I wasn’t around when the first phase of Cincinnati’s Brewing Heritage Trail opened in April and checking it out has been on my to-do list ever since. Some nice weather finally lined up with some idle time this week, so off I went. There really isn’t an official beginning or end and the designated Hop On points are essentially just suggestions. Even so, I wasn’t feeling particularly rebellious and following the suggestion seemed easier than not so I did. This is the Hop On point at Findlay Market.

My first stop was physically on the trail but not part of it. I had thought of grabbing something to eat at the market but decided to skip ahead on the trail just a bit and have breakfast at Tucker’s, a Cincinnati institution since 1946. I’ve eaten here in the past but not since a 2015 fire that threatened to permanently close the place. And I’d never met Joe Tucker. Today I sat at the counter while Joe worked the grill and chatted easily with me and everyone else who walked in the door. A great way to start the day.

From Tucker’s, I backtracked just a little to begin following the trail in earnest at Vine and Elder. The current trail is a loop plus the beginnings of an extension on McMicken Avenue and the Elder Street connection to Findlay Market. Signs like this one identify segments of the trail as well as the turns. A map is part of the signage at the Hop On points. It is also available online and I referenced it a couple of times from my phone. Apparently an actual smartphone app was available at one time but it has been withdrawn while “we tweak a few items”.

The former Hudepohl Bottling Plant sits on McMicken at the end of Elder Street. Opposite the building is a display featuring a smiling Louis Hudepohl and lots of information about the company. Hudepohl was one of the few Cincinnati breweries to survive prohibition and was once one of the largest in the state. The main Hudepohl brewery was abandoned in the late 1980s but its 170-foot smokestack bearing the company name remained a Cincinnati landmark until its demolition in June of this year.

Just yards beyond the Hudepohl kiosk, I found something unrelated to the trail but too cool to ignore. It was the mural that first caught my eye but I soon realized that I was standing by a large — and slightly out of place — garden. When a voice invited me in, I stepped through the gate to meet Christina, the Flower Lady of OTR and a volunteer gardener. Started in 1980, the Over the Rhine People’s Garden was the first community garden in Cincinnati. It is filled with flowers, vegetables, and fruit and there there is a weekly free distribution. Food not taken is donated to a local food bank. I even found a small connection to the trail I was following. At least one volunteer does some home brewing and is growing hops for that purpose.

The trail is also marked with medallions pressed into the sidewalks. I’m sure I walked right past some of the smaller ones where they appear all by themselves without even noticing. Just past the green space and playground of Grant Park, this cluster at the corner of McMicken and Moore is pretty hard to miss.

The second Hop On point is just around the corner on Moore Street. It is next to one of the largest murals on the trail and includes multiple information displays. Among the many pieces of information presented is one regarding local per capita beer consumption. That statistic has been cited as one of the reasons that Cincinnati, despite having around forty breweries, was not known as a national distributor. There just wasn’t much left to distribute.

I slipped down the unfinished McMicken Street segment and even backtracked a bit to capture some of the numerous murals along the trail. The Crown Brewery is just one of several buildings in the Brewery District being spruced up to reflect their former lives.

This was once home to Kaufmann Brewery and is now home to Christian Moerlein. In between, it was the Husman Potato Chip factory. Besides containing a brewery and taproom, the building houses the Brewing Heritage Trail Tour Center. A wide variety of tours — both above and below ground — is available. Check them out here. I’d kind of been thinking about a cold brew in the taproom but hadn’t really considered the time. “It’s not yet noon and the taproom is hours away from opening,” I observed to myself dryly.

There were plenty more informative things to read and decorative things to admire. I even have evidence that I didn’t miss ALL of the solo medallions. Reading about history while standing where it actually occurred is always cool.

I finished the loop then the short extension back to the Hop On point at Findlay Market. I’m impressed. An incredible amount of Cincinnati’s brewing history can be learned in an hour’s time walking the trail. As much as I enjoyed the walking and reading, I must admit that two of the day’s highlights were not listed trail features. I really enjoyed talking with Joe and Christina. Both were familiar with and supportive of the trail even without an official connection. I also enjoyed speaking with John Donaldson who owns buildings near the Moore Street Hop On point and who paused to chat as I looked over the nearby signs. If only I could have chatted with a bartender over a cool pint inside the Moerlein taproom.