March First Brewing brings excellent beer, cider and spirits to Greater Cincinnati with a passion for quality ingredients, attention to detail, and their friendly and knowledgeable staff.
This week I had the chance to visit March First Brewing (doors should open within a month), located in what appears to be an office building. There’s no sign (yet) and the brewery would be hard to miss if it weren’t for the BAD ASS HUMMER parked in front with their logo plastered from bumper to bumper. If that’s not cool marketing, I don’t know what is. Walking into the taproom, the first thing you notice is the beautiful bar they built with the company name wood burned into the top. The taproom is located in the brewery where you simultaneously enjoy the brews and views: 20bbl fermentation tanks, 10bbl brewery, and even the distillery where they plan to produce whisky, brandy, rum and other spirits.
March First is specializing in Lagers which take longer than ales to finish, but come out clean and fresh. I sampled their Craft Lager and Bock. Both were delicious, clean, and easy on the pallet; something that I could drink all day until they throw me out. The Bock, which was developed by their head brewer / production manager, is caramel and nutty forward but dry. It doesn’t come across as a sweet malt bomb like other bock beers in the area. It is nicely balanced with a subtle hop bitterness and a smooth finish. The Lager was surprisingly good. I’m not going to lie, I think the Lager might be my go to beer this summer. It is a full flavored lager that is well balanced and drinkable. The 4 week lagering, combined with centrifuging (Yeah, this small 10bbl brewery has a centrifuge and I couldn’t possibly geek out more about it), creates a clear, crisp lager that pairs perfectly with any back yard BBQ or cornhole game.
I continued my tasting with samples of March First’s three ciders. I tasted a Lime Cider, a Dry Hopped Cider, and a Pure Cider that were all fantastic. The lime and the dry hopped cider had a white wine quality to them that was quite refreshing. Both were thankfully on the dry side which is great for beer drinkers who find cider too sweet. The lime cider was a cool flavor that I can’t wait to try again. I can’t say I’ve ever had anything like it. March First’s pure Apple Cider wasn’t filtered yet and I got to try it right out of the sampling port on the fermenter. All I can say is wow! This cider uses some grade A juice and might have me converting into a cider drinker. The ciders are all the creation of their certified wine specialist. He really knows his stuff. As an environmental engineer and a homebrewer, I had a fantastic time geeking out over all of their quality control procedures and scientific practices.
As with all craft beer, the real experience comes from the staff. At March First, the staff is incredibly friendly and full of exciting ideas to bring to Cincinnati. This group is eager to offer quality products and step out as one of a kind. Overall I couldn’t be more excited for everything going on here and I’ll definitely be a regular.
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Be sure to enjoy craft beer responsibly and cheers!
-CincyBeerBlog