I love charting out all the breweries within an hour or so radius of Columbus and putting them on a list for when I feel like a mini road trip. I’ve seen DankHouse appear in many of my favorite bottle shops and was excited to see it was about 45 minutes away in Newark. I cleared out about two cases worth of space in the trunk and hit the road to see what the fuss was about.
It was an easy drive, mostly on the highway, and as I pulled up to the brewery I noticed a lot of outside space. I have to come back when it’s warmer! I wasn’t there to eat, but the food menu also looks like my kind of vibe, featuring birria tacos, smash burgers, and lots of great looking snacks.
Finally on to the reason I came – the beer! The tap menu was just what you want at a brewery, a mix of some of the cans I have tried that they are well known for, and lots of brewery-only specials. I grabbed four samples.
In the Streets is a perfect modern American Pale Ale, lots of flavor but a bit lighter than an IPA and very drinkable.
FruitRolledUp: StrawNana tasted like what you would expect from a fruited sour, nice sweet and sour flavors, but the beer itself still came through which is important to me.
Moon Candy is a beautiful, strong, hoppy DIPA with a thick, chewy mouthfeel and great tropical candy notes.
Little Dabbie: Oatmeal Cream Pie is a pastry stout that was the sweeter of the two stout options that day. It had great oaty notes and had strong flavors without the boozy hit you might expect from a 7+% beer.
After tasting all the great options, I headed over to the cooler, packed up some mixed cases, and took one last sad longing gaze at the birria tacos.
DankHouse was already a beer I would seek out at my favorite beer stores, but now I can’t wait to head back when it’s a bit warmer to sip some beer and eat tacos in the sun.
Visit DankHouse at 161 Forry St. in Newark. For more information, visit dankhousebrewing.com.
All photos by Dan Whalen