E36 – Craft Beer Oasis: Discover the Hidden Gem of BrewDog’s DogHouse Columbus Hotel
Hey, fellow craft beer enthusiasts! I can’t wait to share my latest adventure with you. I recently had the pleasure of staying at BrewDog’s DogHouse Columbus Hotel, and let me tell you, it was an experience like no other.
In this episode, we will discuss:
- The amazing features of the BrewDog’s DogHouse Columbus Hotel, where hospitality meets excellence.
- The captivating environment and distinctive experience that shape the identity of this unique setup.
- Get a taste of the vast spectrum of food and drink choices at the reputed tap room.
- BrewDog’s stalwart commitment to sustainability as exemplified by their Positive Planet certification.
- What is included in your stay, like stout and cookies!
Transcript
Here is a transcript of the podcast. Please remember this was done via AI, so there are typos and mistakes.
Beth 0:06
Welcome to the roaming Yeti podcast where we share travel stories full of nostalgia, interesting locations and the tales behind those locations. I am your host and head Yeti Beth Schillaci. And recently we took a little pitstop outside of Columbus, Ohio, to check out the brew dogs dog house, Columbus hotel. And I really just sort of wanted to share our experience there. We had heard about this hotel and brewery, I really can’t remember where I heard about it. But we decided it might be a great place to check it out on our way home from college moving, we love craft beer, and we love visiting breweries, and we just thought we should treat ourselves to a night night off and and that brings up something that I would really like for us to normalize and start promoting this idea of a recovery trip or, or stay just one night, after dropping kids off at a college or moving a kid in somewhere or even after a wedding like I mean there people do baby moons that they’re going on vacation before the baby baby is born. So so why not after after drop off. I mean, it’s it’s a lot of a lot of emotions. Depending on how far the move is it can be physically draining as well. So I think we just deserve a moment and relax and recharge before heading back into our house and our everyday lives. Like Like who’s with me, I really like let’s normalize this as a as a thing. And start this and also Hotels and Resorts if you’re listening I’m sure you’re probably not but but if you would happen to hear this like offer college drop off package or some kind of special especially if you’re in a college town or around a college town or you’re on a major route you know, we were heading home from Cincinnati and Columbus is you know on the way and so it was perfect you know offer offer a package of a one or two night stay. That’s That’s my free marketing advice to hotels and resorts. I’ll give you that one for free. The next one you’ll have to pay like the rest of my customers do. But I also think this is a great time to mention this episode is not an ad it is not sponsored in any way. We sought out the place we paid for our stay we paid for everything included in our stay. However, again, if any place is listening, and they want to sponsor or offer us a free trip you know hit me up I’m all yours. I’m here for it. But let me get back now to why I think the doghouse is a great choice for you to stop by and and stay and especially if you’re you know your your beer drinkers. It’s located in Canal Winchester, Ohio. It’s about 20 miles outside of Columbus. And our initial plan was to go into Columbus, check a few things out see what’s we didn’t do a lot of research at a time. That becomes obvious here very soon, and get some lunch and we drove around Columbus a lot. But we just decided we just couldn’t decide we couldn’t decide on a place to stop. Like I said, I didn’t do enough research ahead of time. We were exhausted. And we just decided like maybe we should be closer to BrewDog to start this this adventure. So you know, I got out Google Maps as I like to do when I’m in an area and see what was around and we found an area so dog houses in Canal Winchester, but we found like a little downtown area that had some good looking restaurants. So we decided to head there before heading over to BrewDog and we ended up stopping at Homestead tap room and kitchen which was really a good find. It was very laid back. It had great service. Good beer good food menu. The vibe was very nice. They had pinball tables and couches and then high top tables near the bar great outdoor seating. Just you know a place that you could stop in and eat a place you could hang out play games. It was just it was really a neat, neat place. And then after lunch, we walked around a bit and we actually walked by another brewery called loose rail but it wasn’t going to open until four and we were, we weren’t going to wait around, we decided we were going to head off to BrewDog and start that, that stay. But looking at Google Maps, there’s some other breweries in that area. So you know, if you want definitely grab an Uber from BrewDog you can make that your central spot and you can hit several up, but I have a feeling if you’re only staying one night at BrewDog, you’re you’re gonna find enough enough things to to keep you busy, for sure. So when we pulled up, I had seen pictures and you know, so