If you’re a fan of booze – you’ve probably been talking about Karrikin Spirits lately.  They have a big project set to open it’s doors this week in Fairfax, a distillery/restaurant that is looking to bridge the gap between the taproom or brewpub atmosphere and a distillery here in Cincinnati.

Who Is… What is Karrikin?

Karrikin Spirits isn’t just a distillery.  They are a development that looks to tie food and drink together in a way that has yet to be done in Cincinnati.  The project is headed up by a group of people that will have familiar faces if you’re big into any of Cincinnati’s eating or drinking communities.

Karrikin says that they hope to become a destination for anyone… foodies, drinkers, or anyone who is interested in being introduced to different experiences and flavors from around the world.

But – we don’t talk about distilling here on this website… that’s for that other project that isn’t officially launched yet, that we aren’t supposed to talk about, yet.  Here we talk about Cincinnati beer – so why would I bring up Karrikin here?

Duh… they’re a brewery too.

They Make Beer.

You didn’t think that a place built to introduce flavors and experiences to foodies and drinkers in Cincinnati, that also happened to have Eric Baumann (formerly of Oskar Blues and Christian Moerlein) along with Jeff Hunt (formerly from MadTree) on board would just not make beer, did you?

There was a little bit of talk when Karrikin made their first announcements of a big 30bbl brewhouse that was going in – but I haven’t heard a lot of people talking since then and wanted all of you beer geeks to know that yes, they’re a brewery alongside a distillery.  When you make your way out to Fairfax during their Grand Opening this week, you’ll find four beers on tap, two of which should stay on as core beers all the time, and two that will roatate and form the base of some really fun experimentation that you’ll see these guys do.

The Grand Opening Taps

Like I mentioned… four beers on tap right now, these first two are what I would consider “core” beers that will always be available:

• House IPA
• Pilsner

Alongside these, you’ll find two rotating taps:

• Hazy IPA
• Cherry Tarragon Lemon Blonde Ale

While the distillery isn’t currently raising a lot of commotion about the fact that they are making beer – you can bet that they’ll do some really fun stuff, and I’m positive that they’ll start filling up quite a few taps with beers as time goes on.

Stay tuned… you’re going to be hearing a lot about these guys!