Brewing Heritage Trail

11/05/2024

It's Brewsday, so I thought I'd share some images from this weekend when we began repairs and clean-up at the historic Bruckmann Brewery site! A huge THANK YOU to all of the volunteers that showed up to help and especially Cody, who owns the section of the brewery complex where we were working. Our organization really appreciates his dedication to preserving local brewing history, as well as his willingness to share this history with the community.

There is quite a bit to do at the site, but we began by removing the collapsing roof of the underground cellar access shed and started to build a new roof. There was quite a bit of debris inside the stairs from both the demolition and also from random things accumulating over the decades. We also had to pump about two feet of water out of the underground lagering cellars!

It was a great start and we plan to continue the work next weekend, hopefully completing the roof and starting some repairs on the stairs, then it's on to the cellars for clean-up and repairs! We're looking for additional volunteers in November and December, so if you'd like to help, go to the volunteer page of our website at: https://brewingheritagetrail.org/volunteer-opportunities

Stay tuned for more updates and we hope to have the site open for tours in the spring of 2025!

10/22/2024

10/12/2024

Join us for a very special pint night on Tuesday Oct. 15th benefitting the Brewing Heritage Trail! $1 from every pint will go to their mission of preserving Cincinnati brewing heritage!

10/08/2024

It's Brewsday and our pig pal Brewster is on the move again! He's headed north and will be "helping" out the crew at the FigLeaf Brewing Company in Middletown during the month of October. Upon arriving he wanted to check things out and Andy from their brewing team showed him around the production area. Brewster is easily distracted when it comes to food & beer and since the kitchen is between the brewing equipment and the bar, he quickly made himself at home with some pizza and pints.

A big thank you to Tiffany, Luke, Andy, and Josh for hosting Brewster and for your willingness to let him hang out in your taproom this month. Additionally, FigLeaf is hosting a pint night fundraiser for our non-profit on Tuesday, October 15! They are donating $1 from every pint sold from open to close, so if you haven’t been to their taproom recently, now you have a great reason to go! Representatives from our organization will be there in the evening to talk about current projects and raffle off tour tickets, so hopefully we’ll see you soon!

10/02/2024

It’s Beer for Humans and the Brewery District Monthly Meeting 5-8pm tonight at the Rhinegeist Brewery, so come on down to learn about some neighborhood stuff and support our nonprofit!

10/01/2024

It's Brewsday, so let's talk about some Cincinnati brewing history! The historic Bruckmann Brewery, just north of Over-the-Rhine, is one of the most intact 19th century brewing complexes in the country. Recently, several of the site owners hosted a group of us from the Brewery District CURC to check out the site and discuss taking steps to open it up for public tours in 2025. I've included a few images from our recent visit and a few other images from earlier this summer.

Most of the major features of the brewery are still standing including the original brewhouse, malthouse, and family home! There's a lot of great history at this site, including its connection to the Miami-Erie Canal and Worthmore Chili and Mock Turtle Soup, so check out these pics and stay tuned for updates about the project in the coming weeks and months!

09/24/2024

It's Brewsday, so I want to share with you all some great pics from this weekend's Beer Barons of Spring Grove Cemetery Tour for Brewing Heritage Trail Members! Our guides Marcha and Robert did such a great job, taking our group to many of the sites where prominent Cincinnati brewing families are buried and sharing their stories. Windisch, Hauck, Billiods, Gerke, Boss, and Kauffman, so much great history and I think we all learned a lot! We capped things off at the Wiedemann's Brewery taproom for a round of drinks after the tour, which coincidentally was originally a funeral parlor and their Oktoberfest beer really hit the spot!

A big THANK YOU to all our members who help to support our non-profit and especially Marcha and Robert for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with the group!

If you'd like to become a Brewing Heritage Trail Member go to: https://brewingheritagetrail.org/membership Our memberships start at just $25, are good for one year from the date of purchase, and provide access to great events like this one. Join today and hopefully we'll see you soon along the Brewing Heritage Trail!

