Here at Cincy Brew Bus we logged a lot of miles this year. We watched our biggest year of brewery openings ever. Most of these locations are on our top rated local craft brewery tours and those that are not we are currently talking with about making visits. There were 13 Grand Openings , 10 of which were new breweries opening their doors for the first time and 3  were spots that out-grew their previous locations or added on. 

We have discussed at great length if there is a craft beer bubble and if we are over-saturated in the marketplace this year. Which based on economic research done by the Ohio Brewers Association does not seem to be the case. We are now a more neighborhood driven brewery town, which is really no different than most craft beer loving cities. 

Is Cincinnati in a Craft Beer Bubble-Brew Minds Video from Brink Brewing

In 2017 we watched the following locations open and it has been incredibly fun: Queen City Brewing of Cincinnati (New Years) (Blue Ash), Brink Brewing (College Hill), March First (Sycamore Township), Rivertown (Monroe), West Side Brewing (Westwood), MadTree 2.0 (Oakley), 16-Lots (Mason), Bircus (Ludlow), Fretboard (Blue Ash), 13 Below (Saylor Park), Grainworks (West Chester/Liberty Township), Narrow Path (Loveland), Taft’s Brewporium (Spring Grove Village) on 12/16 Little Miami (Milford) Rounded out the openings for 2017.

Check our schedule to see when we are making visits in 2018 to these stops! 

Tour Schedule Cincy Brew Bus

We are proud to partner with nearly all these locations and offer services to introduce you to Cincinnati’s local brewing history, beer, Servatii Pretzels, how beer is produced and what makes each stop so special and unique.

Expansion is really fun to see, but what puts a city on the map is how good the beer is. Several local breweries took home awards this year at various competitions. Most notably Fifty West, Brink Brewing and Taft’s Brewing took home Gold at Great American Beer Festival in Denver Colorado. Winners were as follows: Specialty Beer (50 West, Barleywine 10&2), English Mild (Brink Brewing Hold the Reins) and Vienna Lager (Taft’s Brewing/Ale House- Gustav). Listermann was Best in Show runner up (was best in Show last year) and a Gold Medal Winner at FOBAB (Brandy Barrel Aged Chickow) along with Rivertown (Ville De-Gueze-Bronze) and Rhinegeist (Double Oaked Mastadon-Silver)  for the annual barrel aged beer bash in Chicago.

Ohio’s Top 11 Stories of 2017-Rick Armon-Akron Beacon

This was also the year of the release for Cincinnati. Nearly every weekend in Cincinnati there were specialty beer releases (beers that made it to cans or bottles) early on Saturdays or in one breweries case, Tuesday, and they were a hit! Most people think of sports when they talk of tailgating, however nowadays in the beer universe people are lining up early to get their hands on the latest releases. Listermann brewing led the way with a release nearly every other week and their beer “Fiona” a New England IPA led the way with rave reviews and a portion of the proceeds going to the Cincinnati Zoo to benefit our loveable Hippo and her battle for survival.  Many other locations have amazingly fun beer releases, some notables are Rhinegeist, Taft’s Ale House, Urban Artifact, Braxton, Streetside, MadTree, FigLeaf, Municipal Brew Works, Paradise Brewing, Mt. Carmel and Fifty West.

Speaking of Fifty West, besides their annual barrel aged releases they made National exclaim again this year with their “Punch-Out” event where they release their Double IPA “Punch-Out” by moving in a boxing ring at their Production Works location. Local breweries actually physically box each other while nearly 3,000 people gather, drink beer, and root on their favorite athlete for the event. 

SLIDESHOW-Fifty West Punch Out Round 2-WCPO

We are truly living in the Golden Age of Beer and just so happen to be living in one of the most exciting cities for locally made craft beer in the United States.  Magazine articles, news reports, lists and other publications rank our city as one of the finest to experience craft beer.

This article would be remiss if it didn’t mention the amazing efforts of every brewery in the area giving back to local charities. It is amazing the willingness of the local brewing community to give so freely of their time, money and resources. 2017 was a banner year for giving and charity to several organizations in the Tri-State.

We are proud to be part of this amazing culture and community. We took out nearly 5,000 people in 2017 on our tours and the reviews and feedback of our local brewery scene from locals and visitors were amazing. Each location has a special place in our heart and we are proud to partner with some of the best business owners in the Greater Cincinnati area. We are also incredibly grateful to have some of the most loyal and faithful customers on the planet. Thank you all for your love and support these past four years. 

Predictions for 2018-Craft Beer Joe

Here is to 2018 with many more memories shared with you, your friends, colleagues and family.

Cheers!

Mike Stokes

President, Founder,

Cincy Brew Bus

 

P.S.

There appears to be no slowing down in 2018 with several new locations like Swine City in Fairfield, Sonder in Mason, Rolling Mill in Middletown, Wiedemann in St. Bernard, Quarter Barrel (2^nd location) in Hamilton, Happy 2 Brewing at Mio’s in Anderson, Alexandria Brewing in Alexandria Kentucky, Humble Monk in Northside, Rebel Mettle in OTR and Three Points Urban Brewing in OTR. These are just the ones we have heard of so far, I am sure there are some working that haven’t made the ranks as of yet. Of course stay tuned and we will keep you posted!