Little Fish Beer Archive: Every beer we have ever brewed

Imperial Milk Stout with coconut & coffee.

A fun new riff on an imperial stout that we love to brew. We start with a base of mostly Ohio grains, supplemented with the best caramel and roasted malts we can find. We add lactose (dietary warning: milk-derived sugar) in the kettle because it adds wonderful body (ale yeast can’t ferment ... Read More

Pilsner-esque farmhouse ale with homegrown hops

We had a GREAT hop harvest this year. This estate-hopped beer uses whole-cone, dried hops grown by Sean, just steps away from our patio beer garden in Athens, Ohio. Dave Volkman of Ohio Valley Hops (Maineville, Ohio) helped us pick and dry our harvest. Thanks again, Dave!!!

Mashed with Rahr Northstar pilsner malt. ... Read More

Vegan Milkshake Imperial I.P.A.

Springboarding off a juicy imperial I.P.A. recipe, we’ve added passionfruit puree, whole vanilla beans, and maltodextrin (instead of lactose, to keep it plant based). Vegans, rejoice (everyone else too)!

Flavor Profile: Passionfruit and orange, vanilla-sweet aroma. Flavor is malt-forward, with a light bitterness expected from any I.P.A. Juicy passionfruit / orange character, smoothed and sweetenend by vanilla.

9% ABV, ... Read More

German Style Pilsner

A finely crafted, German-style pilsner, brewed with European noble hops (Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Czech Saaz, and some Magnum for IBU’s), Weyermann Barke Pilsner malt, and fermented cold with our preferred lager strain.

Flavor Profile: Everything a German pils should be: elegant, simple, eminently drinkable, and balanced towards the hops with a crisp bitterness and light malt sweetness.

5.5% ABV, gluten reduced

Fresh / Wet Hop, West Coast I.P.A.

2023’s Wet Hop I.P.A. utilizes some fantastic Ohio-grown Chinook hops, grown by Jeff & Shari Bailey of Auburn Acres Hop Farm. 60 pounds of freshly picked and never-dried Chinook went into the boil. The mash bill was mostly Ohio grown and malted by Haus Malts, with a little Briess Carapils for body. ... Read More

100% Ohio-Grown Blonde Ale

This rustic and pilsnery blonde ale, with a touch of kveik yeast fruitiness, was brewed with only agricultural ingredients from our state. The following credits go to the folks who made batch 1 of “What a Crop!” possible:

The 2-row Scala barley was grown by Sam Yarian, and then made its way to our friends at Haus Malts, ... Read More

American Saison

Here’s a fun little number that combines the juicy, bubblegum character of Belgian saison yeast, with the tropical notes of new American hops. This is NOT a Belgian I.P.A.; It’s a saison with Citra hops. While there is bitterness, it’s in line with traditional hoppy saisons. While it is dry hopped, the rates are much closer to Belgian ... Read More

Foraged flower farmhouse ale collab with Bookhouse Brewing

This extremely small (15 gallons) of beer represents a whole day of foraging in the hills and urban areas of Athens Ohio for early summer flowers. Vaughn Stewart of Bookhouse Brewing, his wife Gwen, their young son Finn, and I (Sean) went up to Radar Hill to forage on the morning of June ... Read More

Hoppy S.M.a.S.H ale

Revived and renewed…our super popular “Gus S.M.a.S.H.” got Southern hemisphere a glow-up! Version 2.0 has arrived.

The only change is the hop we use. We switched out the Michigan Cashmere with New Zealand Nelson Sauvin (now that we can actually afford it. We used to not be able to find Nelson for less than $25 a pound. Now it’s ... Read More

Mexican-style light lager

Translation: “Relaxed Fish”.

Pronunciation: the J sounds like an H in English.

Certainly the lightest and crispiest lager we have made to date! (July 2023). Grist of Weyermann Pilsner and flaked maize. Hopped ever so lightly with Hallertauer. Fermented to dryness with our preferred lager strain, and lagered for as long as we could wait!

