Road Trip: Cincy Brew Bus (the original Cincinnati Taproom Tasting Tour)

If you saw my recent Top 10 Things To Do in Cincinnati list - then you probably saw a new business you may not have heard of - the Cincy Brew Bus! I had the fortune of going on the tour and LOVED IT! I've done numerous tours in Cincinnati - but this combined a historical tour WITH drinking! How can you go wrong? 

We started the taproom tour on Fountain Square at Rock Bottom Brewery. Now - while Rock Bottom is a chain - it's also the FIRST craft brewery (well - since Prohibition days). What I love is that the great folks at CBB realize - you're putting together a school bus full of people and handing them beer tickets - you might want to make sure they eat! How do you do that? Tie a Servatii's pretzel around their neck!

And yes - that's my husband - Larry - beer & pretzel in hand! He was recently recognized by someone at an event from all of his appearances on my blog! He felt like a celebrity - although he really let it go to his head - he's been offering autographs at Kroger...oye.

Next up - we hopped on the bus! Mike Stokes - our fearless leader - started this company because he loves beer and thought it would be fun to take a bus full of people and drive around enjoying each other and some great beer. Mike - YOU'RE A GENIUS! Good on Mike to keep a bus load of drinking adults together and not losing any of us! 

Where was the bus taking us? 50 West in Newtown! You can't miss it with their little VW bus outside. There we got a flight of 6 beers and were able to just hang out for about 45 minutes or so. They have a great patio area with this really intriguing and creepy tree (seriously!).

We were also able to get a little more food while at 50 West. We tried the hummus plate - good stuff! We definitely cleaned the plate!

Next up was Moerlein Tap Room - this is different from the Lager House - it's in OTR. We had a great time - the Tap Room is in the former Kaufman brewery and has a large open floor plan with life-size jenga as well as cornhole and...

Shuffleboard! I used to have a tabletop version when I was a kid so it was fun to play with our new friends that we met on the tour. 

Lastly - we headed over to Rhinegeist and it was hoppin! It's on the 3rd floor of the original Moerlein brewery so prep your legs for a hike - but it's a great time. In addition to their own brews - they have a lot of other great things on tap. I found VanderMill's Blueberry Cider which was AWESOME! At Rhinegeist - kids are welcome - and they have cornhole, foosball and ping pong.

The Cincy Brew Bus was a great afternoon of fun! It goes from about 12-5 every Saturday (seems like a long time but it really flew by!) and you can find their brewery schedule on their site. They go back and forth between 8-9 craft breweries in Cincinnati and NKY and tickets are $65/person ($30 for Designated Driver and call for discounts if you have a group). Beer tickets are plentiful - anywhere from 3-6 depending on the locale - so you won't be thirsty! And when you go - be sure to tell Mike that the Food Hussy sent you! ;-)