The Barrel House

Restaurants on Vacation

January 2, 2020 By Lisa Grigsby

The holidays are behind us now and for many local eateries that means it’s time for a rest. The beginning of January is typically the slowest time of the year for restaurants and bake shops, so taking a little rest at this time of year makes sense. Here’s a list of those we know are taking some time off:

Ashley’s Pastry Shop

21 Park Ave, Dayton, Ohio 45419

(937) 293-1719

Will reopen on Tuesday, Jan 7th at 7am

The Barrel House

East Third Street, Dayton, OH 45402

937-222-GRWL (4795)
Will reopen at 11am on Tuesday, January 7th.

Mamma DiSalvos

1375 E. Stroop Rd. – Kettering, Ohio 45440

937-299-5831

Closed January 1-7. But you can still pick up a jar of their sauce at your local grocery store.

Partial to Pie

200 Shroyer Rd., Dayton, Ohio 45419

(937) 813-8851

They will reopening Tuesday, January the 7th.

Stella Bleu

20 North Fountain, Springfield, Ohio 45502

(937) 717-0478

Closed until Tuesday January 7. Will open at 11am Tuesday and be back to our normal hours.

The Winds Cafe

215 Xenia Ave Yellow Springs, Ohio

937.767.1144

Will be closed January 1-13, 2020 for our annual holiday break. They will
re-open for our regular hours on Tuesday, January 14 with our new menu.

If you know of others, please leave a comment below and we’ll add them to the list.

The Great Pumpkin Beer Comparison

October 2, 2019 By Brian Petro

October. When all things fall ramp-up. Shelves are covered with Halloween candy, nature has changed from shades of green to shades of gold and rust, and college football teams are starting to play ranked contenders. Oktoberfest beers are going to disappear from the shelves slowly, our love of the German festival waning as September ends. Fear not, because there is one style of beer that is going to be in season late into fall. Pumpkin ales started hitting the shelves in early September, but they do not really hit their stride until we transition into fall. People start looking towards those warming flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to get through the crisper days.

The beer options on the shelves can be overwhelming. While places like Belmont Party Supply and The Barrel House offer single cans, or even beers on tap, for you to enjoy, there is still a decent selection for you to consider. In service to our readers, we decided to do a small taste test of the beers that are out in the wild right now. A selection was acquired from Belmont Party Supply, and we sat around playing games and tasting beers. All of the beers we tried were generally commercially available; we did not go after any whales or other unique beers. They were also as standard as we could get. We avoided anything barrel-aged or a limited version of another beer. Each beer was sampled considering how it was balanced, the presence of pumpkin flavor, and the pumpkin spiciness in the bottle.

These are, of course, our opinions. Yours will differ, based on your taste buds and love of pumpkin spice.

Ichabod – New Holland Brewing – 4.5% ABV – Holland, MI

This one was primed for us to enjoy. Dark, delicious, good pumpkin and spice nose, everything we wanted in a pumpkin beer. Then we took a sip.

Of all the beers we tried, this was the only one that everyone poured out. It was unbalanced, with the spice being unbalanced and not at all what we were expecting. If there was any pumpkin flavor in it at all, it was buried under layers of spice and hops. Not much to it that we enjoyed, especially with the bitter finish we all detected.

Johnny Rails – Erie Brewing Company – 6.5% ABV – Erie, PA

When we poured this and took a whiff, we were expecting big things. I personally expected good things, as one of our vacation breweries of choice when we are in northwestern Pennsylvania is Erie Brewing. We were, sadly, sorely disappointed.

It is a good beer. We all enjoyed it and expected it to be exceptional based on the aroma alone. But the flavor did not deliver. There was some sweetness of the pumpkin, and some of the spice came through, but it was faint. It is a great fall beer, but not one we would reach for if we needed pumpkin in our lives.

Spooky Tooth – Fat Heads Brewing – 9% ABV – North Olmsted, OH

This one elicited the most diverse discussion from the table. The debate was not over the quality of the beer; we all agreed it was one of the better brews of the night. There were two camps at the table. One felt that it is balanced, with the sweetness of the pumpkin playing a flavorful foil to the spice of the beer. The other opinion was that the pumpkin was not that present, but the spices were still balanced and enjoyable. Either way, this is one to snag before the end of the season.

Imperial Pumpkin Ale – Weyerbacher Brewing – 8% ABV – Easton, PA

This beer was one of the more balanced ones that we tried during the evening. The spices were the more dominant component of the beer, with the sweetness of the pumpkin taking a back seat. You could tell it was going to have a good spice flavor from the first pour, and that part did not disappoint. It was easy drinking enough that someone described it as “the summer shandy of pumpkin beers.” But at 8% ABV, you should not be drinking this half as hard.

