Cleveland Rocks
July 29, 2026
Whoa. Who would have thought I’d have so much fun visiting Cleveland, Ohio — but I did. That city gave me a great little craft beer vacation.
The city of Cleveland hasn’t always gotten a lot of love over the past few decades, and still fights an image it received years ago as rust belt city. Folks, I’m here to tell you that if you’re into craft beer and some cool urban activities, Cleveland ROCKS.
I was a member of a group of about twenty craft beer fans who made a late July pilgramage to the town.
In our four days there, besides visits to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, fun & tasty restaurants, Lake Erie waterfront, West Side Market, and a Cleveland Guardians baseball game, we managed to work in stops at a bunch of small breweries and craft beer bars. We spent most of our brewery visit time in the heart of downtown and in the Ohio City neighborhood, plus exploring a little further west in Lakewood.
Quick Takes on Breweries Visited
In this post, I’m not to going into great detail about each brewery, but if I list it below, be assured we had some very good beer there.
Hansa Brewery
Hansa is German-themed neighborhood restaurant/taproom/grocery store. Excels at German-styles like Rauch Bier, Alt Bier, Schwarzbier, etc. Lots of legit German items on the food menu too. The grocery store section was full of imported specialties––both foods and packaged beer. A nice, relaxing stop. near Great Lakes Brewing.
Great Lakes Brewing
The big daddy of Cleveland craft breweries—and one West Virginians are pretty familiar with—is Great Lakes Brewing. In all my years of enjoying Great Lakes beer, I had never before ventured to their brewery. Shame on me.
It was wonderful seeing and learning about the home of Burning River Pale Ale, Elliot Ness Lager, and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Those beers were staples in West Virginia long before most of our towns had local breweries.
GLBC has an extensive brewery tour that includes a beer tasting. It also has a very cool taproom, restaurant, and merch store, all of which are located in a block of old buildings that the brewery has restored.
Their story is a super important one for craft brewing in Ohio—and they still make plenty of beautiful brews in lots of styles, many of which we never see in WV. So be sure to try some things you’ve never heard of.
While at Great Lake Brewing, we were so fortunate to get to visit with Pat Conway, who is co-founder of the brewery. A friendlier guy I’ve never met during a brewery visit. [Hear Pat talk about their brewery on YouTube ]
Noble Beast Brewing
Noble Beast Brewing was a pretty basic brewpub. Not showy or glamorous, it let its beer do the talking, and they were solid. A family run place, its main room was chock-full of picnic tables, barstools and brewing equipment. Friendly staff too.
Known for its lagers and more traditional ales, the beers we tried were all full of flavor and satisfying. Enjoyed their Union Bohemian-style Pils, Murder Ballads Baltic Porter and Evil Motives IPA. Oktoberfestbier was on draft when we visited.
Masthead Brewing
Established in 2017, Masthead Brewing was one of the more established breweries we visited. Tasting its beers gives you a good indication of why this brand is so popular. Super clean, to-style beer. Have won medals at GABF, GABF, and U.S. Beer Open. Lots of their beer at Progressive Field for Guardians games. Good pizza too.
Look for their Hazy Headlines New England IPA and their everyday Masthead IPA both solid. They already had the Oktoberfest beer on draft. Coffee Underverse Imperial Stout is a treat.
Immigrant Son Brewery
Out in a neighborhood west of downtown, the taproom was bright and refreshing. They had recently captured a medal at the U.S. Beer Open for their Street Lager Mexican-style lager with lime. Quite enjoyable are their Kölsch-stuyle brews: Hungarian Pearl Kölsch and Blue Pearl Blueberry Kölsch. Hazy lovers will enjoy the Pump School Vermont-style IPA. Their Better Together Saison was well-made also.
Terrestrial Brewing
If you enjoy beer-fruit infusions, this is your place. Located in the suburban Battery Park neighborhood, their beer list is accompanied by an attractive, modern food menu. That, and its good-looking decor make it a nice place to eat.
As a subsidiary brewery of The Brew Kettle, these guys know how to brew. The lagers were tasty and well-made, including Tiger Tiger Japanese Rice Lager and the popular Public Pilsner. Beers, such as Canopy Crusher American IPA and Space Chimp Wit, I thought were good with food beers.
Market Garden Brewery
A very comfortable place to enjoy a line-up of excellent craft beers. Market Garden is a long established craft brewery with a top notch reputation. A visit there will surely cement that reputation in your mind.
Start with their Hometown Lager and progress through the Progress Pilsner to their Prosperity Hefeweizen. You’ll see why this place keeps winning medals at major national beer competitions. Their Citramax IPA is a classic in the West Coast style. The fruity YuZu Lage was a blast. Really, no matter which beers you choose, you will likely be satisfied, and that includes their Lemon Shandy, if you happen to be there on a hot day. In fact, they offered four different shandies when I visited there.
Make it a vacation stop
There are still several more great breweries that we didn’t make it to. And plenty of highly rated restaurants too. All in all, Cleveland makes a super destination for West Virginia’s craft beer fans seeking a quick getaway to someplace different. It’s only about a 3.5 hour drive from Charleston. So, give it a try.
[And I wan to give a big shout out and thank you to my beer friends Michelle Riley, Paige Didora, and Dave Roher for organizing this incredible outing.]
About author:-
