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    Zauber Launching Food Truck Pod at New Microbrewery

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    It’s safe to say that this year has been a big one for beer, with the opening of numerous new breweries. One of the most recent, Zauber Brewing Company, who favors a more German style, is one that is leaning towards craft beers.

    Founder, Geoff Towne, received his education in brewing at the University of California. Thereafter, Towne worked for Great Lakes in Cleveland, and was then recruited as an Assistant Brewery Manager at Boston Beer Company in Cincinnati.

    Towne and his wife then left Cincinnati after she had received a job offer in Columbus, which is where they wanted to be since their families were here, he said.

    “Kind of like how Al Pacino does in God Father III, I try to keep going out but it keeps pulling me back in,” Towne said. “And that’s how I feel, Ohio has some sort of magnetism to me. Maybe its fate that’s drawing me back.”

    After moving to Columbus, Towne worked for a year as a sales rep for Heidelberg Distributing, but left the job after his son was born to work towards the goal of his own brewery, and has been at it for about two years now, he said.

    Towne said that the word Zauber means magical in German.

    “No matter what level of brewing you do, it’s a belief in magic, that if you do things in a certain way that it will come out the way it ought to,” Towne said. “So all brewers, craft brewers in particular, have a certain sense of belief in magic like our traditional ancestors that mastered the product over the last 4000 years of human existence. They didn’t quite understand always what they were doing but they knew that if they did steps in a certain way that it would get the result thy want.”

    But the name of the company isn’t the only German-inspired element that comes into play.

    Zauber brewing has five different styles of beers, three of which are German.

    The German style Hefeweizens are light wheat beers, with banana-clove and vanilla flavors that make for a good summer beer, Towne said.

    Another category of beers, German Alts, is a category of German Ales.

    “Alts in German means old, which means these are the ones that are so old they’re before lagers,” said Towne. “It’s a category that’s under utilized here in the Midwest and I figured it was something we could figure out a niche for.”

    A third category of beers is the Belgian beers that within contain two flavors, one called Magnum Opus and the other is Buxom Blonde.

    The next stop in the company’s process is an upcoming food truck pod, Towne said.

    “What we’re going to do is basically have food trucks in our parking lot,” he said. “Depending on the traffic we’d like to add more over time and more days as things evolve but for right now just Thursday, Friday and Saturday, one truck at a time until we can justify the traffic.”

    The food truck pod starts this Thursday in the parking lot of the sole location of Zauber Brewing, at 1300 Norton Ave., from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., then from 4 – 8 p.m.

    According to Towne, he would like to expand further and possibly extend the food truck pod to six or seven days a week after drawing enough of a crowd first.

    With the future in mind, another objective is to build a much larger brewery of about 15-20 barrels.

    “Our goal is to, in the next couple of months kind of lock down all the last few pieces to be able to move forward with purchasing a much larger system,” Towne said. “But also in the next six months to grow into a significantly larger brewery with a lot of inertia behind it from the buzz we created along the way.”

    Towne said that brewing is like a calling to him.

    “The other extreme of it, between two consumers whether they’re perfect strangers, best friends or bitter enemies, you can come together over a beer,” he said. “In some ways it’s a magical elixir that can bridge that gap and put water under the bridge faster than most things.”

    Thursday 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Leslie’s Crepes, 4 – 8 p.m. Burrito Bus

    Friday 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Per Zoot, 4 – 8 p.m. Cheezy Truck

    Saturday 4 – 8 p.m. Red Hot Eats

    More information can be found online at www.zbeers.com.


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    Halie Williams
    Halie Williamshttps://columbusunderground.com/
    Halie Williams is currently attending the Ohio State University and working towards a bachelors in Journalism. Born and raised in Columbus. Lover of books, classic rock and sports. Positive outlook enthusiast. Aspiring writer and drummer.
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