Tag: Urban Artifact Brewing

Urban Artifact Brings Out The Funk in Northside

It’s been well known for some time that the Grayscale Cincinnati project had taken up residence in the former St. Pius Catholic Church on Blue Rock Road in Northside. We learned earlier this year the project was fully funded, the build out was underway and the brewery portion of the project is called Urban Artifact Brewing. Grayscale Cincinnati founders Scott Hand and Dominic Mariano have partnered up with brewers Bret Kollmann Baker and Scott Hunter. The partners were drawn together by similar ideas and complementary skill sets, as well as complementary personalities.

All four indicate they gravitated toward Northside because of its welcoming and engaging community, its special small town feel, with an eclectic urban city presence and the unique opportunity presented by the beautiful and historic St. Pius Church (known at one time as St Patrick’s Church). Bret relocated to Cincinnati from Albany, New York while Scott Hunter relocated from the closer proximity of Deer Park. Besides the church, this Northside property has a spacious, 3-story house that used to serve as the rectory for the priests and more recently the Queen City Cookies Cafe, and a huge gymnasium that will serve as the actual brewhouse. Construction was well underway in mid-February when I visited for my interview.

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The brewery itself will start with an impressive 30 barrel capacity. The complex will include a both a theater and music venue plus a tap house in the church, a restaurant on the first floor of the rectory and a beer garden between the house and the church. Though there will be parking on and around the site, both Bret and Scott Hunter are avid cyclists, who plan on having plenty of bike racks for the cyclists and being very tied into the local bicycling community. Scott Hand is an architect who is charged with overseeing the design of the project. He and his wife Kelly relocated to Cincinnati from Chicago, where they became active in the local homebrewing community.

There will be plenty of entertainment as Dominic, a music professor & noted local musician will be booking diverse local and regional music acts, as well as providing live streaming online for performances. The church will also be home to a local theater group, who will be performing regularly in its spacious interior. But musicians and actors are just part of the entertainment value. Beer will also have a starring role. I sat down with Bret to talk to him about what is in store for thirsty craft beer lovers; Scott Hunter also took a break from construction to join part of the conversation.

Chris Nascimento: “So, Bret, construction looks like it is well underway. When will Urban Artifact Brewing be opening & how many beers will you have on tap?”

Bret Kollmann Baker: “We will be opening in mid-spring, start out with 10 beers on tap.”

CN: “What kind of beers will you be producing? American IPAs & such?”

BK: “Actually, what we will be making beers inspired by sour brewing traditions.”

CN: “So lots of Belgian beers?”

BK: “Not just Belgian beers, but beers with Belgian, German and Flemish influences. What we are producing is more microbiologically inspired. We have a love of microbiology and will be using old world techniques with modern scientific application to increase the consistency & quality of what we produce.”

CN: “So what made you choose Northside?”

BK: “Lots of things, it’s a great neighborhood! Both Scotty and I live here, my wife and I bought a house here. It’s all about the community. Everyone has been extremely supportive, stopping by to congratulate us and asking what they can do to help. People here get the idea of marrying beer & art together. What we are doing really fits the culture in Northside.”

CN: “So what are your backgrounds and how did you decide you wanted to become brewers?”

BK: “Scott & I met at Ohio University, where I also met my wife Stephanie. Scott and I were both chemical engineering majors and founded a homebrew club at the university. We both have degrees in chemical engineering, and I also have a degree in brewing science and technology. After college, I purposely worked in some related industries. I worked for a lactic acid manufacturer, Cargill, working with a special yeast strain. I also spent some time working professionally for a winery at the Farhmeir Family Vineyard and for a distiller, the Albany Distilling Co.” Plus, last year, I conducted a seminar at the AHA National Homebrew Conference a historic lager yeast. It was called “S. Eubayanus: The Father of Lager Yeast”.

Scott Hunter: “I worked in food production. I worked as an engineer for Graphite Electrodes, and I am also getting another degree, working on my MBA.”

CN (incredulously): “So, wait, Scott, you are opening a new brewery AND getting your MBA?”

SH (chuckling): “Yeah. I am getting my MBA at Indiana-Wesleyan, at their campus in West Chester.”

CN: “I love sours & my wife is a huge fan as well. But what will make you guys different and stand out in what you do?”

BK: “All our sour organisms will be caught from the local environment. We will capture them, and then pick our favorite barrels, then use these to start the new barrels. The lactobacillus we are using was collected in the bell tower of the church, and it is unbelievable! We are really excited about it.

CN: “So you will be doing open fermentations?”

BK: “Small scale stuff. We will be doing some spontaneous fermentations, and are installing a cool ship, probably above the brewhouse. It’s all flat, reinforced and that location will work out really well.”

SH: “The real skill is not just in producing the wort, the beer, but in blending it….”

BK: “and having the cojones to dump it if it’s not working. You can’t blend away suck….”

CN (laughing): “I heard Gordon Strong say the same thing about blending mead.”

SH: “We will be working with traditional sours, guezes. Beers with flavor & depth. Flavors from Pediococcus. Beers with flavor & depth. Flavors from Pediococcus and Brettanomyces take time to develop. We want sublime, complementary barrels.”

CN: “So, how big will be the barrel farm?”

BK: “We will be starting with about 10 barrels and will add 30 barrels a month. There will be different barrels consisting of spontaneous fermentations, local mixed cultures and various spirit and wine barrels imparting flavors as well. Our flagships will be done using some special techniques to ferment in the absence of oxygen. We will do this with most of our seasonal beers as well. Our flagships are all made using a modified sour mash technique.”

SH: “To give you an example of a beer of a beer that has inspired us, look at Orval. Orval doesn’t go bad. It starts fresh and hoppy and ages beautifully, becoming funky and wild. I prefer not to drink any Orval younger than 2 years of age.”

