Braxton Brewing Company Cincinnati ready to ‘Lift One to Life’ in Three Points

I recently had a chance to sit down with Braxton Brewing Company’s CEO Jake Rouse at their newest location – Braxton Brewing Company Cincinnati.

Crossing The River

Opening in the former Three Points Urban Brewery location, the new space is Braxton’s first venture across the Ohio River and establishes a brick and mortar presence for the brand in downtown Cincinnati at 331 E. 13th Street near the Pendleton district.

Braxton is already known for their Covington Taproom, the Barrel House in Fort Mitchell and Braxton Labs at the back of the Party Source in Newport. I asked Rouse what it was about the new location that piqued his interest.

While acknowledging Braxton’s Northern Kentucky roots and their successes there, Rouse recognized that there are some people in Cincinnati that just won’t cross the bridge to visit one of of their Kentucky locations.

“We wanted to create an environment to open ourselves to the rest of the market that won’t come visit us,” Rouse told me. “So we looked and looked and the reality was that there are so many phenomenal breweries in Cincinnati that anchor neighborhoods that we really didn’t want to come in and compete and be ‘those guys’ that start a brewery right next to them.

“Then we heard that the management company that was running Three Points didn’t want to be in beer anymore and wanted to focus on restaurants. So we sat down with them and had conversations about how do we build a brand and build a location that (both)pays homage to the neighborhood and allows us to continue to be true to who we are.”

A Thirst For Innovation

Rouse views the new location as an extension of their existing headquarters.

“It’s going to blend all of the things that are great about Braxton – our thirst for innovation, our Vive seltzers, our Barrel House in Fort Mitchell and the barrel-aged beers that we produce here in Pendleton, and it’s going to give us an opportunity to really reach out to that customer (that doesn’t want to cross the river). “

Braxton is inheriting a brewery system that is very similar in size and capacity to the system at Braxton Labs.

“It’s a 15 barrel brewhouse with five 15 barrel fermenters and it’s going to give us that opportunity to really kind of play around with some unique beers,” he added. He also hinted at doing some barrel aging at the new location to complement what’s going on at the Barrel House. “It will really give us an opportunity to expand the amount of innovation that we can do, create more variety for our taprooms, and keep customers coming back time and time again.”

When asked if there were any special beer releases planned for the opening, Rouse said that the focus so far has been on being able to renovate the location. The goal was to get the doors open and welcome the community during the COVID era. Still, Rouse says that “…we are working closely with the community here to create beers in this neighborhood that are really distinctly for the neighborhood. So, nothing for when we immediately open, but it is definitely in the plan.”

Jumping Through Hoops

Moving across the river created some logistical and regulatory work to open the doors.

“We definitely had to work with all of the federal, state and local authorities to get all of the licensing that we needed,” Rouse told me. “But we were able to do it fairly clearly so that we could still distribute out of our location in Ludlow, KY.

All of our locations brew and package their own beer and then ship it to Ludlow for distribution,” he added. “Setting it up was a little bit of a logistics problem, but we were able to do so and to work with all of the regulators to do it properly.”

The old Three Points brewery was unique on the Cincinnati side of the river for being a free co-working space for start-ups and entrepreneurs, serving coffee in the morning before transitioning into a bar in late afternoon.

While that won’t be carried on immediately, Rouse says that is definitely part of future plans. “That’s a fantastic question. That’s something that we’ve definitely heard a lot. We’re pretty fortunate in that we pioneered co-working in a brewery space when we opened in Covington back in 2015. I will tell you that it is definitely something on our radar. It is definitely something that we care a lot about. If it was working here, we’ll definitely work on it. It’s a big space that’s well spread out with great internet, I think it can work really well.”

Opening in the COVID Era

Part of the delay in opening the new location was ensuring that the space was configured properly for social distancing in the COVID-19 era.

“We take all of the restrictions of COVID-19 very, very seriously and I think that a lot of our policies are even a step beyond the restrictions currently. We removed all of the tables and chairs that weren’t socially distanced, we’re capping our capacity at 90 people and requiring that everybody is seated, so we’re abiding by all of those rules and closing at 10pm, so it should create something that allows us to do something safe in here and do it well,“ Rouse stated.

A First for Food

Braxton Cincinnati Brewing Company marks a new milestone in the company’s growth with the addition of food to the menu. 

“This is our first foray into food. We’ve partnered with the Parlor Group, the individuals that run the Parlor on 7th restaurant right next to Braxton in Covington to run the kitchen. That’ll come about a month after we open, but we definitely will have food here.”

Parlor on 7th opened in September of 2019, taking over the Alto Pizza Kitchen location that anchored the Duvenek Square multi-use development. While Rouse did not run through the menu, it should be safe to expect staples that pay homage to the German roots of Cincinnati and the Over The Rhine neighborhood.

Supporting the Arts

Three Points Brewery was known for its support of the neighborhood’s art community.

“We know that Three Points did an excellent job of welcoming the art community and the Pendleton community. We want to carry that forward, so we installed a really nice mural and we’re really going to be working on programing here that is inclusive of the community, and the art community, so we’re looking at picking up right where they left off and building that brand of Braxton into the Cincinnati environment.”

Opens Saturday

Braxton Cincinnati Brewing Company will have its Grand Opening on September 12 at noon. You can learn more about Braxton Brewing Company at https://www.braxtonbrewing.com or stay up to date with all that is happening on Facebook at @braxtonbrewingcompany or on Instagram at @braxtonbrewingco.

Visit Saturday and “Lift One to Life!”