09/18/2024

09/17/2024

It's Brewsday, so let's talk a little Cincinnati brewing history! Pictured here is the Herancourt Brewing Company, however by the time this first photo was taken in the 1930s, Prohibition had closed the doors of this storied facility. The brewery was originally opened in 1844 by the Juengling family, which George Herancourt married into after moving to Cincinnati. The brewery had humble beginnings, producing about 600 barrels annually of common beer, but George had big plans for his site and grew production to 5,000 barrels by 1860.

George Herancourt was quick to embrace new refrigeration technology and in 1878 was the first Cincinnati brewer to install an ice machine made by the local Arctic Ice Machine Company, which aided in the production of lager beer. By the time George passed away in 1880, his brewery was the ninth largest in the city and was capable of producing 26,000 barrels of beer every year. If he was in operation today, that would make his brewery the third largest in the city, right behind Sam Adams and Rhinegeist!

For more great brewing history information, join us on a tour or download our new free brewing history app! Go to: https://brewingheritagetrail.org for additional information and hopefully we'll see you sometime soon along the Brewing Heritage Trail!

09/17/2024

Public announcement to all who enjoy delicious beer: Earth Cookie, the nut brown ale brewed by our Brewing Heritage Trail members with Little Miami Brewing Company is now available at their taproom! Have a pint, get a growler to take home, but don't miss out on this great beer collaboration!

09/12/2024

Check out this great beer and worthwhile event at Little Miami Brewing Co. to benefit the non-profit Valley View Nature Preserve in Milford!

09/10/2024

It' Brewsday! This week we'd like to share an announcement about a fundraiser at Northern Row Brewery & Distillery for their taproom manager Josh and his fiancé Laken. Their apartment was destroyed by fire and the brewery is donating 100% of sales on Wednesday, September 11 (that's tomorrow!) to help them get back on their feet. So I hope you'll join us for a beer or two at this great event and help out our brewing community friend.

09/06/2024

Check out this great National Geographic article about Cincinnati's Oktoberfest and its brewing history! Spoiler alert: they mention the Brewing Heritage Trail!

Uncover the lesser-known past of this Ohio city, including its maze of century-old lager tunnels.

09/04/2024

A huge THANK YOU to Little Miami Brewing in Milford for allowing several of our members to be Brewers For A Day! Our group spent the day learning and assisting in the production of Earth Cookie, their Nut Brown Ale. Lead Brewer Jim Strelau and his team members, Sam, Jeff, and Chris, explained the step by step process of creating this awesome beer, while answering all of our along the way. It will take a couple of weeks to finish fermenting, but should be available at their taproom (208 Mill Street) starting Friday, September 20, so stop on by and give it a try!

The Brewing Heritage Trail schedules great member only events like this throughout the year. Our memberships start at just $25 and are good for one year from the date of purchase, so any time is a good time to join! We're planning some additional events for later in 2024 and early 2025, so if you'd like to learn more go to: https://brewingheritagetrail.org/membership and hopefully we'll see you soon along the Brewing Heritage Trail!

09/03/2024

It's Brewsday and our pig pal Brewster is on the move again! He's been hearing some great things about the Woodburn Brewery in East Walnut Hills, so he stopped by today to check it out. Taproom Manager Tyler was there to pour him a beer and tried to keep him out of trouble, but the minute his back was turned Brewster was up to his old tricks. Running around the taproom and climbing on equipment makes a pig hungry, so rather than wait to place an order he decided to help out the kitchen staff by making his own food.

Brewster had such a great time hanging out today with the Woodburn Brewery Team that he's decided to stay a while. He'll be hanging out at their taproom for the month of September, so stop by to say hello and have a beer with him. Better yet, Woodburn is hosting the Brewing Heritage Trail for a pint night on Thursday, September 19, from 6-9pm. For every pint sold, they will donate $1 to our non-profit to help us share and preserve local brewing history. We'll have some representatives onsite from our organization to talk about some of the great activities were involved with around Cincinnati and we'll also raffle off some Brewing Heritage Trail tour tickets. Hope to see you there!

