mix of wall art carefully curated from Goodwill and Salvation Army thrift stores. The wood on the walls and some of the furnishings are repurposed pallets.

The taproom layout is largely unchanged. Behind the bar are 10 taps pouring Heart State and Nowhere in Particular beers. A cooler is billed with beer-to-go. A wall of barrels separate the main taproom from the brewing space. You’ll be pleased to know that 20-30 of the barrels are filled with beer which should be ready to serve this winter. Some of the barrels are new oak and some are repurposed Bourbon barrels from Highbanks. (Hopefully, in the future, there will be some from Noble Cut in the mix as well.) And speaking of their next door neighbor, the Noble Cut Distillery; they will be featured at Heart State. This will include their spirits as well as their Simple Times mixers. Ultimately, there may be some collaboration in terms of tours and tastings.
Heart State’s Mug Club will feature 18 oz pours for $5 in your personalized (locally made) mug for $50 annually. Happy Hour will be Monday-Friday from 3-6 and feature $5 pints, and $10 flights.

The Grand Reopening is this Sunday, February 19 starting at 11 and lasting until everyone is worn out. There will be free pinball for this first hour or so and all pints will be $5 all day.

Coming attractions: While much has been done, much more lies ahead. The tap choices will be expanding from the current 10 to as many as 20. A kitchen is being installed and by late spring in-house food will be available with a major focus on sliders. If you like the arcade, you’re going to be pumped when the current six pinball machines expand to 20! There will also be a new retail space that will feature merchandise from local Gahanna area businesses. Tours will be available as well.

Hours will be Monday – Friday 3-10, and Saturday-Sunday Noon-10. Don’t forget the taproom is at 750 Cross Point Rd in Gahanna. Be careful using GPS to Heart State, as it might still direct you to the old taproom. Cheers!

A little late, but finally made it to the new Ohio Brewing location in the Milo-Grogan area. Having been to their taproom in Cuyahoga Falls, I expected more than a hole-in-the-wall taproom for their Columbus location, but I was absolutely blow away by this venue. The first pleasant surprise was their parking lot. When you get in the Short North and Italian Village areas, finding free parking is always a pain. Okay, this is next door in Milo-Grogan, but the spacious parking lot (at least 100 spots) was sweet. (Hoof Hearted is less than ½ mile away and Seventh Son less than ¾ mile.) Approaching the taproom revealed a large wrap-around patio with seating for 100+. Then through the entry into the former 37,000 sf warehouse revealed a massive taproom, easily one of the largest in central-Ohio. Brightly lit with natural light and with the high ceilings, it was almost like entering a cathedral. But the coup de gras is the décor. The walls on all sides are an amazing homage to the State of Ohio. One area recognizes the many pro teams in Ohio, while another honors many of the universities. Of course, each of Ohio’s native-born United States Presidents get a nod. Then there are another 100-150 portraits of other ‘Ohioans” ranging from entertainers, athletes, astronauts to politicians, business and military leaders. Most are Ohio-born, but some made their name here. (There is one questionable inclusion. I’m not certain most will appreciate having Charles Woodson honored here?) Finally, the murals which are a medley of Ohio landmarks and symbols are works of art. And, of course, be certain to look upwards and take note of the scarlet and gray biplane piloted by Brutus Buckeye.

The bar and many of the tables are made with live-edge wood and seating capacity is well over 150. All the house beers are made on-site with their 30-bbl brewing system. A dozen flat-screened TV’s adorn the walls for your favorite sports viewing.

The tap list covers the gamete from Mexican lager, Pilsner, and Wit to IPA, Nitro Stout, and a Fruited Sour. There was also a hard-to-find Altbier on tap. Wines and cocktails are available, as well as a large selection of Bourbon, Scotch, Vodka, Gin, Tequila, and Rum. The food menu is impressive in size and scope with loads of appetizers, a number of salad options, a dozen burger and sandwich options, plus flatbreads, pizzas, and desserts. Brunch is available on Saturday and Sunday.

Ohio Brewing is located at 421 E. 2nd Avenue and opens at 4 Mon-Fri and 10 AM Sat-Sun. Cans and Crowlers are available to go.

Westerville, Ohio, the former Dry Capital of the World, just got wetter! Fattey’s Beer Company opens this weekend in Uptown Westerville. The Buffalo NY based taproom/bottle shop will celebrate its Grand Opening Saturday morning at 10:30 AM.

Fattey’s will be serving draft, canned, and bottled beer, wine by the glass or bottle, cider, mead, seltzers, sodas, and frozen cocktails. The latter will include frozen Margarita’s, a frozen Orange Crush with Smirnoff Vodka, and a PBR Freeze Hard Coffee. The beer line-up will include 8 taps with the opening line-up including drafts from Three Floyds, Jackie O’s, Masthead, Maine, and Single Cut. Add to that another 500 cans and bottles from local, Ohio, national and international brewers available to drink on-site or take home. I spotted a number of German and Belgian favorites on the shelf along with beers from Firestone Walker, Alesmith, and Lord Hobo. From December through April an additional tap will be pouring Guinness on Nitro. Non-alcoholic craft beers are also available from Athletic Brewing Company.

