Cincy Brewcast

It’s not like Moeller Brew Barn is a “new brewery” – they’ve been cranking out great beer from their taproom in Maria Stein since 2015 – but with the recent news that they were buying the old Rivertown Production facility up in Monroe… it’s certainly time to welcome them to Cincy, now.

I made the trip up to Maria Stein to sit with their founder, Nick Moeller – and we had a great conversation over a few beers. We talked about their story, their philosophy, and the growth that is defining them coming out of the Pandemic. These folks are planning big things, and I can’t wait to see it all come to life!

This is a big one. There have been rumors flying around for a while now, and it’s time to put the guys at BCs on the spot and see what’s true and what isn’t. (Spoiler Alert… it’s all true) – the bottle shop is growing and becoming a brewery.

We dive in to understand why they are making this change, what it’s going to look like, and what makes them think that they will be able to pivot their business.

I can’t thank Caleb and Brian enough for taking out some time to sit down and break the news with us, I hope that you are as excited about it as I am!

I’m not saying that I’m ready for winter – actually… I’m not even close to ready for winter. I am 100% ready for Beervent season, though! (Don’t send me an email, I recognize that Beervent season is winter… but let me have this one).

I sat down with Jason at Higher Gravity to dive into what all goes into these calendars (and to remind you to get your preorder in before they sell out this year) – we had a couple of beers and talked about a lot of stuff. From the opening of their second location, and all that went into that to what makes running a store like Higher Gravity fun, and difficult.

This is a fun one, and I can’t thank the guys at Higher Gravity enough for making some time to put this episode together!

It’s a topic that comes up a LOT in discussions amongst beer geeks. I’ve asked, and been asked it over and over, and never really answered or gotten an answer that satisfied me. Why in the world would we think that this time would be any different? Perhaps because on this week’s episode we had the wonderful Julia from Truth, Beer, Podsequences on? Maybe because she was joined by her “other half” Josh?

This might be the time we finally get an answer we’re happy with.

Or… maybe we’ll just drink a few great beers, talk about nonsense and have a great time – you be the judge.

We hung out at West Side Brewing for this one (unbeknownst to them… which is always fun, and feels like you’re sneaking around – I like that) – it’s a great episode and I can’t thank Julia and Josh enough for making it happen!

The Queen City Mobile Food Truck Association has been working hard prepping for their upcoming Street Food XPO at Bechtold Park on 6/25 – and since I’ve been hanging out, helping them out with some “stuff” (That’s a long conversation for another day) I figured the timing was right to sit down and have some beers with good friend Tony Lange to talk about the festival (but mainly just to drink some beers…)

We cracked open some cans out of the magic backpack, we were interrupted like 75 times by real work… and we had a blast.

Check this one out, and make sure you make it out to the Street Food XPO!

I’m absolutely crazy about lager beer. I love it. It’s not just the actual beer itself, though… it goes deep for me. We’re blessed to live in a city like Cincinnati where folks get that – folks like Northern Row. Not only does the brewery make great lager – they get it.

On the week approaching their Lagerfest – a celebration of everything lager – it only makes sense to sit down and talk about it all.

There’s a lot to cover in this episode… a whole bunch. I was joined by Mike Morgan and Bret Kohlmann Baker – and we talked about everything from their podcast (Brew Skies Happy Hour) – we talked about Urban Artifact brewing the most expensive beverage in the world – Missing Linck, and even spent a bunch of time trying to figure out what craft beer is all about anymore.

My goodness… no wonder I was late getting home and made my wife mad.

Enjoy this one… it was a ton of fun.

Mike’s Cincy Beer Books (These are Amazon Affiliate links, so I get paid if you click on them and make a purchase – full disclosure)

16 Lots is fresh off not only their first big barrel-aged bottle release but also the massive announcement that they are going to be opening up a second location in Newport Kentucky, right at the Levy. It sounds like a great time to sit down for another episode of the Brewcast, right?

Del Hall was generous enough to give me a few minutes of his time to break it all down for me – and my goodness, it gets me pretty excited about the future for these folks!

I didn’t think when we were planning this episode that it would also be Cinco De Mayo, I also am not always a fan of the fact that so many beers that folks make for the holiday are pretty much the same thing… so for those reasons, this isn’t a Cinco De Mayo themed show… but Michael Amann (from Adena Distributing) and I certainly talked about it.

We also talked about “alternative beverages” and their place in modern craft beer… and we had a great discussion about some really nerdy beer stuff that you can’t hear because my memory card freaked out on me (always carry a backup, podcasters). It’s an excellent episode!

It’s hard to believe that the last time we sat down with Randy and Karen at Wooden Cask, it was before things shut down in 2020, yet… here we are. The world is vastly different, plans are not the same and every brewery has been through a lot of “stuff” which means we definitely have plenty to talk about.

We rolled through a hearty flight of beers and talked about it all. We covered how the brewery has managed things for the last couple of years, how it all changed their plans. The curiosity for me was how it changed the soul of what makes Wooden Cask who they are (or maybe how did it manage to not change it).

I loved this one, it’s always a good time hanging out in Newport, Kentucky!