TOLEDO, Ohio — Kyle King and Andy Perish are excited to see their COVID lockdown project come to life. Great Black Swamp Brewing Company has been around for years but now has a new location off Tedrow Rd in South Toledo. Since opening their brewery and full bar this past month, business has been great.
"You see a lot of people excited to come out, see our new facility and also see the new beer we've been working on," King said. "To see everything come together and to see the fruition has been amazing!"
The brewery joins a list of many taprooms opening their doors over the course of the next few weeks. In Uptown Toledo, Quenched & Tempered Brewing Company is hoping to connect Adams Street businesses to downtown.
It's been in the works since before the pandemic and is finally getting ready to welcome customers. But the process hasn't been easy for the many owners working to open up.
"With contractors disappearing and [the price of] building materials going through the roof we had to do most of the roof ourselves" said co-owner Alex Drozdowicz. Drozdowicz explained their front door still says 'coming soon 2020'.
If you drive west to Swanton, you'll find Oncore Brewing Company. The brewery is decked out in splatter paint walls and is set to open on Thursday. Co-owner Keith Baker said the Ohio Craft Brewers Association is a big reason so many breweries are opening coming out of the pandemic.
"They've just really paved the road to allow breweries to be open with licensing and things like that," Baker said.
One thing all owners can attest to is the comradery among local breweries. While they may technically be each others' competition, they know they share the same customer base.
"It's all about the comradery so we've leaned and learned a lot from others and we hope others have learned from us," Andy Perish with Great Black Swamp Brewing said.
"It's not a 'you versus me' with the other local breweries it's an 'us versus them'. You know 75% of the country still drinks non-craft beer. So it's really us versus the big guys!" Oncore's Baker added.
"Rather than fighting each other we can band together and expand our art; it's more of an art than a business. So we can all benefit from it!" Drozdowicz with Quenched & Tempered said.
Locations for each brewery are listed below:
2250 Tedrow Rd, Toledo, OH 43614
1210 Jackson St, Toledo, OH 43604
14241 Airport Hwy Suite# 1, Swanton, OH 43558