Jennifer Craig - BOOK - Pocket Guide to Cincinnati Breweries

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And the guess we're in the fiftyfive here see Morning Show without Joe,

(00:02):
the show don't go And thank Godfor Joe allowing us an opportunity to get
away from the craziness of the world, the heady nature of politics and all
that, and talk about beer instudio Jennifer Craig, who has put together,
along with her husband, a pocketguide to Cincinnati's breweries. Welcome to
the studio, Jennifer. It's areal pleasure to have you in here.

(00:22):
Thank you. It's a pleasure tobe here. Well, I mean that
from bottom of my heart, becausewow, you know. I mean,
if you look around me, allthe stacks of paper and there's no good
news in any of this, youare a welcome dose of fresh air.
Except for honor flight tri State.That's other good news that's going on today.
But talking about this you and thispocket guide to Sin Saint Breweri's you
try to compile information on what yousaid, all of the breweries in the

(00:46):
Greater sinceining Ara, tell me listenershow this concept started and then we'll dive
into the details out this works.Okay, my husband and irocraft beer people
and we about a year ago,did the date Nail Trail. We had
a great time, but there wassome things that we would love to have
be different. If you don't know, an ale trail is a situation where
they charge the breweries to be inthe book. They give the book away

(01:07):
for free, and it's a rewardsbased program. You go into all the
breweries in a year. But likeI said, it's a limited number of
breweries. Well, when we didit, we wanted to know about all
the breweries. We also wanted toknow whether or not they serve food,
because we would always plan to eatlunch when it went out, and they
didn't have that in there, andthey had nowhere to write anything down.
So I looked into Cincinnati. Theydon't have an Ale Trail anymore, and

(01:29):
I decided I'm going to do thisbecause I think the city needs it,
and I wanted to have all thebreweries that I could get in the area
in it. So I have sixtyseven breweries in the book. Now there
are some really far outliers that arenot in it. But it was kind
of hard to determine what I shouldinclude. But this book has not only
the name, location, phone number, and website, but they have their
hours, whether or not they servefood. It has a place to check

(01:53):
off when you go and the datethat you went, and it has a
place for your favorite beer in anynotes you have about the location. And
it's small in size, what iswhat would it be like? Three by
four, three five quarter by fiveand a half, a quarter by five
and a half, So I wasclose, easy to put in your pocket,
which I guess is why it's apocket guide. But I was just

(02:13):
getting the biggest kick out of itbecause some of these I've never heard of.
But I was going to I wasgoing to make a comment, you
know, sixty seven breweries in it, but five more minutes from now,
there's going to be another half adozen you could add to the list.
That's how many breweries are popping up. Well, it's funny you should say
that, because in the back ofthe book, I have locations where you
can write new breweries that have opened, and I plan on having a new

(02:34):
edition each year, So I'm compilinga list of breweries that are opening since
the publication of the book and willinclude them in the next edition. Well,
it provides a wonderful springboard to mentionto my listeners and remind my listeners.
We're going to be at Little MiamiBrewery in Milford on the fifth of
June for the listener lunch. Andit's a great spot too. It's it
is yeah, absolutely yeah. Andthere's you have them as from I guess

(02:55):
as far north as Middletown to FortMitchell. Yeah, kind of everything in
between pretty much. Yeah. SoI guess I hate to have to ask
you this. Do you have afavorite? I get asked the time.
That's like a logical question. Yeah. Well, I will say right now,
I'm digging the Third Eye Brewing Beersin Hamilton. They have Sharonville too,

(03:20):
but Hamilton is the new location.And as far as food goes,
which by the way, a lotof these breweries have amazing food. And
Nine Giant has a chef on staff. And if you like brussel sprouts,
they have got the most amazing Brusselssprouts ever. They put grain mustard on
the bottom, they roast them allyummy and caramelized, and then put shaved
parmesan on top. They are phenomenal. Used to hate russell sprouts until but

(03:44):
fresh roasted sput crispy on the outthere fantastic. Well, now I've got
my mouth watering on that as well. But yeah, a lot of them.
I mean, I know you pointout some of them don't have food,
but a lot of them will havea food truck. Yes, I
tried. I tried to mark inthere if they have food trucks that come
in. You have a personal favoritetype of beer, I was telling you
off air. I am an IPAfan, and I either get eye rolls

(04:05):
with that or pats on the backand everything in between. But I like
all different kinds of beers, butI tend to lean towards German style beers
like coolshes and Pilsners. Oh yeah, yeah, those are my favorite.
You know, you can tell aGerman beer just a mini you taste,
Oh, that's definitely German. Ohyeah, what kind of grain the Germans
put in them that makes it?That sets it apart? I'm not totally

(04:27):
sure, but there's a christness toit at the end, which I really
like. Yeah. Well, Iguess the really important question is, because
everybody needs to get a copy ofthis, where do we buy a copy
of Pocket Guide to sin Say's Breweryso we can all have some fun and
do our own guide. I havea website it is sincey with a y
Cincybrewguide dot com. I also havea Facebook page. You can't order on

(04:50):
the Facebook page, but I wouldencourage people to write reviews, to write
anything that they think about the book, to post pictures of you using the
book. I would absolutely love itif you would do that. I gotta
apologize to the Wandering Monster Brewing Companyand never heard of that, but I
love the name of it. I'lltell you what their beers are good,
I'm sure. And they have duckpin bowling there, which is a blast.

