Dayton Beer

© 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney I'll be at The Barrel House in downtown Dayton this week to share a bit of the Miami Valley's brewing history, especially one Dayton brewer who sticks to this location in my mind. It's one of those strange associations the brain—mine, anyway—makes between seemingly unrelated things. In this case, it has more to do with boots than barrels, or even beer. Nicholas "Nick" Thomas (1825-1913) is one of three strong men and women among Dayton's 19th century brewers whom I'll profile in my "History and a Pint" presentation at The Barrel House, 417 East Third Street, at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15. I'll sign copies of Dayton Beer and I'll have books available for sale. Thomas grew up on a farm in the kingdom of Hanover, now in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany. He immigrated to the United States in late 1847, landing in New Orleans and making his way up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnat...

Printable flyer for History and a Pint™ book tour © 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney  (Update, Aug. 14, 2019: New tour dates added.) Want to know how I feel right now? Just climb into a barrel, have someone seal it, and then have them toss you over Niagara Falls. I always get this sense of an inexorable, uncontrollable rush as my book approaches publication. Dayton Beer is scheduled to come off the press by July 22, and less than three weeks later—August 7—I'll launch my book tour, History and a Pint ™,  at Warped Wing Brewing . After that, I'll be visiting one brewpub and tap house after another in rapid succession. And there's no turning back. I'm already over the falls. Dayton Daily News food columnist Mark Fisher saw to that on Monday, July 1, when he published the first review of my book . Now, it's official. This will be different from anything I've tried before. I'm used to signing books in book shops and at traditional speakin...