The Fear – Flying Dog Brewing – 9% ABV – Frederick, PA

Of course The Fear is going to pour dark. It has to be scary, right? There was a light pumpkin spice nose to it. Combining that with the dark color made the dark beer drinkers at the table pretty excited. The excitement was justified. Led by cinnamon, the pumpkin spice flavor comes through nicely. It was dark and rich and luxurious, lingering on the palate for much longer than most of the other beers. The spice, and the bite it provided, made this beer one of the favorites of the tasting.

Pumpkinville Latte – Ellicottville Brewing Company – 6.5% ABV – Ellicottville, NY

The sweetness in this one was telegraphed right from the beginning. There was a distinct cake aroma to the beer, undeniably sweet, which blended nicely with the spice notes. It certainly was creamier and sweeter in taste than the other beers were, but that did not cut out the spice. It smelled, and tasted, like pumpkin pie with a dollop of whip cream. The coffee was in the background, offering a slightly bitter balance to the sweetness of the beer. All of the richness makes this entry a good end of the night beer.

The King of all Pumpkin Beers

Pumking – Southern Tier Brewing – 8.6% ABV – Lakewood, NY

Certainly in the argument for one of the best pumpkin beers on the market. The balance of the sweet pumpkin and the bite of the spice is perfect, from the time you catch the aromas coming from the bottle to the time the lovely liquid rolls over your tongue. The finish was smooth, and this was “really pumpkin pie in a glass” according to one taster. In the realm of flavored beers, it is hard to find one that Southern Tier does not do well. This was the hands-down favorite of the tasting.

Pumpkin beers are enjoyed throughout autumn, right up to the point that the first Christmas beers start to show up on the shelves. But while they are out there, they are a warming delight in the chilly days of fall. All of that spice a perfect balance for s’mores and Halloween candy. There are plenty more than the ones we sampled, which we would love to hear about. What are your favorite pumpkin beers? Let us know in the comments. Welcome to fall!

Big Beers gets even Bigger!

September 26, 2016 By Kevin Gray

A preview to the annual rare beer festival, this time with no ABV cap.

Dayton has a lot of great festivals, but there’s one that stands above the rest in terms of selection of rare beers. Big Beers and Barley Wines, which returns this Saturday, October 1, to the Montgomery County Fairgrounds Roundhouse, is a festival for beer geeks, put on by beer geeks. Organizers work for months in advance with breweries and distributors to cherry pick the line-up of nearly 90 beers, carving out one-off beers, pub exclusives, and limited releases and combining them with vintages of old favorites, beers seeing their festival debut, and beers created exclusively for the event.

This year promises to be the biggest yet. While previous Big Beers have showcased giant barley wines and imperial stouts, those beers were capped at 12% alcohol by volume (ABV) by Ohio law. Not so in 2016—the cap was lifted on August 31^st. Mike Schwartz, a founding member of the event team and owner of Ollie’s Place, Belmont Party Supply, and BrewTensils, drove the planning team to think big for this year’s line-up. “Big Beers and Barley Wines’ goal is to bring as many rare beers to the beer connoisseur as possible,” Schwartz explains. “This year with the alcohol cap removed, we have put the emphasis on Big Beers!”

Big Beers and Barley Wines will be the first regional festival to present these huge beers, and Gus Stathes, the main beer buyer for the event (and beer guru at Ollie’s Place) has been like a kid in a candy shop, lining up beers that were not available in Ohio before. “We’ve always focused on securing the most exciting and special beers that we can get our hand on for this festival,” explains Stathes. “This year’s list is more exciting in that without an ABV cap, we have access to a much more broad spectrum of options.” Beers like Hebrew Jewbelation 17 and Deschutes Abyss 2015 are scheduled to see their Ohio festival debut, alongside local and regional giants like Hoppin’ Frog T.O.R.I.S. The Tyrant triple oatmeal imperial stout, Dayton Beer Company’s Midnight Dream Raspberry Imperial Stout and a Evil Twin’s Molotov Heavy, an enormously hoppy triple IPA.

But don’t let the focus on huge beers prevent you from trying those with a more “modest” ABV. Look for cellar projects from Green Flash like Oculus Savage and Nocturna Morta Boysenberry. Quaff Brothers killed it last year with their Orange Melvin and are promising more of the same in 2016. This year, they’ve teamed up with MadTree to create Gus Juice, a Gnarley Brown barrel-aged variant with honey, cocoa nibs and cinnamon named after one of the festival’s organizers. MadTree also has three rarities on the docket under their own name: a brown ale called Ford the Mill, a wild ale named Chamomile Levanto, and a 2015 BA Coffee Axis Mundi.

