Located in the old Tower Furniture store, Main Street Brewery used a 14bbl Specific Mechanical Brewhouse, and being located in Cincinnati proper considered themselves Cincinnati’s first brewpub.  The brewery was part of the Queen City Brewing Company‘s line of brewpubs in the city.  Under head brewer Toby Hunt, the brewery had an incredible first year of business, with sales of $3.5 million dollars, and production around 2,240 barrels. The trend only went down from there.  Facing increasing competition downtown the ownership felt that after a valiant 5 year run, the business would be better served as an upscale eatery.  After they closed the doors in September of 1999 and put a half a million dollars into a renovation, the space opened up again in January of 2000 as the Jump Café and Bar.

After the closure of the Main Street Brewpub, head brewer Toby Hunt made his way up to Blue Ash to work at the Queen City Brewing Company’s last brewpub,The Watson Brother’s Brewhouse, before eventually making his way back down to Kentucky (where he started before coming to Cincinnati) to the Bluegrass Brewing Company.

Notable Beers

• Main Street Pale Ale
• Woody’s Wheat
• Abigails Amber
• Over The Rhine Raz
• Steamboat Stout – Won a silver medal at 1995 GABF
• Golden Ale
• St. Baranabas Brown Ale

Timeline

• Opened in December of 1994
• Closed in 1999