HighGrain offers a wide range of styles, brewed by Matthew Utter, a former head brewer for Christian Moerlein. Utter, who lived in Germany for a decade, takes notable inspiration from the country’s beers and, where applicable, sticks very closely to the Reinheitsgebot purity laws, 500-year-old regulations that dictate the ingredients allowed to produce beer (water, barley, hops).
“We’re going after Old World-styles with a modern twist,” Utter says.
Utter was raised in Mariemont and moved to Germany when he was 19 after studying there as a foreign exchange student. His original plan was to learn how to become an electrical engineer, but he found himself sidetracked by his interest in brewing. He earned a degree from the Technical University of Munich in brewery technology and beverage production. The first beer he ever brewed, a hefeweizen, was made on a full-scale production line at the König Ludwig brewery — not in a garage or basement.
“I homebrewed after I started production,” he says. “I wanted to know what else you could do with ingredients that we weren’t able to do at a production facility that already had their recipes in order.”
As a result, there’s a wide selection of beer inspired by recipes from all over the world on the HighGrain taps including American sours, Lithuanian farmhouse ales and IPAs.
“Having a chef in house and the way that we’re building our food menu, I want to create a beer menu that respects that. Not just pairs, but respects that in the sustainability aspect,” Utter says.
HighGrain’s head chef is Lee Moeller, who served as chef for the Moerlein Lager House and executive chef for Bru Burger Bar. The food menu at HighGrain ranges from tofu tenders with maple mustard and watermelon panzanella to barramundi with plantain salsa, a bologna sandwich with fried egg and biscuits made with spent grain from the brewery.
Utter and his partners, Brian Liscano and Josh Jansen, knew that wherever they opened the brewery, they wanted to run it as environmentally friendly as possible. This resulted in interior design choices that utilize reclaimed wood, seating made from recycled material and geothermal tunnels, which aid in HVAC control.
Walk through the brewery’s front doors and you’ll enter a wide-open dining area illuminated by natural light and complemented by LED orbs hanging from the ceiling. The bar is to your left and behind it the brewing area, which was where Silverton’s fire trucks and ambulances were previously housed. There’s more dining space in the back, elegant in its rustic modernity.
HighGrain’s focus on the environment also extends to where ingredients are sourced for beer.
“Our Norwegian table beer was originally brewed from a local hop farm on the border of Indian Hill and Milford, Hopped Farms. We get all of our hops directly from there,” Utter says. “We get all of our grain from Rustic Brew Farm (in Marysville, Ohio); he gave us all of our barley and malt.”
Utter explains that the carbon footprint they get from sourcing the grain and malts locally is offset with carbon credits from a company called Cool Effect, so they buy credits from them, which indirectly plants more trees around the world in order to make this beer a carbon-neutral beer.
“To our knowledge, it’s one of the first carbon-neutral beers that we’ve heard of, especially in the area. It’s probably one of the top three fastest-selling beers we have,” he says. “We’ll always have a carbon neutral beer on our menu.”
Over Exposure, as the beer is called, is texturally similar to a cream ale and has a clean finish. Its subtle tartness is like an orange pith flavor, very delicious and easy on the eco conscience.
Don’t like beer? A surprisingly robust wine and bourbon selection is available to accommodate all tastes and a cranberry-apple cider will be served once it finishes fermenting in the tanks.
HighGrain wants to be a destination for the entire family. They have a fenced-in biergarten, a kids food menu and ample parking, so you can feel comfortable at this new neighborhood hot spot.
HighGrain Brewing Co. is located at 6860 Plainfield Road, Silverton. More info: highgrainbrewing.com.
*A former version of this story listed the carbon credit company as CO2OL
