Skyline Chili
Cincinnati Chili is a local delicacy of sorts. The dish is a secret spice blend in ground beef served on a bed of pasta topped high with what is essentially an entire bag of shredded cheese. You can also get it on a hot dog; but we went straight for the carbs. According to locals surveyed, the chain of choice is Skyline Chili. At Skyline, you can get the chili in a few styles: 3 way (chili, cheese, pasta) 4 way (chili, beans or onion, cheese, pasta) or 5 way (chili, beans, onion, cheese and pasta). Obviously we went for the 5 way; and without a doubt this is the best way to enjoy it.
For our vegetarian friends, you wont find a tofu substitute here but for everyone else, this is a must try stop. And with 10 locations in the area, you will certainly pass a few in your adventures.
Fibonacci Brewing Company
After passing through Brink, our bonus stop, we continued to head North to Fibonacci Brewing Company. And if you’re wondering, yes, we’re still in Cincinnati proper even all the way out here. Fibonacci is a small, and minimalist feeling brewery. The space is tidy, the tables and chairs felt very steril, and the flights came in little beakers; they really nailed a laboratory style brewery. The only thing out of place, were the hop chandeliers; which were awesome.
Our flight consisted of Bonk, Tilia, Prunus and Hazy Daisy. Bonk and Tilia were the least favorite of the flight. Bonk is a oatmeal lacto-brown ale; and it just didn’t hit the spot. The oat flavor didn’t really shine through, so it was just kind of creamy, murky water. Tilia is a light cherry + lime shandy that needed just a slight kick more in the cherry department. The nose was subtle fruit, and it had a modest tart; but a noticeably overpowering lime flavor. As a huge fan of lime, I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it but as far as balance was concerned, it needed a boost of cherry to make it as advertised.
Prunus and Hazy Daisy were the flight winners. Another cherry take, except in stout form was Prunus. This creamy milk stout was a good balance between sweet and sour; with hefty amount of cherry tones. Prunus was Melissas #1 pick. That just leaves Hazy Daisy the 5.6% NEIPA. The base NEIPA itself was juice bomb, but what sets Hazy apart from the other NEIPAs over the weekend was the infusion of peaches. A peach bomb? Certainly give it a shot if peaches are your thing.
You don’t have to move to the country to eat you a lot of peaches, just head on over to Fibonacci Brewing Company for a solid 3.75 fresh peach NEIPAs out of 5.
A Honeymoon of a lifetime
Beer people are always a tad eccentric, and when you combine two of them together in matrimony beer eccentricity tends to escalate. Brewer Sam from Fibonacci and his wife were headed on an usual honeymoon; truckin through the North East hitting the best breweries our corner of the US has to offer. While this may seem unappealing to some people who prefer an exotic beach in a foreign country, we wholeheartedly support the endeavor. Traveling back roads, passing through small towns, drinking and eating your way through a state is the best way to see the country in our opinion. Most importantly, it doesn’t involve sand (for the most part); sand is the worst.
Nine Giant Brewing
It’s dinner time, and for the past two days we’ve heard nothing but great things about the food at Nine Giant. But this dinner stop also comes with a brewery imposed, no-flight drawback. We grabbed two pours from this family friendly brewpub and ordered up some gourmet burgers and some serious looking fries.
Loveless is a raspberry infused Belgian witbier, that was more wit than raspberry. The hearty maroon color, and fruity nose lead us on. What should have been a deeply fruity beverage, ended up short in the flavor department; much to Melissa’s disappointment. The raspberry was certainly there, but not to the extent that the color and smell had lead us to believe. One step up (in our opinion) was the Make Me a Mixtape Berliner. This dry hopped sour was certainly more up my alley from a hop perspective, but held just enough tart over hop for Melissa to also give it her thumbs up as well.
The food was certainly the main contender at Nine Giant. The Grass-fed Cheeseburger was cooked to perfection, smothered in cheese, caramelized onion and ‘secret sauce’. There was really nothing to not like about the burger. Melissa went with the more sensible Heirloom Tomato BLT with housemade aioli, pesto and hearty cuts of applewood smoked bacon. The fries were crisped to perfection and did not last long aside our main courses.
Nine Giant has a great brewpub atmosphere, and some decent beer as far as we could tell. The downside being no flights and potentially long waits just to get a seat in peak-hours. To answer the question, yes Nine Giant should be a beerventurer stop but it’s a hard maybe for Whale Hunters and snobs. If you’re hungry, than you’ve certainly made the right call by stopping here. Nine Giant left us satisfied in both the beer and food taste buds, scoring 3.75 out of 5.
DogBerry Brewing
Crazy enough, we’ve finally landed outside of Cincinnati despite miles of travel at this point. DogBerry of West Chester Township is a pristine example of a well built taproom, but a cautionary tale of clientele. Before I get to the rant, let’s talk about some of the 20 drafts on tap.
Our flight of four hit a Sour, NEIPA, Blonde, and Stout. The sour beer, There it Gose, was tart sour with a hint of lemon. Kind of in the realm of sour lite-lemonade; refreshing but not one of the best sours we’ve had on the trip thus far.
The NEIPA was aptly named ‘Millennial’ which I’m sure many would interpret as a homage to our juice-bomb generation; but as a cynic, I’m assuming the brewers at DogBerry named this as a middle finger to our citra-needy generation. Jokes aside, I’m not sure that they fully dedicated to making a juice bomb because this beverage was clean, and not overly hopped; two traits which would be a cardinal sin to the proper NEIPA in the North East. As a side note, their follow up to Millennial was even more hilariously named: Millennial – Beta. Read into that as you will.
The Blonde ale, which was just named Blonde, was labeled infused with strawberries. We had misunderstood that infused only meant it ran through one of those gimmick, you-always-see-Ithaca-Brewery infusers and not a full on dump of Strawberries somewhere in the brew process. While the machine sounds great in theory, there is little, if any, actual fruit infusion that takes place in the glass. The Blonde itself though was certainly satisfying on it’s own.
That leaves the Supernova double chocolate stout as our best of flight. While we had to deduct a few points due to the lack of chocolate in the body, we adjusted the points accordingly for the increase in the coffee flavor. DogBerry should probably re-label the beer so it’s more on point with the flavor profile. At 9%, I don’t think we could have knocked too many of these back; but if we were locals we could certainly try.
DogBerry Brewing has a wide variety of beer styles to choose from, but we wouldn’t recommend making an excessive detour to stop here. Snobs will not find anything, and a Beerventurer will give it a so-so seal of approval. DogBerry produced some safe, enjoyable beers but was overall average in the flavor profiles and only earns a 2.75 out of 5.
Children at Breweries
This is always a heated debate among the CT and NJ beer drinking groups we’re a part of. For the most part, children outside is rarely an issue, and well behaved children inside is usually not a problem unless they take up all the seating… Which are stories for another time.
Our hangup of this adventure was a children’s soccer after party… at a brewery. Roughly 6 parents and 6 children made for a rough experience at DogBerry. The soccer moms we’re busy getting smashed on beer-mimosas (we didn’t ask, only witnessed the order) while the children ran around the place screaming at the tops of their lungs. The brewery, being a small enclosed space echoed like no-other. I wish I could say that we were being dramatic, but the worn, desperate look on the bartenders faces said it all; this was only acceptable because the taproom was all but dead. This stop was one of the few times we just pounded the beers and left as soon as possible.
Tell us what you think about a child’s place at a brewery. Where do you draw the line? We for one feel that a children’s pizza party is more suited for a Chuck E Cheese than a brewery, and that a reasonable etiquette line was breached.
