Located in the historic Brewery District, the Columbus Brewing Company hasbeen offering up spectacular brews since 1988. Six years ago, Eric Bean stepped in to purchase a portion of the brewery and has since then taken over the reins as brewmaster. This past year he bought out his business partner and now owns a majority share of the company. “Owning a brewery has been my dream since I turned 21 and the focus of my brewing career,” Bean said. “This gave me the opportunity to take an existing company and mold it into what it is today. This has not always been easy, but it has been a lot of fun.” Since then, Bean and the brewery have been racking up acclaim. “We won a medal at the Great American Beer Festival and have earned numerous other awards, but the most important response has been seeing sales increase,” he said. “This has been the best acknowledgment that people like what we are doing in the brewery and is what keeps us pushing ourselves each day.” Last month, Columbus beer made its way to NEO, and the company plans on breaking more ground as the year goes on. Bean has a special place in his heart for the area: He started his brewing career in Northeast Ohio 15 years ago, and the location has been on his radar ever since he took over the brewery. “We joke about it now, but over the years we have told people it will be another few months before we get there,” Bean said. “It is such a great craft-beer market that we knew it would eat us alive if we did not have the capacity to be able to keep up with it. We are not sure if we are ready now, but we have decided to hang our toes in the water and see what happens.” As with most breweries, Columbus Brewing Company’s year-round offerings lean more on the hoppy side of things, with both a pale ale and an IPA. For those looking for something outside the norm, the brewery also has a year-round Scottish ale. Distribution in NEO will start slowly, with Bean first unleashing their two best sellers strictly on draft. “Our NEO rollout is controlled chaos. We have new equipment on order and expect it in May,” he said. “Until then, we are only sending limited quantities of IPA and Bodhi [their double IPA] for draft purposes.” Also in limited qualities will be arguably their hoppiest beer yet, a barleywine known as Creeper. As with the other two beers, Creeper will only be available on tap at select craft-beer bars — though it’s well worth seeking out, and a favorite in the Buzzbin office. The brewery is known mostly for its hop-filled beers, but Bean wants to show the craft-beer world what else it has to offer. “We all really love what we do and are proud to be doing it in Ohio,” he said. “I guess that people out there who really only know us for our hoppy beers will be surprised to discover that we have a soft spot in our hearts for clean, crisp German-style lagers.” First on the list is their Summer Teeth Kellerbier, an unfiltered Helles that took home a bronze medal at Great American Beer Festival in 2010. Bean plans to unleash this award-winning brew in Northeast Ohio sometime this June. The brewery’s launch will also allow it to package beers like Bodhi and Creeper along with new brews. According to Bean, its roster is full of new beers, all of which will be out and into the market, thanks to NEO’s love of craft beer. “We are excited on so many levels for this launch into NEO,” he said. “We love introducing new people to what we do, but we are also excited for the doors that this will open.”