Brew good. Do good.
Our story
How it Started
A brewpub in city hall
HighGrain was founded by head brewer Matt Utter with partners Josh Jansen and Brian Liscano. Matt grew up in Mariemont, spent a decade in Germany, earned a brewing degree from the Technical University of Munich and came home to run the brewhouse at Christian Moerlein.
In 2017 the City of Silverton offered us its Memorial Municipal Building. Built in 1951 as one of Ohio's first mixed-use municipal buildings, it had held the township offices, police, firefighters and emergency response, and the township was still inside when we took over. We kept the art deco character, modernized everything behind it, and put the brewhouse where the fire trucks and ambulances used to park.
We opened on May 31, 2019, pairing Old World beer styles with a modern twist with a scratch kitchen, because the best breweries do both.
Our Logo
Grain, hops + water
Our logo is built from the three main ingredients of beer. The open circle represents water, the green inserts are hops, and the stalk rising through the middle is grain.
And the name? “HighGrain” comes from the belief that the tallest grain gets the most sun.
2020 Pivot
How cans carried us
We released our first canned beer on February 24, 2020, as a fundraiser for Australian wildfire relief. A few weeks later, the pandemic closed our doors like everyone else's.
“We bought a canning line. We invested in some more equipment and started making labels and putting our beer into packaging so that we could get into stores. During that time, that was really the only way people were going to try your beer.”
When the taproom carefully reopened, people kept asking for HighGrain, so we went full steam ahead: Kroger, Jungle Jim's, neighborhood bottle shops and taps downtown. We soon outgrew the Silverton brewhouse.
2024 Brentwood
A bowling alley, reborn
Brentwood Bowl had been a Springfield Township gathering place for decades before it closed during the pandemic. The township wanted to keep that hub alive and brought us in.
We turned the 49,000-square-foot building into HighGrain Brentwood, which opened May 3, 2024, with a production brewery behind glass, a full kitchen and bar, a coffee bar, event space and patios. Revel Winery and LaTerza Coffee work under the same roof, and there's coffee and Wi-Fi for anyone who'd rather work from a brewpub.
Brew good. Do good.
Brewed on sunshine
- 100%renewable electricity
33 rooftop solar panels cover about a fifth of Silverton's power; wind energy credits cover the rest.
- 14geothermal wells
Each 350 feet deep, where the earth holds 55°F year round. They replaced the building's 1950s boiler.
- EVcharging and fleet
Public chargers in the Silverton lot, an electric car for sales and an electric van for events and deliveries.
- Localsourcing
Grain, hops, seasonal produce and some proteins from nearby farms whenever it makes sense.
Our solar array was made possible by Pro Lighting & Solar, Paff Electric and IBEW Local 212.
Along the Way
Our timeline
- 2017
Silverton offers its Memorial Municipal Building to a new brewpub, part of the city's plan to revitalize its downtown.
- May 31, 2019
HighGrain opens in Silverton, with the brewhouse in the old fire truck and ambulance bays.
- Feb 24, 2020
Our first canned beer goes on sale, as a fundraiser for Australian wildfire relief.
- Spring 2020
The pandemic closes the taproom. We buy a canning line and start getting our beer into stores.
- Earth Week 2021
EV chargers go in at Silverton, installed with Electrada.
- 2023
Construction starts on a second, much larger home in Springfield Township's old Brentwood Bowl.
- May 3, 2024
HighGrain Brentwood opens, with a production brewery, kitchen, coffee bar and event space.
- 2026
HighCut canned cocktails join the lineup.
In the Neighborhood