Dayton Brew Ha-Ha Blends Education, Libation, and Fermentation

Picture a science classroom with a large pot of water, held at a stable temperature, steaming away on a burner. Given supplies of malted grains, hops, and other ingredients, students are offered the opportunity to select a mixture of their own to steep, boil, and eventually ferment. With a set of basic instructions and the guidance of a mentor, the students proceed through the steps of bottling tasty concoctions of their own creation. Sounds like a dream class, right?

Due to personal liability concerns and pesky state & federal laws, such a lesson likely will not be part of the science curriculum at the Montessori School of Dayton anytime soon. 

 However, MSD will be opening its doors on January 31^st to the community for the 4^th-annual Dayton Brew Ha-Ha, the school’s now-annual craft beer fundraiser. Adult brewers from across the state of Ohio will be demonstrating their individual masteries of the brewing process.

“The Brew Ha-Ha contributes to the capital improvement fund and has contributed to much-needed upgrades such as a new gym floor, energy-efficient windows, and a new HVAC system,” said Kevin Gray, co-founder of the event, alpha beer writer at the Dayton City Paper, and parent of three students at MSD. “Also, you can drink beer in an elementary school!” 

Gray, along with two other MSD parents -- Brandy Gorham and Mike Taylor -- tri-chairs and coordinates the event. They see the Brew Ha-Ha as an opportunity for community members to mingle, sample, and learn about the worlds of craft brewing and Montessori education. “It’s fun to be able to describe beer to people and see their faces when they taste something new for the first time,” added Gorham. “I also enjoy the look on my friend’s faces when I tell them that my kid’s school is having a craft beer festival as a fundraiser, then being able to explain Montessori to them…that it’s not just a place where children go to ‘play’ all day. ” 

The Montessori education model revolves around “discovery-based” lessons where students are offered a personal choice of subject matter, an array of materials, and the freedom to explore and create within a broad set of boundaries. There are no objective letter grades and students learn at their own pace. Assessment is based on accomplishment and a student’s demonstration of skills and maturity. 

 “For example,” proudly explained Gorham, “my son is gifted in math. He is learning algebra in fourth grade, but when he started first grade, he was behind in reading, so they provided him a tutor. Now he reads at a fifth or sixth grade level. They also teach very concretely. Math is taught [to young children] by working with beads and understanding physically how it works, not just writing numbers on paper…toddlers use items from shelves [in their lessons] from left to right and top to bottom, which prepares them for reading.” 

MSD was seeking a fundraising opportunity for the aforementioned improvements to the facility, so parents at the school followed the spirit of their childrens’ classroom experience, where collaboration and common interest so often lead to inspiration.   

Why something beer-themed? Montessori education has more in common with craft brewing than it might initially seem. As anyone who’s ever stood over a brew kettle can tell you, craft brewers follow a similar learning-by-doing process as they’re honing personal techniques and building beermaking skills. (Traditional definitions of “maturity,” however, are typically considered gauche among brewers.) 

“There are a lot of craft beer geek parents at the school,” Gray related. “In late 2011, some likeminded parents and the school administrators decided to try our hands at a beer tasting. It came together in about 8 weeks and we held [the first Brew Ha-Ha] in January 2012. Although the first one was modest, [everyone had] a lot of fun and it was well received by the community. Attendance has steadily increased and last year, we saw our first sell-out crowd.”

While the somewhat mischievous notion of legally sampling beers in a school setting undoubtedly adds to the appeal of the event, the real draw is the beer. “We’ve always focused on regional beers…the first two years, we featured beers from the Great Lake states. [We invited brewers] from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Indiana,” said Gray. “Last year, we realized that the Ohio market was so strong that we could pit it against the legendary MI market and had our first Ohio vs. Michigan showdown.”

The continued explosion of the region’s craft brewing gave the Brew Ha-Ha crew the opportunity to score a special distinction. The 4^th Annual Brew Ha-Ha is the first beer festival in the Buckeye State to feature an All-Ohio lineup of breweries. “The state now has about 103 breweries, and we’ll be featuring 40 of them,” Gray added. “The Miami Valley breweries will be there, and many are reserving or brewing up special beers for the event. We are also excited to feature a number of breweries from around the state that aren't readily available in Dayton.”

