The 2011 beer scene in Cincinnati was very different than the 2016 beer scene in Cincinnati is.  Red Ear Brewing should still be open- but it isn’t.  It’s one of those cases of “poor timing”.

Let’s tell the story… So brothers in law Matt Wehmeyer and Mike DeDominico started up Red Ear by making their beer at Vito’s in Covington back in 2009.  It was perfect.  Craft beer was on the rise, the customers loved the beer – it made sense.  So they kicked it into high gear and opened up a storefront and started the effort to become Covington’s “neighborhood brewery”.  Keep in mind, Northern Kentucky didn’t have a brewery then… it was doom and gloom all around for beer.

They tried to get more and more restaurants and bars to sign on and sell their beer…but it just wasn’t working in Northern Kentucky.  There wasn’t a thriving craft beer community yet, taproom culture didn’t even exist in Cincinnati, and they were eventually forced to close their doors.

Their legacy lives on, though.  Through a pleasant turn of timing fortune, they were a part of the very first Cincinnati Beer Week Collaboration beer, the 2012 Barleywine brewed at Mt Carmel Brewing Company.