An ample assortment of brews are making their way to the Athens streets for an annual celebration that garners the attention of summer residents looking for cool libations.
Brew Week, which begins today, has become one of the biggest events in the summer for Athens, marked by a week of 77 different beer tastings as well as discussion panels, games and music.
The original purpose of Brew Week was to increase revenue for the local bars during their slowest months of the year.
“Since the first year, it has been a huge boost for everyone involved,” said Brad Clark, Jackie O’s Brew Master. “Over the past seven years, it has grown to be a pretty legit event.”
John Sparhawk, former owner of The Oak Room, 14 Station St, is the original mastermind behind Brew Week. Today the family-owned business continues to host several events run by Sparhawk’s daughter Jamie.
The Oak room hosts a ladies night on Wednesday for women who would like to palate a fruitier beer in lieu of those served elsewhere during Brew Week.
“I pull out what I think a non-beer drinker might want to taste,” Jamie said. “It’s a chance for girls to get out and have a good time and taste a chocolate coconut stout.”
Traditional beer tastings will also take place. Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St., will feature 19 beers on draft throughout the week with different new beers and aged barrel beers as well as a beer tasting at the pub on Friday.
Jackie O’s, which is the only Athens establishment that brews its own beer, will also feature its honey nut brown draft at Casa Nueva.
Other bars will bring in brewers from all over Ohio, including Great Lakes Brewing Company and this year’s keynote speaker, Greg Hardman of the Christian Moerlein brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hardman’s speech — “From Athens to Eternity, the Dream Goes on Forever” — tells his story of graduating from OU and how the city allowed him to be as successful as he is today.
“It’s all our story, it’s Athens story, it’s Ohio University’s story, and it’s the craft-beer community's story,” Hardman said. “It’s not my story, I just lived it.”
However, while Hardman has seen his brewing efforts come to fruition, others have not been as lucky.
Greg Lyle, the Casa Cantina Coordinator, said that small-time Ohio brewers were not always so free to brew their craft.
“The counties had some weird laws where you had to have a population of 800,000 or so, to brew beer,” Lyle said. “It was meant to keep the little guys out.”
The panel discussions at Casa Nueva, 4 W. State St., on Tuesday and Wednesday will discuss the laws, labeling and permits that restricted the craft for years.
“At the end of the day when we talk about what we are doing here, it’s celebrating craft beer in the United States and in Ohio,” Hardman said. “You don’t have to go very far to find great beer; it’s right here in Ohio.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