At the taprooms, we serve it ... Read More

Historical English Imperial Stout re-creation, and collab with Seventh Son Brewing (Columbus, Ohio).

First of, credit where credit is due: This recipe was cribbed from Ron Pattinson’s excellent brewing history blog, Shut Up About Barclay Perkins. Ron’s a somewhat cynical, dry, and damn entertaining beer historian that specializes in going through old brewers’ logs and sharing with the public how some ... Read More

Sour blonde ale, in the tradition of Belgian Lambic.

In 2019, we started a lifelong project and aspiration to brew beer in the tradition of Belgian Lambic, using ingredients local to us, and spontaneously fermented with indigenous microflora. This beer is the first-ever release from that program. Turbid-mashed with Ohio-grown barley, and raw Ohio Red Fife wheat. Boiled for 3 hours ... Read More

Moonville Stout is our annual-ish blend of bourbon & spirit barrel-aged imperial stout. 2023’s blend is a 13.9% abv (after aging) imperial stout aged in Heaven Hill & Basil Hayden barrels for 18 months.

This beer is inspired by the lore of the “haunted” Moonville train tunnel, a local legend in the historical mining town of Moonville, in the Zaleski State ... Read More

Hazy I.P.A.

Shirt Brothers is mashed with our “standard” Hazy I.P.A. grist of Ohio barley, wheat, and oats, plus a little carapils and flaked oats. It’s hopped in a “cool” 175 Fahrenheit whirlpool with Azacca and Cryo-Pop blend, and after fermentation, dry-hopped with Cryo-Pop, Simcoe, and Ekuanot. Fermented with Omega’s “Helio Gazer”, thiolized British ale strain.

Flavor Profile: Ripe, punchy aroma full ... Read More

Hoppy S.M.a.S.H. Beer

Another one-off hoppy beer with a name referencing one of our favorite sketch shows. If you know the show, you’re in the cool club ; ) .

“No Good Car Ideas” is a Single Malt and Single Hop ale: mashed with only Haus Malts Ohio-grown pilsner malt, and hopped in the kettle (and dry hop) with a hop that’s ... Read More

Hazy I.P.A. brewed in our only fermenter without glycol jackets (FV-5), with the only yeast capable of making clean-tasting ale at 90+ degrees Fahrenheit: kveik. The strain of kveik we prefer for Hazy I.P.A. is “Espe”, which produces a “fruit cup” ester profile that compliments classic juicy / hazy hops.

Mashed with a base of Haus pale and wheat malts, plus ... Read More

Blonde ale with Turkish bay leaves

She / They / Her / Them is our 2023 International Women’s Day beer. The women and non-binary co-workers at Little Fish (Athens & Dayton) designed and brewed this beer, but it was largely conceptualized and led by Renée Noll, our first female brewer at Little Fish. We’d like to wish Renée all the best, ... Read More

Traditional-process sour blonde ale

In the spring of 2019, the crew of Jackie O’s and Little Fish slipped on their boat shoes and brewed a very traditional wort, consisting of the finest Ohio two-row malted barley, organic Ohio Red Fife wheat, and a combination of attic-aged and traditionally-dried hops.

After cooling overnight in the Little Fish’s coolship, sails unfurled in ... Read More

Estate #7 is our FIRST EVER batch of sour beer produced with estate wildflower honey, from our beehives, just footsteps away from our brewery doors. This beer came from a single American oak barrel of sour blond ale that was 4 incredible years old. In 2020, we added a modest amount of strawberries and blackberries to that barrel, but it ... Read More

Winter White I.P.A.

A hazy beer with a wintery twist: First off, it’s mashed with our go-to base of Ohio-grown & malted barley, wheat, and oats, but with a much higher percentage of wheat, for an extra-light appearance and soft, fluffy mouthfeel.

Hopped in the kettle with Falconer’s Flight, and lightly spiced with fresh-cut ginger and ground coriander.

Fermented with our preferred thiolized-hazy ... Read More