Zauber Brewing Company

Zauber Brewing Company’s taproom in Grandview opened earlier this year.  It’s located on Fifth Avenue, across the street from McDonald’s and next door to the Goodwill facility (which provides parking after 5pm for Zauber patrons).

The taproom itself serves no food, only beer and mixed drinks.  In addition to its own brews, Zauber also features beers from other Ohio (and non-Ohio) craft breweries.

Unfortunately, as of this writing in May 2014, Zauber’s brewing capacity isn’t up to 100% yet.  They’re currently producing only two or three kegs for the taproom per week, and these are tapped on Thursdays.  If you want to sample their products, you’ll want to visit on a Thursday evening.  If you just want to visit, enjoy good craft beer from a variety of breweries, and a good mixed drink, you can go there any lunch or dinner time.  I’m told that by summer they should be offering up their beers on a regular basis, and probably even filling growlers.  They’re also planning to start having a monthly weekend food and beer festival in the Goodwill parking lot. The first of those was held on May 10 and featured Jeni’s Ice Cream, Schmidt’s Sausage Truck, and others.

Although Zauber doesn’t offer any food in its taproom, they do have arrangements with a number of food trucks.  The trucks park out in front of the taproom and offer their foods to patrons inside, and those who walk up outside.  During the week of this writing, the food truck schedule included Flat Top Pizza Co., Tatoheads, and Aromaku.  It’s also common to find The Paddy Wagon out front, too. This makes Zauber’s taproom a great place to sample not only their beer, but local food truck cuisine as well.

When I first encountered Zauber Brewing Company’s products at a beer festival, I was immediately impressed that they didn’t go the usual “pale ale” route.  Zauber offers a wide range of German and Belgian beer styles, including:

• Magnum:  A Belgian Copper Ale, similar to Belgian trappist ales
• Vertigo:  A Hefeweizen
• Oktoberfest:  A German Oktoberfest-style beer
• Berzerker:  A Belgian IPA
• Stodgy Brown: A German Ale beer
• Kitschy Kolsch:  A German Kolsch style
• Portergeist:  A German Porter
• Buxom Blonde:  A Belgian Blonde Ale
• Myopic Red: A German red Alt beer
• Ominous:  A Black Belgian Ale
• Roggen Rye:  A German style Roggenbier

In my experience, the staff at Zauber have always been friendly, providing good and fast service.  They’ll provide recommendations about the available beers and let you know what’s happening with the brewery.

If you’re a fan of German and Belgian style beers, you’ll definitely want to check them out.
See their web site for current news and taproom hours, but as of this writing the taproom is open at the following times:

• Mon-Tue: 4pm to 11pm
• Wed-Thu: 11am to 11pm
• Fri-Sat: 11am to 1am
• Sun: 11am to 10pm

Zauber Brewing Company
909 West Fifth Avenue
Columbus, OH 43212