GAHANNA

Gahanna brewers, distillery collaborate, tap one another's expertise for ideas

Gahanna is becoming a hot spot for breweries and distilleries.

Heart State Brewing, Crafted Culture Brewing Co., Edison Brewing and Nostalgia Brewing Co. all have opened within the past three years, and High Bank Distillery is coming next spring.

Mark Tinus, founder of Simple Times Mixers, 750 Cross Pointe Road, Suite M, said he feels like a veteran in the industry, starting his handcrafted, all-natural cocktail mixer business in the Grandview area four years ago and moving just over two years ago in Gahanna.

He said he had begun to grow fond of the area through Tony Guilfoy at Noble Cut Distillery, 750 Cross Pointe Road, Suite K.

“He and I started working together quite a long time ago,” Tinus said. “We were a craft-spirits company before Simple Times. I had a spirits brand, and we were working with Middle West Spirits (in Columbus) and worked with a lot of the locals in town here.

“When I started this business up, it didn’t take long when Tony and I would get together and chat and was talking about the fact about making all these limoncello and limecellos. He said, ‘Yeah, it’s a shame we zest all this fruit and then throw away the fruit.’ And we’re like, ‘We juice the fruit and throw away the zest.’ We said we should be working together. We actually started collaborating on that when we were completely across Columbus from each other.”

Angel Young, operations management trainee, fills a jar with pomegranate mule cocktail mix at Simple Times Mixers, 750 Cross Pointe Road in Gahanna, on Oct. 4.

Tinus said what makes Simple Times unique as a nonalcoholic beverage company is that he has lived in that other world.

“I did spirits and beer for 14 years before we started this up,” he said. “We knew the craft industry needed craft mixers because the craft-spirits industry was going to boom. Back when I was a solely owned craft-spirits company, our disadvantage – one thing we always talked about in the industry is, if you like wine or beer, you can pop the top or uncork a bottle and enjoy that at home. If you really loved the craft spirits, which you like in a cocktail, you need to learn how to make the cocktail.”

Then came this huge extra step, Tinus said.

“When we talked to Noble Cut and High Bank, there was always this need to think in a different way for each brand,” he said. “As we expanded that, we’ve done custom cocktails for Woodford Reserve (Distillery) down in Lexington, Kentucky. We started working with them on what they were looking to bring out of their spirits. It really became more of like, how do we become a good complementary fit to you – almost like a service-minded company would, more so than we make this really great pineapple mule and everyone should use it.”

Tinus said Simple Times is like a gigantic kitchen.

“We process 30 different ingredients, but we can make 1,000 different recipes with those 30 different ingredients,” he said. “It has really been great because it’s always about a win-win, so we’re never celebrating alone. If the cocktail does well, it’s us and somebody else that’s doing really well, and so we have other folks advocating for the cocktail.”

Guilfoy said Noble Cut started in Gahanna around 2015 and first put products on the market in February 2018.

“We focus on flavor profiles of spirits with our line of naturally flavored whiskies, high-proof limoncello, limecello, grapefruitcello and orangecello, and we also produce two Magnolia bourbons and a rye whiskey,” he said. “We just released two vodkas last month. We have our tours every Saturday at 12 noon and 3 p.m. which focuses on how spirits are made while dispelling myths about the distilling industry.”

Kris Thompson, sales support staffer, loads a conveyor belt with Raspberry Mule cocktail mixers to be labeled Oct. 4 at Simple Times Mixers in Gahanna.

Guilfoy said Gahanna was chosen as Noble Cut’s headquarters because it was a location where the business could grow and allow the business to scale as sales have grown.

“We were able to afford a larger production plant on the outskirts of Columbus, and Gahanna has a wonderful ecosystem of businesses that help each other,” he said. “Having High Bank Distillery come to Gahanna is wonderful.”

Guilfoy said Gahanna always has been welcoming to new businesses, and he’s happy High Bank president and cofounder Jordan Helman and master distiller and cofounder Adam Hines would be able to bring their products closer to where customers live.

Helman said High Bank is thrilled to continue to grow in the central Ohio community by opening its second location at 1379 E Johnstown Road in Gahanna in the spring of 2022.

“Since opening in 2018, the goal for our distillery has always been to create the best product for our customers," Hines said. "This means focusing on quality and bringing an uncompromised approach to everything we do. With our new location, we are excited to be able to share our award-winning, nationally recognized spirits with more of the Columbus community."

Joe Bidinger, founder of Echo Spirits Distilling Co. and a member of the Ohio Distiller's Guild, said there are many distilleries in central Ohio, with one or two more opening in the next year or so.

