A changing of the guard at Queen City Drinks

Over the past three or four months, you may have noticed that I have largely been absent from posting on the blog and interacting via social media (Twitter/Facebook). Luckily, Tom and Ginny have picked up the slack and kept the blog moving along with fresh content. I suppose it’s about time for an apology and an explanation.

In April I found out that my office was closing and that I would be relocating from Cincinnati to another geographic location. I didn’t know when or where I would be relocating, so the last four months have been pretty full of stress and uncertainty.  I haven’t really been in the blogging mood because of this, so over this period I pulled back from the site a bit. I now know where to and (sort of) when I’ll be leaving Cincinnati, so I thought it would be proper to announce some changes at Queen City Drinks that I’ve been mulling over and sitting on for a bit.

Effective immediately, Tom Aguero will be the sole owner and the individual responsible for the operations of the site and social media accounts. Any emails or press releases that you would normally send to me should now be directed to tom@www.brewminds.com. This will be updated on the site to reflect the changes.

Not only has Tom carried the site for the last four months, but he was the first individual who joined me on the site after its creation. Over this period, he’s become more and more involved with Queen City Drinks and has taken on more responsibility regarding it. During this same period, I’ve (or we’ve, I suppose) seen not only his writing style, but his palate evolve tremendously. I’m proud of the role he’s played on the site so far and have absolutely no doubt he will continue to improve Queen City Drinks and make it a better product than it is today.

Since I moved to Cincinnati over three years ago, I’ve seen both the City itself and the local craft beer scene move along a parallel path. Just as the urban core of Cincinnati has seen a renaissance and a new frame of mind that says “hey, this can be a cool place to live”, we’ve also seen an explosion of exciting new breweries and already established breweries redefining and improving their product.

Where the City of Cincinnati has The Banks, Over-the-Rhine’s continued revitalization, Streetcar construction, an energized Central Business District; the local craft beer scene has Triple Digit, Blank Slate, MadTree, Rhinegeist, and  Fifty West come into existence. That doesn’t even include the oldies, but goodies cranking out fresh offerings (Rivertown’s sours and Listermann’s barrel-aged beers) and Moerlein finally brewing their beer here in Cincinnati.

I have no doubt that Cincinnati is on a trajectory to be, if not a world-class city, then at worst a City that people can point to as a model of how to turn around an out-dated, behind-the-times, Midwestern city. I’m excited to see what those invested in the future of this City have up their sleeves. Ditto to all of that for our local brewers. Cincinnati beer has finally got out of the mindset dominated by pre-prohibition German-influenced beer (though there is still certainly room for that), and craft beer drinkers in the region are better off because of it.

With that, I’ll turn you all over to Tom. I’ve met some great people here both through and outside of the blog, and I wouldn’t trade my time here in Cincinnati for anything in the world, but it’s time to be moving on. Those of you I know (and perhaps some I don’t): hopefully we can meet up in the next few months before I head out. If it’s over a great locally-brewed beer, all the better.

Thank you all for reading and helping make Queen City Drinks the success that it has become!

Cheers,

Josh