Fifty Must-Try Craft Beers of Ohio. Rick Armon
British carapils, and a little bit of wheat—turned out to be a winner. Since that first batch in late 1993, it has always been on draft and has become Barley’s flagship beer. For years, the ale was called MacLenny’s Scottish Ale, but it was renamed Barley’s Scottish Ale in 2015. All the caramel flavor and color comes from that scorching, which caramelizes the sugars in a way similar to the process of making crème brûlée.
Signorino has never varied that time-consuming, half-hour process.
“After all these years, you look for ways to shave minutes off the day, get home to your family sooner, but it’s not a compromise that we’ll make with the Scottish,” he says. “We’ll continue to scorch it for that full half an hour because the results make it worthwhile.”
For years, Signorino also brewed at the nearby Smokehouse Brewing Company in Columbus and made a Scottish ale there. But it just wasn’t the same, given the different makeup of the brew kettle.
“This brewery’s version is one of a kind for sure,” Signorino says.
Berliner Weisse
Jackie O’s Brewery | www.jackieos.com
Jackie O’s Brewery
Production brewery/tasting room:
25 Campbell St.
Athens, Ohio 45701
(740) 447–9063
Brewpub:
24 W. Union St.
Athens, Ohio 45701
(740) 592–9686
First brewed: 2011
Style: Berliner weisse
Alcohol content: 5 percent
IBUs: 14
Available: Year-round
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft beers to try:
• Thirsty Dog Berliner Weisse
• Rivertown Divergent
• Actual Curiosus
• Lineage Weekend at Bernice’s
• Urban Artifact Finn
JACKIE O’S PUTS its own spin on the Berliner weisse style, a sour wheat beer. The low-alcohol cloudy brew dates back to the sixteenth century and originated in northern Germany, but plenty of domestic craft brewers have opted to create their own versions as more American beer drinkers embrace sours.
Known for his love of experimentation, brewmaster Brad Clark started playing around with sours in 2008. At first he made a few brown ales and golden ales. But he really got intrigued with the style after reading about sherry and the solera production method. And that solera approach is what separates Jackie O’s Berliner Weisse from other sours.
The solera technique involves pulling some of the liquid out of the brewing vessel, but leaving some of it behind. The vessel is never really emptied, meaning the new is always blended with the old.
“Essentially part of the original batch is still in there,” Clark says. “You have this kombucha-esque, mother-culture-type thing. I got kind of infatuated with that.”
He had been drinking some Berliner weisse brews at the time and figured he could make his own version using the solera method. To produce his Berliner Weisse, Clark made several different batches—one using lactobacillus and others with strains of brettanomyces—and blended them together. He uses no brewing yeast, and he has never cleaned the three-and-one-half-barrel grundy tanks that hold the Berliner Weisse, creating a truly unique beer that features a distinctly funky and lemon character.
“I believe, and I’m biased obviously, each time that it comes out, it tastes better,” Clark says.
As expected, Clark has some fun with his Berliner Weisse and has produced plenty of varieties through the years. Depending on how he’s feeling at the time, you might find a peach version—or a blueberry, or even a kumquat.
Blackout Stout
Great Lakes Brewing Co. | www.greatlakesbrewing.com
Great Lakes Brewing Co.
2516 Market Ave.
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
(216) 771–4404
First brewed: 2003
Style: Imperial stout
Alcohol content: 9 percent
IBUs: 50
Awards: Gold medal in 2006 and bronze in 2008 at the World Beer Cup
Available: In November on draft and in bottles
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft beers to try:
• Thirsty Dog Siberian Night
• Hoof Hearted Voltan
• Willoughby B.D.A.
• Fifty West Ghost of Imogene
• Jackie O’s Dark Apparition
GREAT LAKES BLACKOUT STOUT was born out of an actual blackout. Seriously.
It was August 14, 2003, when the largest power outage in US history rolled across the Midwest and Northeast, affecting an estimated 50 million people from Ohio to New York to Ontario, Canada.
In Cleveland, folks descended in droves on Great Lakes Brewing. Cofounder Pat Conway theorizes that they figured, without power, the brewery couldn’t keep its beer cold. Better get it before it warms up.
Those who showed up that day got a special treat. Without power, the cash registers didn’t work. So Conway remembers just giving away free beer.
He recalls sitting in the open beer garden next door—the space has since been enclosed—with hundreds of others as they looked up through the black of night and stared at the stars.
“That’s how the world had been for millions of years up until the early part of the twentieth century,” Conway says. “Everybody saw stars. Now, we saw it for a brief night. It was spectacular.”
Meanwhile, Conway’s brother and cofounder, Dan, was driving home on Lorain Avenue, with every traffic light going out just as he passed by. It was a comical moment.
“I thought, ‘Am I doing this?’” he says.
The memories were so unforgettable that Great Lakes designed Blackout Stout, a powerful, black-as-night Russian imperial stout that’s served in a snifter. The beer, available in four-packs and on draft, has become one of the brewery’s highest-rated beers by RateBeer and BeerAdvocate.
Blackout Stout, which also comes in a barrel-aged version, has a cult following, and the brewery holds a launch party for its release every year.
The 2014 party was held, appropriately, in the dark.
Bleeding Buckeye Red Ale
Elevator Brewing Co. | www.elevatorbrewery.com