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Toxic Brew Company

Toxic Brew 5th Anniversary/Block Party

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Toxic Brewery Unveils the Grapefruit Yoga IPA at the Night Market this Friday June 12th

Toxic Brew Company opened the first craft brewery in Dayton, Ohio in June of 2013 after Dayton saw a 52 year beer drought in the city. In celebration of their 5-year anniversary, Toxic Brew Company, which is located at 431 E. 5th St., will be closing down Jackson St. next to the brewery to raise funds for We Care Arts from 1pm to 8pm on Saturday, June 9th.

“This year we want to make it more than just about the beer,” owner Shane Juhl says. “We have teamed up with a lot of great folks to bring in street vendors, food trucks, animals, live painting events, bands, DJ’s, and giant-sized outdoor games just to name a few.” We Care Arts is a local charity that believes in the healing power of creating and producing art that transforms physical, developmental and mental challenges into a future rich with possibilities. Located at Berkeley Center, 3035 Wilmington Pike, Kettering, OH, it’s a place where people with disabilities learn independence and build self-esteem. Those with emotional, mental and/or physical disabilities can come to the facility and create artwork which fosters confidence and empowerment.

Toxic will also be highlighting multiple local and independent street vendors this year which include Mike’s Bike Park, Salon Noir, Reclaimed Bell, Luna Gifts and Botanicals and more.  For entertainment, Dayton’s own NightBeast and Tino will perform beginning at 6pm. There will also be DJ sets throughout the day by Scratchmatic, Fatty Lumpkin, and DJ Nicky-T. You won’t have to go far for food as The Oregon District boasts some fantastic restaurants and the Drunken Waffle food truck will be on site. Craving something sweet? Look no further than Gypsy Lane Dessert Studio.

In addition, Toxic Brew has partnered with Dayton Sportical, Dayton’s adult sports/social group, to bring in outdoor games like cornhole, giant Jenga, and more. There will also be face painting for children and other live art demonstrations as well as pups to pet thanks to AdoptAPit Rescue.

 

 

The Super Bowl – One Long Session for Beers!

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Super Bowl 49 logo

Super Bowl XLIX is here. Is your beer fridge ready for it?

The Super Bowl XLIX festivities begin at noon on Sunday, February 1. Pundits are going to spend the entire day analyzing the players, discussing past Super Bowls, and making deflated ball puns. The game itself starts at 6 PM, and will end around 11 PM after all the awards have been given out and more analysis of the game. That is a long drinking day for anyone. You have to pace yourself through a day filled with salty snacks, good friends, and lots and lots of fine, locally crafted beer. Fortunately, British brewers thought of this decades ago, and developed something called a session beer.

During World War I, production of material for the war effort was important. Parliament created a law that allowed for two drinking sessions a day; one at lunch and one at dinner time. Since drinking was much more limited, any typically could only be done at a bar, people would have a few more at lunch then they normally would. They did not want to go back work around dangerous equipment inebriated, so British brewers started to brew beers that were lower in ABV. They typically capped at 5%, but many went as low as 3%. Pilsners, bitters, and pale ales were the styles that were used, offering the most flavor while delivering a love tap of alcohol.

The United States does not have the same fondness for low ABV beers. The legacy of the “little beer” began just before Prohibition as a desperate attempt by then president Woodrow Wilson to stop the inevitable. He proposed that beers of no more than 2.75% ABV be brewed, minimizing the harsh effects of the terrible affliction of alcohol on a delicate public. Clearly, that did not work, and the country dried up for thirteen years. The first beer that came out after the Volstead Act was repealed but before the 21st Amendment went into effect? 3.2% beers. Our legacy with them is much more contentious, thus when the craft beer movement rolled forward, the LAST thing brewers wanted to do was create beers in the Budweiser range of ABV. The ABV War began, trying to create bigger beers, beers full of flavor and alcohol. The winning brewery at this point in time is Brewmeister’s Armageddon out of Scotland, ringing in at an overwhelming 65% ABV. Most beers like this are brewed once for effect, then retired.

A dark day in U.S. history, but a good time for session beers.