Want to go even more local? Nearly all of the Miami Valley local brewers will be attending. Warped Wing BA Abominator was a hit last year and returns this year, this time infused with Maple. Toxic’s Barrel Aged Night Ender is also scheduled to make an appearance—a boozy variant on an already deceptively boozy imperial stout. Fig Leaf, which is opening in Middletown the first week in October, will debut their Ponderous Porter—try it at the festival days before you’ll be able to try it at the taproom. And when you’re ready for dessert, seek out Eudora’s Mother Fuggle on chocolate covered bananas—a dessert beer indeed.

What makes the event even better than the fantastic beer line-up is the worthwhile cause it supports. “Not only is Big Beers & Barley Wines the premier craft beer tasting event in the region, 100% of the proceeds benefit the Resident Home Association of Greater Dayton, Inc.,” explains Peter Roll, RHA Executive Director. “Resident Home provides services to people with developmental disabilities where the primary source of funding is Medicaid dollars. Those dollars do not fully meet the needs of the people we serve. Events like Big Beers help us provide for those unmet needs. This helps us buy clothing, pay for uncovered dental services, purchase new eye glasses, pay for leisure activities and other things on our clients’ wish lists.”

Established in 1966 by a group of parents with developmentally disabled children, RHA has expanded to now provide homes, daily living support and services to around 80 adult individuals in the community. Pam Skelly is the event organizer with RHA. She notes that, “Big Beers is near and dear to my heart as it is with so many other participants—Big Beers gives us the chance to enjoy and talk beer with fellow beer geeks.” Skelly also emphasizes how the event funds the RHA wish list: “The RHA wish list helps us to support the hobbies and individual interests of the people we serve. The people we serve derive so much joy from the little things in life—a country concert, a night out for pizza and a movie, jewelry-making parties and so much more; supporting these hobbies and interests is so very important. We could not do any of this without the support of the Dayton beer community.”

The Dayton-based non-profit employs a staff of full- and part-time resources and works with other organizations such as Sinclair Community College and Choices in Community Living to extend their reach into the community. The web of support that RHA provides their clients through their various programs and partnerships gives their clients the assistance to live and work with a high level of autonomy within the community. Roll adds, “When you support Big Beers, you are supporting a very worthy cause and we very much appreciate our patrons.”

All proceeds from the event go to the RHA. This year, Big Beer and Barley Wines Beer Fest will be held inside the Roundhouse at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds on October 1, 2016 from 4 to 8pm.

Early ticket sales have surpassed previous years’ numbers, so the organizers are expecting a possible sellout and they are advising would-be attendees to get tickets as soon as possible. Tickets are $45 in advance and $50 at the door (if available). Tickets may be purchased at Ollie’s Place, Belmont Party Supply, BrewTensils, 5th Street Wine & Deli, The Barrel House, Bee Gee’s Market, Chappy’s Tap Room, Kings Table, Lucky’s Tap Room, South Park Tavern, Thai 9 and Trolley Stop or on the web at www.bigbeersdayton.com.

First Anniversary For Craft Beer And Fine Wine Bottle Shop

January 28, 2016 By Lisa Grigsby

We first wrote about The Barrel House – Coming Soon To Third And Wayne in January 2013. At that time, Olive owner Kimberly Collett had recruited her cousin Jeff Heater to move from Maine to come to Dayton as her partner and manage this coffee shop for beer. Jeff jumped write in to oversee the remodel of the building as the GM & Chief Beer Geek.

It took a while, to maneuver through some construction and lease obstacles and The Barrel House officially opened on Jan 30, 2015. On the eve of their first anniversary celebration on Sat, Jan 30th, Jeff took some time to talk with DMM:

The picture that started it all.

While this is your first anniversary, when did planning for the BH start?
It really all started with a text picture of Chimay White, mid March, 2012.
When I lived in Columbus my favorite bar always had the beer on tap and I would tease my cousin with it. This particular time I was living in Maine and celebrating with a Chimay from my local bar. The reply text was “I have an idea if you want to come home”, and that got the ball rolling. The Olive had been open nine months or so and Kim saw the potential. Originally the idea was that by the time I actually made the move back, the store would be ready to open. I could live upstairs in the apartment, it would be perfect. We all know that didn’t happen!