Over 40 craft brewers will be participating in this year’s tasting, including Dayton-area brewers Carillon Brewing Company, Dayton Brewing Company, Fifth Street Brewpub, Eudora, Hairless Hare, Lock 27, Lucky Star, Star City, Toxic Brew Company, Warped Wing, and Yellow Spring Brewery. 

One of the pleasantly unique elements of the event was initiated last year and expanded upon this year is the Brew Ha-Ha’s focus on education for craft beer newbies. “I try to remember how intimidated I felt when I first started learning about craft beer,” mused Taylor as he explained the event’s ambassador program, “The ambassador looks for people who seem confused or don't know what to try next. We engage them in conversation to find out what they like and direct them to another selection or introduce them to a new style they may have never tried. I still get a kick out of seeing people try new things and really enjoying the recommendation.” This year, the ambassadors will provide guides to the event broken down by beer flavor profile, so attendees who find a quaff they truly enjoy will be able to easily locate other selections which may tickle their fancy.

In addition, Gray uses his near-encyclopedic knowledge of beer to get the other parent volunteers up to speed on what they’ll be pouring. “I have [the volunteers] try a representative sample of the styles of beer we'll be serving and I give them some information about the beer styles, process, etc. I run through the full list…so that the servers can talk about the beers they are pouring and can recommend other beers.” The parental volunteers are then paired with representatives from the event’s sponsors, which are all well-known Dayton craft beer supporters.

Dayton’s largest local homebrew club, The Dayton Region Amateur Fermentation Technologists (DRAFT), also gets in on the act. DRAFT volunteers talk with attendees about the brewing process and act as an avenue for prospective homebrewers to get more information. BrewTensils, the area's largest homebrew shop, created “clonebrew” recipes for homebrewers to replicate some of the event’s featured beers.

While the number of attendees has grown each year, ticket sales are capped at 400 to maintain the boutique feel of the event and to allow attendees to converse with the ambassadors and learn from the representatives of the various brewing operations. “I think this level of knowledge and interaction has set us apart from many of the other massive beer tasting events,” Taylor said with a smile. “I think our attention to detail, supporting local, and providing craft beers that are accessible here in Dayton [and beyond] makes me feel proud. We have worked hard to make our event a ‘must attend,’ and I think we've been successful.”

All three chairs acknowledged the challenges of trying to put together a large event like this are magnified because the small organizing team have their other full time work and familial responsibilities, especially right after the holidays. “Kevin and I used to do everything,” Taylor explained, “But now we’ve learned you need lots of help. The event has grown from 167 people to nearly 425 last year. We now coordinate 45-50 volunteers, sponsor table volunteers and all the various vendors and distributors. With so many Ohio breweries self-distributing, this has added a new level of coordination, but in the end I think it will all be worth it to bring 40 Ohio breweries together in one location.” Gorham added, “I’ve been a volunteer for the event ever since the first year, and every year my responsibilities have increased.  Last year I noticed that the guys were struggling to get everything done, so I volunteered to help take on some of the burden on as well,” said Gorham, “I’m an engineer, so my strength is in project management. I also ensure that we are meeting as a committee on a regular basis.  Nothing like a meeting to make sure we all have our action items done from the last one!”

Even though the kids at the school are not directly involved with the event, they find other ways to participate. “They love the idea [of the Brew Ha-Ha] but are bummed that they can't participate in some way,” said Taylor. “We give them small tasks like making pretzel necklaces and helping to wash all the tasting glasses, which we hope makes them feel somewhat involved.” Gray says that his three kids love the event and get excited every year. “We usually have the gym set up Thursday or Friday before the event and it's exciting to hear my kids come home and tell me about how it looks.” Gorham puts on the volunteers’ after-party, which her two kids take great pleasure in “hosting.” “Any volunteers that are interested show up for some social time.  We all talk about the event and share what went well.  My kids love having everyone over to ‘their’ house.”

Tickets for the event are $35 – which includes admission to the event, a half-pint tasting glass, and ten tasting tickets. Taylor, who heads up the publicity and promotions for the event, is quite pleased by the Brew Ha-Ha’s expansion. “We started with ten sponsors and a 50/50 raffle which has evolved into 15 sponsors, a [considerably larger] silent auction and, new this year, games of chance -- a spin to win cash game and a beer bottle ring toss.”  Fresh pizza by the slice will be made on-site by Spinoza’s. During the last hour of the event, MSD will be providing complimentary coffee and desserts. Bottle sales and growler fills will also be available at this time. 