The Westerville location offers seating for 40 or so inside and another 16 outside on the State Street patio. Flat screen TVs are mounted on the walls inside for sports viewing, and there will be live music on the patio they share with Fusion every other Saturday.

Hungry? Their ‘world famous chicken sandwich’ will be available for $7, soft pretzels for $4, plus standard bar snacks.

Fattey’s has a Mug Club offering for $135 the first year, and $50 annual renewals. Members get a mug to take home and a mug to use in the taproom, plus first mugful free, another free mugful on your birthday, 22 oz for the 16 oz price, special events, and $2 off beers to-go.

The Fattey’s taproom Manager, Bryan Stewart, tells me that local folks from Buffalo who are familiar with their original location, have already discovered the Westerville location, and they will become the area’s Buffalo Bills Backer Bar. So, expect to find NFL games for the Bills (and Bengals, Browns, and Buckeyes) being available for viewing.

Fattey’s will be open Sunday – Thursday from noon – 10:30+, and Friday-Saturday noon – 11+. They may open early for football games.

Fattey’s Beer Company is located at 79 S. State Street in Westerville and is included in the city’s DORA district which allows outdoor drinking during limited hours seven days a week.

It was a sad day in April when Mike and Jessica Byrne announced that their time with Lineage Brewing had come to an end. The brewery would be closing. A silver lining appeared on that dark cloud with the announcement that Pickerington’s favorite brewery, Combustion, would take over the brewpub. Now, some three months later, it has come to fruition. This Saturday morning, August 13th at 11 Combustion in Clintonville will celebrate their Grand Opening.

The décor has been freshened to promote the Combustion brand, but the folks in Clintonville will settle back into their favorite stool and feel right at home. Of course, the tap list will be different with Combustion behind the wheel. On Saturday, all 22 taps will be pouring Combustion favorites including four IPA’s, four Blondes, three Stouts, three Mexican lagers, a Schwarzbier, a Hefeweizen, a Pilsner, a Saison, and four house made ciders.

The renowned Lineage hand pies will be gone, but if you’re hungry, Combustion will be partnering with a number of the near-by restaurants. Of course, Combustion will be heavily involved in supporting the Clintonville community, just as they do in Pickerington. Name 10 Trivia will be on site every Wednesday as well.

Hours will be Tuesday-Thursday 4-10, Friday-Saturday 11AM – midnight, and Sunday 11-9.

Combustion Brewing is located at 2971 N. High St in Clintonville. Cheers!

Buzzsaw owners Andrew Watkins and Quinn Bartlett opened their small brewery in Whitehall in February 2021. Without a taproom, and in the middle of the pandemic, all their sales were cans to retail and kegs to commercial accounts. Twelve months later, February of this year, they quietly opened a small taproom and began limited on-site sales. The taproom space is currently very limited as they await all the necessary permitting to open the full space. Ideally, by September they will announce their Grand Opening with seating for approximately 50; considerably larger than the current 15 or so.

The small bar seats four, and a couple of tables comprise the rest of the current taproom, very reminiscent of the early taprooms at Homestead, Actual, and Sideswipe. Behind the bar are a dozen taps, all pouring house beers. The lineup is very strong on Belgian style ales with a notable lack of an IPA. Ask for an IPA and they will recommend their Czech Pilsner.

Bartlett does the brewing with small batches being made with their one-bbl pilot system and their seven 1-bbl fermenters, while the higher volume beers are contract brewed, but fermented on-site in their two 30-bbl fermenters. Expect to find Belgian ales and German lagers dominating the lineup.

When you are there, take note of the tap handles. They are made from their retail can labels, all of which were designed by Watkins. Cans and kegs are available to-go.

The taproom is located on the back side of an office park at 951 Robinwood Avenue just off of E. Main Street in Whitehall. Currently hours are Weds-Friday 4-8 and Saturday 12-5. Buzzsaw is not yet on the Columbus Ale Trail, but is part on the ‘Ohio On Tap’ app.

On July 30th, the Somewhere in Particular Brewery will host their own beer festival. Their “Summer at SIP Beerfest” will feature a dozen breweries, one distillery, a pair of food trucks, and a live band. The breweries include Wolf’s Ridge, Dankhouse, Heart State, Parsons North, Crooked Can, Derive, Random Precision, Olentangy River, Nocterra, Edison, Somewhere in Particular, and Nowhere in Particular Cabinet of Curiosities. Highbanks Distillery will be there, and the music will be provided by the non-profit band, NACHO.

Tickets are $50 and include 12 tickets and a 5 oz mug. $5 of each ticket will be donated to the NACHO band for Children’s Hospital. The event takes place at SIP’s taproom located at 5055 Dierker Road from 3-7. Tickets are available via their website.

On May 17th 2019, at the kickoff event for Columbus Craft Beer Week, the Ohio Craft Brewers Association shared a cake with the attendees celebrating the opening of Ohio’s 300th craft brewery. Now, just three years later, during the 2022 Columbus Craft Beer Week, the OCBA announced the opening of Ohio’s 400th craft brewery. When Mary McDonald, the OCBA Executive Director, started her tenure in 2013, there were only 58 craft breweries in all of Ohio. Central-Ohio alone has that many now.

