In 2023, I experienced a lifechanging event — something many others had experienced before me.
No, I didn’t get engaged or married. I acquired a taste for beer.
Now there's something your aunts will never ask you about. "When are you going to meet a nice pilsner?"
It took a while for this love affair to start brewing. I’d tried sips of beer every now and then (when I was of legal age, of course, Mom). I never really liked the taste. I preferred other alcoholic beverages, like wine, cocktails and fruity seltzers.
But that all changed in February 2023 when I signed up for the Summit Brew Path. The program highlights 21 breweries to visit before the end of November. To participate, you pick up a brew passport and get it stamped at each brewery when you order a beer. If you complete the challenge, you get a T-shirt and are entered into a drawing for money prizes.
Even though I wasn’t much of a beer drinker when I started the Brew Path, my friends invited me to participate. I’d recently moved to Akron and was looking to see more of the city and its surrounding areas. After 10 months, dozens of meetups and beer flights consumed from breweries across Summit, Stark and Medina counties, I saw more of the region. And I discovered I like beer.
Specifically, craft beer.
Naturally, my favorites were the fruity flavors — like the Kickin’ Blackberry Turbo Shandy at Akron’s Hoppin’ Frog Brewery and Blueberry Wheat Ale at McArthur’s Brew House in Cuyahoga Falls.
However, the year I started to like craft beer, the rest of the country trended in the opposite direction.
Craft beer sales declined for the first time in 2023, aside from 2020 when seemingly every industry took a hit. The nationalBrewers Association estimated sales were down 2% in August of last year.
Northeast Ohio brewers have experienced some challenges, too. In fact, the first brewery I visited on the Brew Path, R. Shea Brewing in Akron, is now in danger of closing its Downtown Akron location. Owner Ron Shea invested in the property just before the pandemic and hasn’t made enough revenue since then to pay off loans and stay afloat.
I spoke with Shea for a recent story about why craft beer sales are downin Ohio. Drinkers’ tastes have changed over the years, Shea said, and the market is now saturated with canned cocktails and seltzers.
“The only thing that was in my fridge when I was in my early 20s was my dad’s beer,” Shea said. “If you have a beer and that’s your first alcoholic beverage, it’s not exactly the most pleasant tasting. It takes something to get used to. So now, that group of drinkers is bypassing that … and going to these yummy, ready-to drink cocktails.”
Other local brewers are experiencing challenges distributing their beers in retail stores. They’re competing for shelf space with other alcoholic beverages, and a state law makes it hard for them to break contracts with their distributors if they’re unsatisfied with their performance, they told me.
Dave Sutula, brewmaster at Royal Docks Brewing in Jackson Township, said he’s not focusing on distribution anymore. Instead, he’s shifting his efforts on the taproom experience and opening more locations.
“As a brewer in the United States today, you can’t rely on just having great beer; you can’t rely on just having great service; you can’t rely on just having a great menu. You have to constantly be reinventing yourself,” Sutula said.
Looking back, the actual brewery experience, not the beer itself, was my favorite part of the Brew Path. I had so many laughs and great memories hanging out with my friends, whether sipping Prince Juice, a purple-colored sour beer, on Missing Mountain’s patio in the summer, or enjoying a Christmas ale at Brew Kettle on a crisp fall evening.
I still don’t buy much beer from the store. But when I do, I always try to purchase from one of the local craft breweries. They need our sips and support now more than ever.
Once Dry January is over, I look forward to cracking open a cold one and sharing more fun times with my friends.
Luckily for me, it’ll be just in time for the 2024 Summit Brew Path.
I can beer-ly wait!