In addition to Noble Cut and Echo Spirits, he said, other distilleries include 451 Spirits, Endeavor Brewing and Spirits, High Bank Distillery, Middle West Spirits and Watershed Distillery.

"All of those are open currently, and I know of at least one other one who is in the process of getting open," Bidinger said. "There has definitely been an explosion of breweries and distilleries opening in the suburbs of Columbus."

He said people likely have found that Columbus proper is a bit saturated with distilleries but that demand is there, as well as the desire for the same types of businesses as one heads just a bit out of town. 

"For distilleries, in particular, most in the state are not in one of the major cities – this probably ties to one of two things," Bidinger said. 

For one, he said, distilleries are highly specific in terms of building codes and fire codes, and smaller municipalities often have more lenient codes or enforcement.

Second, Bidinger said, Ohio has a strong history of moonshining, particularly in rural areas.

Shawn White, owner of Nostalgia Brewing Co., said he opened at 81 Mill St., the former location of Pigskin Brewing, on Feb. 2, 2019.

“We chose Creekside Gahanna due to the beauty of the area and being on the grounds of Creekside Park,” he said. “An abundance of free public parking in the garage and amazing access from the highway, which is near the airport, were all considerations. When searching for a space, the Creekside area had exactly what we were looking for.”

White said Nostalgia Brewing is on the premises of a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, known locally as Creekside Outdoor Refreshment Area but more commonly as DORA. 

“It’s an open-container law that allows you to purchase a pint from our taproom and consume it on the grounds of Creekside Park,” he said.

Mary MacDonald, executive director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, said Gahanna certainly seems to be doing well in attracting independent alcoholic-beverage manufacturers.

“What we find is that the people who open breweries are often members of or have strong ties to the community where they establish their business,” she said. “They are folks who have a passion for craft beer and want to operate their business in a place where they can create a community gathering place, share their creative product offerings and give back to the town or neighborhood which they call home.”

Various flavors of cocktail mixers are shown at Simple Times Mixers in Gahanna on Oct. 4.

MacDonald said she keeps an updated spreadsheet that shows the number of breweries in Ohio. As of Oct. 14, the count is 392, she said.

In addition to the four breweries in Gahanna, the association shows Brewdog Brewing Co LLC., at 97 W. Granville St., recently opened in New Albany.

MacDonald said Grandview has three breweries: Endeavor Brewing Co., Hofbrauhaus Columbus and Knotty Pine Brewing, plus three distilleries.

Because MacDonald lives a stone’s throw from Grandview, she said, she knows of the three distilleries there; High Bank, Watershed and Echo Spirits (in the former Four String taproom location).

“So they are giving Gahanna a run for the most alcoholic-beverage manufacturers per 'burb,” she said.

MacDonald said Dublin has two breweries: North High Brewing and Getaway Brewing Co. Powell has two: Ill Mannered Brewing Co. and Nocterra Brewing Co.

Tinus said it has been a really good all-hands-on-deck time in the Gahanna area, especially during the pandemic, with the bars and restaurants shutting down and needing to pivot and do different things.

“We worked closely with Tony on his hand-sanitizer stuff,” he said. “Heart State was just getting going, so we were over there talking to them a ton. It keeps us sane when there are a lot of other folks in the same boat as us. We’re all trying to come up with new ways of growth amongst all of us.”

Tinus said the craft-spirits industry has been somewhat in the shadows of the craft-beer boom.

“Craft beer went absolutely crazy, and craft spirits has followed it about five years later,” he said. “That whole resurgence came, and the change in the laws in the state around having onsite restaurant/bars set up for the spirits industry, which really hit about four years ago. That has helped a lot of these guys get off the ground and running because it gives you an awesome revenue center and a spot to have people come visit and check it out, try the products and buy the products – which puts it on a level playing field with the craft-beer industry. I think you will see more and more of that.”

Tinus said it has been an amazing arena in the Gahanna area of folks getting up and going and a lot of idea sharing.

"You’d be shocked how many times one of the three of us between Heart State, Noble Cut and us are walking to grab a wrench from someone over here or borrowing a forklift," he said. "All this stuff is going on between all these guys. Even if we were in the exact same industry, I think we would be pretty collaborative."

With any industry, location drives opportunity, said Nathan Strum, Gahanna economic-development director.

“For our local brewery and distillery partners, I think our ideal location, servicing not only the I-270 and I-670 corridors but also the growing eastern suburbs of Columbus, make Gahanna the ideal location,” he said. “Not only are they in close proximity to their local customers but also abundant access to highways, rail services and airports for distribution services. Factor in a strong support-local mentality for Gahanna-based businesses by our local community, well, then that becomes a great recipe for success.”

mkuhlman@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekMarla