Warped Wing to celebrate one-year anniversary

Warped Wing Brewing Co. will celebrate its one-year anniversary Saturday (Jan. 17) with a “Beer Bash” filled with limited release draft and cask tappings, live music and food trucks.

The celebration kicks off at noon at the Dayton brewery with a new tapping each hour leading up to the 8 p.m. release of Baltic Argonaut, a Baltic porter weighing in at 11.5 percent alcohol by volume. The party continues until midnight.

Co-founders President Joe Waizmann, brewmaster John Haggerty, sales and marketing manager Nick Bowman and chief financial officer Mike Stover launched the production brewery and tasting room in January 2014 in a former 18,000-square-foot manufacturing facility downtown. It instantly became the largest operation in the Dayton area, thanks to the 30-barrel stainless steel brewhouse.

Haggerty, who previously brewed at New Holland Brewing, said it’s been a great first year.

“This is old hat for me,” he said during a sit-down interview last week at the brewery. “I’ve done this before. It’s just a reminder to me how much hard work it takes and how rewarding that is at the same time. It’s also been refreshing and invigorating to start with a blank canvas. To say, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do and we can make anything we want.’ You’re not already bound in by your history. That’s been really great.”

Warped Wing came out of the gate with some unusual brews. Ermal’s Belgian Style Cream Ale is a mash-up of a Belgian wit and cream ale. The beer has emerged as the brewery’s best-seller. Ermal’s — named after Ermal Fraze, the Dayton inventor of the pop-top can — is available in 16-ounce cans, alongside the brewery’s other main beers, Flyin’ Rye IPA and 10 Ton Oatmeal Stout.

The demand for its beer has been so great, Warped Wing has added new fermenters and a distribution warehouse.

Bowman said it’s been encouraging to see the meteoric growth of the craft industry throughout Ohio and especially in the Dayton community, where there are now 12 breweries. There wasn’t a single one in the area in 2010.

“The thing that’s been so surprising to all of us is how awesome the Dayton market and community have been,” Bowman said. “They have been waiting for craft beer and, as it pertains to us, they have grabbed us with open arms and embraced us. It’s been remarkable. When you’ve been working on a project for so long, years and years, to get it up and running, and then to have everything validated by the community you’re in, it’s something I can’t even describe.”

Waizmann, who previously ran the AleFest and AleFeast beer events, said the Dayton market was craving locally made craft beer. There hadn’t been a craft brewery in the area since the Thirsty Dog brewpub shut down.

“Dayton has always been, and in recent years, a reasonably well-evolved craft community and when we as well as our fellow craft brewers came along, I think there was this boundless thirst and enthusiasm for true local craft,” he said. “We are seeing the enthusiasm and that’s rewarding.”

Here’s the beer release schedule for Saturday:

Noon: Irreverent – Red IPA

2 p.m.: Abominator – Doppelbock

3 p.m.: Mr Mean – Imperial IPA

4 p.m.: Esther’s Lil Secret – Scotch Ale

4 p.m.: Esther’s Lil Secret Cask – Scotch Ale

5 p.m.: CreepShow – Smoked Porter

6 p.m.: Whiskey Rebellion – Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout

6 p.m.: Whiskey Rebellion Cask – Bourbon Barrel Aged Russian Imperial Stout

7 p.m.: Pirogue – Black Tripel with Wood Burl Coffee

8 p.m.: Baltic Argonaut – Baltic Porter