Session beers just came back into vogue in the last ten years as a reaction to all of the high ABV beers flowing through the country. Founder’s All Day IPA may be the beer that brought this type of beer to the general attention of the public. This great Michigan brewery sells this in a fifteen-pack, acknowledging that you can sip on this all day and still be able to function at your desk on Monday. It was mentioned more than a few times as a great session beer by the people I spoke with. The 4.7% ABV is perfect for a long session of drinking, and the hops ensures that it is not boring to drink. Fat Head’s Sunshine Daydream out of Cleveland is another highly recommended session beer, creeping up to 4.9% ABV and still delivering with refreshing flavor.

Looking for a local, low alcohol growler fill for the big game? Here is a list of what was found on tap (or in a can) around the Miami Valley. Not all of these fall into the session beer category, but they all hover around the 5% ABV range.

  • Lock 27 – Pugilist’s 4.7% ABV seems light for a beer with a fighting name. Session beers are not all light and hoppy. Here is an irish stout whose punch is in the flavor, not the spirits. Order some of their Smoked Wings while you are there. You will not be disappointed.
  • Yellow Springs Brewing – If you are going to go to one brewery for all your low ABV beer needs, this is the place to go. They have the biggest selection of tap beers that fall into this category. Their Kerfluffle, an English Mild beer, is the lowest on the list at 3.1% ABV. They also have Daily’s Comet Saison (3.8% ABV), Handsome American Brown Ale (5.5% ABV), Ryatt’s Eviction English Pale Ale (5.0% ABV) and Zoetic Citra American Pale Ale (5.2% ABV). A little something for everyone!
  • Dayton Beer Company
    Shelves of growlers

    This should be enough for Sunday, right?

    – Patterson Pale Ale, at 5.5% ABV, is higher on the list for a session beer, but a delicious option. While you are there, get a growler of their award winning Java Man Cometh (7.0% ABV) to help celebrate if your team wins, or cry into if they lose.

  • Warped Wing Brewing Company – They have some heavy hitters in their line up (Baltic Argonaut at 11.5% ABV would make a short session), but they offer their own Self Starter Session IPA at 5.2% ABV. Ermal’s Belgian Cream Ale at 5.4% ABV and their delightfully unique Wedding Beer at 4.5% ABV are options for Super Bowl growler fills.
  • Fifth Street Brewing – For my money, kolsch is my favorite style of lighter beer. FSB’s 1600 Kolsch (5.0% ABV) and Deluge Pale Ale (5.4% ABV) are both excellent beers to add to the game day menu.
  • Star City Brewing – If you already have plans and will have to miss their Super Bowl Potluck Extravaganza, you can enjoy their kolschy Blonde Ale at 3.8% ABV or Weizen Star Hefeweizen at 4.8% ABV at home with a much different pot luck.
  • Lucky Star Brewery – While you are in Miamisburg, you can stop by this brewery as well and pick up their Ojos Locos Mexican Lager at 3.9% ABV or their Redemption Red at 5.3% ABV. Their Wicked Step Mutha Double Stout weighs in at 9.9% ABV, but would be a delicious late game addition to cap off the party.
  • Toxic Brew Company – Relax. There is always some Practice Yoga (5.6% ABV) to enjoy during an all-day football binge. Sign up for the Shuffle Board League while you are there so your sports enjoyment can last after football is over. Abby’s Cure at 9.6% ABV came highly recommended for Sunday, but as a tasty treat with your all day sippers.
  • Eudora Brewing Company – Another award winning craft brewery in Dayton, their Sundowner Blonde Ale weighs in at 5.0% ABV. Supporting them means you are also supporting charity:water, providing clean water to those with no access to it.
  • Hairless Hare Brewery – Hello friends up north! The American Ale here sits at a sessionable 4.9% ABV. And is there anything more American than watching the Super Bowl?
Patriots vs. Seahawks

Just discussing some dinner plans after the game.

Not enough options? Belmont Party Supply has many, many selections for session drinking. Cincinnati favorites like Madtree offers Lift at 4.7% ABV and Rhinegeist releases Cougar at 4.8% ABV for you to consider. Rivertown’s Little Sipa IPA at a nice and light 4.5% ABV is another Cincinnati option on the table. The new kid in Ohio, Boulevard Brewing Company, has their Pop Up Session IPA that sits at a respectable 4.3% ABV and 80 Acre Hoppy Wheat at 5.5% ABV. Fans of New Belgium Brewing can get their hands on Slow Ride Session IPA sitting at 4.5% ABV. You can also pick up He’Brew’s Dry Hopped Session Pale Ale (5.5% ABV) or Heavy Seas’ Cross Bones Session IPA (4.5% ABV) there. If you want a little more heavy in your seas, their Loose Cannon IPA is an amazing choice with a little more punch (7.25% ABV).

