I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this news… Do I consider it an expansion, a second location, an experimental space? A warehouse for aging beer?  I think it’s a little bit of a it all, though – which is why I’m really thrilled to see it come to life this year.

The Plans

If you haven’t caught the news from WCPO yet, you’ll be happy to hear that Nine Giant has signed the lease on a 5,500 square foot property that they are dubbing the Nine Giant Fermentorium.  The space includes a 2,250 square foot basement that will house the brewery’s barrel aging program, which has been extremely small up until now due to their absolute lack of space for barrels.

This isn’t a full fledged second location, because the new space won’t be a new brewery… it’s a place to house, and highlight the beers that they haven’t been able to produce leading up to this.  The main floor of the Fermentorium will have a bar who’s main purpose (while also serving wine, liquor and cocktails) will be to showcase these new beers.

The back of the space will have a much needed event space that will have room for 50-60 people while the main Fermentorium will have room for 30-40.  In addition to the new Fermentorium space, the brewery will finally be opening up their outdoor patio behind their current space which will seat approximately 25 people.  You can access the patio from both the brewpub as well as the new Fermentorium, tying all the spaces together.

What It All Means

It’s a wide, wide world of breweries here in Cincinnati these days, and they are all managing to forge their own ways in this industry, while remaining true to the idea of brewing beer, while serving a bigger community.  What I’ve had a fun time watching in the past year or two, isn’t just the new breweries opening their doors and finding their “place”, but watching places like Nine Giant keep growing, and figuring out what that growth means to them as a brewery.

This expansion is important to note because the brewery chose to not open a second space in OTR, or another one of “those” neighborhoods where they could slide in and fit into an existing culture extremely well.  They instead are doubling down on their own neighborhood, reinvesting in the people that surround them, the familiar faces that already find themselves on barstools regularly, and call Nine Giant home.

This?  This is exciting stuff.  Yeah, I’m pretty pumped to see Nine Giant start putting out some barrel aged beers, as well as having a new space that crowds can overflow into… but the real excitement for me is how, and why they are doing it.

The Timeline

The brewery is hoping that the new space will be done this winter – however you and I both know how these things can go sometimes, so I wouldn’t get mad at them if it takes a little longer.

If it’s barrel aged beer that you’re looking for, you should know that they are prepping for their second anniversary celebration, and they’ll have some of their “first” barrel aged beers on tap for the event. Stay tuned… I’ll hopefully have some more details about that soon!!!