Update: Our area brewery visits
Kelly and I have developed a shared hobby: We enjoy discovering breweries and taking in the experiences. Call them mini-adventures.
This all started with a trip to Asheville, NC, the brewery capital of America. With the 'brewery boom' around Greater Cincinnati/NKY, visiting breweries became a natural extension for us.
Now..... we aren't big beer drinkers. For the record, my last hangover was 1994. It resulted from my going away party from CLTV in Chicago. It was that next morning that I swore I'd never, ever, experience another hangover. We are beer.... samplers. We enjoy sampling different beers. Each brewery visit usually consists of ordering one flight for each of us. Most flights are four 4 oz pours. On occasion we might get crazy and split a second flight. We usually hit locations on the weekends, in that crowd sweet spot of late afternoon/early evening. Man, we are getting old. We've gone wild and occasionally visited on a weeknight.
We live in NKY, in Independence. Our travel range is generally about 45-minutes to an hour, on the outer limits.
Kelly might be considered a ringer for all of this. She works at Wild Flavors, one of the world's leading producers of natural ingredients for the food and beverage industry. She's a sensory panelist. Her job is tasting various food and drinks and offering feedback. I like to see if I can taste the ingredients that her palate identifies in various beers. I'm an IPA guy. Kelly likes more of the stouts and sours.
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Here is our running list of breweries visited (48):
Alexandria Brewing Company
Bad Tom Smith Brewing
Braxton/Braxton Barrel House
Big Ash
Bircus
Brink
BrewDog
Cartridge
The Common Beer Company
Darkness
Dead Low
Dog Berry
Esoteric
Fibonacci
Figleaf
Fifty West
Fretboard
Grainworks
HighGrain
Humble Monk Brewing
Listermann
Little Miami Brewing
Mad Tree
March First
Mt. Carmel
MPH
Municipal Brew Works
Narrow Path
Paradise Brewing,
Nine Giant
Northern Row
OTR Stillhouse
Rhinegeist
Rebel Mettle
Sam Adams Taproom
16 Lots
Sonder
Streetside
Swine City
Taft’s Ale House
Third Eye
13 Below
Urban Artifact
Warped Wing Mason
Wiedemann's
West Side
Woodburn
Wooden Cask
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Favorite beers:
Bad Tom Smith Brewing: Breathitt County Blonde Ale, BTS Brown Ale, Wicked Sheryl's Blush Pale Ale, 13 Preachers Marzen Lager, 1895 Strong Ale.
Big Ash: Backbeat Coffee Blonde
Braxton: Roadtrip
BrewDog: Elvis Juice
Brink: Berry Wheat, Damocles
The Common Beer Company: Abracasabro
Esoteric: Kalima Coffee Cream Ale, Celestial, Virtue, Lotus and Ethereal
Fibonacci: Tollhouse. Linalool
Figleaf: Maple Wee Easy Scotch Ale, Peanut Butter Amber, Heart Shaped Box Stout, Blood Orange Iso Trope IPA
Fretboard: Fungee, Reba, It's Your Thing, Bootsy
HighGrain: Super Trouper
Humble Monk Brewing Pancake Porter, Peaceful Pear, Krampus Krumps
Listermann: Maple Chickow, Nutcase
MadTree: Churro, Peaches and MeMe
MPH: Who’s Your Nana? Napoleon’s Revenge, Key Lime Pie Nitro and Peanut Butter Milk Stout, selections from Left Hand Brewing, their partner from Colorado.
Municipal Brew Works: Orange Agave Blonde, True West, Free City Ale
Narrow Path: Rouge Infusion, Partially Redacted, Guabanero, Brews Traveler, Coconut Porter, Flatwoods...
Nine Giant: Save Ferris and Popscene
Northern Row: Tobogganer, Brambler, Preacher
OTR Stillhouse: Very Cherry Cocoa Larry, Westy, OH Bee-have.
Paradise Brewing: Blueberry Kolsch, Pitch Off Pale Ale, You Vicious Brute
16 Lots: Fluffer Nutter, Cherry Wheat
Sonder: You Betcha!, Otto
Streetside: P.U.C It
Swine City Brewing: Strictly On Account, Rye Did I Do This? Life After Brunch
Third Eye: Subconscious Haze, Eye-cing on the Cake
13 Below: Wedding Day, Rail & River and Submerged
Warped Wing Mason: Panama Red Smoked Red Lager, Rum Barrel Aged Flying Heads, Hydro Haze
Wiedemann's: Blood Orange Blonde, Mango Hefeweizen, Summertime Lime
West Side: Smoked G.I.L. Wow. One of best and most unique we've had + Barleywine, Blood Orange Common, Tart Cherry Farmhouse, Session IPA.
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Favorite Foods: (We have not eaten at all of the breweries visited)
ABC Brewing: Flatbread (Smoke N Feathers)
Bad Tom Smith Brewing: Vampire Slayer pizza, Roasted cauliflower bites/honey garlic
Bircus: Wood-fired pizza (Funghi)
Esoteric: Wings and tenders from Decibel Korean Chicken.
Grainworks: Chicken cheesesteak sub (Legasea East Coast Subs Food Truck)
HighGrain: Roasted Cauliflower
OTR Stillhouse: Chicken and tenderloin skewers.
Mt. Carmel Brewing: Smoked Chicken Wings
MPH: Wood fired 11-inch Spinach and Bacon pizza. Appetizer: House made Smoked Barrel House Chili chips & salsa. Spectacular. ($5)
Municipal Brew Works: Tasties on The Go food truck has killer quesadillas and wings.
Narrow Path: J's Fish Tacos truck! Excellent bowls and shrimp tacos.
Nine Giant: Fried Chicken & Biscuit and Hot Italian Hoagie
Northern Row: Pot Roast Sandwich
16 Lots: New Potato Caboose Pizza from Mad Monks (Inside)
Third Eye: Burger (Mind Bender), Chicken and sausage gumbo
13 Below: Incline Smoke Shack, Pulled pork egg rolls, Smoked Turkey Sandwich, Smoked Philly
Warped Wing Mason: BBQ brisket quesadillas and Smoked chicken sandwich
West Side: Steak it Eazy food truck: Ribeye sandwich, steak tips/mac & cheese and side of grilled/sauteed vegetables.
Woodburn Brewing: Momotaro Peach IPA 5, Valravn Chocolate Cherry Stout, Solo Blonde Ale, Encantado, Square Pants Wheat
Wooden Cask: Chicken quesadillas
Let me know if you have a brewery we should check out and what you recommend: lance@lancemcalistser.com
Cheers