Four Seasons of Breweries Across Ohio
From bashing bumper cars on a brewery’s ice rink to drinking amid corn mazes, here’s how to fill this year’s calendar with good beer in the great outdoors.
Summer
Come summer, dust off your tents, fuel your RVs and head to Huntsville’s Camp Brewing to drink beer under the stars. (Cabins are also available.) The bucolic brewery is based at the 29acre Indian Lake Adventures Campground, and overnight guests can swim in a saltwater pool or fish before hitting the taproom for pints of Summer Breeze hazy IPA.
Later in the season, roll to Red Wagon Farm in northeast Ohio’s Columbia Station to explore corn mazes while sipping beer from the farm’s two breweries, Red Wagon and Four Paws.
Summer on the patio at Camp Brewing in Huntsville (photo courtesy of Camp Brewing)
Fall
For a smashing fall, visit Maize Valley Winery & Craft Brewery to watch the pumpkin cannon send homegrown gourds soaring, ideally while sipping the farmstead’s potent spiced Pumpkin Cannon ale. The all-ages activities also include duck races, wagon rides and a pumpkin patch to pick a future jack-o-lantern.
Elsewhere around Ohio, lederhosen-wearing Oktoberfest celebrations will be in full swing statewide, notably at Twin Oast Brewing. Its Oastoberfest brings Bavaria to Catawba Island with polka bands, stein-holding competitions and loads of lagers from around 20 Ohio breweries.
Winter
Ohio winters can drag on, but Land-Grant Brewing has the ideal antidote to icy doldrums. The Columbus brewery’s outdoor Wintergarden features curling with miniature kegs, heated tents and bumper cars gliding across an ice rink. A piney, fruity Oh, Sure IPA or an experimental beer are warming accompaniments beside a fire.
Get to Middletown’s Gravel Road Brewing Co. and experience the centuries-old German tradition of bierstacheln, or beer spiking. A red-hot poker is dunked into a beer, instantly caramelizing its residual sugars and creating a head reminiscent of warm marshmallows.
Left: Bockfest at Moerlein Lager House in Cincinnati (photo courtesy of Moerlein Lager House). Right: Winter activities at Land-Grant Brewing Co. in Columbus (photo courtesy of Land-Grant Brewing Co.)
Spring
Receding snow and emerging flowers are clear signs to travel to Cincinnati for Bockfest, an annual fête honoring its German brewing heritage since 1993. The fun-loving festivities include a competition for the best bleating goat call, a 5K race and a .05K Fun Run — both with finish line beers — and plenty of strong, warming bock lagers from Rhinegeist Brewery, Moerlein Lager House, Mellotone and more.
If rural farms are more your speed, head to Wooly Pig Farm Brewery in Fresno for its Maifest, a lively May Day celebration that includes live bands and lager served from wooden kegs.
Ohio On Tap is for Ohio beer lovers and is produced in partnership with the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. View a digital version of Ohio On Tap 2025.
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