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the first year of business?
Facebook is a tool. No, seriously! A business tool. Social Media is an entirely different beast as a business. Alga-rhythms, paying to boost, who sees what, and on and on… One doesn’t want to be annoying yet it’s the way we keep up these days. It can be a double edged sword. Liking and sharing posts does a huge amount to spread the word. I’m trying to be better about tagging local breweries when we tap their beers or receive new package product.
We have such solid reviews, many sites contact us asking that we take it up a notch and pay to play.

What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had about the business?
We are not a brewery! We leave that to the other guys. We get so much mail trying to sell us forklifts and spill kits and all kinds of fun stuff, however, we will not ever need any of it!

If you had it to do again what one thing would you change?
Absolutely nothing. I’m a firm believer in the here and now. All the what-if’s in the world wouldn’t result in the same end product. Part of our whole logic was to open when it was finished, nothing we had explain away. I distinctly remember the day i realized it was ready. Still, when we see necessary changes needed, we have evolved. We adapted to the needs of the customer. We will continue to evolve.

What can we expect new or different in year two?
More controlled events. My goal from the beginning was to have one wine and one beer event each month. However big or small. It’s time to focus on that. I want people to know that the second Thursday of the month is something at the BH.
When we were the new kid, breweries and distributors were throwing stuff at us so fast, we were not in a position to say no. Now I know to be patient. Maybe it’ll come back around? Maybe it’s not worth the hassle? As I say this, I’m already eating my words because the Ohio Craft Brewers Conference is hot on the heals of our Anniversary party. So five long days later we will have a Fatheads Meet and Greet event.

I like to think this is the end of the longest, toughest year of my life. I know it’ll never get easy, there will always be stress, and I’ll never really get a day off. But with the support of my wife, family and friends, I’ve…, we’ve made it this far. There is a great community of support here and I am certainly happy to be a part of it. We have a great staff, delivery a great product, and are committed to making our mark in the local beer scene. Here’s to many more years, Cheers!
We hope you’ll check out the 20 taps which include 17 craft beers, one gluten free cider a red and white wine at The Barrel House at 417 E. Thirds Street in downtown Dayton. You can fill a growler or howler, enjoy a flight of beers or pick a bottle of wine off the shelf, use the insta-chill cooler to chill your bottle in 5-7 minutes while you lounge in the comfy chairs and use their free wifi. You can even carry in your own food, or have it delivered.

HOURS OF OPERATION:
Tuesday-Thursday 3p-10p
Friday & Saturday 12p-1a
Sunday 1p-7p
Closed Mondays

Jackie O’s Tap Takeover At The Barrel House

May 19, 2015 By Dayton Most Metro

We are excited to host this Tap Takover with special guest Johnny from Jackie O’s. Come on out and enjoy four of their awesome beers on tap!

Mandala Citra … This double IPA is solely hopped with one hop allowing both the brewer and the consumer to fully taste and smell all the pure hop character

Morning Cloak … A true session hop delight with grainy character from munic and wheat to add lightness to the grist. Aroma is full of oranges, lemon rind, floral nuances, and touches of grapefruit pith

Razz Wheat … 40% white wheat and 60% malted two row create a nice subtle wheat ale. 420lbs of all natural raspberry puree is added during fermentation giving this beer a unique and playful personality. The rosy haze and sticky head embody a continuum of sour sweetness held together by a wheat back bone

Hop Ryot … Hop Ryot has a unique character thanks to the use of Rye malt and Simcoe hops: rye malt adds some soft spicy notes to the beer, and a generous amount of Simcoe hops adds a big sticky-citrus aroma and flavor. It finishes very dry and pleasant, beckoning another sip

Preview Nights Set For The Barrel House

January 21, 2015 By Lisa Grigsby

Next week there will be several opportunities to tour and enjoy The Barrel House (and to give us a chance to practice on live guests and get your feedback before we officially open)! They will be holding soft open events the evenings of Jan 26-28!

Tickets are $5 per person (max two people) and include light appetizer fare, a chance to hear and talk with the staff and owners, and to experience the space first!! Each session is 1-1/2 hours and limited to 30 attendees, so that we can take the time to thank each of you personally and get your feedback! Please bring your ticket, photo I.D., cash or credit cards for drink purchases, as we need to practice using our system (and we can’t give alcohol away for free!). You can reserve your preview night tickets online.

The Barrel House

The Barrel House is an independently owned and operated, beer & wine bar and carry out, located at 417 East Third Street in Dayton, Ohio. It’s kind of like a coffee shop for beer & wine providing:

growler fills from our 18 beer taps AND beer & wine bottle sales for carry out!
draft beer and wine, with light food offerings and a comfortable lounge area, with free wifi to enjoy onsite!
you can even carry in food from Olive, an urban dive, right across the street from us!

