Hightower Brewing is king of the hill

Megan and Greg Whiting built their little brewery on a quiet hilltop about a mile back from the Ohio River near Rayland, OH. What Hightower Brewing Company has proven since is that it is truly the king of the hill. Not just of their hill, but they pretty much could compete for king of the entire craft beer mountain in our part of the world. They are that good.

Located on the Ohio side of the Ohio River about 10 miles north of Wheeling, WV, the brewery didn’t start out to conquer the world. It took the two brewery owners a year or so to find their way, but what they built is a formula for success. Their weekly beer releases create quite a stir in the Upper Ohio Valley craft beer community. Their stellar hazy IPAs, fruited kettle sours, stouts, and other brews are attracting kudos from across the region and across the country.

Why just the other day, out of the 107 Hightower beers listed on Untappd, I counted 79 beers with average ratings of 4.0 or above. That puts them in rare company, I would think. Certainly no other brewery in the Ohio Valley, in any state on either side of the river, comes close to that kind of love. From sampling most of the nine beers on tap the August day I was there, I’d have to agree with the Untappd reviewers: Hightower brews are excellent.

You can’t help but be extra impressed when you discover a brewery that is doing everything so well, and know that its brewer is self-trained. Greg Whiting did not go to brewing school nor did he apprentice in another high-rated craft brewery before departing on his own brewing adventure. He home brewed for five or six years before opening tiny Hightower Brewing literally in his garage back in May 2017.

He told me back then, that once he started doing well with homebrewing, the idea of starting a commercial brewery came to him.

“I figured if there is ever a time to take a chance in my life, it’s now when I’m 30, instead of 50,” he explained at the time.

So he founded Hightower Brewing Company, starting out with a little 2-bbl electric brewhouse, 5 small fermenters, 1 brite tank, a small, semi-manual beer canning machine, and a modest business plan.

The Whitings had purchased their rural 45-acre hilltop property about 10 years earlier, before they had the idea of opening a brewery. They just wanted a peaceful spot where they could raise a family and have lots of wooded areas where the kids could play. 

When they did plan to start a brewery there, they imagined a business model that would have them selling about 90 percent of their beer through distribution. So, the brewery’s location wasn’t much of an issue. 

“We wanted to start out with as little overhead as possible,” Megan said about why they started off brewing in their garage. They didn’t dream that people would want to flock to their rural hilltop location.

“We thought, who’s going to come to our garage and drink beer?” But they were blown away by their customers’ response — from the first weekend on.

“We were completely wrong on the plan we had and had to adjust it very quickly,” she said. By the first winter, they had purchased a large prefab wooden shed and put in a cute little taproom next to their garage. They could squeeze in maybe 25 people, at most. It was always busy. In July 2018, they broke ground on their permanent brewery building and taproom.

In May 2019, Megan and Greg opened their new Hightower building with its attractive taproom. Megan runs most of the business end, including managing the taproom, but leaves the brewing to Greg.

The brewery set up

The brewery is equipped with a 5-barrel brewing system, five 5-barrel fermentors and one 4-barrel fermentor. They have found that keeping up with the strong demand is a constant challenge. Sales are so strong at the taproom that it has been a struggle to keep all their taps full. The day I visited in August was the first day they had as many as nine beers on tap since they opened the new taproom back in May.

Beyond pints and flights, the brewery’s take-out sales are busy every week. Typically on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, they release a new beer, most often in 4-packs of 16-oz cans, but sometimes in six packs of 12 oz. cans.

“We try to have at least one can release, if not two, every week,” Megan says. “They are always something different. One week it might be a sour; one week it might be an IPA; one week it might be a dark beer. We try to have at least one beer packaged in cans and the rest are available in growler fills.”

They produce about 150-four-packs of 16-oz. cans per release for NEIPAs. The can releases typically sell out the day of release or the day after. The Whitings purposely make smaller quantities because they do not want the beer to hang around long. They want it sold and consumed while extra fresh. This formula has worked extremely well for them.

These can releases have proven so popular with the craft beer community that beer fans from around the region make pilgrimages to the hilltop to buy the new beer.

