E-Malt.com News article: USA, OH: Great Black Swamp Brewing Co. already open at new location

Even though the Great Black Swamp Brewing Co. has been in Toledo for a handful of years, there’s never been a place to get the craft brewery’s full line of beers, Toledo Blade reported on October 15.

That is, until now.

Business partners Andy Parish and Michelle Holtfreder recently purchased the Mucky Duck bar, 26611 N. Dixie Hwy. in Perrysburg, and reopened it as the GBS Brewing Co. on Oct. 1.

Parish and Holtfreder also have teamed up with Bob Morris, the brewer and proprietor of Great Black Swamp Brewing Co., to be the “brick-and-mortar aspect” of the brewery, according to Parish. The bar will serve Great Black Swamp’s five regular beers, as well as recurring seasonals, on draught.

Morris and Parish became friends more than a year ago. Soon after, Parish started homebrewing. When Morris learned of his interest, he asked Parish to assist during brew days. From there, Parish started distributed Great Black Swamp beer in the Columbus area.

The brewery hosted a few tap takeovers at the Mucky Duck this past summer, and the positive response from the bar’s clientele got them thinking about the next step.

“It just really came out of that,” Parish said. “We did some really nice brew nights with them and a lot of tap takeovers before this whole thing came about. So, when we found out about this opportunity for the bar to be sold, we jumped on it.

“We’ve always kind of known there’s a great passion for Toledo-brewed beer and that’s kind of where our slogan grew out of: ‘Born in Toledo. Brewed in Toledo.’ Toledo has a long history of brewing over the generations and that’s kind of been lost. We’ve had a great revival with some of the other guys in town with Maumee Bay and Black Cloister and we just thought it was the time to do it.”

Parish said the bar will have a growler-fill club and weekly growler specials and flight nights. The GBS bar also will feature other breweries from Ohio and Michigan with plans for beer from North High (Columbus), Rhinegeist (Cincinnati), and Arbor (Ypsilanti, Mich.).


16 October, 2015