CN: “Will you use kegs, serving vessels or some combination of the two in your taproom? And how much beer will you be producing in your first year?”

BK: “We will be using all kegs in the taphouse and music lounge. We will produce 3,000 barrels in our first year (365 days of production).”

CN: “How big could you guys go with the production in this facility?”

BK: “The brewhouse has the capacity to do 45,000 barrels a year. As we grow, if we find we outgrow the present space, especially with the barrel farm, we hope to expand the barrel farm into a warehouse space within Northside.”

CN: “We have a great local brewing community, and many of our local brewers are doing collaborations with each other. Does Urban Artifact plan to do any collaborations with other local breweries?”

BK: “We have plans to do some collaborations with other breweries in the Cincinnati area; as well as elsewhere outside the Cincinnati area.”

CN: “This is all pretty amazing, what else are you doing that is interesting and different?”

BK: “We are working with some new, experimental yeasts with a major yeast manufacturer. We can’t really say what, (Bret reaches over to pull a specially labeled sample out of a nearby fridge and shows them) but here is an example.”

CN: “This is really exciting, guys, I can’t wait to try some of your beers. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!”

I should note that Urban Artifact already has formed some community partnerships as they work on their build out. They have rented out the second floor of the old rectory house for use as office space by Groundwork Cincinnati, who has cleaned up the Millcreek, including developing the Greenway Trail. Jess of Madcap Puppets is renting space in the church, which is very evident by the huge dragon puppet that has taken up space in part of the church. Gaia’s Oasis is also partnering up with them to put in a showcase garden.

The brewhouse is now in place, and Urban Artifact has obtained both their federal and state permits. So far, as of March 13th, Urban Artifact has been through two production brews, with more coming in short order. While I was not given an exact opening date, my impression is that “mid-spring” will be happening sooner rather than later.

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Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself

Hi! My name is Chris Nascimento and I will be a contributor to Queen City Drinks from time to time. Why? Well, I used to blog about beer for a couple of other blogs, namely the now defunct Circle 3 and I did a couple of posts over at Cincy Voices as well. I had always meant to get back into blogging, but I got wrapped up in various projects. I should also note other people created beer blogs worth reading, so it became less of a priority and fell by the wayside.

Still, I’ve missed sharing my views and experiences with beer, which is something I am pretty passionate about. Back around last December, I mentioned as much on Twitter and Tom Aguero here at Queen City Drinks saw this,  reached out to me and offered me the opportunity to be a contributor. So before Tom could sober up, I quickly accepted the offer and promised to get blogging again with the specific, agreed upon date of “soon”. I have been busy with lots of other stuff, so “soon” ended up meaning about another four months.

What could be more important than blogging about beer? Well, I do a bunch of other stuff. I enjoy a beer now and then. I serve on the board of a few different organizations, including Cincinnati Beer Week. I run a homebrew shop called Brew Monkeys over on Cincinnati’s west side. I am also a member of the Cincinnati Malt Infusers homebrew club, presently serving them as PR officer. I have been involved with putting on a slew of other events, including beer festivals, and over the years I have judged in several homebrew competitions on a regular basis and made a number of beers myself. I have founded a few other events and otherwise kept busy working on stuff that allows me to enjoy craft beer & homebrew.

Oh yes, I’m not sure if my family wants me to mention them, but I will do it anyway. I am married to Wendy, a very tolerant, understanding woman who has attended way more beer events than what she has probably cared to even though she also really likes good beer. I have three children, two sons and a daughter. My eldest son is also a craft beer enthusiast and has dabbled with homebrewing. My daughter knows a lot about beer from overhearing stuff over the years, but has asked me not to talk about beer TOO much, and my youngest son, being autistic, just looks at me, shakes his head and says stuff like “Not beer again!” All three of my kids lead active lives, including many things that have absolutely nothing to do with beer. I try to be involved in or attend all their non-beer activities whenever it is appropriate for a Dad to do so.

While all these experiences may give me a unique perspective with a few things, let me be clear with the following DISCLAIMER: All views expressed by me on this blog represent MY views and SOLELY my views. Any opinions, thoughts, reviews I share here DO NOT represent the official views of ANY organization I currently serve, NOR those of my wife, family, friends or anyone else other than me.

A little bit of what to expect-I don’t write about every single beer event happening, that’s someone else’s gig. If you want to know about the fifty cent off deal on Yuengling at the Happy Canoodle Pub & Grill, don’t ask me. I simply don’t care enough to inquire about it or remember it, much less tell anyone about it. I try to stick to beers, events and topics I feel are worth exploring. If I don’t have too much good to say about a event or beer, I will generally just ignore it. If I feel a event or beer is REALLY BAD, and you, the craft beer enthusiast will likely waste your valuable time and hard earned dollars on it before finding this out, I WILL take the time to warn you. This is especially true if my perception is there is an attempt being made to scam you. But this doesn’t happen too often, so don’t look for much of this kind of stuff.

I have a few pieces I have been working on, so you will be getting to see more of my beer-fueled, innate ramblings in the near future. Among them are:

-Some homebrewing specific articles.

-An exclusive Q & A with the brewers at soon open Urban Artifact Brewing discussing what to expect out of their brewhouse.

-An update on new happenings at Old Firehouse Brewing

– Progress of the new nanobrewery opening soon in Mt Healthy, Fibonacci Brewing

-Opinion pieces on beer industry related topics I feel are worth exploring.

You have been warned. I should also note, any piece I write will dramatically improve when paired with the right beers while reading it. Usually, the more beer you drink, the better it will get. If you are really gluttons for punishment, I am an avid social media user. You can find me on Facebook, as well as on Twitter as @brewnas.