When Northern Row first imagined throwing a festival here in Cincinnati, there was little doubt what they were going to do to separate it from the many, many other festivals that this city has come to host. Lager beer. Lager seems to be on a bit of a trend right now, with folks leaning heavily into everything from Dark Czech lagers to the well-crafted light American lagers that everyone seems to be talking about currently.

Northern Row knew that they wanted to lean heavily into the lager-style family well before all that was happening, though. They love lager not because it’s cool right now, but because it’s a part of Cincinnati’s soul. Once you get that, you’ll get Lagerfest.

What To Expect

The real secret to Northern Row’s Lagerfest is that it’s not just about the beer. It’s really about what the beer means to a city like Cincinnati. There are two different ticket options, and I can’t emphasize enough how much you should buy the one that includes a guided tour.

Both ticket options include access to exclusive lagers including the collaboration between Northern Row and Nine Giant. In addition, there will be beers from:

• HighGrain
• Nine Giant
• Third Eye
• Narrow Path
• Sonder
• Rhinegeist
• Esoteric
• Moerlein
• Karrikin
• Wiedemann
• Hofbrau (Germany
• Weltenburger Kloster (Germany)
• Coranado Brewing
• Masthead Brewing
• Toppling Goliath
• Hofbrauhaus Freising (Germany)

There will be live music all day, exclusive merchandise, special to-go beers, and food specials. It’s an insanely fun festival as is, but adding the tour option really shows its true nature.

Take The Tour

I tell you again that you should 100% be spending the extra $30 to take a tour of the lagering tunnels underneath the streets of OTR. They’re going to be touring both the Jackson Brewery tunnels and the Linck Brewery tunnels at different times, so pay attention to which tour you book!

Cincinnati, Ohio was built on lager beer, and when you step foot in the historical spaces that made that beer possible, it hits home. Taking a tour and then grabbing a beer in Northern Row’s already historic space makes you feel extremely different about the liquid you’re consuming, and it’ll hook you for life.

Northern Row Gets It

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Northern Row understands the whole point of this very deeply. They were making lager as soon as they could as a brewery, and it wasn’t because it was easy or trendy. They made lager beer because they moved into a historical space in OTR that was screaming at them to do it.

It’s hard to sit in their taproom and not feel something. It’s like something in your soul connects you to Cincinnati’s history through some sort of time portal that exists deep inside their building.

That’s why Lagerfest exists, and that’s why you need to be there.

If you don’t already have your tickets, make sure that you head over to Eventbrite to get them… and I’ll see you there!