The Super Bowl has become more than just the championship game for the NFL; it is a cultural event that brings people together with friends for good food and good company. Whether you are cheering for the New England Patriots, the Seattle Seahawks, or just a halfway decent Super Bowl ad, session beers are one way to sip on great beer all day and still be ready to shout, cheer, cry, and celebrate when the game begins. Now, time to start researching the wings and nachos. Cheers!

Thinking About a Stout? – National Stout Day

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Murphy's Irish Stout Pint

Murphy’s Irish Stout. The other well known stout from Ireland.

In September of 2014, there was a secret experiment going on at Starbucks. They have always been working with trying out new flavors, but this was different. They were not going for your traditional riffs on traditional coffee. There was a new demographic they had their sights on: the beer drinker. Starbucks dabbled in the liquor industry before with a coffee liqueur. It was not on the market very long, but it did deliver the rich Starbucks flavor people expected. The company that ushered in the craft coffee boom was looking to capitalize on the craft beer boom, and they knew their path in. It was not brewing Starbucks beer. It was going to brew a coffee that tasted like beer. The profile they were looking for shared many of the characteristics coffee already has; hints of bitterness mixed with rich complexity, a slight roasted flavor, and something with the same deep brown color as their core product. They were looking to make a coffee drink that tasted like a stout.

November 6 is National Stout Day, and stout is a fascinating beer. Stouts first gained popularity in the early 18th century, when it was discovered this hearty beer was a little tougher than the other ales, and had a little more kick. They were originally known as “stout porters”, since they were as dark as the porters being brewed at the time, but had a higher ABV. Eventually the “porter” was dropped and the style simply became known as stout. The question of “stout vs. porter” now causes some serious debate among the beer brewing and drinking crowd, some insisting the styles are as different as twilight and midnight, some saying that there is little difference other than a naming preference. The Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) notes a few general differences between the two. Porters are lighter in color, ranging from reddish brown to dark brown, where stouts are dark brown to black. Porters are usually sweeter, while the roasting of the barley for stouts can impart a bitter flavor. Porters roll crisply right over the tongue; stouts are thicker and tend to linger, using less water than their lighter counterparts.

Once you are past the “stout vs. porter” conversation, you can begin discussing the different ways stouts are brewed. It is generally agreed there are six distinct styles of stout:

    • Dry Stout – Because of a little Irish brewery named Guinness, this is the most widely known style of stout, though most don’t call it dry. Most people will call it an Irish stout, again because of Guinness. There are some bitter notes in this one coming from the roasted barley and some extra hops. Guinness’ IBUs (International Bitterness Unit) sits is around 47. For comparison, Dogfishhead’s 60 Minute IPA is 60 IBUs. It is usually thinner and lighter than other stouts, making it great to drink over time. Murphy’s Irish Stout is another fine example of this style.


    • Nitro Milk Stout

      Hello milk stout! Nitrogen is used to smooth out the beer even more.

      Sweet, or Milk, Stout – Advertisers are tricky. Trying to convince consumers of the healthy qualities of some stouts, they would add lactose, or milk sugar, to the brew to add sweetness. Milk is healthy, right? This type of chicanery caused the designation to be banned in England, but it can be used anywhere else in the world. The sugars mask the bitterness of the roasting and add some weight to the mouthfeel, leaving a rich and sweet flavor to embrace. Left Hand Brewing makes a delightful Milk Stout Nitro, and Southern Tier’s Crème Brulee Imperial Milk Stout are absolute delights to drink.

 

    • Oatmeal Stout – If milk is a healthy addition to the brewing of stouts, why not oats? Oat is a grain, and beer needs grains. You have warm water, oats, flavor…it is like oatmeal! A hearty breakfast in a bottle! They were most popular in Scandinavia, which maintained the tradition until beer explorer Michael Jackson reintroduced the nearly extinct species. The oats added to the mash add their own version of sweetness, while adding some thickness to the beer as well. If you are looking for a local one, you are in tons of luck. Warped Wing’s 10 Ton Stout, Eudora Brewing Company’s Thunderball, Yellow Spring Brewing’s Prowler, Star City’s Old Mill Stout, and Lock 27’s Oat Rodeo are just a few local selections for you.