Weekend days and nights find the taproom filled with brewery fans from around the local area. It’s a very family friendly place, and many of the Whiting’s friends and neighbors are regular customers. Their local customer base runs from Wheeling to Steubenville and everyplace in-between. They’ve also been very happy with how many customers come from the Pittsburgh region.

An outside, beer garden area extends the taproom’s capacity and also provides a place for the live music they often have on weekends.

Their company slogan: “Locally brewed, Locally enjoyed” encompasses the ethic that tells you a lot about the owners. The Whitings are content with serving their local community, brewing primarily for their friends and neighbors. That’s what they originally intended to do, and they are happy doing just that. Sure, they are pleased that folks from other parts of the world also enjoy their beer, but they still place their mission to serve to the local area as primary.

Adjustments on the fly pay off

Hightower’s experience underscores the importance of making business plan adjustments and making them quickly. This is especially true in the fast moving craft beer world. While today, the brewery is best-known for its New England-style IPAs, it started out brewing only West Coast IPAs. 

“The first IPAs that we decided were keepers, and that we were for sure going to use, we don’t brew anymore,” Megan explains. “They were both very West Coast, very bitter. They were both very good for a West Coast.

“Our tastes evolved over time, and we realized the first time we made a New England-style IPA that it sold way better than all of our West Coasts.” And that’s also what they were seeing come about in Pittsburgh. The more they watched the market and the more they watched their sales, she says, “The more we realized that New England was the way we wanted to go.” 

What’s on tap

Their overall taproom beer menu changes constantly, but they are careful to offer a balance of styles. They try to always have at least one IPA, one sour, one lighter-style beer, and one dark beer on tap. When I visited, the light beer was an American lager. “We get a decent-sized, sort of Bud Light crowd, people who are used to the domestic beers,” Megan said. 

The Through My Lens series are their fruited kettle sours. “They’re one of our favorite beers to brew,” Megan says. “They sell really well.” A few recent iterations have included Blackberry/Blueberry Pie, Strawberry Crunch, and Key Lime Pie. For a special treat, these beers are often offered on Nitro.

The stars of the brewery, though, tend to be the New England-style IPAs. They released Against The Grain Double NEIPA the day I was there (Untappd 4.15). Nice and juicy, it was hopped with Galaxy, CTZ, Amarillo, Simcoe, and Mosaic. I also enjoyed the Rural Graffiti, another double NEIPA (Untappd 4.32), which is brewed with lots of oats and wheat then double dry hopped with Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo, and Azacca. Then, the next week they released Footprints of Tomorrow double NEIPA (Untappd 4.38), which featured loads of Citra and Galaxy hops. I think you can quickly get the picture of what this brewery is up to.

For those with a passion for thicker, richer, darker brews, Hightower has that covered too. The 4-barrel tank in the brewery is reserved for making their Bedtime Story series, which is a 14% Imperial Stout. It is typically barrel aged — such as in Jamaican rum barrels and Heaven Hill bourbon barrels. Upon release, Bedtime Story is packaged and sold in 22-oz. bombers with a wax-dipped top.

You can always check out their current tap list on Untappd.

After spending time with the owners of Hightower Brewing and sampling their beer, I can’t help but wish that we could clone them and place them in a hundred other small communities across Appalachia. Their beer is that good. Their business model is that good.

Visiting the taproom

Hightower Brewing is open Thursdays through Sundays, afternoons and evenings. The brewery is located up a winding little road about one mile off the Route 7 expressway. GPS gets you right there. And when you arrive, you will find a spacious parking lot.

Hightower does not have a kitchen but encourages patrons to bring their own food or to order delivery from local pizza places. On weekends, they often have a food truck on their parking lot.

Beer can be purchased in pints, half pints, and flights of 4-oz. tasters. Growler fills are available in both 32 and 64 oz. sizes. Pints are priced from $4.50 to $5.50 for most beers. IPA 4-packs are typically $15.00.

Branded merchandise for sale includes ball caps, T-shirts, tank tops, and glassware. This fall, watch for hoodies and beanies.

Hightower Brewing Company
3445 County Road 16
Rayland, Ohio 43943

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Phone: (740) 859-0764
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