08/28/2024

Our seasonal Darkside of Brewing Tour is set to begin next weekend! Join us if you dare... ☠

Join the Brewing Heritage Trail on this limited edition seasonal tour and learn about gruesome and macabre events from Cincinnati's past. Grave robbing, a serial killing saloonist, and other murderous and deadly mayhem is explored on this new tour, which also includes a visit to an abandoned city street, overtaken by nature, as well as a flashlight tour of the Imperial Theater and the 19th century Jackson Brewhouse. Both have not been open to the public in many years and their exploration is only available through this tour!

This is an outdoor walking tour of less than one mile, beginning and concluding at the Row Brewery & Distillery (111 West McMicken Ave.), for a pint of beer. Some content may not be appropriate for younger children, so please keep this in mind when booking.

Book your tour: https://brewingheritagetrail.org

08/27/2024

It's the Brewsday after our most recent Brewing Heritage Trail Member Event, so I thought I'd share some pics! This event took place at the Valley View Foundation Nature Preserve in Milford, where they grow hops for utilization in local brewing. We met with Executive Director Vanessa Hannah and Lead Cultivator Doug Bulla, who took our members through the whole process, including running some hops through their 1973 hop harvester!

Little Miami Brewing Company is one of the local breweries who utilizes their hops and Sam McClarren from their brewing team was on hand to share some of their fantastic brews with the group and tell us all about them! A big THANK YOU to Valley View and Little Miami Brewing for making this event happen!

We have some other great member events coming up soon, including a FREE guided tour focusing on the Beer Barons of Spring Grove Cemetery in September. Are you a BHT Member? You can be! Annual memberships start at just $25 and are good for one year from the date of purchase. Go to: https://brewingheritagetrail.org/membership for additional information and hopefully we'll see you soon along the Brewing Heritage Trail!

08/13/2024

It's Brewsday, so let's talk about some local saloon history! Now that fall is just around the corner, it's nearly time for the Brewing Heritage Trail to launch its Darkside of Brewing Tour. This true crime and gruesome events tour covers subjects not for the faint of heart, like the Tanyard Murder! On the evening of November 7, 1874, sixteen year old John Hollerbach heard screams coming from next door at the Friedberg Tannery on Livingston Street, in Cincinnati's West End neighborhood. He ran outside to see what the commotion was about and heard tannery worker Herman Shilling call out that he was being murdered. The police were contacted and when they arrived on the scene, they found signs of a struggle inside the tannery barn, with blood smeared on the walls and a pitch fork and sharpened pole covered in blood.

It was well known to many of Shilling’s coworkers and law enforcement, that he had had a previous altercation with saloon owner Andrea Egner and his son Frederick, over Egner’s 15 year old daughter. An additional suspect emerged, George Rufer, a coworker of Shilling, who had recently been fired from the tannery and blamed Shilling for his dismissal. These three suspects were rounded up by the police in the days following the murder and questioned. None of them provided a consistent story and began to turn on one another as the police gathered more evidence.

All three were angry with Shilling and wanted revenge, so after having a few drinks at Agner’s saloon next door, they snuck inside the tannery to lay in wait for Shilling. The group purposely startled one of the horses in the barn and when Shilling came to check on things, they attacked. Rufer first hit Shilling over the head with a piece of wood, stunning him, but he continued to fight back. As Rufer continued to attack him with the piece of wood, Andreas Agner grabbed a pitchfork and plunged it into Shillings’ stomach. Rufer then wrapped his hands around Shilling’s throat and strangled him to death. They debated about what to do with the body, but eventually decided to drag it into the neighboring boiler room, where they stuffed the co**se into the furnace, which was later recovered by the police.

If you're interested in learning about other grisly events like the Tanyard Murder, join the Brewing Heritage Trail on Friday and Saturday evenings September through November for our Darkside of Brewing Tour. Go to: https://brewingheritagetrail.org for all the details and tickets!