Recent Posts
- Upland Brewing sets tastings across Ohio, Kentucky
- Toxic Brew plans grand opening June 28-29
- Beer story sampler II
- Fishers Foods schedules "domestic beer" tasting
- Lance's Brewery Tour kicks off Thursday at Great Lakes
- Beer story sampler
- Pliny the Elder tops voting again as best beer in America
- UPDATE: United Way of Portage County cancels beer dinner
- Beer story sampler
- New Centerville brewery set to open June 21
- JAFB Wooster Brewery to host fundraiser for arson victim
- Hoppin' Frog releases B.O.R.I.S. aged in Irish whiskey barrels
- Goose Island celebrates with Cleveland beer drinkers
- Avery Brewing to take over taps at Acme in Montrose
- Scene Magazine announces fifth annual Ale Fest
- Ohio's high craft beer ranking thanks to Samuel Adams
- World of Beer Easton Craft Brew Fest is Saturday
- Beer story sampler
- Beer and Sweat celebrates 25th anniversary
- Homebrewing continues to grow, survey shows
Toxic Brew update
Shane Juhl admits he has a pretty cool job. As a material engineer, he builds space hardware and unmanned aerial vehicles. But he's willing to give that up to become a professional brewer. Juhl is the guy behind Toxic Brew Co., which has plans to open in Dayton next year. "I think this would be a lot cooler to do for a living," he said about brewing. "I want to put a smile on someone's face, not drop a bomb on them." We caught up recently by phone. He is in the middle of renovating a building in the Oregon district to turn into his brewery. Juhl, who has lived in Dayton for about 10 years, got into homebrewing because he loves Belgian beers. As everybody knows, Belgians can be quite expensive -- $10 or more a pop per bottle -- and he quickly tired of spending $100 or more a week. He figured he could save some money by brewing them himself. As he got more into brewing, he also wondered the same thing that a lot of craft beer drinkers do in Dayton: Why isn't there a brewery here? The Dayton area is the largest community in Ohio without its own brewery. The story behind the name "Toxic Brew" is an interesting one. He and friends used to experiment with making different alcohol concoctions -- which all stemmed from sampling Limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur. After one particular concoction, someone said: "This is just toxic." The name stuck as he put together plans for his brewery. The logo is a skull and cross bones. Initially, Juhl had some second thoughts about using the word "toxic" related to a drink. People either hate the reference or love it. He decided to stick with it because it's eye-catching and a talking point.