One of the biggest happenings recently in the craft beer world in the state of Ohio is a recent piece of legislation that eliminated a costly separate permit in order for a brewery to operate a taproom. In response, a number of Cincinnati breweries have opened up taprooms. This past Saturday fellow beer nerd, Alex and I decided to brave the pouring rain and head out to the East side of Cincinnati to finally check out Mt. Carmel Brewing Company.
The rain caused us to be running quite a bit late. We were afraid that we were going to miss out on the tour entirely. Luckily, the tour was just starting right as we arrived. If you head out be careful to not drive straight past. It'd be easy to do. The brewery is housed in an old house in the middle of a neighborhood. I am incredibly jealous of their neighbors! After we came in, soaking wet from our run from the car to the brewery, we headed back with the rest of the tour group to the brewing facility behind the house that initially housed all of Mt. Carmel's brewing operation.
The tour was very informative. It outlined the entire brewing process from grain mashing to bottling. As a homebrewer it was fascinating to see what I do occasionally writ large. For example when I pitch yeast in a batch of homebrew it's a tiny pouch, a couple of ounces. When Mt. Carmel pitches yeast they add 50 lbs to each fermenter. Pretty fascinating stuff. And Mt. Carmel is on the small end of the scale.
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| The bottling line. One six pack at a time. |
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| The taproom bar. |
After the tour was over we headed into the tap room. Alex and I both immediately went for the taproom exclusive Third Shift Imperial Coffee Stout. It was incredible. Come back on Wednesday for a full review. After the taproom emptied out a bit we sidled up to the bar for a few more beers. It was just the two of us and another regular for quite a while. We were able to sit around drinking great beers and talk to the brewers. They were super nice guys and were very talkative and forthcoming. It was fascinating to see the brewing process from their point of view and just fun to talk about what beers, styles, brewereies and whatever we enjoyed with guys that really knew their stuff. It was clear that these guys know and love beer.
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| Coming Wednesday! |
I can think of few better ways to spend a Saturday afternoon.
HD
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