The West Side Welcomes Cincinnati Craft Beer
The West Side of Cincinnati is welcoming Cincinnati Craft Beer with some excellent breweries!
Don’t call it a comeback, the West Side of Cincinnati has a long history of “craft” beer. Pre-prohibition, there was no such thing as craft beer. It was just beer brewed to serve the local market. Cincinnati, with it’s German-Irish heritage, had no shortage of breweries. In fact, Over-the-Rhine had more breweries per capita than any other neighborhood in the world, pre-prohibition. Many of these immigrants settled into the West Side of Cincinnati before and during prohibition. The German heritage is strong on that side of the Cincinnati. It’s no wonder they were due for some great neighborhood breweries in the area! The Cincinnati Craft Beer scene was lacking on the West Side until recently.
The Cincinnati Craft Breweries – West Side:
- West Side Brewery; Ironically this is the newest brewery on the West Side. They are currently sticking to more traditional beers that are true-to-style. Nothing wrong here…we’ve tried them all and they are all delicious. They also have a large taproom with rooms available for private parties and meetings.
- Brink Brewing; Located in historic North College Hill, this neighborhood brewery is pumping out award-winning beers. Seriously! They took gold at GABF!
- Urban Artifact; Not technically the West Side, but close enough. This brewery pumps out funky, delicious beers every day! If you are trying to explore and push your palate, look no further.
- Taft’s Brewpourium; Again, not technically the West Side. Taft’s Ale House’s Brewpub is located in OTR in an old church. The Brewpourium is located 15 minutes north of downtown in a large production facility. They also serve amazing pizza in the taproom and offer shuffle board, darts, and cornhole. They also took gold at GABF, nice work!
The breweries above are all within (at most) a 10 minute drive. They are all worth a visit to their great taprooms to enjoy delicious beers. You’ll see the Craft Connection Tour Calendar frequently displaying routes going to 3-4 of these breweries. It’s a great way to see large and small breweries in an area that was destined to get great craft breweries!