 

    • American Stout – We have our own stout! American stouts shoot for the full, smooth mouthfeel of the richest stouts while adding extra hops, coffee, chocolate flavors to heighten the natural ones that emerge from the roasting process. They find their way to the higher end of the ABV scale, and are a product of brewers wanting to experiment with the traditional stout formula. The carbonation, usually not overly present in other stouts, emerges more in the American version. Dayton Brewing Company’s new Java Man Cometh would fall in this category, as would Deschutes’ Obsidian Stout and Revolution Brewing’s Rise.

 

  • Russian Imperial Stout – This was brewed in England for the Russian court of Catherine II. Since it was brewed for a country where vodka dominates all other liquor (they put down almost five times the vodka the Unites States does), it had to be stronger than normal and built for a long journey. Most stouts pack a reasonable 6-7% ABV punch. The low end of the spectrum for Russian Imperials is 8%, heading as high as 12%. Toxic Brewing’s Black Tonic sits in this category, as does Hareless Hare’s Rabbit Hole Chocolate Stout. A personal favorite, Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Blackout Stout (our own Max Spang has some thoughts on it as well) and North Coast Brewing’s Old Rasputin are other well respected versions of this strong style.

  • Great Lakes Brewing Company Blackout Stout

    Max Spang and I agree: This is a delicious Imperial stout.




    Foreign Extra (Tropical) Stout – The home of the stout is a long way from the tropics. Especially in the 18th century, when ocean going wooden ship was the only way to get there. It was brewed with some extra malt, making it sweeter and sturdier to survive the month long journey across the Atlantic. It was nicknamed “Tropical” because the earliest versions of this beer went to the warmer colonies of the British Empire. They are typically a stronger version of a dry stout, but any style can be made into a Foreign Extra Stout. The most well-known of this style is the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, and most breweries dabble in this style, offering it on tap in smaller batches or seasonally. Ridgeway Brewing’s Lump of Coal is a tip top example of a seasonal foreign extra stout.

Starbucks may still be testing their coffee stout concoction for all we know. There is no need to wait for them to enjoy the hearty flavors stouts can provide. And some of them even have healthy ingredients in them (sort of)! Despite the heaviness of these beers, many of them are not much more calorie dense than light beers. Guinness has only 15 more calories per 12 oz. serving than Bud Light, and for the same ABV. Enjoy a stout or two on National Stout Day. You can drink a Founder’s Breakfast Stout or Southern Tier Mokah instead of the Starbucks, right?

 

Zombie Dogz Comes Out Of Hibernation For Walking Dead Finale at Taggarts

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the-walking-dead-Ready for some Sunday night fun?  Taggarts Pub, at the corner of Wilmington and Patterson, is hosting a celebration of the season ending of the post-apocalyptic horror drama television series Walking Dead starting at 7pm.

With a Zombie Walk down Patterson Boulevard, a Tap Takeover by Toxic Brew Company and prizes for the best Walking Dead costumes, and the final episode of season 4 starting up at 9pm,  what more could you want?

 

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Food, well ok, just to feed all the undead, Zombie Dogz will make a special appearance about 7:30pm.  Featured dogs of the night will be:

The Juan of the Dead: BBQ pulled pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.
The Greek Freak: kalamata olives, feta cheese, tomato jam, tzatziki sauce, pickled red onions, and dill.

 

Grambee Zombee: Frankie’s freaky taco dip, shredded lettuce, cilantro sour cream and corn chips.
Debuting- The Evil Ash: roasted shiitake mushrooms, goat cheese, bacon crumbles, baby arugula tossed in a sherry vinaigrette.

 
There will also be truffle Mac n cheese sides available.

Brew it yourself!

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Belmont Party Supply

Belmont Party Supply was the original home of BrewTensils.

