by Sandy Hugill | Dec 14, 2017 | brewery, brewpub, co-op, dayton, fifth, ohio, street, usa
Dayton, Ohio, USA has some breweries with unusual concepts. My next featured brewery is Fifth Street Brewpub, which operates with a co-op model. Customers do not need to join the co-op, but if they do, they become member-owners with a share of the business for only $125. My friend Shelly and I don’t live in Dayton, so we chose not to join, but we did enjoy our visit to the brewery.
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| Fifth Street Brewpub (the smaller brew house is on the left) |
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| You couldn’t fit many kegs in here, but it must be great for zipping around town |
Atmosphere
Driving up to Fifth Street, the brewery is easy to find. It’s a set of two green buildings on a street corner in the St. Anne’s Hill neighborhood. The main building might have been a house or a corner store when it was new; it contains the bar, the dining room and the kitchen. The smaller building is the brewhouse, and in between the two buildings is a beer garden that would have been a wonderful setting for sipping beer had the weather been warmer on our visit. It was too cold to drink outside, so Shelly and I sat down at the bar and were greeted by Mary.
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| Not even all the taps |
The first thing I noticed was that Fifth Street has a lot of beer to choose from. There were nine or ten house taps, and a couple guest taps to fill the 12 tap system. We knew we would try a flight, but it was hard to pick just five; we ended up with an extra sampler and tried six beers total, selecting from a wide variety of beer styles. Fifth Street had a little bit of everything. Shelly’s favorites were Ludwig’s, a kölsch and Lisa’s Luck red ale. For me, it was a three-way tie between Jo Jo’s Midnight stout (with coffee notes), the Icebreaker IPA and the smooth Bière de Garde. I enjoyed being able to try the brewery’s version of popular beer styles as well as the harder-to-find styles like the saison and the bière de garde.
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| Ludwig’s kölsch, Saison 484, Lisa’s Luck red ale, Bière de Garde, Jo Jo’s Midnight stout |
The brewpub atmosphere was rustic and cozy, with a lot of exposed wood. It was Saturday, so members and visitors were watching college football in the dining room. Because Fifth Street has a full restaurant, the brewpub is kid-friendly. We didn’t dine there, but I could have easily found something to my liking on the menu, which I would classify as elevated pub fare.
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| The dining room |
Community Concept
Mary explained how Fifth Street Brewpub came to be only the second co-op brewery in the US. In 2010 the St. Anne’s Hill neighborhood was undergoing a revitalization and a small group of investors decided to buy the property that would later become Fifth Street. They didn’t have a business concept at the time; they just knew that they wanted to restore that property. Eventually, the idea came to launch a brewery, but to do it as a co-op. The brewpub opened in 2013 as a bar, and served their first house brews in 2014. It now has over 3,500 member-owners. Members get perks such as discounts on beer and food, birthday specials, member-only events, and the opportunity to join a home-brew competition.
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| One of the t-shirts for sale |
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| It’s all about community |
Fifth Street is an integral part of the community. Spent grain from the brewing process is donated to the Mission of Mary farm to be used as fertilizer. Charity involvement also includes offering local non-profits the opportunity to guest-bartend every other Sunday and on Mondays. The charity takes home a percentage of sales and all tips earned. Wednesdays are special for two reasons. This is the one day of the week that dogs are allowed on the patio for Yappy Hour. There is also a weekly Wednesday night fun run after which runners get half off a beer.
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| The beer garden, home of Wednesday Yappy Hour |
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| Sponsored bricks on the patio |
Toward the end of our sampler, general manager Tanya Brock arrived to tell us a little more. She said that the team at Fifth Street prides themselves on getting to know the members, and even non-member regulars by name. Shelly and I certainly felt welcome as we were given a brief tour of the brewhouse building. There is a seven barrel system with four fermenters and five brite tanks (where carbonation occurs). Members can sponsor a tank, which then bears their name. Members and guests may also purchase a brick in the beer garden for $75; many people do this as part of a special event, such as a wedding party.
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| The separate Brew House building |
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| Sponsored brite tanks |
Visit
Fifth Street Brewpub is open seven days a week: Sunday 10 AM to 10 PM, Monday-Thursday 4-11 PM, Friday 11 AM to 12 AM, Saturday 10 AM to 12 AM. A brunch menu is available on weekends. There are 12 taps, which are mostly filled by house beers, with a couple guest brews. Guest cans and bottles, as well as wine and cocktails are available. You can carry out a growler to enjoy the Fifth Street brews at home. Fifth Street is kid-friendly and dog-friendly during Wednesday Yappy Hour. Check them out and consider joining the co-op at fifthstreetbrewpub.coop or follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
by Sandy Hugill | Nov 15, 2017 | brewery, carillon, dayton, history, museum, ohio, usa
I’ve been to quite a few breweries, but never someplace like this. Carillon Brewing Co. in Dayton, Ohio is a living museum situated in Carillon Historical Park, home of Dayton’s history museum. Walking into the brewery, you are transported back nearly 200 years to Dayton in the year 1850. Staff members look the part, wearing period clothing, though they speak in modern English.
