The Cincinnati Brewing History Map is the result of a man-cave family project that spun wildly and terribly out of control, and ended up consuming an embarrassing number of hours a few summers ago. 

Hopefully others will find it informative and entertaining as well as a warning to closely evaluate future research projects.

There were a number of challenges when trying to gather information about the early brewers ... very little documentation exists for a large number of them, including the years in operation and specific locations.  Additionally, there were probably dozens of unknown brewers in business for a very short time and/or no artifacts exist for them. 

There were also instances where information from multiple sources disagreed on time-frames or locations, and we tried to corroborate by using period maps, city directories, and travel journals where available.

The map is not a finished product and will continue to be updated for corrections and new discoveries.

Please use the Contact Us  form if you have questions or suggestions.

Trying to identify brewery locations was especially challenging because ...

• street names would change, and some streets even disappeared
• street numbers were dramatically changed by the city in the 1890's (especially the north-south streets)
• some location descriptions were based on physical references that required further research (i.e., "just East of Deer Creek" or "2 doors from Piatt's bank") ... BTW ... Deer Creek was visible on early maps, and its course was approximately where Eggleston Avenue now runs

Early Cincinnati street maps for different years were invaluable in understanding the physical and naming transformation that took place over the years, and CincinnatiHistory.org has a good selection of the ones used for this project, as well as a number of early lithographs.

Finally, we'd like to offer special thanks to some of the earlier researchers on whom we leaned, and would suggest you check them out for more detailed information:

• Brewing Beer in the Queen City, v.1-6, Robert M. Musson, M.D.  (2014)
• Cincinnati Breweries, Robert J. Wimberg  (1997)
• Over-The-Rhine: When Beer Was King, Michael D. Morgan  (2010)
• The Cincinnati Brewing Industry: A Social and Economic History, William Downard  (1973)