Come on in, have a drink, sit with us for awhile, meet some friends, wait for a table at Olive, an urban dive across the street or pick up some wine and beer to go. We’d love to be your favorite spot and your favorite shop! Join us downtown! www.barrelhousetap.com 937.222.GRWL (4795).

**Parking for The Barrel House is behind the building!! Please use the back entrance for this event!

The Barrel House – Coming Soon To Third And Wayne

January 20, 2013 By Lisa Grigsby 5 Comments

The future home of The Barrel House

There’s been a bit of a buzz starting downtown about what’s going on behind the stark exterior wall at 417 E. Third Street. It’s a building you barely take note of, being attached to the long beige, stucco expanse of the KK building. A storefront that once existed, has been completely stucco’d over and painted gray, just sitting there waiting, right across the street from the old Wympee Diner on Third… another building that just a couple years ago, looked just as abandoned and neglected.

Kimberly Collett had a vision for what that old greasy, empty diner could be and we followed her through eight months of gutting and remodeling before she finally opened Olive, an urban dive, inside it, leaving the exterior exactly as it’s been since 1938. Olive is just over a year and a half into their stride and it just keeps getting better… from the quality of the dishes, to the size of their following. And one day, in a flash of inspiration, while standing in a shop in South Carolina, Kimberly had an idea for the building just across the street, that has stood empty, for the last ten years. For the last seven months she’s been honing the concept, working with the city and the building’s owner, Mike Wenzler, to pave the way for The Barrel House. But knowing she had her hands full with Olive and her construction company, Dayton Tradesource, she had to bring in someone else to partner and manage this new idea and asked her cousin, Jeff Heater, a craft beer enthusiast, to come home from Maine and lead the charge.

Jeff signing the lease for the space.

They describe The Barrel House as, “a coffee shop for beer, no coffee… just beer”, though it’s really much more. Once complete, you’ll enter the new storefront and be immediately greeted by a ‘coffee shop feeling’ lounge, with deep couches and vintage furniture. As you move further in, the space transitions into a retail shop filled with shelves and custom displays of bottled beer and wine, there’s also space for local art, beer and wine related locally made gifts, party supplies, chips, salsas, and hot sauces. Then there’s the centerpiece on the back wall, 15-20 taps for popular and eclectic, craft micro-brews from around the world, that you can carry-out in growlers.

Originally, The Barrel House was just going to be a carry-out and community area, but with no carry-out beer licenses left downtown, The Barrel House will be applying for a full restaurant liquor license, marrying the two businesses together in a symbiotic relationship, where Olive will supply the food portion of light fare and desserts and The Barrel House will be an overflow and waiting space for Olive guests, as well as an old world style, community pub, where you can meet friends for a carry-out lunch from Olive, hold a client meeting over a pint of beer, or just sit in the sunbeams streaming through the windows with a good book and a glass of wine. There will be tastings, gathering events, and collaborations, with as many local vendors as possible

Early demolition stage of the space

If all goes well, Heater hopes to open The Barrel House in sync with patio season, but having just been through this two years ago, Kimberly smiles as she looks at Jeff and says, ‘I’ve learned not to say when and Jeff watched everything I went through with Olive, so…” and Jeff finishes the sentence with, “we’ll see!”

In talking with Jeff, it’s easy to hear the enthusiasm in his voice. He’s been working on site, doing the demolition, tearing down drywall and plaster down to reveal brick. He’s found three different electrical panels that reveal some of the history of the building, i.e. labels for a jukebox and bar in one and in another bar lights and a back bar. While tearing out some old shelving he even found a phone number for Heidelberg Distributing written on the wall. So while not the first bar that will inhabit this space, this rendition won’t be your average neighborhood bar either. Heater is looking forward to sharing his love of craft beer and expand the palate of his guests.

The most up-to-date picture of the building of The Barrel House

Jeff’s excitement when talking about Ohio beers is contagious. His knowledge of the Ohio beer scene was honed while spending 9 years living in Columbus and he is looking forward to being able to showcase some of the specialty brews from places like the Columbus Brewing Company and even some Cleveland breweries. There are still a lot of hoops to jump through, but soon enough, Jeff will be inviting us to grab a seat on the couch, dial up the wifi, sample a Saison (his favorite beer style) and become part of the casual, comfy community he and Kimberly hope to create on their little corner of Third and Wayne.

While you’re waiting for them to open be sure and like their Facebook page so you can watch the progress of the construction and be in the know for their opening plans.