Greetings, Great Beer Now fans and followers! This is the fourth entry in a multi- part series of blog posts relating to the Great Beer Now Rock and Roll Out the Barrel Beer Tour 2018, which took place in Cleveland, Ohio. I traversed the Cleveland, Ohio area making my way to some of the best known and most award- winning breweries in the United States, along with several hidden gems and up- and- comers. Open a can or bottle of your favorite beer and follow along on my journey through one of Ohio’s largest cities. Cheers!
Breweries in the United States now number in the thousands and while most of them understandably take time to get off the ground, some of them grow much faster than expected. It can be a challenge to maintain quality and control during periods of explosive growth but one brewery that has met the challenge is Platform Beer, located at 4125 Lorain Ave. in Cleveland, Ohio.
Incubate Your Beer
Platform Beer opened in 2014 as a brewery dedicated to serving as an incubator to homebrewers and others who wanted a means to brew their beer on a larger scale. The roots of Platform Beer can, in fact, be traced back to homebrewing. Co- founder Paul Benner opened a homebrewing store- the largest in Cleveland- back in 2012 and it eventually led to the opening of Platform Beer just two years later.
Platform Beer’s dedication to helping budding homebrewers is the inspiration behind the brewery’s symbol, which depicts a light bulb with a plant growing inside. The rapid growth Platform Beer has seen in recent years has led it to expand into several states, among them Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Kentucky, and Connecticut. Besides the tap room in Cleveland, Platform also operates a large production facility in Cleveland and operates tasting rooms in Columbus and Cincinnati.
Innovation on Tap
Platform’s original taproom in Cleveland sports a large inside space with about 100 seats and about 20 beers on tap. Here is a listing of the beers I tried, listed alphabetically by name, followed by the style and my Untappd rating on a five point scale:
- Barrel Aged Panic Switch, Rye Wine, 4.25
- Bourbon Barrel Aged Esther, Belgian Strong Ale, 4.5
- Caramelicious, Milk Stout, 4.25
- Holiday Donut Cookie, Spiced/Herbed beer, 4
- Musa, Milkshake IPA, 4
- New Cleveland Palesner, Pilsner, 4
- No Eye in Team, New England IPA, 4.25
- The Project Dry Hopped Pale Ale Series, Pale Ale, 4.25
- Samoa Brown, Brown Ale, 4.25
Overall Average Rating: 4.19
Platform Beer brews a wide variety of beer styles and it would be difficult to pin down any one of them as a true standout. If you love sweeter dark beer, Caramelicious is a good choice. If you like Belgian and bourbon flavors, then you should go for the Bourbon Barrel Aged Esther. Are you a fan of pilsners? Yes, they have one of those, too, New Cleveland Palesner, and it’s far better than the typical pils. There is a beer to fit your tastes no matter what you like, and everything is high in quality and drinkability.
Growth with a Mission
Platform Beer is a brewery that is truly going places in every sense of the word. I can faintly recall seeing Platform’s name on rankings of the “fastest growing breweries” in the United States but since I had not experienced the Cleveland beer scene first hand and knew little to nothing about Platform Beer, the ranking and name didn’t register and I tended to overlook Platform Beer completely. When it came time to plan my beer tour of Cleveland, Platform Beer was one of the places that was recommended to visit. It was then that I recalled hearing about the growth and it did pique my interest. What about Platform Beer, I wondered, made it so compelling and why was it growing at such breakneck speed?
Checking the statistics on the matter do, indeed, confirm the rapid acceleration. Platform Beer produced 17,000 barrels of beer in 2017. In 2018, the figure jumped to 27,000 barrels. In 2019, Platform beer is aiming for 40,000 barrels of production! This is a massive increase from the levels registered in 2014, when the brewery’s output was less than 1,000 barrels for its first year. Knowing these statistics, I couldn’t wait to step inside the world of Platform Beer to see for myself how/why this brewery has experienced such explosive growth.
I was joined on my visit by co- founder Paul Benner and I started off by sampling some of the beer while also chatting with Paul and learning more about Platform Beer and its place in the Cleveland beer scene. I learned about the growth and expansion and discovered that Platform already has a brewpub in Columbus, OH. Additional research reveals that a new Platform location opened in Cincinnati last month and Platform Beer plans to open a brewery and taproom in Pittsburgh, PA later this year. Platform Beer keeps on expanding will likely continue to open more locations before the year is through.
What, exactly, is driving all of this growth? Well, for starters, the beer is very tasty. With craft beer competition heating up and growing more intense each day, a brewery has to find a way to stand out in the pack and has to keep quality and standards high. Platform Beer has easily succeeded in this regard, with a solid lineup of beers and continuous experimentation that is perfect for curiosity seekers, like me, who are always on the prowl for something new to try.
After trying several different beers, I toured the production facility located a very short distance from the tap room. The large, 120,000 square foot building was once the home of Leisy Brewery, which was the largest independent brewery in Cleveland. Leisy Brewery shut down a while back and the building changed hands before becoming abandoned. It remained abandoned for some time until Platform Beer snatched it up. Since the building once housed a brewery, it was already designed for the task and thus took less effort than it otherwise would to get things up and running. Platform Beer wisely purchased this brick building and in the process, saved thousands of dollars compared to the cost of purchasing a building that would require extensive renovations to deem it brewery- worthy. Again, I could see why Platform Beer is such a success. The smart business decisions, like this one, have no doubt helped Platform save money and achieve its goals in an ever- competitive craft beer environment.
Great beer and wise decision making have helped Platform Beer reach a high level of growth, but from talking to Paul Benner, it was clear that another factor trumps them all, and that factor is passion. Brewing beer and brewery ownership are in Benner’s DNA and I could tell from talking to him that he has definitely found his place. He loves the art and science of brewing beer. He loves serving customers and bringing them the best experience possible. He has complete and total satisfaction in the business he and his partners have helped create. This, more than anything else, is responsible for the tremendous success that Platform Beer has achieved and with passion like this, I don’t see any reason for the momentum to falter.
Craft beer is a competitive business. With thousands upon thousands of independent breweries competing for your drinking dollars, it is critical that each and every brewery find its own competitive edge. Platform Beer has discovered the secret for success and while great products, smart decisions, and excellent service have certainly played a part, the love of the craft beer business supersedes them all. Loving what you do is what truly matters to the success of any small business, so be sure to pay a visit to Platform Beer the next time you’re in the Cleveland, Ohio area and see for yourself what can result when a brewery’s owners genuinely love what they do. And tell them Great Beer Now sent you.
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