The Montessori School of Dayton is located at 2900 Acosta Street, Kettering. For more information about the event or to purchase tickets, go to the Dayton Brew Ha-Ha website at http://brewhahadayton.com/

This story also appears in the Dayton City Paper.

Cover Story!

A little self-congratulatatory post here. An article I wrote about the environment and perception on the tasting of wine made the front page of the Dayton City Paper. I'll be reposting the column itself here later, but I'm pretty stoked about it. Check it out!

Cork & Vine Wine Market & Lounge, Dayton OH

At the turn of the century – the 20^th century, that is – while futurism was giving birth to dreams of flying cars and regular trips to the moon, a highly modern dining option emerged: fast food. The first fast food restaurants were called automats.

Automats were a staple of big city life until the 1950s. A customer would walk into an automat and face a wall of vending machines. Instead of Dolly Madison snack cakes and Snickers, you could score yourself a hot, usually well-prepared meal and dessert for the change in your pocket. Find something you liked, drop in a few nickels, and snag a table. Dinner.

Automats largely died in the 1950s with the rise of the suburbs, superhighways, and a pair of golden arches. In North Dayton, however, the Cork & Vine Wine Market and Lounge is resurrecting the automat concept with a delicious twist – the Wine Station.

“Basically, the Wine Station is a self-serve wine sampling system,” explained Matt Thatcher, the Cork & Vine’s director of operations, “This allows us to open some finer wines and give people the chance to try some things we ordinarily wouldn’t be able to open and offer by the glass behind the bar.”

Visually, the Wine Station is the love child of a wine fridge and a cappuccino maker. Behind one of twelve windows are bottles of wine – six white, six red. Above each window is an LCD display, indicating the price of a sample.

“You can get a 1 oz taste, a 3 oz half, or a 6 oz. full glass. A taste can range anywhere from $1.25 up to $4-5,” explained Thatcher, “Not that they’re all that expensive. We’ve got a range of things in there from a $12 bottle of Riesling to an $80 bottle of shiraz.”

The Wine Station, designed by Napa Technologies, preserves the wine and pressurizes the bottles with argon gas, creating a neutral atmosphere in which the wine won’t spoil. Hypothetically, the system can preserve a bottle of wine for 60 days after opening. To use the station, a customer would pre-load a Dave & Bustersesque “Smartcard” with an amount from $5-500. The screen displays the amount deducted for each choice.

I don’t sample $80 shiraz very often, so I inserted my card and went for a 1 oz. taste. I held my glass under the spout, pushed the button (the taste was $3.75), and with a whoosh and a gurgle, I had myself a nice little pour.

“We try to make sure things aren’t uptight here,” added Kara York, shifting her newborn in her arms as I swirled my wine. “With the area, a lot of people seem to be kind of intimidated by wine, so between the WineStation and the wine flights we offer, people really get a chance to try some new things.”

So I took a sip of this shiraz (Clarendon Hills 2004 Liandra Vineyards Shiraz if you’re curious). Seriously -- just this side of mindblowing. Imagine your palate resting on a dark chocolate Temper-pedic mattress. I’m personally glad that we didn’t know about the Wine Station during the recent wine cellar addition that the Sweet Partner in Crime and I did. The endeavor might have become a little more expensive.

From the outside, Cork and Vine is doing its best with its somewhat nondescript location, sharing a strip mall building in York Commons near the junction of I-70 & 75 with a Petland, a GameStop, and a Cincinnati Bell Store. They’ve put in an outside patio for folks to relax. Inside, however, they’ve successfully pulled off a “friendly industrial” look, with dark angular shelves, white leather couches, fireplaces, and a contemporary bar area.

In addition to the wine sampling, Cork and Vine also sells wine, as it’s linked with the Liquor and Wine Warehouse next door. “You can pull any bottle off the shelf and drink it right here with a corkage fee. [Currently $6]”

York explained that the owners saw North Dayton as fertile ground for a fine wine store. “There are a lot of people up here who want to get into wine. They’ve really discovered this place over the last year. We have a lot of local folks coming in, but we also have people that travel from a ways after they’ve heard of it. They want to learn more.”