How are you enjoying Dayton Beer Week so far? The wide variety of beers, beer dinners, and other special events should be heaven for any beer lover in the area. Some people are not satisfied with just going out and enjoying. Some people need to create it on their own. For those people, there is BrewTensils. They have been open for just a few years, but have a much longer history than that. Darren Link, the manager at BrewTensils, took some valuable time out of his schedule to answer a few questions for us here at Dayton Most Metro. He spoke a little about the growing Dayton craft beer scene, how he started home brewing, and how you can join the ranks of home brewers in the area.

How did you get into home brewing? How long have you been doing it?

I got into it the same way almost everybody else does, a friend said “Let’s make some beer.” And I had the typical reaction “You can do that?” We made a few awful batches, I ‘borrowed’ some of his equipment to do my own beers. I got the bug and have been doing it for 4 years now.

What is your favorite style of beer to brew?

I kind of jump around with the styles I brew, so I don’t think I have a favorite style to brew. I enjoy brewing IPA’s; you will never have a fresher IPA than one you brew yourself. I also enjoy brewing English styles, Belgian Sours, and recently finished my second lager a Munich Dunkel.

What made it a good time in Dayton to open a home brewing store?

We have sold homebrewing supplies for the past 25+ years. The supplies used to be in the back of the beer store next door, Belmont Party Supply. A small shelf and items were constantly out of stock. Both BrewTensils & Belmont Party Supply are owned by Mike Schwartz. He noticed the demand increasing in the area and after the dry cleaner went out of business that used to occupy this space, established the current BrewTensils roughly 3 years ago. We’ve been consistently growing ever since.

Bulk Grain

Brew all the grains! Photo courtesy of Mike Lang

How have you seen tastes in beers change?

There’s almost an evolution in craft beer drinkers tastes. They have one craft beer or a couple beers that change their prospective. They get curious about what else is out there; they typically get into IPA’s and the hoppier styles. Then higher gravity (higher alcohol) and finally start appreciating the styles that are difficult to brew. As far a craft in general, it’s up 14% this year when beer sales in general have declined.

Do you see home brewers influencing national trends, or vice versa?

I think it’s a two way street. Brewers like to see how close they can get to brewing their favorite commercial beers. There are literally millions of clone recipes on the internet; New Belgium Fat Tire, Bell’s Two Hearted, and Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald being very popular ones. On the other side of it, homebrewers have helped to save some less popular beer styles. I feel that traditional Belgian Lambics have been an example. Almost going extinct in Belgium in the 60’s & 70’s, the popularity amongst homebrewers, professional brewers & beer connoisseurs have helped to keep them alive.

IPAs look like they are all the rage right now. What do you think the next beer trend is going to be?

I think IPA’s will always be the rage. I think session beers are increasing in popularity. A session beer being defined as a beer you can drink large quantities of without getting sloshed and typically has an alcohol percentage between 4 & 5.6 or lower. People want to try several different beers in one sitting, maybe even venturing outside of their comfort zone. On the other side of that there’s ‘extreme’ beers which can clock in at 10, 12 even 18 or 20 percent, which you can have one of and be rocked.

When does your next round of classes start? What do you like most about teaching them?

I don’t have dates set for those yet but I’m looking at having a round of classes before the holidays, so October/ November time frame. Our largest attended class is right after the holidays in January. The past 2 years we’ve had 70 people attend Brewing 101.

I like seeing their excitement of getting started, getting hooked and then bringing their first or second beer in for me to taste to see what I think of it. Kind of living vicariously through my customers reminding me of how excited I was when I started.

Darren

Would you buy a home brewing kit from this man? Photo courtesy of Mike Lang

What is the:

                -best beer you have tasted brewed by one of your customers?

The one that’s in front of me. No seriously, I am always pleasantly surprised by the high quality of beers that my customers brew.

-the worst beer?  (or a beer that people seem to have the hardest time brewing)

There’s an ancient beer style that used a whole uncooked chicken thrown into the fermenter. He soaked the entire chicken in white wine to ‘sanitize’ it, put it in the secondary for about 2 weeks, and loosely filtered it. I thought I was going to get salmonella from drinking it but the white wine added more character than the chicken.

-a beer you thought sounded awful but ended up tasting really good?

It didn’t sound awful; I was more intrigued by the idea of using homegrown garden herbs and spices in a beer. I have a couple of those I’ve done with great success. Honey basil ale is a really popular summer seasonal. Several customers have brewed it also with rave reviews. Another one that came out well is Thai basil & lemongrass wheat. But not all experimentation beers have turned out well, I’m still trying to perfect a baklava inspired beer with honey, pistachios, and philo dough.