(05:13):
Oh, duckpin is so much fun. Yeah. Well, you know,
I like this particularly and I'm particularlyenthused about it because you know,
we have I mean, Cincinnati wasbuilt one on pork and beer, pretty
much a German heritage. There usedto be a brewery or a bar,
like every literal corner in over theRiot. If you see some of those
old pictures over the ride, andit's like, oh my god, that's
what people try. They didn't evendrink water back in the old days.

(05:35):
They just drank beer. Yeah.I think it was unsafe to drink the
water. I know it was,yeah, so, but they all just
disappeared over tom I guess Prohibition wasone of the reasons for that, probably,
But you know, when I wasa kid, you know, craft
beer, real exotic beer was likebuying a Heineken or something, you know.
And now and what we had wehad Burger and Shaneling and Hugh to

(05:59):
Pole couple others, but that wasabout it. Beer was not a thing,
and it was sort of a secondclass beverage. Like if you went
to a higher finding fine dining restaurantyou ordered a beer, they kind of
looked down their nose at you.It was wine or nothing. I love
the renaissance that's going on right now. Yehse independent breweries, and I suppose
the reason there are so many ofthem is just so dang popular and if

(06:23):
you build it, they will come. Yeah, it was true, And
that's why I wanted all the breweriesincluded, because, like you said,
you've never heard of wandering monsters.My brother, I was telling you earlier.
My brother is a big craft beerperson. Actually I told somebody else
that, but he was giving mea little bit of guff about starting this
book because he's like, oh,I've been to all the breweries. I
know all of the breweries. Youknow, one he needs a book like
this, Well, we went toWandering Monsters. I posted it on Facebook

(06:46):
and he was like, oh,I've never heard of that. Where is
it? And I said, well, buy my book and find out.
One after another I could put inthat category. I mean, I picked
that one just because I glombed ontothe name. But as I'm flipping through
the pages, I got a lotof brewers I got to go to.
That's what that's what makes it sogreat. And you have it broken down
by area. I do as bestI could figure. I live in Westchester,

(07:09):
so that was not an easy task, but I did the best I
could. Yeah, well, there'sWalnut Hills, and there's downtown. There's
Morrow, there's Milford. You knowa Loveland. I've been in Narrow Path.
That's my neighborhood right there. Anarrow Path is fa. I love
the folks there. Yeah, andit's wonderful have your own micro brew in
your own area. So let ussay it's Cincy brew Guide, SINCEI with

(07:30):
a y brewguide dot com. Yes, sir, fifteen bucks, yeah,
fifteen well spent, and like yousaid, you're charging for it because you
wanted to include all of them,right, So I didn't want to charge
the breweries. I wanted them tobe able to afford to be in it.
I wanted to show them some love, get them some business, keep
them in business. Well you're goingto do that. I know my listeners
are going to be happy to geta copy of this. Get one for

(07:51):
your friends, folks. Everybody needsa copy of Pocket Guide is since say
Breweries by my guest today in studio, Jennifer Craig. You had fun doing
that, so, didn't you.I know it's a lot of work.
It was a lot of work,but it was. It's a passion project
for sure. Yeah, and youdid this with your husband. My husband
definitely gave me some consultation on abomographic designer. So I laid the book
out myself, contacted the breweries.I have not been to all the breweries,

(08:13):
but I have been in contact withthem. I had to get permission
to use their logos. Oh,so that was a lot of work.
I just had my husband's cousin askedme when I'm going to do one for
Dayton, and I'm like, ha, that was a lot of work.
I'm not sure if I'm going todo that or not. Well, hopefully
the book sales will make it worthwhile, and you will go on and expand.
Now, who knows the Ohio PocketGuide to Ohio's breweries or the Tri

(08:37):
State breweries. Yeah, that mapin the back would be insane. It
would be absolutely crazy, because eventhough we are a brew town by our
history, as I pointed out beforeDayton massive brew town. I mean,
you can go anywhere. Every placeis looking more and more like this map
you have in the back. It'strue. I view that as a plus
for everybody. Jennifer, It's beena pleasure having you in studio. Thanks

(08:58):
again for the copy you gave me, and I'm certainly gonna put it to
good use and I will encourage mylisteners to check it out at cincybrewguide dot
com. Get yourself a copy,and get one for your favorite beer lover
seven fifteen right now, fit yourfive KRCD talk station, get touch with
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