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| Carillon Brewing Co. resides in a newer building with 1850s aesthetics |
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| The living museum is full of character |
My friend Shelly joined me at Carillon and, like I prefer to do, we sat at the bar. From that vantage point, we could see everything. The building had two floors, but most of the second floor was open, and the presence of the brewing fireplaces created a warm, welcoming atmosphere on the gray, autumn day. Although the brick building is new construction (Carillon opened in 2014), it was built to appear as a new 1850 building with exposed bricks and unfinished wood throughout. The tables, chairs, bar stools and nearly everything else were handmade. There is a separate special event room that can be rented, and there’s a nice patio in the back of the building. Sitting at the bar, we had a perfect view of the brewing set-up.
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| The special event space |
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| Everything you see adds character to the brewery, but is also fully functioning |
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| A brewer stokes the fire |
Our beer server Michael described the historic beer styles on tap and Shelly and I chose a flight of five plus one extra sample. We wanted to get the full historical experience. Immediately, you could tell that these beers were different. They were unfiltered, cloudy and much less carbonated than the typical modern brew. The ales were also highly palatable, and there wasn’t a single beer I didn’t enjoy. My favorites were the Squash Ale (made with butternut squash) and the Coriander Ale (slightly peppery, from a recipe in a Cincinnati brewer’s manual from the 1800s). Shelly was partial to the Ginger Pale Ale.
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| A server in period attire pours beer |
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| The barrels are a nice touch for the taps |
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| The draft list on our visit; the squash ale wasn’t even on the menu yet |
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| Squash Ale, Ginger Pale Ale, Roggenbier (a rye), Coriander Ale, Black Cherry Porter |
Head Brewer Kyle Spears stopped by the bar to tell us a little more about the brewery. The brewing system was designed to be as close as possible to that of a small production brewery at this point in the industrial revolution. It is a gravity-fed system that visitors can watch in action over an eight to twelve hour brewing day. The team of three full-time brewers, along with several part-time staff and volunteers, brews small batches almost daily. The brewing takes place in copper kettles and the mash is heated using wood fires. Carillon Brewing buys grain already malted, but they do everything else in-house, from the milling to the roasting to the mashing and the fermenting, which is done in American white oak barrels. The fires were stoked when Shelly and I arrived because Kyle had planned to brew a batch of the Ginger Pale Ale. Unfortunately, only half of the required ginger was delivered that day, so the brewing had to be canceled.
Even without brewing taking place, we had a great view of the brewers working. One man was baking crackers made from the brewery’s spent grain. I liked seeing the spent grain used and not wasted. The crackers would be served by the kitchen, which offers a full menu for lunch and dinner. The recipes hearken back to 1850s German immigrant cuisine, but are updated for the modern palate, and vegetarian options are included. Shelly and I didn’t dine at Carillon, but I did see some soft pretzels on the menu that looked pretty good, and lovers of sausages and sauerkraut will be very happy.
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| The view from our barstools: the man in the photo is making the spent grain crackers; the brewing kettle is on the second level above the fireplace (photo credit: Shelly Schlicher) |
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| Head Brewer Kyle at work |
Carillon offers a Brewer for a Day program so that visitors can become part of the living museum. The package is an all-day affair, in which you participate in the entire brewing process, enjoy lunch and a beer tasting, take a tour of the history museum, and later on take home a growler of the beer you brewed. This sounds like so much fun and I may consider a return visit as a brewer for a day.
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| When the brewery is a museum, you get educational plaques |
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| The Deeds Carillon (1942) just outside the brewery; the dreary day made it even nicer to stay inside and sip beer |
Visit
Carillon Brewing Co. is open daily for lunch and dinner: Sunday-Thursday 11 AM-9 PM, Friday-Saturday 11 AM-10 PM, They have seven taps of their own and two guest taps. You can take home a growler of your favorite historical ale. They also serve bottles and cans from other breweries, and have a select wine and spirits menu. You may find Carillon brews on some guest taps around Dayton, but your best bet is to go to the brewery. The brewery is kid-friendly and serves house-made sodas. You can learn more at carillonbrewingco.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
