They haven’t been open even a year yet, and the way they are chugging along like a well oiled machine makes you think that they’ve been doing this as long as anyone in this city.  Braxton Brewing Company held their first annual ‘Builder’s Town Hall’ about a week and half ago and I thought it was a great time for catching up with Braxton on some of the great stuff they talked about.

Some of this you might have read already… sorry.  Read it again, it’s good stuff.

Cans and Ohio

I wrote about this the night of the Town Hall, so a big apology for repeating myself, but this is big news for those of us who live on the Northern side of the city, and don’t make it down to Kentucky as much as we should but Braxton is finally sending their cans up here to Ohio!

In addition to this, they finally let us know that the next new can that we’d be seeing rolling off their canning line would be their IPA, Crank Shaft.  IPA is still king in craft beer, and I know that there’s going to be a lot of very happy people around this city to stock their coolers with this gem as the weather warms up.

Growing…again.

In probably their biggest news of the night, they let loose that they had ordered some more tank space… a lot more tank space.  On the way is 2 massive 120bbl fermenters and a new 120bbl brite tank.  This takes their capacity to an entirely new level.  Their current ‘theoretical’ capacity is around 5000 bbls, the new tanks will push that up to the 16000bbl level.

Keep in mind we’re talking theoretical levels here… they’re not going to hit that next year by any stretch, though they are saying that in their estimates they’ll be at around 7500bbl for 2016, which tops their 2550bbls that they brewed in 2015 by quite a bit.

The growth that you’re seeing from them enables some other stuff though… not just more of their core styles…

More Of What?

I think that it’s become clear that drinkers like a few different things… a lot.  The Braxton team let us know that we’re going to see a lot more one off beers from them, more specialty beers means more variety on tap at all times, giving a little something for everyone, and giving you that many more reasons to make your way down to the taproom on a regular basis (not that anyone would need any more of a reason than Dead Blow, in my opinion).

They also made it clear that they’re listening to their brew team, and the city’s drinkers that Lagers are a desperately needed part of Cincinnati craft beer.  The big thing that some more tank space will allow is more lagers!

Their lagers have been so successful that they actually caused a little movement in the line-up at Braxton…

Lineup Movement

The love that this city has for lagers has caused Braxton to replace Sparky in the year round lineup with their now beloved Dortmunder called Twisted Bit.  Sparky will be moving into their Garage Series, though, so you’ll still see it around the taproom a good chunk of the year, but Twisted Bit should be up there year round now!

The Block Party

If you didn’t assume it already, after the success of their event this December that they called their Block Party, it’s now being made an annual event!  The event is not only a great time for bottle releases and some fantastic rare kegs from around the city and region, but I fell in love with the event as a celebration of Cincinnati’s beer community.  Much like the festivals at Listermann, this is all about everyone getting along, and drinking some really great beer from around the community – I love it.

The Coffee Buzz

Not a lot of breweries are doing as much as Braxton is doing with coffee.  They released their barrel aged coffee beans this last December, and their Starter beans have been a great success in the taproom as well.

But they’re gonna do more!

You can expect more barrel aged coffee in the coming year, with “different barrels” – not just Bourbon.  They were tight lipped about what these barrels might be, but knowing the Braxton team, they’ll be good.

They also let us know that we’ll see more blends of their “normal beans” as well, including some single origin beans for all us coffee nuts to drool over the way we do our single hopped IPAs.  Good Stuff?  Great Stuff.

Stay Tuned!

This was just some of the stuff that they’d tell us about.  You know they’re going to have all kinds of stuff up their sleeves for 2016, and as it comes out I’ll be sure to let you all know about it here.  I can’t hide my love for Cincinnati Beer… there are exciting things happening in this city!