Lewis Center brewery features more than beer

The latest central Ohio craft beer maker plans to brew more than suds.

Olentangy River Brewing Company, which opens at 5 p.m. Saturday at 303 Green Meadows Dr. in Lewis Center, just east of the Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center, will have 10 beers on tap, food trucks on site and a full-service coffee bar.

“It’s going to be an all-day operation,” co-owner Ryan Wilkins said. “We really felt like Lewis Center is looking for a place to gather that feels local and like our own.”

To that end, the brewery’s taproom will open at 7 a.m. every day and serve coffee and other drinks in partnership with Roosevelt Coffeehouse.

The building, a former warehouse, is about 10,000 square feet and set up as two distinct spaces, which works well for a brewery, Wilkins said. The brewing equipment is in the larger, more industrial section while the taproom is in a smaller, more retail/office space.

Though there are about 50 breweries in central Ohio, none are in Lewis Center, the unincorporated area bounded by Columbus (the Polaris area) to the south, Powell to the west, Westerville to the east and Delaware to the north.

“It’s going to be a real community place,” Wilkins said. “You can have a meeting there in the morning over coffee, and relax with a beer there in the evening.”

The initial beer lineup features Sofia, an India pale ale; Arrowhead, a double IPA; Two Things, a coffee and vanilla IPA; I Can’t Feel my Pants, an imperial stout, which is also available on nitro; Snow Pants, a holiday imperial stout; Oh, Let’s Go, an amber ale; Let’s Drink S’more Marshmallow and Graham Cracker ale; Alum Creek, a blonde ale; and Tapricot Blonde, an ale with apricots.