March First Brewing (Cincinnati, OH)
The last two stops of the night were polar opposite in terms of atmosphere. March First being a quiet, low key brewpub and the second (Fretboard Brewing Company) being an all out rage fest brewpub. In addition to being a brewpub, the trendy, garage styled, March First also had a fully stocked liquor bar with locally sourced spirits and wines.
March Firsts name originated from the day the state of Ohio was founded; March 1, 1803. And this brewpub pays it’s respect to the great state of Ohio through craft beer and cider. If there has been one consistent on our trip thus far, is that the people of Ohio take pride in their state.
On our flight we chose three beers and one cider. The March First Session IPA, the Denali IPA, and the Ohio Pilsner representing the beer and the Airheads Green Apple was our cider.
- The Session IPA clocked in at 4.2% and was light by comparison to other sessions. The Denali was a slightly more potent 5.9% IPA with an amber hue. We scored the Session at a 2.75, and the Denali at a 3.25 on Untappd; nothing great, nothing terrible.
- The Ohio Pilsner fared slightly better than the IPAs did by scoring a 3.5. March Firsts beer was done well, but it doesn’t appear that a Beerventurer or Snob would find anything to particularly satisfy their interest here. And this is completely understandable because their clientele was certainly of an older generation who probably doesn’t appreciate juice bombs, or marshmallow golden stouts, or casks of jalapeno and mango ales.
- What did tickle our fancy was the Airheads Green Apple cider which Melissa quoted; Basically an airhead. So if airheads are your thing, you should certainly check out the ciders from March First.
March First has a lot of style, some delicious looking pizza, a great cider but average beer. There wasn’t a whole lot on the list that would make us repeat customers and thats O.K. because we’re not their target audience. March First earns a 2.75 out of 5.
Fretboard Brewing Company (Cincinnati, OH)
Like I said above, Fretboard is the polar opposite of March First. Fretboard had a deafeningly loud live band, no space at the bar, and chaotic interior of rowdy patrons; it was awesome. The large brew pub was certainly home to a livelier crowd that enjoyed the classic like corn hole, foosball, and drunken munchies from the kitchen. Despite all of the entertainment though, Melissa was perched on a bar stole at a 2 seater high top watching the Yankees game on my phone; somethings don’t change.
The tap lineup was impressive at Fretboard, but alas we could only manage another flight of 4 at this point in our day so we went with the Crazy Train, El Jefe, S23 Session Pineapple and the Fugee. Quick caveat; all of these beers score at least a 4 on Untappd. Crazy Train is a Belgian Pale ale, and since we’ve hit very few Belgians these past two days it was a welcomed relief. Granted it was no trip, but the sweeter ale played nicely on the palate; not sure Ozzy would have approved.
- El Jefe of course the Fretboard Hefeweizen. El Jefe was chalk full of that lovely banana profile, and would have been a star on the average flight board, but really only 3rd place here.
- 2nd place was a Session done extremely well.
- S23 Pineapple Session IPA was light, but extremely fruity and juicy. Unlike the session at March First, this lighter IPA by Fretboard did not give into the a generic remake.
- Fugee. It’s not often a brown ale makes our number 1 pick, but Fugee the French toast brown ale was the most impressive brown we’ve had in a long while; and it ranked up in the top 10 best beers of the trip. We’re not sure how they concocted this brilliant French toast style beer, but whatever they did it worked and we would love more.
Fretboard is a wild ride. The beers are excellent the music was jammy; this is clearly the place to be. If the party atmosphere isn’t really your thing you should probably head there earlier in the day. Either way, we’re pretty sure that both Snobs and Beerventurers will find something awesome and maybe even unparalleled if they take a trip to Fretboard. Fretboard is rocked our palates with a 4.5 out of 5.
