OWNER of Elevator Brewing, Dick Stevens, thought it would be a great idea to brew a beer that would capitalize on the passion that Columbus has for Ohio State University football. The Buckeyes rule the local sports landscape, so the community nearly shuts down on game days, with people either heading to watch the game live at Ohio Stadium or planting themselves in front of their televisions.
The brewery designed an approachable malty beer and dubbed it Bleeding Buckeye Red Ale. The name plays on the fact that Ohio State fans bleed scarlet and gray.
On the label, Stevens put a black-and-white picture of people illustrating the famous O-H-I-O—a sort of shadow puppet image. There was one problem. Ohio State didn’t approve, thinking the design encroached on its brand. Elevator received a cease-and-desist order from the university.
Six thousand dollars later—thanks to the involvement of law firms—the brewery had a new label.
“I had a hard time getting any law firm to work for me because, if they had done any work for OSU, it was a conflict of interest,” Stevens says. “Every little change had to be sent over there to be approved.”
The label has been redesigned a couple of times since. The first design used a cartoon of a group of fans cheering on their favorite team and the Ohio State colors—black, scarlet, and gray. Now the label features a photograph of cheering fans—all wearing the Ohio State colors, of course—piling out of a red van.
And, without a doubt, Bleeding Buckeye sells the best during football season.
Blood Thirst Wheat
Barley’s Brewing Co. | www.barleysbrewing.com
Barley’s Brewing Co.
467 N. High St.
Columbus, Ohio 43215
(614) 228–2537
First brewed: 2010
Style: Fruit beer
Alcohol content: 5 percent
IBUs: 2.9
Available: Year-round on draft
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft beers to try:
• Old Firehouse Maltese Cross
• MadTree Blood Orange PsycHOPathy
• Maumee Bay Blood Orange Imperial Witbier
• Thirsty Dog Raspberry Ale
• Rivertown Blueberry Lager
EACH YEAR, Barley’s Brewing hosts a homebrew competition. A small batch of the winning beer is brewed for release at the brewpub the following year for all to enjoy. Usually, the beer is never heard from again.
But all that changed in 2009, the year of the 14th annual competition. Homebrewer Lloyd Cicetti devised a Bavarian wheat ale, using blood oranges. The beer was a hit when it went on tap in 2010. It proved to be so popular that Barley’s head brewer Angelo Signorino Jr. opted to make it again—and again, and again.
Cicetti didn’t have a detailed recipe written down. There was no starting gravity, for example, to work from, so Signorino improvised. The brewery zests blood oranges by hand and uses blood orange puree. The beer, wonderfully cloudy with a hint of crimson color, initially was available only during the summer. But it kept selling so well that Barley’s opted to start brewing it year-round in late 2014.
So what explains its popularity? “It is so accessible,” Signorino says. “It’s fruity, but it’s not like a fruit beer. And one of the things that I’m really proud of is that it’s not flavoring. It’s really orange puree and real orange zest. I think it shows in the beer.”
Blood Thirst Wheat also is special to Signorino because it recognizes the creativity of homebrewers.
“When I started brewing at home in 1991 and here in 1992, I wouldn’t have considered that beer,” he says with a laugh. “What do you mean? A Bavarian wheat beer with blood oranges? That’s not beer. But people love it. It’s remarkably refreshing and satisfying.”
Blood Thirst Wheat is the only winning beer from the homebrew competition that has gone on to become a regular at Barley’s.
Bodhi
Columbus Brewing Co. | www.columbusbrewing.com
Columbus Brewing Co.
2555 Harrison Road
Columbus, Ohio 43204
(614) 224–3626
First brewed: 2009
Style: Double India pale ale
Alcohol content: 8.5 percent
IBUs: Low 90s
Awards: Bronze medal at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival
Available: Year-round on draft and in bottles
IF YOU LIKE THIS BEER, here are five other Ohio craft brews to try:
• Rhinegeist Saber Tooth Tiger
• Great Lakes Chillwave
• Homestead 3 MC’s
• Hoppin’ Frog Hop Dam Triple IPA
• Hoof Hearted Dragonsaddle
COLUMBUS BREWING owner and brewer Eric Bean had just designed his latest beer, an aggressive India pale ale using Citra hops, and he wanted a hip name for it. He read somewhere that consumers gravitated toward beers with fun names.
But when he looked at the names of some of the early Columbus brands . . . well, they seemed pretty bland. Pale Ale? IPA? It can’t get more mundane than that.
“I was looking for a name that sounded cool,” Bean says. “All other brewers have cool names. Why don’t we have any?”
He chose Bodhi. Now here’s where things get interesting. Bean, who has a reputation for producing some of the state’s best hoppy brews, doesn’t want to reveal why he chose Bodhi, preferring to keep a little mystery behind the name. Of course, there are a few well-known possible inspirations that he freely acknowledges.
For
