The Brew Keeper

The atmosphere at the Brew Keeper does not have a corporate 'chain' establishment feel. The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. Service is great.

They have a great selection of beers at reasonable prices. If I remember right, they have 12-14 brewed-on-the-premises beer at all times. They also have a nice selection of 'guest' beers. You'll find a beer you like here.

Tuesday night is growler night, where you get good deals on your favorite beer.

A visit to the Brew Keeper is a must for those doing a beer tour in the Cleveland area.

Visited on a Thursday evening on the way out to DLD.

The Brew Keeper is set back from the main road in the FAR western suburbs of Cleveland. Not the most inviting looking place from the outside. Inside it is a sport's bar collides with brewpub. Nothing extraordinary but nothing wrong either.

A small 10-ish seat bar at the back, with multiple tables in front and the brewing set up to the left.

The owner/brewer was more than eager to talk to us about his Storm series of beers. Very welcoming feel and happy that you are here kind of service.

An impressive 15 beers on tap and 6 quality guest taps. A healthy list of styles that ran the gammut...but was, and happily so, a bit hop heavy. Also, an odd...but VERY tasty...think kick you in the ass vanilla creme soda...11% Imperial Cream Ale!

Prices were VERY reasonable, with pints running $3-$5, half-pints available and a sampler of 5 5 oz. beers for $5.

Everything was decent or better with the standouts for me being the Anger Management DIPA and the White Storm Imperial Cream Ale.

A worthwhile place if you find yourself in the western burbs of Cleveland or looking for a break...a short detour off of I-80/90.

A fun stop on the outskirts of Cleveland.

The Brew Keeper is located back off the road in a building which has all the curb appeal of a tattoo parlor. Nothing wrong with tattoo parlors but this is not a place I'd stop at if we did not know it had craft beer. Inside is better with a 10 seat bar at the back, tables in front and the brewing set up to the left.

Service was prompt and pleasant. The owner/brewer (or one of the owner/brewers) was fun to chat with. 15 house made beers on tap, including 2 IPAs, an Imperial IPA, a bourbon barrel stout, an RIS, a Westy 12 clone and an 11% Cream Ale (!). Also 6 guest taps, which included Aprihop, Avery 14'ER and Old Engine Oil. Prices were ridiculously inexpensive, with pints running $3-$5 and a sampler of 5 beers for $5.

Beers ranged from fine (the Westy clone) to pretty darned good (Anger Management Imperial IPA).

A worthy stop.

HV

Very West Cleveland, about 10 miles down the street from Rocky River. After 8 years of unsatisfied success East of the Heights, they have been here a year and a half. This is out of sunlight, except for the protected patio, and downstairs. Somewhat noisy though not that busy, TVs and relaxed environment, particularly compared to Buckeye which was much more white collar crowd. Now the best part is lots and lots of beer. Many taps of their own concoctions, with a good sprinkling of guest taps. And their beer in bottles and reasonable prices (Ohio is reasonable prices for beer).

Great food, great beer. You can brew your own beer or wine right on the premises.

Try the house chocolate stout and the Brewkeeper burger. The fried mushrooms are excellent as well.

In the warmer months, sit outside on the deck. There's no natural light inside, so it might be a bit dark at times.

They tend to have better service during slower times, as the weekend nights can be a bit busy.

Ask for Mike, the owner. He's a very cordial host, with a great knowledge of his product.

Also, check out Tracy Marie if she happens to be performing one of her acoustic sets.

We had 3 kettles reserved to brew here last weekend. A friend of mine swears by this place and brews here quite often. He finds it very accessible - brew times are easy to get, unlike Brew Kettle down the road.

This was my first time brewing - and I definately enjoyed the experience. The staff was very helpfull, and the brewmaster was very kind and willing to answer any questions. Although some of the 'brew coaches' did not fully understand the brewing process, instead they were regulars that had done this so often they knew the steps just not the reason for the steps. The brewing menu was pretty extensive and had a large range of styles to choose from.

Their beer was not to bad either - and they had some nice guest taps as well. I drank the White Storm- which was a Imperial Cream Ale - rather tasty, but high in ABV.

If your looking for a good time and some dummy proof brewing, this place is worth checking out - can't wait to go back and bottle!

What use to be a bar/bowling alley is now Lorain County's first brewpub. It's about time! The Brew Keeper is near the corner of Center Ridge and Pitts Blvd. I guess you can say that it's near the Pitts. If you're coming off 1-480 or the Ohio turnpike and you're going down Center Ridge, it can be a little hard to spot because the parking lot is behind the old abandoned Convenient food mart. If it helps, there's a deli called Alex's across the street from it. Don't worry about parking spaces because there's plenty of ample parking. The front door is not the front door. You have to follow the entrance sign to the second door with the ramp connected to it. When you first walk in, the have a huge wall calendar with the beer they're going to have on draft that day. It's a nice and clean medium sized restaurant with a dart room, BOP room, and a copper bar that only sits about 8 to 10 people. I wish they had kept the bowling alley, but I guess it would have taken up too much room. It would have been nice to see a brewpub/BOP/bowling alley.

The day I went, it was almost dead in there. That means I got a very fast and talkative staff waiting on me. I have heard that in the past, that the service can get slow because they have only one cook on call. If you see a ton of people there and you ordered some food, be gentle because that one cook is overworked. I almost forgot. The staff I got seemed to very educated in the world of beer. If you can't get the info off the beer menu, I'm sure they can you more info about that beer.

I know they have a make your own pizza bar, but that wasn't available at the time when I was there. I caught a glimpse of the menu and they have all the usual family restaurant food there. I had their cinnamon sugar pretzel and a few slices of their pizza. I loved the pretzel, but I thought the pizza tasted a bit on the cheap side. It almost tasted like a pizza that you could buy at Giant Eagle. Who knows? Giant Eagle is just across the street.

Now for their beer selection. I forgot how many taps they had, but I'm certain it was between 15 to 20 taps. They had 6 of their own and the rest were guest taps. The Brew Keeper's taps consisted of IPAs, Porters, Stouts, and their very own mead. The guest taps consisted of Weyerbacher, Clipper City, Sam Adams, Dogfish Head, Southern Tier, Old Saratoga Brewing's Jewbilation Eleven, Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald, Flying Dog, Tommyknocker, and Great Divide. Their bottle list was a little lackluster. They only had 3 different styles of their own beer, Redbach, JW Lees Harvest Ale, Bitburger in a can, and just a few other bottles that I forgot about.

If you ever find yourself in North Ridgeville (I can't see why you would), It's definitely worth a stop to try some fine Lorain County brewed beer. Just remember one thing, it's near the Pitts.

My first two visits left me completely underwhelmed. The atmosphere was awful. I hoped it would improve, as my friends and wife didn't want to go back there anymore. When I went back today, I was pleased to discover the atmosphere had improved. The lighting was dimmed, a vast improvement over the grocery store-like brightness when they first opened. A nine or ten table patio section has recently opened up. The beer was once again very good. The selection of guest beers lacked a lot of the familiar names. They had Jever Pilsner, Bar Harbor Blueberry among them. Where they made up for it, though, was their own beers. They had eight or nine of those. Their porter was excellent, with a lot of roasty chocolate flavor. I also tried an IPA with Cascade and Amarillo hops. Excellent citrusy character. They also had a farmhouse ale on, as well as a double pale ale. They hit on most common styles of beer, including a lighter lager style beer for the domestic beer lover.