Dayton Beer Company just opened, and Toxic Brew Company, Fifth Street Brewpub, Vitruvian Brew, Yellow Springs Brewery and Dayton History are poised to open breweries in the near future. Plenty of restaurants already have a wide selection of craft beers in the area, like Boston’s, South Park Tavern, Chappy’s, and a few others. Do you think Dayton is close to a saturation point on breweries and craft beer?

Not even close, we’ve only just begun. I had a theory before the new resurgence of breweries. I think Dayton was the largest craft thirsty market in the US that didn’t have an operating brewery. Look at the numbers Fifth Street Brewpub got for their charter member drive. Their original goal was 300 they got 830, in one month. I feel that Dayton and surrounding areas could support a double digit number of breweries. Grand Rapids, Michigan and Ashville, North Carolina split the Beer City USA title this year. Those aren’t huge markets but beer tourism drives some of that. Don’t be surprised to see some beer tourism in Dayton a couple years from now.

What is your advice to someone that wants to start brewing? What is a good “beginning style” to start with?

My advice for new brewers is to do some reading first. Read Jon Palmer’s “How to Brew”. Either pick up a copy or read it online at howtobrew.com. He writes it in a way so you can avoid mistakes and have a successful beer they will enjoy and be proud of the first time they brew. Other than that, start small, pick up a Brewer’s Best Deluxe Equipment Kit and a small bottle of Star San sanitizer. Cleaning and sanitization are very important and are two separate actions. The Brewer’s Best English Brown Ale is by far the best selling first time brewer recipe kit, it comes out like a Newcastle. The nice thing about the recipe kits is they only require a 2 ½ gallon boil so it can be done on the stove

Belmont Party Supply, BrewTensils, and Stacker’s Subs and Grub are all located on Smithville Road, near Watervliet Avenue. You can call BrewTensils at (937) 252-4724, and become their fan on Facebook. Cheers!

 

Tapping In!

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Like a beer lover’s Christmas…for a week!

You may not be aware of it, but we live in a Golden Age of beer. Outside of the major players in the beer game, there are just fewer than 2,000 craft breweries in the United States. It is estimated that majority of Americans live within ten miles of one of them. In the not too distant future, that will be true of Dayton as well, with the opening of the Toxic Brew Company. That number has come a long way since the 1970’s, when there were around forty breweries in the United States, and the dominant beer was the German style lager in the tradition of Budweiser. If you were looking for anything outside of that, you would have to find an expensive import. That is why the week of 14th to the 20th of May has been declared American Craft Beer Week by the Brewer’s Association. It is a time to celebrate craft brewing in all of its small batch glory.

There are three major criteria for what the Brewer’s Association considers a craft beer brewery.  The brewery in question has to be small, producing six million barrels of beer or less. To give you some idea of that size, Anheuser-Busch InBev sold 17.7 million barrels of Budweiser in 2011. Almost 18 million barrels of just one beer. Sam Adams, in comparison, sold 2.5 million barrels of all their fifty four beers released in 2011 combined.  The brewery has to be independent, meaning that less than 25% of the brewery can be owned by a member of the alcohol industry. Goose Island ceased to be a craft brewer when it became part of the Anheuser-Busch InBev Empire. Even if the holding company does nothing to the beer, it is not independent. It should also be traditional, having its flagship beer be all malt, or at least half of all its beers being malt-based. They also look for innovation, making sure that brewers are always pushing the edges of the styles to improve the product. And most craft brewers, since they depend on locaholics to spread the word of their product, tend to be very heavily involved in their community. This blend of distinct characteristics (small, independent, traditional, and passionate) creates a blueprint for a typical craft brewery.

