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Ohio inventions and firsts · Company innovation · 1988

Great Lakes Brewing Company

Brothers Patrick and Daniel Conway founded Great Lakes Brewing in 1988 at 2516 Market Ave. in Ohio City, Cleveland, described as the first brewpub and microbrewery in Ohio.

At a glance

Year
1988
Company
Great Lakes Brewing
Place
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County ZIP 44113 · Cleveland · Cuyahoga County

The story

In 1988, Ohio had no brewpub. Patrick and Daniel Conway, brothers from Cleveland, set up Great Lakes Brewing in Ohio City, a neighborhood across the river from downtown, at 2516 Market Avenue near the West Side Market and St. Ignatius High School.

The company calls itself the first brewpub and microbrewery in the state. It took over a building that had been a tavern where Prohibition lawman Eliot Ness reportedly drank, and the bar still has what are said to be bullet holes. The brewery helped revive the neighborhood.

The breakthrough beer was a Dortmunder-style lager first named The Heisman, after the football trophy, and later Dortmunder Gold. Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, named for the ship lost on Lake Superior in 1975, is praised as a true-to-style porter.

By 2015 Great Lakes was the 21st-largest craft brewery by volume in the U.S. The company also pioneered straw-bale construction in Cleveland, runs biodiesel delivery trucks, uses solar heating, and passes its waste to local farmers and bakers.

Timeline

  • 1988: Patrick and Daniel Conway found Great Lakes Brewing in Ohio City. (Cleveland, OH) source
  • 1975: The ship Edmund Fitzgerald sinks in Lake Superior; the brewery later names a porter for it. (Lake Superior) source
  • 2015: Great Lakes is the 21st-largest craft brewery by volume in the U.S. (United States) source
  • 2023: Products reach from the Midwest to the East Coast, including New York City. source

What it changed

  • 21st-largest U.S. craft brewery by volume in 2015.
  • Credited with helping revive the Ohio City neighborhood.

Why it matters

Brewpub.

Places in Ohio to see

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.