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 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...

© 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney One of the brewpubs that piqued my interest in the Dayton region's brewing history was Lock 27 Brewing . The name is an obscure reference to an important part of the Miami Valley's history—one that influenced the development of the region's brewing industry in the 19th century. Lock 27 has two locations: its original one at  1035 South Main Street  in Centerville, and one at Dayton Dragons Plaza downtown, where I'll be Wednesday evening, Sept. 18. It was one of several local brewpubs I noticed that drew on local history to brand themselves or their products, and consequently led to my writing Dayton Beer: A History of Brewing in the Miami Valley . "Lock 27" is a nod to the Miami and Erie Canal , which was once the transportation artery that connected the Miami Valley to Cincinnati and Toledo. Lock 27 South of the Miami & Erie Canal When I interviewed him for my book, founder and owner Steve Barnh...

  © 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney When it opened in 2013, the  Star City Brewing Co.  revived a piece of Miamisburg history. Built in 1828 as a sawmill skirting the Miami and Erie Canal, the structure had last housed the  Peerless Mill Inn , a popular local supper club. What's more, Star City also revived, after more than a century, Miamisburg's own brewing industry. Star City Brewing Co. Star City stands at 319 South Second Street. A block north is the  Lucky Star Brewery , which came a year later to occupy another canal-era industrial building. Together, they established a small brewery district on the edge of downtown, and they may have created a first: the first time Miamisburg had two breweries operating at once. My book's main title is Dayton Beer , but it includes other communities in a region roughly bounded by Xenia, Springfield, Wapakoneta, Minster, Union City and Greenville. I devoted a whole chapter to Miamisburg for a lar...

© 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...

Warped Wing and Barrel House are in the heart of Dayton's original brewing district. © 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney When you visit the Warped Wing Brewing Co.  or The Barrel House in downtown Dayton— as I will on Aug. 7  and Aug. 15 —you journey to the heart of Dayton's Historic Brewing District. Warped Wing occupies a former foundry building at 26 Wyandot Street, just south of East Main between North Patterson Boulevard and Wayne Avenue. The Barrel House is in an old commercial building at 417 E. Third. They're both close to where Dayton's founders built their first cabins and close to where its first breweries opened. George Newcom, one of Dayton's original settlers, built his cabin    on the southwest corner of Main and Monument in 1796 and later enlarged it  into a two-story tavern. He added a brewery  about 1810. It was Montgomery County's first brewery, according to historian Augustus Waldo Drury . Sketch of Newcom Tavern, from Lutzenb...

For Immediate Release July 24, 2019 (Updated July 31)  For interviews and events, contact Timothy R. Gaffney 937.219.8277 | daytonbeerbook@gmail.com For review copies, contact Haley Johnson, Senior Publicist 843.853.2070 x214 | hjohnson@arcadiapublishing.com Editors:  Contact Timothy R. Gaffney for a digital press kit with additional information and a selection of press-quality photos, including an author photo and book cover image. History… and a Pint? Dayton Beer author plans unique book tour  DAYTON, Ohio —A one-of-a-kind book tour will kick off Wednesday, Aug. 7 at Warped Wing Brewing Co. in downtown Dayton. Instead of book shops, the “ History and a Pint TM ” tour by local author Timothy R. Gaffney will stop exclusively at brewpubs and tap houses across the Dayton region. The reason? Gaffney’s new book, Dayton Beer: A History of Brewing in the Miami Valley (The History Press, $21.99) is focused on the 200-plus year histor...