Dayton Beer

Undated photo of workers and wagons in front of the Star Brewery in Minster. Courtesy Minster Historical Society. © 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney Here's the press announcement of my upcoming event at the Moeller Brew Barn in Maria Stein: New book reveals western Ohio's hidden brewing history DAYTON, Ohio —Ohio author Timothy R. Gaffney will visit the Moeller Brew Barn in Maria Stein on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 1 to 3 p.m. to share secrets about western Ohio’s long-hidden history of beer brewing. Nick Moeller’s thriving craft brewery in rural Mercer County is one of several Gaffney spotlights in his new book Dayton Beer: A History of Brewing in the Miami Valley (The History Press, $21.99.) It places modern craft breweries like Moeller’s—including his newest one in Troy—in the context of more than two centuries of regional brewing history. It also explores how regional and global trends influenced local brewing, such as the building of the Miami and Erie Canal and German ...

© 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney If you’re a tinkerer, crafter, engineer or manufacturer—if you like to make stuff with your hands—the Make it Dayton Festival is for you. Held at Dayton History’s Carillon Historical Park on Saturday, Oct. 5, it will be a gathering of tinkerers, crafters, engineers and hobbyists who reflect Dayton’s heritage of invention and manufacturing. One of the things Dayton has a long history of making—over more than two centuries—is beer. I’ll share some of that history from 3 to 5 p.m. in Carillon Brewing’s Bier Hall . Copies of my book Dayton Beer will be for sale in the park’s gift shop and in Carillon Brewing itself, and I’ll be happy to sign them.  Named for its iconic musical bell tower, Carillon Historical Park is a 65-acre, open-air museum that preserves and interprets stories of Dayton’s inventions and inventors. Among its most historic exhibits are George Newcom’s Tavern, Dayton’s first permanent building, and the restored 1905 Wright Fly...

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...

© 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney 
  America's celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 this year, and several brewers are stepping up to mark the occasion with special beers. This gives us an excuse to taste a lot of new beer, and it's bringing out a lot of new Apollo 11 anniversary bottles and cans for breweriana fans. 
 In case you missed it: the Apollo 11 mission was America's third manned mission to the moon and the first to attempt a landing. Wapakoneta native Neil A. Armstrong , mission commander, blasted off from Kenney Space Center on July 16, 1969, with Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins . Four days later, Armstong and Aldrin touched down on the moon while Collins remained in lunar orbit. They returned to earth on July 24. 
Why celebrate Apollo by brewing beer? For starters, many beers these days are made with Apollo hops , a new variety of hops created in 2000 by cross-pollinating other hop plants. Another reason is, why not? 
 So,...