All About Bircus
It’s a brewery, no, it’s a circus? Bircus is actually something else entirely. There are not many places like Bircus, especially here in Cincinnati. It’s not hard to be special when you are genuinely unique, with an idea that makes a lot of people tilt their head’s and ask the big one… “why?”. To understand the why, you’ve got to understand Paul Miller, the owner and head ringmaster of Bircus. He got the idea to start a brewery that would fund his major passion, a circus from a friend (Matthias Vermael) who operated a simliar idea in Belgium.
The Bircus idea was licensed from Vermael, and plans were set into motion. The beer that was sold at Bircus was going to fund the circus that Paul had been using for quite some time, not just as a profession but as a method of giving back to the community as well. The original plan for Bircus involved contract beer from another major brewery, but when that couldn’t get in motion there was only one natural path to take, buy a brewhouse. Paul found a head brewer in Sean Gregor who makes a lineup of beer that remains delightfully well rounded, with styles to please any drinker that might wander in. The one thing all their beers have in common is names that call back to the Ludlow Lagoon, an amusement park that was at one time located around the he corner from where Bircus now resides.
The brewery is also unique in that they are the first to utilize a new method of enabling anyone to invest in the brewery and become an actual owner, unlike the Kickstarters and crowd funding that has become so popular.
What’s Bircus Like?
Passing by the old ticket booth from the Ludlow Theater, you enter what is now Bircus, it’s a wide open single room brewery with big soaring ceilings. You are immediately greeted by the big bar, but when you look past it you can see the “big top” – an open floor space that houses circus acts, live music, wrestling – you name it.
They have two balconies for VIP seating or rental during events, which provide a pretty incredible view of whatever might be happening down below you.
The brewery also has plans for a nice big outdoor beer garden, and a restaurant space next door (which is a little farther down the path) and even longer term… there is talk of a rooftop patio.
The Bircus Timeline
- 2014 – Plans for Bircus were first announced
- March, 2017 – after a long and exhaustive process, the brewery gets their brewers license and brews up the first 5 gallon test batches of their beer.
- 12/2/17 – The Bircus temporary taproom opens in Ludlow, Kentucky
- 11/21/18 – The Bircus ‘Big Top’ taproom and theater opens up for business.
Cincy Brewcast Episodes
- Volume 3, Episode 17 – Bircus, Beercus, Bercus, It doesn’t matter… it’s showtime!
- Volume 5, Episode 14 – Under The Bircus Big Top, The Cincinnati Beer Circus