Wings and brew at Smokehouse Brewing Co.

I've driven by this place many times and never saw many cars parked out front, so I wasn't sure what Smokehouse Brewing Co. would be like (of course the parking lot is in back which explains a lot ha!).

My boyfriend and I joined our two good friends for a Grandview brewery tour and this was the first stop on tour. This brewery tour (which I'll tell you more about soon) included a bunch of beer samples at 4 different local breweries and light appetizers at our first stop, Smokehouse. If you came here on your own and not a tour, it would probably be a different experience, but overall, I think it would be a good one like ours.

While at Smokehouse Brewing, the very knowledgeable owner and his son took time to speak with us about the beer brewing process and some history on breweries in Columbus. We sampled all of their beers (the Scottish/Scotland one and the Christmas Ale are/were my favorites!). Did you know that you should give each beer 20 seconds of tasting/after-tasting before you fully judge it?! Apparently that gives the taste buds just enough time to determine if you like it or not. Anyways, I'm going to bring a growler up there sometime so I can have the beer handy before a night out. Yes, they fill growlers! They also have a bunch of unique ways that they store and pour their beer (you'll have to ask, because honestly I forget what each method is called, I just know it was really cool hearing about).  

Picture of the best wings ever - frame worthy!

After trying a few beers, the staff brought out 2 appetizer platters for the big group of about 14 people. There were wings, beef brisket, sauerkraut balls, hummus and soft pitas. The wings, OH MY the WINGS, are the best! They had a rub on them, no breading, no sauce, just amazing flavor! I highly recommend these!  The beef brisket was good, I think, but since it was such a small piece I tried, I wasn't sure. Onion straws and pickles were crisp, the hummus and pitas were what you would expect. And the sauerkraut ball, wow, those are good! I never realized I liked those. Actually, I never even knew what those were until I tried them at Smokehouse. I recommend getting out of your comfort zone and trying them. 

The only minor set back, which I'm not sure who's doing this was, the Brewery Tour Company's or Smokehouse's doing, but there wasn't enough samples of each food item on the platter to go around for each person to try. So 14, mostly strangers, looked awkwardly at each other and back at the mouth water food wondering who got to try what, while the owner continued sharing fun facts. Total bummer and I thought it was rude? annoying? uncomfortable? and not very productive to what they were trying to do, you know, get the word out about their food (Smokehouse) and give a good experience for paying brewery tour customers(brewer tour). I thought someone should have stepped up and brought out 3 sampler platters or added enough food so each person got to try each food item.

Anyways, lucky for me, and my group of four, we got to try each of their amazing food items they offered AND we really enjoyed the brew too!!

Ps. You can gain Delta SkyMiles from eating here! :) If you're not sure what I'm referring to, see my previous blog post, "Eating your way to vacation" and start earning miles while eating here!

-Have you ever gone on a brewery tour in Columbus before? Did you get food? What food samples did you get and did you like it? 

-Crazy tough question, "What's your favorite wing place in Columbus?!" Mine is a tie between Smokehouse Brewing Co. and Wings Over Columbus (which, I get, is almost like comparing apples to tomatoes though)