I can’t even tell you how many times I have written this post. It has been typed out, erased, and rewritten over, and over again. There are a handful of times in the history of this blog that a post has just been difficult to write – that my thoughts have been difficult to make sense of. As the weeks progressed, the news that Christian Moerlein closed their doors has needed to bounce around in my head a little bit more. It’s not that I always had a fridge full of Moerlein beer, though I did drink quite a bit of it over the years. It’s not that the beer is going away – because they are going to contract brew the brands here in town… it’s that this is a clear sign that the ownership group doesn’t understand us. They don’t understand the community… and maybe more importantly, they’ve let us all down.

What Moerlein Has Really Been About

Stepping foot in the Moerlein taproom during Bockfest has always been the quickest way to understand what the brand was all about. You didn’t always go to Moerlein just for the beer, you went there for the story, which is something that few places can capture in 2020, at least in a natural way.

Back to Bockfest, we had a routine every year. We’d sign up for one of the Brewery District tours on Saturday Morning, getting up bright and early to venture below the streets of OTR to explore the lagering tunnels beneath the streets and hear the stories of brewing past. The tour always wraps up in the tunnels below Moerlein, rising into Bockfest Hall just as the crowds were making their way in for an afternoon beer. We’d raise that first glass of bock beer in celebration of something. Of a past that lived on… of drinking culture, of the spirit of history and the bright future that is ahead of Cincinnati Beer.

Moerlein was always about this journey. From the very beginning (at least in modern terms) – when Greg Hardman bought the brands that make up the Moerlein portfolio it was about restoring the glory that they represented. It was about opening an incredible brewpub that showcased the tie between the past and present of Cincinnati beer. Moerlein was about bringing that beer back home, which had disgracefully been brewed out of state, capitalizing on the name of Cincinnati for the sake of making a buck. The brands would come back to OTR, back to the brewery district that they helped build more than a hundred years ago.

We believed in this cause. We showed up to OTR to celebrate with the folks that were determined to keep the dream and the idea alive year after year. Until one day – they were back. Little Kings rolled off the production line in OTR and we celebrated. We did it.

Christian Moerlein Ceases Production – Moves To Contract

Yes – they have made a big point about letting us know that Little Kings and the Moerlein Brands will still be made in Cincinnati. But when the Cincinnati Beverage Company tells us that they aren’t leaving – they’re missing a big point of this all. It’s not just about these brands physically being made here… craft beer is about more than the physical location of a brand.

This rant is far from being against contract brewing – don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. I understand the value, and the need for contract brewing in many situations… from a business perspective, I don’t blame the ownership group for doing what they are doing.

But it feels wrong with these brands. For years, we have found comfort in the struggle. The struggle of understanding that the brands were torn from us a hundred years ago, the struggle that Moerlein was one of the first craft beer brands in the country, one that just couldn’t catch on in the 80s. There was the struggle of opening a brewery in both OTR and at the banks when neither one of those was a normal idea. This is Cincinnati… and we know struggles. We eat struggles to fuel ourselves for tomorrow.

Moerlein gave up on us.

Christian Moerlein, Hudepohl, Little Kings… these aren’t beers that we drink because they have great marketing plans, or are the latest and greatest trendy styles that the geeks line up for. We drink them because we remember the past, and we look forward to the future. It’s been made clear to us now that this is a brand, a business, and no longer a symbol for us to rally behind.

Was This Avoidable?

When the new ownership group stepped in and bought a stake in Moerlein back in 2019 – it was impossible to see what 2020 was going to do to the industry. It’s not fair to blame them 100% on the failure of Moerlein. The industry has been changing fast, and a brand like Moerlein was struggling to adapt and change, while still staying true to who they are.

I don’t know if this was avoidable at all… new owners or not. A drastic change for how things were being done was needed one way or another. In my book though, it could have been achieved without losing grip on who they were.

Like I said earlier… I don’t think that I blame them for closing down Moerlein – money speaks loudly, call it business… you have to do what you have to do sometimes. But to me – to think that this was the best (or only) solution for Moerlein? I can’t.