The craft beer movement really did not begin until the 1980’s. In colonial times and up to the late 19th century, all breweries were local. They may have spread a little further than their own county, but with the limited technology of the day, they did not keep well and they did not travel quickly. It was not until the birth of the railroad and the advent of the refrigerated car that a beer was able to jump up and take over the country. Adolphus Busch was the man that made this leap (as well as a few others), and created a beer that was the same from New York to San Francisco. The big breweries, like Miller, Coors, Pabst, and others, grew from this point, crowding out all of the smaller competition. This downward spiral, aided by Prohibition, killed small breweries until 1965, when Fritz Maytag revived the Anchor Steam Brewing Company. Ken Grossman started to cobble together (literally) the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, using his passion for brewing and his knowledge of chemistry and engineering to create his beer. It was not until 1980 that the world saw its first drinkable batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Six years after that, the Boston Brewing Company was born, and Samuel Adams became part of a wave of breweries that swept the nation. That wave has been building over the last fifteen years, and does not show any sign of stopping. It has grown so  big there are even social sites where people can share the beers they love, one of the bigger ones being Untappd, where you can check in to each beer, rate it, tweet it, and even include where you are enjoying it so others may try it.

Can you pick the most delicious beer from this line up?

Of course, you are going to want to celebrate this week. Before you start celebrating, you should write down that Ohio Brew Week is June 22-30 in Athens, OH and our own Dayton Beer Week is August 18-25. For this coming week, there are plenty of great places to check out craft brews in Dayton. Downtown, the Trolley Stop has a wonderful selection of craft beers, as well as a beer tasting on the first Wednesday of every month. If they seem a little full, you can walk down the street a little and check out Lucky’s  Tap Room. They have eighteen beers on tap, and a hand book they give you to make sure you have an idea of what each one tastes like. Blind Bob’s also has a marvelous selection of craft beers  and food, and is also within stumbling distance in the Oregon District. If you are looking for something a little further afield, the South Park Tavern has an amazing selection of craft beers on tap and by the bottle, as well as a fairly extensive selection in bottles and live music most days of the week. Traveling further south and closer to the Dayton Mall brings you to Chappy’s Tap Room and Grille. While Lucky’s has a good sized book of beers, Chappy’s has a novel. They also have some beer clubs you can join, so you can benefit from trying their rotating beer taps and work your way onto their Beer Wall of Fame. If you are looking to travel a little north of the city, there is Boston’s Bistro, “where bier tasting is an art.” They have an extensive and always rotating list of bottle and draught beers, as well as food specials every night of the week. If you are looking to just bring some beers home to try, Belmont Party Supply is the place to go. They offer a wide variety of six packs and single bottles of beer, and they are the ones that run the beer tasting for the Trolley Stop. So they really know their brews.

You can even go out next week and have fine craft beers for a good cause!  The Big Brews and Blues Festival will be going on Friday, May 18th to benefit Dayton Diabetes.  There will be over thirty craft beers for you to sample, as well as good food and live blues music to listen to. It is a great way to end the work week and support local charity. You can even get the heads of this esteemed website serving beer to you! Celebrity bartending at its finest.  With all of these options for the week of the American Craft Beer week, what is going to stop you from broadening your beer palate? And if you have a beer you think people should be trying next week, leave a note in the comments. Cheers!

 

Toxic Brew Company Needs Letters of Support For Zoning Variance to Open in Oregon District

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Local entrepreneurs Shane Juhl and Jason Hindson are working hard to rehab an old building at 431 E. 5th Street in the Oregon District in hopes of opening a Brewpub.  There goal is for Toxic Brew Company to  “celebrate the craft brewers of the area and try to have an eclectic mix of craft beer drawing inspiration from multiple places including Dayton history, American craft breweries, and European traditions.” according to Brewmaster Juhl.  But before they can even think about promoting the beer,  they are trying to work their way through the many obstacles that seem to face so many new businesses in this town- zoning.

If you’d like to see the first Brewpub in Dayton since the prohibition era, help make their dream come true by writing a letter of support to get variances for 18 parking spots, off-street loading/unloading area and to allow their hours of operation to go beyond 11pm.  You can email letters to [email protected] and copy [email protected] who is the staff contact at Zoning Appeals.

You may remember that  Kimberly Collett, owner of Olive- an urban dive and Shane Anderson of the soon to be open Ghostlight Coffee also had to appeal to the public to help obtain the necessary variances to get their businesses past similar hurdles.  So if that’s what the city needs us to do  to help get more locally owned business, let’s help them!

I for one can’t wait to try more of Toxic Brews!  I still have a craving for more of their pepper beer I got to try at the Big Beer and Barley Wines event last month!

For more info, you can check out the file from Toxic Brewing Company below:

City_of_Dayton_Variances for Toxic Brewing Company