The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Serving up American beers, home-style food
Cornerstone brews its specialties in Berea, serves them up in Madison
Cornerstone Brewery offers its patrons a selection of American beers, homestyle food and a laid-back atmosphere.
Cornerstone opened its doors at 70 W. Main St. in Madison approximately seven years, while its sister location in Berea was opened three years prior.
Owner Roy Blaylok is from Madison and wanted the business to be local.
The building in which it’s located used to be the Main Street Cafe prior to Blaylok purchasing it.
General Manager Donald Spaid believes the old building at one time may have housed a phone company based on what he said was hundreds of miles of telephone wires that had to removed when the building was renovated.
Patrons visiting the establishment can still see much of the original architecture, including the copper and tin ceiling tiles.
The brewery specializes in American beer and American brew, Spaid said.
“We try to brew a nice round gamut of the beers from lights and darks to unique beers and speciality beers,” he said. “We have your original, long-standing traditional beers like the lagers, ales, pale ales, stouts and porters.”
Spaid describes many of the beers as brews with a fruity blend to them.
The brewery brews the beers using different combinations of fruits for a variety of flavor combinations.
Spaid states that its No. 1 selling brew is probably an IPA called Seven.
“A lot of people drink pale ale and they want something hoppy and refreshing on their tongue,” he said.
One of the brewery’s other most popular sellers is its Erie Blue which was featured at FirstEnergy Stadium last year.
The stadium during a Cleveland Browns game was the only place Erie Blue in a can could be purchased.
Spaid describes the Erie Blue as a raspberry blackberry ale that’s very fruity but still taste like beer.
“It’s very good and even your hard core beer drinkers like it,” he said.
The brewery also offers on tap year round its Grindstone, which Spaid describes as an Americanstyle lager comparable to Bud Light and the Sandstone which is compared to a Samuel Adams-style beer.
In addition it also always maintains on tap the Erie Blue and Seven which are considered its mainstay brews.
“Everyone likes that kind of beer,” Spaid said. “It’s not too dark but a little darker than your lighter beer.”
It also has seasonal brews that it rotates throughout the year. Currently, it offers the Irish style beers such as a dark Irish stout and an Irish red ale. With spring right around the corner it will be offering more light brews and more fruity flavors, It also featured when in season a Halloween pumpkin ale and a Christmas ale.
Spaid said that in addition to its unique beers the brewery is also notable for its atmosphere, which he describes as very laid back, easy going, not rambunctious and not too uptight.
“The beer is there, the food is definitely right up there and we try to focus on both of them,” Spaid said.
“As long as we have good beer and good food we bring people in.”
Currently, the Madison location is not set up for brewing. All of that takes place at the Berea location.
“We have plans to expand here and there, but we haven’t really gotten anything concrete yet,” he said.
Some of the possibilities include brewing capability in the Madison location and possible another location between Madison and Berea.
Spaid feels that one of the things that sets Cornerstone Brewery apart from other breweries is the capability to continuously brew good beer consistently.
“We focus all of our time on just brewing good beer consistently, always making sure it’s as good as the last glass if not better,” he said.
“People are very educated on the beers they drink,” he said.
“They know they can spot a good beer or a bad beer or when your CO2 it out. It is very easily now a days and they know the difference between a bad beer and a good beer.”