Joe Schutzman is a Newport firefighter who loves Northern Kentucky’s culture, sense of place – and beer. Come back each month for a new column on the latest brewery opening, Joe’s seasonal favorites, and more.
Have you ever asked your dog if he wants to take a walk? Have you ever proposed a trip to a playground at a nearby park to a young child? Picture their reaction.
If you ever invite me to spend an afternoon in a beer garden, you will witness a very similar reaction.
Joe Schutzman
Northern Kentucky is fortunate to have two really fantastic beer gardens, Hofbräuhaus in Newport and Tuba Baking Company in Dayton.
The former has been one of my go-to places to meet friends on a nice day to catch-up, relax, and enjoy the good life. It is even the place where my brothers and I each celebrated our 21st birthdays. Some call it Hofbräuhaus. Some call it the biergarten. I call it my home away from home.
The latter, Tuba, a place I only recently discovered thanks to a friend and travel companion of mine, is a place I plan to get to know better as I add it to my regular rotation of favorite spots.
Hofbräuhaus brews all their beer, with the exception of their Oktoberfest, which is shipped each September from the brewers in Munich, in-house according to the Reinheitsgebot, or German Beer Purity Law. In short, they are brewing here in Newport how they have been brewing it since the German monarchy and monastic breweries wrote the rules in the early 1500s.
Tuba also offers the best in traditional, homemade Bavarian specialties, like pretzels and spätzle, and outside of Germany, I contest that you simply will not find better. But that is another discussion for another day. Today we are at the table to talk about good beers and better conversation.
Tuba Baking Co. Photo provided | Tuba Baking Co.
Tuba, on the other hand, is serving small-batch beer straight from Germany itself. There you will find my absolute favorite beer in the world, Schneider-Weisse’s Tap 7.
They also offer a fabulously varied selection of Bavarian beer, including some that are a little off the wall such as Schlenkerla’s Rauchbier. This is a smoked beer that harkens back to beer making before the use of kilns was widespread. The malt is instead roasted over an open flame imparting a unique and intensely smokey flavor.
It’s the simplicity of German beer that has me hooked. It’s only barley, hops, and water at the end of the day. But please don’t misconstrue what I’m saying. I have endless amounts of respect for people who brew.
These women and men pour their lifeblood into their craft, and I think to be a part of a trade that has literally been around since the inception of our community in Northern Kentucky is the epitome of cool. I am merely the avid reader sipping a beer like turning a page, while the brewers are the artists telling the story.
Some of the beer selections on tap at Hofbrauhaus. Photo provided | Hofbrauhaus
And if it’s not too bold of me to say, at the beer garden, the focus really might not even be on the beer at all. The focus, rather, is on the people gathered around the long, weathered wooden tables.
The beer garden table is both humble and accommodating, intimate yet somehow vast.
It has no problem welcoming you and a friend for a quick rendezvous, a stein of lager after work and an opportunity to take a pause, take a breath, and say to a friend, “It’s good to see you. I’ve been thinking about you this week. Tell me how life is going.”
But it is also an expert in handling you and a group of your twenty closest friends for an entire afternoon, and with the help from a few strings of lights, can quickly grow into an entire evening as well. The wooden tables amongst the greenery are like a field of geysers, each steaming with the buzz of conversation, some occasionally erupting with a burst of laughter promoted by a liter or two of loosening libations.
The beer garden is an all-inclusive, ever-welcoming gathering place for friends and strangers alike. To be in it, whether with your-self or your group, is to be welcomed into a microcosm of good vibes.
Tuba2: A selection of German imported Sour style beers available at Tuba. Photo provided | Tuba Baking Co.
Enjoying a beer at the beer garden is a leisure pursuit where the conversation should last longer than the drink. Your stein is a prop, albeit one filled with the sudsy elixir of life, but it isn’t the crux. The people you’re with, the moments of life you are sharing is what makes the beer garden part of the good life. The simplicity, the table, the beer, and the good weather are merely the facilitators to the greater meaning of the moment.
What to know if you go
Tuba Baking Co
Address: 517 6th Ave. in Dayton
Hours: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday; noon to 10 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday
Phone: 859-835-2171
Website: Facebook.com/tubabakingco
Hofbrauhaus Newport
Address: 200 E. 3rd St. in Newport
Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Friday and Saturday
Phone: 859-491-7200
Website: hofbrauhausnewport.com/
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