Enjoy pints on Parsons with Parsons North Brewing Co.
In a city where so many different craft breweries seem to sprout roots and thrive, it’d be easy to think that a competition is looming in Columbus. If this were a Hollywood movie, it would be the big-dog craft distributors who have grown to fame against the fresh faces in the brewing world. But, in true Columbus fashion, it’s quite the opposite. The craft beer world here is something like a family, and the only rivalry seems to be local breweries against the corporate big dogs of Anheuser Busch and InBev. And that tight-knit hoppy little family and the fight against generic beer just got a bit bigger with Parsons North Brewing Company landing at East Public on Parsons Ave
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
From the business mind of Nathan Klein combined with the brewing brain of Seth Draeger, Parsons North Brewing Company is a place offering approachable beers for drinkers looking to expand their palates. The beer is brewed in house thanks to Draeger’s six years of expertise in home brewing as well as participating in competition brewing prior to opening Parsons.
“I had expressed some interest investing money into a brewery and after tasting one of Seth’s beers, I was all in,” Klein recalled. “I figured I could run the [business] side of things and he could run his mad scientist side of things where he cooks up his concoctions.”
While the initial launch of the brewery didn’t feature any Parsons’ original brews (they were still being finished), the hype around the beers was only more credible thanks to Draeger’s 2015 victory in Barley’s homebrewing competition with his Russian Imperial Stout, the Moscow Midnight. The beer eventually made it on tap inside Barley’s. Did I mention it was his first competition? If shooters shoot, brewers brew.
The menu is adding more and more original beers, and brews like a grapefruit wheat are already a promising sign of the future. Klein explained that while the beer came out with a bit more grapefruit pulp in it than expected, it provides an even fruitier and juicer flavor the beer which is highly-coveted nowadays. The menu also offers more roasty and robust beers like the North American Stout which would make you swear it was brewed with coffee, however, that’s just a special German malt Draeger uses to provide that roasted flavor, the perks of being a brewer with more than 30 different recipes at his disposal. And these are the perks of participating in competition brewing.
Draeger explained that while he was doing competition brews, he was able to really experiment with different styles. He once entered a sour pilsner into a pilsner competition which was met with plenty of praise, but also a few questions of if the brew met all the requirements of a pilsner. Now, without the restrictions of specific checkboxes to fill out, he’s free to really create some interesting and tasty beers. Currently, he has four different IPAs including a West Coast and a Session in process, and he’s biting at the bit for warmer days to roll around so he can unleash his perfect patio drinking sour. When it comes to brewing, patience is tested in a variety of directions.
While there’s no kitchen at Parsons North, food trucks will frequent the brewery, and Comune is right next door for anyone hungry for some elevated plant-based dishes. And once warmer days do fully come, the excitement will hit an all-time high as the spacious west facing patio will be open. Until then, the taproom offers a more traditional bar take on one half and a lounge area on the other half for setting up shop for the night. There’s also a couple pinball machines if you’re feeling like a wizard with a supple wrist.
The inspiration for these beers comes from many places for Klein and Draeger. Other local breweries around the city like Land-Grant Brewing Company and Sideswipe Brewing serve as great spots for idea curation, and these places are more than willing to share a recipe to help out. As Klein and Draeger agreed, the Columbus craft beer scene is a family, and Parsons North has been welcomed with open arms.
“We’re not in competition against each other,” Draeger said. “Everybody wants everybody to do well. It’s not us against each other, it’s us against AB and InBev … When I first started doing home brewing, I was pretty surprised for the most part when I asked a brewer, ‘Hey, I like this beer. I really want to brew something like it, do you have any advice?’ They’d basically just give me the recipe like, ‘Yeah, this is everything I put into it.’ ”
Draeger likened the craft brewing process to painting. Rembrandt (or Bob Ross) can tell you all the colors that go into a painting, but you have to have the skills to know how to recreate it. As it goes, recreation typically calls for variation and no two artists, or brewers, will have the exact same product in the end.
These subtle changes offer a wide variation of brews for thirsty customers. And this variation is exactly what Klein and Draeger are trying to create. They want to make beers that not only please IPA lovers, but beers that can get a non-beer drinker to say, “I can get into this style of beer if it tastes like that.”
“We’d prefer to not get people into this mentality of, ‘I like IPAs, I’m only going to drink IPAs,’ ” Klein said. “All these beers are good introductions to those styles, and we want people to get out of their comfort zone when it comes to learning about beer as they drink it.”
Parsons North Brewing Company is located on 685 Parsons Ave. For hours, visit parsonsnorth.com.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