And while the rate of growth may be slowing, the upward trend continues for Ohio craft brewing. MacDonald reports that in the last two years, Ohio has averaged 48 new breweries per year, while closing 11 breweries per year. She reports at least 70 more in the planning stage statewide.

Where is the top – nobody knows, but growth will continue. At the end of 2020, the U.S. had 9025 craft breweries, according to the Brewers Association. Back in 1873 there were 4131 breweries in this country, and the population then was a mere 39M. Today’s population is 330M. If we were to get to the same number of breweries per capita, that would suggest 35,000 total breweries in the US. Not likely, but it does provide a bit of perspective. Support your neighborhood brewers: Drink local!

One of the premier events of this year’s Columbus Craft Beer Week will be a reprise of an event from the 2016 version. On May 17, 2016, four iconic brewers held a panel discussion on the early years of the craft beer revolution in Columbus. At that time, the panel was comprised of Scott Francis (Temperance Row), Angelo Signorino (Barley’s), Victor Ecimovich (Hoster) and Lenny Kolada (Smokehouse), moderated by Cheryl Harrison (formerly of Drink Up Columbus).

This year’s reprise will again include Francis, Signorino, Ecimovich, joined by Eric Bean (Columbus). The graybeards will have a fresh face join them, with Mary MacDonald, the Executive Director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association bringing another perspective. Curt Schrieber, author of ‘Columbus Beer’ will moderate the panel discussion.

The event will be held at Edison Brewing in Gahanna on Thursday, March 18 at 6:30. A very special collaboration beer will be tapped that night. It is Legacy IPA 126. The name reflects the years of experience of the four iconic brewers that brewed it there at Edison. It will be available at Edison, Columbus, Temperance Row, and Barley’s.

Ideally, the new performance stage, under construction now, at Edison will be completed and available for the panel discussion, which will offer plentiful seating on the patio for the event. Live music from country artist Alan Carl after the event.

Edison Brewing is located at 785 Science Blvd. in Gahanna.

Is brewing beer a science, an art, or a bit of both? I would argue that for the macro-brewers it is essentially confined to science. If you are brewing millions of barrels of the same beer year after year, you are relying on automation and high-tech laboratory instrumentation for the requisite consistency in taste and quality. There is, of course, a human element with the tasting panels that evaluate the uniformity of the beer each day, but otherwise it is essentially purely science and technology. When I toured the Columbus Anheuser-Busch brewery several years ago, the plant manager and the head brewer were both Chemical Engineers, which goes to that point.

Craft brewers, on-the-other-hand, are much more clearly a blending of art with science. The development of new recipes and the use of new malts, hops, and yeasts all require imagination and vision. That is not to say that science is not also a big part of craft brewing, because that plays a critical role for them as well. You can learn about it first hand at Land Grant Brewing on Wednesday May 4th.

In conjunction with COSI’s four-day Science Festival, COSI scientist Joe Wood will join Land Grant’s Director of Operations, Chris Helderman to lead a pair of ‘Science Tours’ of the Land Grant Brewing facility. Helderman has the requisite scientific credentials himself with a B.S. in Food Science from Purdue University and a Certification in Fermentation Science from the University of California-Davis. While Land Grant already has free tours available on Saturday afternoons, Helderman describes this event as “the normal tour on steroids”, complete with a series of COSI led demonstrations featuring the application of science.

The tours will last 45-60 minutes and start at 6 PM and 7:15 PM. Each tour will be limited to 20, so you may want to come early, sign in, and have a beer. The Two Fat Indians food truck will be on hand.

Land Grant is located at 424 W. Town Street.

One local brewery has been quietly racking up some impressive wins of late: Brew Brothers, led by Head Brewer Ryan Torres for the last six years.

Most recently, Brew Brothers was announced as the winner of the 2021 Alpha King Challenge. This award, which dates back to 1999, was founded by Yakima Chief Hops and 3 Floyds Brewing. The contest crowns “the most well-balanced and drinkable beer with 60 IBU’s or more – the top IPAs and DIPAs on the market.” All entries are from commercial brewers, with a limit of one entry per brewery, and a maximum of 150 total entries. The event is held in Denver during Great American Beer Festival (GABF) week, and is judged by brewers, industry experts, and veteran beer writers. Past winners include Bell’s Two Hearted and Russian River’s Pliny the Elder.

Torres and Brew Brothers also pulled in a Bronze Medal at the 2021 GABF in the English Mild or Bitter category with Toasty, an English Style Dark Mild at only 3% ABV. And in the 2021 Ohio Craft Brewers Cup competition, he snagged a Silver Medal in the Sour/Wild with Fruit category with Jerry, a barrel aged sweet/tart wheat beer with cherries .

The Brew Brothers is located at 6000 S. High St at the El Dorado Casino. Hours are Sunday-Thursday 11-9, and Friday-Saturday 11-11.