Jackie O’s was voted best brewery, taproom and brewpub in Ohio and placed in the Top 100 Brewers in the world by RateBeer, and Little Fish was voted best new brewer in Ohio.
From Mystic Mama to Razz Wheat, there is an abundance of quality craft beers in Athens.
Two Athens’ breweries — Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery and Little Fish Brewing Company — recently received top honors from RateBeer.com.
Jackie O’s was voted best brewery, taproom and brewpub in Ohio and placed in the Top 100 Brewers in the world by RateBeer, and Little Fish was voted best new brewer in Ohio.
“It was very validating of all the hard work we’ve put into our beers here,” Sean White, co-founder and head brewer at Little Fish, said.
Director of Brewing Operations at Jackie O’s Brad Clark was in California for the awards ceremony.
“It was a pretty awesome group of brewers all in one room which was kind of exciting,” Clark said. “There was a lot of Athens love going on.”
Clark said he didn’t expect to win the brewery award and was unaware of the taproom award, but knew the brewpub award was coming.
“It comes down to working really hard and trying to brew the best beer that we can and giving people great customer service,” Clark said. “There’s roughly 22,000 breweries in the world so just to be on that list (of top brewers) is pretty amazing.”
Little Fish opened in July, White said.
“I want to stay modest about just really focusing on beer quality,” White said, noting that will help with its exposure.
Haley Grueninger, a junior studying psychology at The Ohio State University, was visiting Athens over the weekend and she visited Jackie O’s for the first time.
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“All their beers are really great,” Grueninger said.
Her favorite drink so far is the Shade Abbey.
“They also have everything you would want — dark, light, hoppy,” Grueninger said.
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