Fibonacci Brewing Company Is For Sale.

By: The Gnarly Gnome
Photography By: The Gnarly Gnome

You’ve probably never been to a place like Fibonacci Brewing Company. You’ve been to other nano breweries, I’m sure (a nano brewery is one that makes less than 3 barrels of beer per batch). I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you that you probably haven’t ever been to one that is as deeply important to their community as Fibonacci is, though. I also am reasonably confident that you’ve never been to one that is an urban farm, with two AirBnbs overlooking a goat pen.

That’s because they’re literally one of a kind. You’ll never find another place like Fib.

Nearly A Decade Crammed Into A Piece Of A Blog Post

It’s pretty ridiculous to think that I can smash the personality of this place and these people into one small piece of a blog post – but I’ll try to get you caught up as best I can. Betty and Bob Bollas started Fibonacci Brewing Company in their hometown of Mt. Healthy a little over 9 years ago for many different reasons.

They wanted to celebrate their love of math, science, and nature and the incredible way that they interweave through each other. The couple wanted to use their love of craft beer to create a space that could inspire a community. They found that their commitment to sustainability, local ingredients, and inclusivity was a foundation that people around them were desperate to build upon—and they certainly have.

The community that calls Fibonacci theirs is incredibly special. You can see that every time you step foot in one of their farmers markets, spend an evening in their beer garden listening to live music, participate in one of their community-driven events or just get lost in a conversation with a new friend in their taproom.

The beer at Fibonacci leans heavily into local ingredients. They brew beers that are special because they mean something. You can hang out and have a couple of beers to waste a few hours on the weekend… but you can also literally get lost in the story behind things that are so full of personality and unlike anything that you’ll find anywhere else in Cincinnati’s beer scene.

Not only did Betty and Bob create something wildly special at Fibonacci, but they also started a story that is far from over—it’s ready to slide into the next chapter.

Prepping For The Next Phase

Life is a never-ending journey for all of us… As the current owners of Fibonacci have continued to embrace new adventures in theirs, they’ve decided that it was time to find someone else who can carry on what they’ve started with Fib.

The brewery is for sale. Process that for a minute before we move on.

When you have a place with such a tightly ingrained community, that can be a scary thought. We’ve all got plenty of examples of places that lost their way when new ownership came on board, and that’s a real fear. Remind yourself, though, that it’s not always that way, and sometimes, a fresh perspective and a new energy can make a beloved place even better than it was before.

You have to trust in a bigger idea that doesn’t live with just one piece of the current business. That’s not at all to say that Betty or Bob aren’t, or haven’t been important to what Fibonacci Brewing IS, but they’ve spent this last decade building something much bigger than just themselves and have in turn built a strong business that will thrive with the right person at the helm.

Anyone who knows them knows that they don’t take this transition lightly at all.

The Symphony Of Change

I’d be lying if I told you there wasn’t a part of me that struggles with this. There’s of course a fear that things will change, that new ownership won’t understand what we love about this business, and the soul won’t be the same.

I find solace, and comfort in a quote that I have had written in my notes for a very long time. I’m not sure who the original author of it was, but it states “New beginnings can be as subtle as a whisper, or as loud as a symphony”. The big stuff is obvious… and a change in ownership in a place like Fibonacci when you love it the way that a lot of us do most definitely classifies as a symphonic new beginning.

I’ve spent a lot of time this weekend forcing myself to remember that this isn’t the only time that Fibonacci has had a new beginning. There’s been changes, a global pandemic, a tornado, staff changes… it’s all drifted by as the whispers of new beginnings.

When you spend as much time, love, and attention as Betty and Bob have taken with creating Fibonacci, you have to trust that at some point, the soul of the place isn’t held together by one or two people. It’s ingrained in the community that lives within it.

I’m proud to be a part of that community, I’m happy for the things that have come and gone in the life of FIb, and I’m excited to see what the future has in store.