This story is part of a special beer month series celebrating the Queen City's beer heritage and bright future as a booming brewery town. Check wcpo.com/beer every Tuesday and Thursday for a new profile of one of the 12 local breweries in the Cincinnati area.
CINCINNATI -- Its time to take your taste buds on a trip and the highway to get them there is Fifty West. And as the Mariemont beer makers might say, its about the journey AND the destination.
The brewery and tapas restaurant is the brainchild of brewmaster Blake Horsburgh, general manager Whit Hesser and distribution/expansion manager Bobby Slattery.
The journey began in 2008 when his family bought the building that now houses the brewery. As the family debated what to do with the property, Slattery was working at Hahana Beach when Hesser came in and started talking about opening a microbrewery.
Slattery said that while working in the restaurant and bar industry, he had heard people come in and talk about opening such venues often so he initially laughed off the idea. It wasnt until Hesser sat him down and laid out a business plan that Slattery said he got serious.
You know what, when you hear about all the people who have been having success, its all about how many tap handles you have. And everybody wants to hear the word local. You want to know that your ingredients are coming out of garden down the road, that your beer is being brewed locally. Local is the hot word, Slattery said.
Its that attachment to local that really sealed the deal and the pair spent the next two years fine-tuning a plan. During that time, Slattery took Hesser and Horsburghs beer to local experts to see if their brew had the mojo needed to sustain the business and the tasters seemed to be convinced.
Slattery said the name Fifty West came from a chance encounter he had years earlier when a motorcycle rider came in from the road. The rider said he was in last place in a cross-country cycle race from Sacramento to DC and he just wanted a beer. Thats what spurred Slattery to remember that Highway 50 was a coast-to-coast roadway and had a rich history in Americana.
They used to call Route 50 the Main Street of America, Slattery said.
While restoring the property during the building phase, the trio said they learned more and more about that history and how the property tied into it. Slattery said people actually came in and donated items related to US 50 that will be incorporated the look of the brewpub and will help tell the story of Fifty West. He said part of the fun has been talking with people about the trinkets and souvenirs and hearing everyones story about their experiences on US 50.
We think of this business as one big road trip. So its like were on a road trip on 50, so every beer that we brew would be a different trip on 50, Slattery said.
The brewpub officially opened for business in November 2012. Its currently set to produce about 1,000 barrels per year and they are waiting on equipment to double that capacity to 2,000 barrels per year. The brewers said that equipment is being shipped from overseas and they hope to be brewing on the new system sometime in September.
Slattery said right now they have to be selective on how many bars and other venues they send their beer too because they have to produce enough to keep their own taps filled. The expansion will help them get to a goal of selling the beer to 50 percent of the bars currently demanding the beer.
Once we expand, you will start to see us at bars around the city. Bottling or canning is the next step and requires us to move into a production-oriented facility. I don't have a set time frame for when this will occur but it is definitely on our radar. When this happens you'll see us everywhere, Slattery said. We've identified a few potential locations for a production facility, but making quality beer is the most important thing to us. The first step is prove to ourselves we can execute doubling our current production and keeping the quality where it needs to be. Once we've done that we'll get real serious about taking the next step into a large-scale production facility with bottling and canning capabilities.
The way the Fifty West team tells it, finding a demand for their beer wont be a problem. When they opened, they thought the crowd would mostly be a mix of locals and craft beer fans. Their customers have proven to be more than just the stereotypical beer lover.
I would have never predicted the crowds that come in here. Its not just a local crowd or a young crowd or an old crowd. Its just this interesting mix of people. Its experienced craft drinkers and inexperienced craft drinkers that are just interested in whats going on, Slattery said.
All that success isnt coming without some growing pains though. Slattery said there have been weekends where people will have to wait sometimes three hours to get food and the brewpub is filled to the brim with customers.
Slattery credits much of that success to the beer and the man behind the beer: Horsburgh. Fifty Wests brewmaster said he got his start in brewing while working at restaurant in college.
After graduation, he decided to study brewing at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago and worked at the Rivertown Brewery in Lockland before starting Fifty West.
Horsburgh said the vestiges of his philosophy degree can be found in the virtues he posted as directional markers in the brewery. He said dedication to tradition, innovation, craftsmanship and patience guide his beer-making process.
Its more like alchemy, its like science and art at the same time, Hosburgh said.
In addition to an impressive array of beers on tap, Fifty West also has an ever-expanding barrel-aging program. Hosburgh said they have some barrels from Buffalo Trace and from some vineyards but theyre always on the hunt for more. The team said they want to have the ultimate beer experience and barrel aging is part of that.
The food is another distinct aspect at Fifty West. While many of the brewers in town have food partners that come in while the tap room is open, Slattery said they made the choice early on to have a restaurant on-site as well.
To that end, they hired Chef John Tomain, who aims to be Cincinnatis premiere beer chef. Slattery said they try to only serve foods that are in season and that the menu will constantly rotate and to pair the food with beer that will compliment each other.
The team said they are proud to be part of Cincinnatis resurgent beer culture and have enjoyed the relationships all the local brewers have.
The brewing industry is very unique. Its more camaraderie than it is competition, Horsburgh said. Ive always advocated for more breweries around the city. They would only help share the knowledge, experience and wealth of information there is not only for each other but also for their customer base.
The team said more collaborations, such as theyve done with MadTree Brewing, could happen in the future and that all the breweries routinely share ingredients and knowledge when the need arises.
Horsburgh also has some tips for homebrewers hoping to expand their craft.
Go to your local brewery and talk to the brewers and learn as much as you can, Horsburgh said.
Just because were brewing professionals doesnt mean we necessarily have more knowledge than a homebrewer might. Its all about sharing knowledge and learning from each other. Besides that, its all about experimentation. You can make great beer at home and I advocate to just keep trying things and learn how to tweak your recipes and make things more specific.
Fifty West grows their own hop vines on the back patio of the brewhouse.
This story is part of a special beer month series celebrating the Queen City's beer heritage and bright future as a booming brewery town. Check wcpo.com/beer every Tuesday and Thursday for a new profile of one of the 12 local breweries in the Cincinnati area.
=========================== Fifty West is located at 7668 Wooster Pike in Cincinnati.
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Tap room hours:
Wednesday: 4pm - 12am Thursday: 4pm 12am Friday: 4pm 2am Saturday: 12pm 2am Sunday: 11am 12am
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