Morrow may not be a million miles away from Cincinnati, but if you asked your average craft beer fan about Cellar Dweller Brewery in Morrow, you would think that it might be. Most craft beer fans have never been there to enjoy what they offer, which is a crying shame, because what they offer is great beer. The brewery is strangely unfamiliar with the beer scene here, which for a brewery that has been open since February of 2012, is unfortunate. Chalk it up to the “distant” location, or the limited capacity. Maybe it’s that they have very limited distribution to bars in the area, but chances are, you don’t know many people who drink it regularly. Again… crying shame.
The brewery started as an offshoot to Valley Vineyards, tucked away in the basement (hence the name) It’s success has been largely due to the face that it’s smack dab in the middle of a winery. For those of us who just prefer beer over wine, we might be a bit more likely to take our wives or significant others to a winery that has a brewery downstairs. Use this! Tell your wife you want to take her to a winery for dinner.
The beers that you can find there are often unique beers that might not fit into a specific style format. A trend that you will see more and more with local breweries. They also have a pretty nice barrel aging program that has been thriving due to the abundance of used barrels that as you can guess are pretty easy to find lying around a winery.
The best news about Cellar Dweller is that there are plans in place for expansion very soon. Keep your eyes peeled at your local taps and shelves, and hopefully you will see it in the near future. When you do… drink.
Which beers of theirs did you think didn’t fit the style?
Also, if he’s got a big barrel aging program how many barrel aged beers has he done or does he have coming?
My article was written from some of the things that head brewer Steve Shaw has said about the brewery. Specifically his quote of “I’m not a brewer who is going to follow the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) guidelines. I think that’s made the American beer market kind of stagnant because people want to stick to guidelines. They want to win awards or the like. My beers are going to drift all over the place”. He used their black IPA as an example of a beer that doesn’t really fit into a “style”, with it not being a “true” black IPA, but also not an Imperial Stout either.
As for a barrel aging program, they have release a collaboration called Slide Job with Listermann that was aged in Port Barrels,and a Barley Wine called Franc & Barley that was aged in Cab-Franc barrels. Again… this is coming from the head brewer, so I can only assume that he has plans to continue the trend of barrel aging beers. Only time will tell what’s coming as I haven’t heard anything new.