Outerbelt Brewing opening in June

Outerbelt Brewing will open their doors in less than a month and, as the name implies, the brewery is located outside the 270 outerbelt — way out, in an unincorporated township near the village of Carroll, a short drive from Lancaster.

“Canal Winchester and Lancaster were both among the top fastest growing cities in Ohio last year so we’re really hoping they’ll keep sprawling this way,” said head brewer and co-owner Dan Griffin.

Griffin is a Reynoldburg native who received his masters degree in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt University in 2014 before moving to Vermont to work at Long Trail Brewing. He came back to Central Ohio in 2016 where he took over for Keith Jackson (now at Combustion) at Gordon Biersch before leaving to launch Outerbelt.

Griffin says Outerbelt will open to the public on either June 8 or June 15, depending on how the final weeks of construction pan out. [UPDATE: the grand opening will take place June 15 starting at noon with 10 beers on tap and the Sophie’s Pierogi food truck serving.] Their building is massive — it was a former Lowe’s for scale — about 25,000 square feet, although Outerbelt will only be utilizing about half with a 5,600 square foot taproom, 4,000 square foot brewery and 2,000 square foot patio.

The brewery was installed on Tuesday and Griffin will begin brewing by the end off this week. Outerbelt has a 30 barrel brewing system with six tanks – four 30 barrel and two 15 barrel.

“It’s a big system that’s aggressive to open with but it was such a good deal — I really wanted a 15 or 20 [barrel system] but this ended up being a better deal,” said Griffin. “We can make half batches and grow into it.”

He’s aiming to have 10 beers on tap for open as well as cold brew coffee.

“We’ll do a few hazy IPAs and our fair share of berliners and goses,” said Dan. “I grew pretty handy with lagers at Gordon Biersch, which I’m thankful are taking off again, so we’ve got a Helles lager in the works and we’ll do a pilsner as well.”

In advance of the opening, you can try their beer this Friday, May 18 at the Columbus Craft Beer Week kickoff party at Giant Eagle Market District. They’ll also be serving Saturday at the Six One Pour Ohio Beer Festival at COSI.

Outerbelt Brewing is located at 3560 Dolson Ct just outside of Carroll, Ohio.