Weidemann gives up on Newport, brewery will be in St Bernard

Weidemann gives up on Newport, brewery
will be in St Bernard

The newly-reconstituted Weidemann Beer Company
is moving to St Bernard OH

On Wednesday, it becomes official when Wiedemann breaks ground on a new brewing building and the renovation of a grand old funeral home.

Not in Newport, but in St. Bernard, a small town adjacent to Cincinnati.

The former Imwalle Funeral Home will be transformed into a three-story tap room, deck and special events center spread across 12,000 square feet.

A new 3,500-square-foot brewery will be built just behind the existing building with the capacity to brew 5,000 barrels a year, notes Scripps Media.

Owner Jon Newberry says he'd intended to open in Newport but financial support to build a brewery in Kentucky did not happen.

"When Wiedemann Bohemian Special Beer disappeared from the market in 2007, local beer brands were making a comeback in Cincinnati and other flavorful new craft beers soon followed," he noted.

In 2011, the Newberrys decided it was time for Newport’s famous Wiedemann’s fine beer to make a comeback of its own.

He enlisted head brewer Kevin Moreland at Cincinnati-based Listermann Brewing Co. to develop an updated Wiedemann’s recipe that would bridge the gap between George Wiedemann’s fine Bohemian-style beers of old and the new craft beers that were again making a name for Cincinnati beer.

The result was Wiedemann’s Special Lager, a crisp and flavorful lager in the Bohemian tradition. It’s a thirst-quenching, light-bodied beer designed to have when you’re having more than one, maybe more than a few!

In 2014, Newberry announced plans to open a brewery in Newport's WaterTower Square. That would have been a homecoming of sorts: George Wiedemann founded the original Wiedemann Brewing Co. in Newport in 1870.

But the financing for the WaterTower location never came through, Newberry said. A second location in Newport also didn't work out, notes Gannett Media.

"We really wanted to bring Wiedemann's back to Newport, and we will," Newberry promised. "But that will be Phase 2."

Newberry told Gannett he anticipates the St. Bernard brewery will surpass its capacity – 5,000 barrels a year now, with the potential to expand to 10,000 or 12,000 – and they'll need additional space elsewhere. But they'll keep the St. Bernard space too, he said.