All About Great Crescent from the Gnarly Gnome

All About Great Crescent

When you ask people to list the “veteran” breweries here in Greater Cincinnati, it seems like Great Crescent gets skipped over way more often than not, and most definitely way more than they should. The brewery has been around for years, and they’ve gone through more changes than are easily counted. As the only Greater Cincinnati brewery to operate in Indiana right now, they have a distinct advantage, as well as some big disadvantages resulting from their location.

If you have yet to make your way out to Aurora to see what the fuss is about, I can’t implore you enough to do so much sooner rather than later. The brewery used to distribute their beer here in Ohio, but in recent years has scaled back a bit to focus more on their taproom and the experience that they can offer there. The moral of the story? You need to make a trip.

What’s Great Crescent Like?

The Great Crescent brewery is located in a historic distillery warehouse. The building was constructed in 1843, and it oozes history from every rough wooden beam inside.

The feeling of their space is extremely unique. They have a modern twist that they put on their historic space, in a mashup that I’ve heard called ‘Pioneer Steampunk’ – It’s got just enough quirk to raise an eyebrow, but not too much to feel gimmicky.

The beer they brew speaks for itself. They’ve got a solid lineup of different styles, and have been doing some really amazing barrel-aged beers since well before most of the current breweries have even been open here in town.

Cincy Brewcast Episodes

Volume 2, Episode 30 – Live: From Great Crescent Brewery

The Great Crescent Brewing Company Timeline

2008 – The brewery opened with a 3bbl nano-brewery in a storefront in Aurora Indiana
2010 – Great Crescent jumped up to a 10bbl brewhouse, and moved into their great current space, adding a small canning line. (You can see some of their packaged releases here)
2011 – Bourbon’s Barrel Stout is canned for the first time, making them one of the first breweries that I know of to package a bourbon barrel-aged stout in cans.
2012 – The brewery expands its reach into Ohio and Kentucky, signing with Stagnaro distribution.
2015 – Scaling things back, Great Crescent stops distributing into Ohio and Kentucky and focuses more on their taproom experience.