In addition to the Wine Station, the Cork & Vine offers a full bar. While meatloaf and green beans aren’t on the menu as at the old automats, they have their own tapas-ish appetizer menu with antipasti, flatbread pizza, soup, salad, and dessert . As an additional sampling aid, they also offer a number of wine flights, also in one or three ounce pours. York said that they offer flights from big cabernets to sweet wines, “but we try to gently steer people away from white zin.We switch out the flights so that people will have something new to try every week or two.”

North Dayton’s home to any number of hotels and conference centers, so the Cork & Vine offers trolley service. Yes, an actual trolley. “It’s a pretty neat thing,” said Thatcher. “Basically, if you’ve got a group, call us up and make arrangements. If you’re within five miles of the place, we’ll pick you up, bring you here, and take you home when you’re done. A pretty convenient setup on any number of levels, you could say.”

I agreed. And went back for another whoosh and gurgle of Clarendon.

Festival of the Vine

(To be published in the Dayton City Paper.)
The demand for red wine in Lincoln Park was low this weekend.
Fraze Pavilion’s annual Festival of the Vine always brings out a crowd for sampling wine, kicking back to some cool jazz, and enjoying a shady afternoon. This year, however, with humidity approaching Evergladesian levels and heat indices to make Carl Nichols rethink his retirement, most of the crowd at the festival looked to be avoiding big mouthfuls of tannin.
However, the heat couldn’t stop the groove. A passing thunderstorm caused a brief scramble for shelter at one point, but for most of the afternoon, a steady diet of cool jazz and cooler wine kept the laid back attendees as comfortable as possible in the shade.
This year’s Festival of the Vine mirrored the previous ones. “Like in previous years, we want folks to get a chance to try a bunch of different wines, and hopefully they’ll find something that they like,” proudly stated Kevin Bratton of Heidelberg Distributing, provider of the 35 or so wines available during the evening. “We want to make sure that people get a chance to try things from everywhere. We’ve got New World – largely North American wine,” said Kevin, “We’ve got Old World wines and a sparkling wine tent. And we’ve got an Italian tent because of Claudio.”
This is a good strategy. With that many options, people will probably find new favorites. Festival of the Vine isn’t the kind of event where someone will be able to really *taste* different wines. What they will do is find out what wines are good to slug on a hot day, and that’s a good idea. On a 90 degree day, discussing nuances of torrontes vs. sauvignon blanc isn’t going to be a conversation I’ll want to have, but a “Yep. This helps me forget the heat for a second.” is.
The aforementioned “Claudio” is Claudio Salvador, importer of all the wines in the Italian tent and chief winemaker of Firelands Winery in Sandusky, Ohio. The same weekend as Festival of the Vine was “Toast of Ohio,” another wine festival in Northern Ohio. “I’ve got my crew up there taking care of that. I wanted to come down here!”
Claudio told me that he wanted to showcase some of his wines that were probably unfamiliar to many of the folks at the festival. “We like bringing wines in that people don’t necessarily know. They’re going to know them very soon. Everyone has Pinot Grigio, but with the whites, people haven’t usually tried Gavi or Grecho. Grecho, for instance, is originally from Greece. The Grecho is a very aromatic varietal. People think that it’s the ancestor of Sauvignon Blanc and such.”
Claudio said that he is planning to return to Dayton in November with some of the winemakers from the wines he was showing. “We’re going to do some dinners, which will all be just fantastic. We’re still figuring out exactly where we’re doing them.”
At Claudio’s recommendation, I gave the La Balle Grecho Basilicata a try. One a day like this, the crispness was a welcome respite from the heat. Fruity, acidic, and with a little bit of honey – I could certainly have imagined myself under one of the trees, wrapped around a bottle of the stuff.
I sampled a few of the other wines around the concourse as well. The Monticello Albarino was a refreshing quaff, as was the Grenache-based Belleruche Blanc, a white from the Rhone region in France. I also snagged a glass at one point of the Barefoot Brut sparkling wine. Despite the good banter at the tasting table – the conversation far outstripped the bubbly. The music outstripped both. 
Besides, doing heavy wine tasting isn’t the point of an afternoon like this. I’ll definitely lean towards relaxing and good jazz. As my newest friend “Ron from Atlanta” put it, “The wine doesn’t matter to me. I’m here for the music, man. I came up here for a family reunion. I heard [Nate White] was playing, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss him. He’s smooth!”
“Oh, and this weather y’all are having? It’s like springtime! I feel right at home.”