It was a Tuesday night this January when Dan Cochran saw a man pulling up to the back door of his Four String Brewery in Grandview, an Italian gentleman on a 10-speed.

The man introduced himself, but it wasn’t necessary: Cochran knew instantly that he was face-to-face with one of the characters in his own personal hop odyssey.

It was Angelo Signorino, brewmaster at Barley’s Brewery in Columbus and, unbeknownst to him, the man who sold Cochran the ingredients for the first batch of beer he ever brewed.

In 1994, as an employee of the Old Home brew shop in Clintonville, Signorino helped Cochran get his start as a hobbyist with an extract batch of English bitter; nearly two decades later, the curious fellow beer nerd was ready to chip in again.

“He said, ‘Are you mashing at 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday?’” Cochran said, laughing. “He immediately grabbed a bag of grain and started helping me.

“That set the tone for me to keep this positive culture going between local brewers.”

Over twenty years after Columbus Brewing Company kick-started the local craft beer industry in 1988 (the highly successful Barley's Brewing Company opened a few years later), many of their former employees and mentees, along with other savvy long-time brewers, are crafting the next great entrepreneurial movement in Columbus.

What's on Tap

The New Brews
Four String Brewing Co.
Zauber Brewing Co.
Seventh Son Brewing
BRU (Brew-On-Premise)
Actual Brewing Company