It’s not that I thought Barleycorn’s Brewhouse was going to be “bad’ when I stopped in the first time. As beer drinkers we’ve been trained for so long to fear the worst out of a chain, and out of a brewpub. The great thing for us is that far more often than not these days they surprise us by being remarkable. Barleycorn’s is another example of a place that pleasantly surprised me by coming out of the gate swinging.

I sat down with head brewer, Shane Trego to talk about the brewery, his journey to get there, and what this all means for Barleycorn’s (and One Holland’s other project down in Independence). We drank a few beers and had a blast exploring what it means to open a brewpub in a city like Cincinnati in 2022 – which… spoiler alert – is a lot different than it was in the 90s.