FORT COLLINS, CO—New Belgium Brewing is happy to announce it has signed deals with nine wholesale partners to distribute its beer across Ohio when the Fort Collins, Colorado brewer opens that state on December 16, 2013. New Belgium will roll into the Buckeye State with a mix of 22-oz Fat Tire, Ranger IPA, Seasonal Release (Accumulation White IPA) and Lips of Faith beers. Some draft may come online in the initial rollout as well. Ohio will be New Belgium’s 35^th state of distribution.
“We’re excited about Ohio,” said New Belgium’s Sales Co-Pilot, Brian “BK” Krueger. “This has been long in the works and now that expansion projects have brought on additional capacity here in Fort Collins the time is right.”

New Belgium OH partners are as follows:

Superior Beverage Group – MillerCoors
Heidelberg Dist. (Dayton, Toledo, Lorain and a portion of Columbus)
Stagnaro Distributing Co. – MillerCoors
Bonbright Dist. Co- MillerCoors
Classic Brands of Ohio – ABI
Choice Beverage – ABI
Matesich Dist. Co.- ABI
Muxie Dist – ABI/MillerCoors
Spriggs Dist.  – ABI

New Belgium is planning to release its portfolio-wide packaging refresh in OH this December pending TTB final approval. The new look will enter all other markets in January of 2014.

About New Belgium Brewing Company
New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale and a host of Belgian-inspired beers, is recognized as one of Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work and one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Small Businesses. The 100% employee-owned brewery is a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Business as designated by the League of American Bicyclists, and one of World Blu’s most democratic U.S. businesses, and a Certified B Corp. In addition to Fat Tire, New Belgium brews eight year-round beers; Ranger IPA, Rampant Imperial IPA, Shift Pale Lager, Sunshine Wheat, 1554 Black Ale, Blue Paddle Pilsener, Abbey Belgian Ale and Trippel. Learn more at www.newbelgium.com.

Lancaster, OH

Cask Aged Tripel is a strong golden ale aged in whiskey barrels from Middle West Spirits, a nearby micro-distillery.

ABV: 10.5

ABW: 8.33

COLOR: 7

BITTERNESS: 34

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1.090

AVAILABLE: IL, KY, NY, OH

Carillon Brewing Co. will brew beer at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, OH, using equipment and techniques from the 19th century.

Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, OH, is set to become the first museum in the United States that produces and sells its own beer using equipment and techniques from the mid-19th century. Costumed actors will demonstrate the historic process, producing wine, cider and cheese along with ample amounts of beer for patrons to enjoy.

The $3 million brewery will be in a new building in the museum’s Kettering Family Education Center. Carillon Brewing Co. is set to open at the end of 2013 on the 65-acre campus, joining 30 exhibit buildings and structures.

The idea was proposed at a meeting in 2006 with Brady Kress, president and CEO of Dayton History, which runs the park. “[We] laid out about 200 new initiatives that we were going to start and map out,” he recalls. “One of those was a re-creation of a 19^th century brewery.”

In its heyday, Dayton and surrounding Montgomery County boasted close to two dozen breweries, wineries and distilleries. “All of them had their own stories and personalities with the individuals who started them,” Kress says. “And we wanted to create something where we could not just reproduce some product, but most importantly demonstrate the processes using period tools and techniques to teach all of our 160,000 annual visitors those 19^th century stories.”

Emphasizing that brewing will be the facility’s main purpose, Kress adds, “The building that we’re constructing and designing [will be] copying architectural details from other mid-century commercial buildings built here in Dayton.”

Within the walls of the brewery, Carillon will brew a variety of styles. “Since we’re focused on the middle of the 19^th century, it provides a unique opportunity for us to do both ales and lagers and talk about that transition and what that meant from a cooling standpoint, and be able to talk to all of our guests about top- and bottom-fermenting yeasts.”

Vail Miller Jr. of Heidelberg Distribution Co. provided the lead gift to get the Carillon project off the ground. “My great grandfather, Albert W. Vontz, was a brewer,” Miller explains. “When he sold his Cincinnati brewery, Old Vienna, he became the Dayton distributor for Heidelberg Brewery in Covington, Kentucky.”

Miller and Kress first discussed the idea over a few cold pints. “It was during our conversation over beers when the conversation turned to Dayton’s rich brewing history and the current reality—we don’t have any Dayton local breweries in operation,” Miller says. (That changed in 2012 with the opening of the Dayton Beer Co.) Miller decided that supporting the brewery would be a perfect way to celebrate civilization’s 10,000-plus-year infatuation with beer, not to mention Heidelberg’s 75^th anniversary.

“Remaining dollars were private donations from our members and donors here at the park,” Kress says. Funds will be used to pay for everything from construction of the facility to costuming for the interpreters.

