After a long season, with 35 different packaged Oktoberfest beers battling it out to see who is the best this year… we’re finally there.  The finals were recorded live at MadTree Brewing Company (last year’s winners), and it was a really, really tough decision.  The decision was so difficult that I had to call on help from Marco and Julia from Truth, Beer, Podsequences to help me judge – AND had to get help from DIPA Josh to make sure that the contest was all on the up and up by helping us with the pouring.

In the end, though, as always – there could be only one winner, and this year Sonder took home the Golden Gnome as the first-ever double-winner of the contest.

It was fun, it was chaotic… it was a good episode!  Enjoy!

Special Appearances By:

In order of this year’s final results!

I love the folks at Common.  I love what they’ve built in Mason, Ohio.  I also LOVE every chance I get out to record an episode of the Brewcast with them.  I headed out to hang out recently to see how things have been going, as they settle down after their fifth anniversary and to hopefully show you exactly why a small neighborhood brewery like theirs can 100% stand out, even in a busy beer city like Cincinnati.

This is definitely the type of show that makes me remember why I enjoy Cincy Brewcast – and I hope you have as much fun as we did!

This episode is always a blast, bringing with it more than its fair share of chaos! Big Cis is a collaboration beer that we brew every year in memory of Mike Cisneros, who helped start this show back in 2015. To be fair, the show was his idea, and I was just along for the ride until he passed away only a year and a half after we had been making it.

The beer honors him. It honors who he was and represents a lot of what drives me forward as a beer blogger here in Cincinnati.

This year we brewed the beer down at Darkness in Bellevue, KY – so I sat down with owner Eric Bosler to chat about Mike, about Big Cis, about their journey… it was a ton of fun, even if the recorded sound is a little rougher than you’re used to. I’ll nail the whole live event thing one of these days!

I LOVE this event every year. Sonder and Friends Oktoberfest perfectly represents what I love about craft beer, and I make sure to fire up the podcast every year to celebrate. I sat down with Justin and Danny from Sonder and friends Mark (and Amy later) from Common Beer Company and Brian from BC’s Brewing Co.

We drank a bunch of Oktoberfest beer and just sort of let the conversation take us wherever it wanted to!

For the full video version of this episode – head over here to YouTube!

We keep hearing it repeatedly: the future of breweries lies in the neighborhood spots. Lebanon Brewing Company understands that very well, and when they opened their space last year, they worked their butts off to become part of Lebanon in every way possible.

On this week’s episode, I headed up to Lebanon to chat with owner/brewer Jake Borsvold about how all of those pieces come together for them. We spend some time learning how Jake’s story got him to where he’s at, now – and of course drinking a few beers along the way, too!

If you are curious about Lebanon Brewing Company, make sure you follow them on Facebook and Instagram – but more importantly – make sure you visit them at 20 W Silver Street in Lebanon, Ohio.

As we head into Streetside’s anniversary week, it seemed like a great chance to sit down with Garrett Hickey. Garrett is one of the owners, founders and a great person to talk to if we want to get a picture of how things have changed with the brewery over the last seven years.

I’m always fascinated with how Streetside has developed its personality, even while a few different head brewers have managed to put their own spin on things during the same timeframe.

We talked about a lot of things, from the brewery’s stance on collaboration and why it’s important from a professional and a personal level to what we think craft beer drinkers are looking for in 2023.

Of course… you know that we also opened up a few beers while we chatted!

If you like Cincy Brewcast (or really anything that we do here) you can always support the show by going here) – or by sharing your favorite episodes with someone else you think would like them!

Why do some breweries get a lot of hype when they open their doors? Why do some beers get people talking and others don’t? What do craft beer drinkers really want these days? This episode tries to answer the questions and more as I sat down with Jason Brewer and Zac Boehnke from Wandering Monsters.

We talk about how their roads ended up to where they are today, we drink a few beers, and get a little off track quite a few times. It’s what I consider a great episode of the Brewcast!

Cincinnati’s craft beer community is constantly growing and endlessly evolving. March First’s new taproom down on Fountain Square in the former Rock Bottom space is a perfect example of that. I headed down during their opening week to see what they’re doing to keep that evolution going. We had a few beers and shared the secrets to their success.

This week’s episode takes us over to Glendale, Ohio – which will soon be home to a much-needed brewery called ‘GlendAleHouse’. I sat down with owners Scott and Laura to talk about what inspired them to jump in head first and convert their home into a taproom, brewery, and pizza restaurant. You’ll figure out pretty quickly during the interview that these folks are easy to fall in love with, and the brewery that they’re planning will be one of your new favorite taprooms too.

Huge thanks to GlendAle House for making some time for me to sit down and talk with them!

If you like this show and want to support it, you can always head over to here to do just that.

I never really seem to learn my lesson about recording shows on location from loud events, do I? This episode is packed full of the chaos you would expect from trying to record during a beer festival. It’s loud, a little disorganized, yet a ton of fun. I chatted with a few folks that I’ve been wanting to get on the show and had a great time doing it!