There’s a small building in South Toledo that you might overlook if you’re not paying attention. Inside the building is a mad scientist’s lab that local beer enthusiasts shouldn’t miss. Two home brewers, Scot Yarnell and Keefe Snyder, have mashed their heads, recipes and resources together to create Earnest Brew Works, a new brewery and taproom, located on Detroit Ave.
The two earnest brewers met in 2014 through a local homebrewers association, the Glass City Mashers. Since then, they’ve been kicking around an idea to start their own brewery. The pair saw what was happening in bigger markets and brought it to their South Toledo neighborhood, opening Earnest Brew Works this past October.
Avant-garde ales
Earnest (showing sincere and intense conviction) is the proper way to describe the work Yarnell and Snyder are doing. The brewers share 25 years of experience making beer on their own. Yarnell says those experiences helped create, “a notebook with about 103 beer recipes and ideas that we’d like to try.” They test out these recipes with an ever-changing menu of beers, including weekly firkin brews.
Firkins, as Snyder explained, are small kegs which hold individual batches of the more inspired and bizarre beers the Earnest guys have come up with. The double fermentation process used with the firkins allows Yarnell and Snyder to experiment by adding unusual and unexpected ingredients to the brews, like hibiscus petals, pie crusts or Guatemalan coffee.
This inventiveness is showcased weekly, as a new firkin is opened every Thursday. As Earnest bartender Nick Mandros explains, “the beer in the firkins is best on the Thursday it comes out, when it still has its carbonation”— but is still great until the last pint is sold.
You Choose The Brew
Of course, the firkin creations aren’t the only beers to try. Earnest has a revolving menu of 12 beers on tap: everything from traditional IPAs and porters, to new takes on Oktoberfest ales and stouts. Yarnell explained he and Snyder constantly want to try new things, “then let the customers choose what we keep brewing.”
The brewery has a cozy bar area, with glass doors that lead to the taproom. If you’d like to take your brew to go, Earnest has growlers and cans on hand, or you can bring in a growler of your own to fill.
At Earnest Brew Works, expect to meet a knowledgeable staff, eager to pour you a beer, brewed in earnest.
Earnest Brew Works.
4-10pm, Wednesday-Thursday. 4-11pm, Friday. Noon-11pm, Saturday. 4342 S. Detroit Ave., 419-340-289 , earnestbrewworks.com
