186,000 gallons of beer on the wall: Yellow Springs Brewery has momentum, adds new beer to year-round lineup

The brewery will celebrate with a launch party from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 21 at its Barrel Room, located at 1475 Xenia Ave. in Yellow Springs.

Credit: Natalie Jones

Credit: Natalie Jones

In addition to the new beer, the brewery will have special edition kegs of its core brands:

These kegs will be very limited — pouring about 50 beers each — and feature infusions such as fruit, herbs, vanilla or chocolate.

Worthy of the core lineup

Jayson Hartings, chief operating officer of the brewery, said they looked at market trends and what was missing in their core lineup when creating their latest beer.

Oftentimes, the brewery has already created several beers in that same style and are now making its “perfect version.” That’s how Creative Space was made. The brewery had created several different Hazy IPAs, before coming up with the perfect combination of hops, malt and grain bill.

Credit: Natalie Jones

Credit: Natalie Jones

“We typically wouldn’t put something into that lineup unless we’re sure it’s a style of beer that people would want regularly,” Hartings said.

Another factor in creating this latest beer was making sure it had the capacity to do so.

“We’ve had to work some things out in our production to make room for new brands that we can do consistently,” Hartings said.

Yellow Springs Brewery sold just more than 6,000 barrels last year — up from 2023. This equates to 186,000 gallons of beer.

What to expect in the brewery’s taproom

Those visiting the brewery’s Yellow Springs taproom in the Millworks business complex can expect 20 taps featuring about 17 beers, two premixed cocktails and a hop water or guest tap.

The lineup typically features the brewery’s year-round brews, in addition to seasonal or community partnership beers. For example, last year the brewery partnered with Glen Helen for “Stone Stepper,” a Tangerine Pale Ale.

Many of the upcoming monthly releases will be IPAS, Hartings said.

“We have a lot of really strong IPA brands that people have latched onto that we’re going to put out a couple times this year as opposed to just doing them once and then having other things,” Hartings said.

Beyond that, Iseli-Smith brews what she thinks is missing in their lineup and in the fourth quarter, the brewery allows its production team to create their own recipes.

Known for being approachable

The brewery is known for having approachable beers.

After opening in April 2013, the brewery had built a reputation with its Pale Ale and Saison — which were not very popular brands at the time. They were one of the only breweries in the area that didn’t have IPAs in cans on their shelves.

In 2016, the brewery released “Boat Show,” a well-balanced IPA with interesting combinations of hop flavor and aroma.

This was at a time when many IPAs were bitter.

“We kind of play to the side of those guidelines where somebody that hasn’t had that style before may actually kind of ease into it a little bit,” Hartings said. “We think that works on a lot of styles.”

Beyond that, their team focuses on the customer experience and the interaction with their guests.

The beer market is maturing

“Yellow Springs being kind of a touristy destination, especially on weekends during the summer, you have a lot of people from out of town,” Hartings said. “They’re here for Yellow Springs, the town, but they eventually usually wander into our taproom.”

For many years, visiting the brewery would be somebody’s first exposure to craft beer.

“We still see a fair amount of that, not so much this time of year, but I assume as the weather warms up more, we’ll see more and more of that,” Hartings said.

He described the taproom as a neighborhood bar with regulars throughout the week. Their customer base consists of families, people with pets, large groups of friends and others working on their laptops.

“I don’t think you see the craft beer boom days of like when you release a really popular hazy beer and you have a line at the door waiting to buy them,” Hartings said. “That’s not happening anymore.”

He described the market as “maturing.”

“You actually really have to work pretty hard to stay in the market as saturated as it is,” Hartings said. “We feel very fortunate where we’re at with what we’ve got going on in our taproom alongside of being supported by the other areas of the business with private and public events and the Columbus location that we just opened up.”

A hard January

Those in the food and beverage industry are coming off of a hard January.

“It was the slowest month I think we’ve seen since the pandemic, at least by a good amount too,” Hartings said.

February wasn’t much better, but so far this month they’re seeing more customers.

He attributes the slowness to the weather and people either saving money or drinking less alcohol in an attempt at being healthier.

The brewery typically picks up around March and April with the warmer weather when more people are getting out.

He credits the brewery’s owners for having that tenacity of hoping for the best.

“You used to be able to get by just making good beer, and now you really have to try some other things, whether it’s interesting marketing campaigns, new locations, new products, there’s only so many kinds of beer you can make at this point that haven’t been done,” Hartings said.

Latest trends in the industry

The newest trend he is seeing in the brewing industry is THC and cannabis products.

“We haven’t messed with this much at all,” Hartings said. “What we’ve done is we haven’t used anything with THC in it, but you can buy terpenes and flavorings that are extracted from cannabis plants and you can put those in your beer to make them kind of taste like some of the things that marijuana will give you.”

Other trends he’s seeing is more breweries offering nonalcoholic beers and hop water.

“It’s just a little more difficult when you’re geared towards making alcoholic beer and you’re a small facility, so we’re playing around with those things,” Hartings said.

In January, the brewery featured a hop water. Hartings admitted they didn’t sell a ton, but it was a slow month.

A tight-knit community

The best part of being in the brewing industry is the tight-knit community that comes with it.

“Everybody really just leans on each other and asks for advice and helps each other out and collaborates on a lot of projects...,” Hartings said.

He appreciates that the owners of Yellow Springs Brewery allow their employees to learn and grow.

“Even though I’m running the company and not brewing the beer anymore, just being able to watch the people on our staff come together to make things happen and just the ideas that come out of them and the beer that we’re making,” Hartings said.

He’s regularly impressed by everything that comes out of production and credits their team for not only working hard to make great products, but being a great place to work.

“That’s just everything,” Hartings said. “It’s so rewarding to know that it works and that putting that energy in and that effort in not only makes it happen, but it kind of builds.”

MORE DETAILS

Yellow Springs Brewery, located at 305 N. Walnut St. Suite B, is open 1 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 1 to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.

During the launch party at the Barrel Room, the brewery’s new beer will premiere for the first time starting at 5 p.m. This will be followed with six-packs of the new beer available at 6 p.m.

The first 25 guests in the doors will receive specialty T-shirts and The Family Spoon food truck will be on site.

The Barrel Room is a private event venue with public events organized in the space often. This space does not have normal operating hours.

For more information, visit yellowspringsbrewery.com or the brewery’s Facebook or Instagram pages (@yellowspringsbrewery).