Operation of the facility will require a brewer. “We’re discussing whether it would be advantageous for us to find a current brewer or if it makes more sense to find a historic trades interpreter that can learn those processes, instead of trying to reverse engineer it,” Kress says. He and his staff are open to either option, so long as nothing is lost in the interpretation and teaching of the techniques and challenges brewers of that time faced, before the advances modern brewers enjoy today. But beyond learning the techniques, Kress wants a brewer who will help design the brewery.

“We want them to be part of the team that puts the finishing touches on the facility,” Kress says. “We’re going through the below-ground, mechanical pieces and putting the blueprints together for the structure, and we want to have somebody here for a year prior to opening, so they help lead that process in creating our 19^th century brewery.”

And in that spirit, we recently spent a few days in neighboring Ohio. Although the state line is barely fifty miles from our home, for many years it was someplace we passed through on our way to the East Coast. Now, as the old saying goes, we’ve seen the error of our ways and are happy to report that art of craft brewing is alive, well and thriving in the Buckeye State. So, don your scarlet and gray apparel and buckeye nut necklace, and join us in visiting a few of the wonderful Cleveland establishments that serve fine brew.

Our first stop is the Buckeye Beer Engine in the west-side suburb of Lakewood (15315 Madison Avenue). It’s also the tasting room for the Buckeye Brewing Co., which opened its doors in early 2007. (And yes, many of you remember correctly: there was an iconic Buckeye Brewing Co. with the same name that operated in Toledo until 1972.)

The building has had several previous existences, most recently a white-tablecloth restaurant. With its dark wood paneling, it feels like a cozy neighborhood hangout where you want to join your friends while watching the big game. One look at the breweriana and you know you’re in a place for serious beer lovers. One look at the blackboard and you know you’ve found heaven—or at least a turnpike exit leading to the Pearly Gates.

In addition to the house brews there are 20 guest taps. The menu lists them all with a unique zero-to-five bitterness rating. You can even assemble your own sampler; the price of each glass varies according to the alcohol and hop content. There are also several cask selections and a range of bottled beers—more than a hundred strong, including multiple vintages of J.W. Lees Ale. Most are available at reasonable prices for carry-out, too.

Local Handiwork

The western suburbs are also home to Rocky River Brewing (21290 Center Ridge Road, Rocky River). A large sign in the front makes it easy to find. As you enter, you get a sense of the dramatic as you’re surrounded by the Century System brewing equipment on either side, proudly on display behind glass.

Once in the door, you’ll be looking straight at a large and majestic dark-wood back bar topped by a clock. The handiwork is something to behold, down to insets where, if you look closely—and we think you should—you’ll see the old-timey “RR” logo. There’s a further reminder that beer is brewed here: the windows behind the bar offer you a bird’s eye view of the serving tanks. Draped from the back bar are pennants marking the awards won by the house beers; and opposite the hostess stand is a display of GABF and WBC medals Rocky River has brought home.

We asked our server if he knew whether the bar had a history. Surely, we figured, it dated back to pre-Prohibitiion days and perhaps had seen service in some historic establishment. Not so. Sounding like a proud papa, the owner of the brewpub told us it was the handiwork of a local craftsman, who clearly had an eye for detail and a keen sense of what a classic bar looked like.

Two blackboards (these must be an “Ohio thing”) high on the back bar list what’s on tap. We ordered the sampler with all seven. The lineup has something to please everyone, from a light golden ale to a roasty porter, a saison-style beer and a blueberry wheat.

More than a beverage to consume on the sidelines, beer has a historical and symbolic link to the game. Football fans and beer lovers share in their sense of camaraderie. College football fans are fiercely loyal to their teams and their respective conferences. Regional bias adds yet more fuel to the sometimes blazing fealty, with inevitable debates about whom, or which, is superior. Beer aficionados are little different—they are often staunch in their love for styles, brands or regional inclinations. The debates are more subdued but no less inspired.

College football and brewing also share a chronology, as both were popularized in the latter half of the 19th century. Nowhere is this connection more apparent than The Big Ten. Famous for its physical, take-no-prisoners style of football, the member universities cut a latitudinal swath across the upper Midwest and Great Lakes, which geographically casts a cultural mentality common to all of the members.

The Big Ten universities range from Iowa to Penn State in the east. Every state in between has at least one conference member. The region is also the birthplace of professional football. The earliest teams rimmed the Great Lakes in small, working-class cities whose residents were enamored of both football and beer.

Primarily immigrants from central and eastern Europe, these new Americans brought their brewing skill and love for beer with them. As they were accustomed to imbibing lager beers in their homeland, they brewed the same in America. The affinity for bottom-fermentation endures, though all modern styles of beers are well-represented, making the region unique in the United States.

The Big Ten states of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois were among the most prodigious brewing states of the 19th century. The cool climate and often hilly terrain provided the perfect environment. Today, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are hotbeds of the modern American brewing scene.

Historically, football was just as reflective of the populace. Blue-collar football teams composed of farmers, factory workers, lumberjacks, and coal miners made for some rugged games on hardscrabble fields, a style that is still synonymous with the Big Ten.