Dayton Beer

Tippecanoe detail view of 1858 Miami County map shows "I. Clark" brewery at bottom center. © 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney Note: Links to census records go to pages in FamilySearch.org. You will need to create a free account to access them. Call this Dayton Beer ’s first extra chapter. It’s about the brewing history of Tipp City in Miami County, Ohio—a history that eluded my research when I was writing my book—and a related whiskey scandal that went all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court. The lack of any clues to a brewery in Tipp City was puzzling and frustrating at the time.  Granted, what was originally named Tippecanoe City had only about 1,000 residents in the 1860s and ‘70s.   But my research was finding evidence of at least one small brewery in every city and village I studied, no matter how small— even tiny New Madison in Darke county, with about 500 residents in the 1870s and less than 1,000 today.  I suspected Tipp City had had one as well, but I had to ...

Undated photo of Star Brewery employees. Courtesy Minster Historical Society. The book tour for Dayton Beer: A History of Brewing in the Miami Valley kicked off in August with book events at brewpubs and tap houses across the region. I wrapped it up in October with a book discussion and signing at Mother Stewart's Brewing Co. in Springfield. Now, the tour schedule for the remainder of 2019 is taking shape. Below are the public events on my calendar as of November 4. Copies of Dayton Beer will be available for sale at all events. And I'm still accepting new engagements, so contact me (daytonbeerbook at gmail) if you're interested in having me talk about local brewing history or sign books at one of your events. But first, I want to give shout-outs to Libby Ballengee and the Gem City Podcast  for making Dayton Beer the subject of Podcast #793 , and to Bill Kincaid of the Celina Daily Standard for his feature about my event at Moeller Brew Barn  in Maria Stein...