Cincy Brewcast

I love beer holidays. And no, I’m not talking about national beer day or anything like that – I’m talking about those days around town when breweries release a beer, or a few beers and repeat it every year. We as craft beer drinkers can use these chances as an opportunity to hang out together, drink a few beers and be a community.

That’s what this is all about, after all. It’s a community.

Streetside gets this. Their tagline is “The Intersection of Craft Beer And Community” so it only makes sense that they’d find a way to create a few of these days for those of us who love craft beer. The latest? That’s the topic of this episode.

Speak of the Devil day quickly approaches (It’s on April, 23rd) and I sat down with them to find out what it’s all about (as well as drink them ALL) – it was a good morning.

I don’t get to explore the beer scenes outside of Cincinnati nearly enough – and was thrilled to get away this weekend to do exactly that. Good Friend of the show (and me) Matt Demaris invited me and a couple of friends on a “Cincinnati Brews Travellers” trip down to check out the beer scene in the mountains of West Virginia.

We hit up a bunch of breweries, recorded a bunch of podcasts and had an absolute blast doing it. I hope this one is as fun for you to listen to as it was for us to record!

April Fools! I hope that I had you going with this one! While I may not be moving the show to Dayton… it was a fun chance to head up that way for a week and chat with a place that I’ve been impressed with each time I’ve tried their beer – Branch and Bone Artisan Ales.

I convinced their Director of Sales, Trevor Sutherland to join me on this little adventure and I’m glad that I did! This peek behind what makes this place tick makes me that much more of a fan of what they’re doing – and might even convince me to take some more regular trips up north to share what’s happening in the Dayton beer scene!

I hope you enjoyed this one… and I hope you’re not to upset that I played a little joke on you!

It’s not how I wanted to kick off Volume 8 of the show, but it’s how it’s going to happen. I’m alone in the studio because of another chaotic week that saw the Brewcast being pushed aside…again. I promise though that a big push for me coming into our eighth year of the podcast is to make sure that doesn’t happen as much.

It seems that when I keep thinking life is packed full of chaos and “things” there are always more that will pop up — So I’m going to make a very conscious effort to stop using that as an excuse, and just start making things happen. That’s not to say that you won’t hear me in the studio on this show anymore – but it won’t be because things had to happen that way – it will be because it’s how I wanted it to happen that week.

There’s a lot to unpack here with this episode. Not only is it an episode where we finally sit down with Taft’s again after a long time… but it’s also the first time we really get a chance to talk about their contract business which exploded during covid, and during the resulting world “after” it.

I grabbed a flight of beer (thanks, Taft’s, for buying me some beers…) and sat down with Dan Shatto to try to dive into it all.

We explored everything from Dan’s start with Watson Brothers, all the way to what Taft’s is up to today. It was fantastic, and like I said – a lot. I think this needs to happen again to really dive into somewhere around 9 different topics that could have sidetracked us during the episode.

This was a wild episode. I mean, the Sausage Queen preliminary rounds are little nuts normally, but throw a brewcast into the mix? Things are sure to get a little chaotic. Here’s what I thought this show was going to be… a short 15-20 minute chat about what Sausage Queen and Bockfest are all about, then a little 30 minute or so episode that included some of the shenanigans from the competition.

Instead… we ended up with fire in the middle of the Sonder taproom, and we chatted for an hour about it all. What can you do?

I guess the rest of the content will have to be part of the rumored ‘We Had Beers’ podcast that those of you who subscribe to Patreon will get to enjoy. Who knows?

I like these sneaky little shows. Showing up at a brewery unannounced, without having a representative from there on the show usually leads to a different discussion than we would have had otherwise. I put out the call on social media last month that I had a handful of shows that I was planning like this – and needed a volunteer to make one happen. Nathan Stewart replied, and we rolled the dice – Listermann Trailhouse it was!

I don’t want to spoil the episode by telling you too much about our impressions of the space – but it’s safe to say that we didn’t hold anything back in that regard.

We drank a few great beers, had a fun conversation, and I think it’s safe to say that we’ll both be back to the Trailhouse to grab a beer sometime!

Woodburn has been on a definite transformation – when the new ownership (The March First Family of Brands) took over in early 2021 we knew that they were going to work hard to change things around, but this? This is fantastic. The taproom has grown a little bit, with the addition of a lounge area where the old brewhouse used to be – and now, they’ve added a full kitchen to the back of the space, too.

If you thought that this was just another small, bar-bites type of operation, you were very, very wrong. This is a Kitchen that you’ll want to go eat at, even if you’re not a beer drinker. It’s something that should be getting the neighborhood of East Walnut Hills really, really excited right now.

I sat down with Josh Engel (you guys know Josh, right? He runs social media and marketing for March First) – Bhumin Desai, the March First culinary director, and the new Head Chef for Woodburn, Andrew Han. We talked about not just what the Kitchen is going to be like, but what it means for the bigger picture of how March First’s taprooms will keep growing into the short (and long-term) future.

It’s taken a little bit of time, but we finally made our way down to Narrow Path in Loveland to sit down and rock out a podcast. It was a good one too, worth the wait if I say so myself. We got into it all, not just the story of how Narrow Path came to be, but even into the philosophy behind it that makes it a little bit different than anywhere else in town.

Of course, we no Brewcast is complete without drinking a few beers – and that loosened things up a bit so we could even talk a little bit about the future of what might be coming for Narrow Path.

These guys are phenomenal, a near-perfect example of what I want out of a craft brewery. If you haven’t been, you probably know what my next recommendation is going to be, then… right? Get there.

I mean it when I say that Bircus was pretty far ahead of their time when they started planning their taproom/circus hybrid. There are breweries that know how to provide an experience and then there are those that flounder around trying to figure it out on the go. Bircus knows experience.

I sat down with owner Paul Miller and their new head brewer JD Angell to talk about how Bircus navigates a changing craft beer marketplace, and operates a taproom that is unlike anything else. I would be crazy not to also talk to them about their new Covington taproom, as well as the rumored plans for an upcoming taproom in downtown Cincinnati, too.

We drank a few beers (Thanks Bircus!) and had an absolute blast. These guys are always fun!