I knew sort of knew what to expect, but its place is really, no, when I say beautiful, I you know, it’s not like flying into a Caribbean resort beach beautiful. It’s sort of hard to explain the the aesthetic and describe it to you. But it just, it had this very cool in the industrial but not like not, it was industrial, but like it had sort of a soft side, if that makes any sense at all. It was just this combination of industrial architecture, and beautifully painted, cool, bright colored murals, neon lights, and then there was like a little mid century modern furniture vibe thrown in. I don’t know, it was very cold. All the spaces were very inviting and welcoming, and just sort of like, come sit and just chill out and relax. And you know, when I go to a bar, I mean at bar when I go to a brewery that that’s sort of the vibe I want. I just want to hang out and relax and talk and have a good time. So it felt just super warm, welcoming and relaxing. Again, I know that’s really sound strange. And I wish I had better interior design knowledge to be able to explain to you what, what I saw, but it was very cool. And just that first impression was great. A few details just about the facilities. The total facility is a lot bigger than I was expected. It’s spread out over 42 acres of land. There’s 32 Beer themed rooms. And each room was named after one of their beers. And they’re considered the world’s first hotel inside a craft brewery. So it was very, you know, he had to check that out when you’re marketed that way. They have a tap room which you don’t have to be a guest there to go anyone can can visit most of the facility other than the rooms really. And there’s a lot of a lot of outdoor seating and games like Jenga cornhole, they even had a mobile Axe Throwing place while we were there, which we skipped. I just seemed seemed a little dangerous for me at that point. They had a dog park for our four legged friends, which was really fun and neat to see the dogs hanging out there. They had firepits they had an arcade inside with pinball and shuffleboard. They even have like this museum exhibit that you can walk through has the history of craft beer and history of BrewDog just like a lot to just a lot more than I was expecting. Like I said, you can easily keep busy during the day. Their brewing facility produces their their headliner range of beers. Also some limited edition and then their sour brew sour beer brewery which is called overworks. And like any good brewery, they had a store with merch to buy and beer. And it was just you know, it was really cool. They also have events regularly at the tap room as I mentioned they had the mobile Axe Throwing while we were there. I know in the museum area they sometimes do beer classes. They also had a sign up that was some of the upcoming events they had movies on the lawn and even Drag Bingo so I you know it is not it’s just a real nice mix that you can be locals that are there from time to time or whenever there’s events for you. And then you know as you come in and visiting, it was just a really, really cool that they didn’t cater to one or the other. It was sort of just a nice nice mix. I do want to go over a few more details and sort of give you the breakdown of different room options. There is a king room with one king size bed and that looks over into the overworks the sour brewing area and those Start at 190. So these prices,
Beth 10:04
I looked up these prices. And I tried to find I went through their calendar on their line and tried to find the lowest rates. So it really is dependent on time of year time a week, whatever. But it these are starting prices, you’re probably paying paying more. Unless you know you’re sort of just on a random Wednesday in an offseason. But the king is 190. The patio standard King has, as you know, in a similar overlooks overworks view, they’re on the ground floor, and they have like a semi private patio space that you can walk onto. Now, this is again, the patio standard King, and that’s the only type that’s eligible for pets to stay. And those rooms start at 210. There’s a double queen room that, again, obviously has the double queen beds. And they’re all on the second floor, those start at 200. There’s the punk suite, which is where we stayed, it’s a king bed suite. You can if you pay more again, an optional rollaway bed. It has courtyard views, separate living and entertainment space has a television sectional and an in room wet bar. And the brewmaster suites and even bigger suite. I’m sorry, the punk suite starts at 270 a night. And then the brew master suite has picture windows again, separate living. It’s just a little bigger, I think then the punk. And that pricing starts at 345. Also, I believe it does not look into the courtyard, which I’ll talk about in a bit. Why that might be a little bit of an advantage. Checking in the tap room opens at 11 check in for the hotel is at four. So we got there a little bit before for and had to wait until our room was ready, which is no big deal. But the nice thing is upon check in you get a check in beer from their small bar that’s part of the hotel lobby. And so I went with a hazy Jane peach and it was so, so good. They didn’t have it in the tap room. I couldn’t find it anywhere else on the facility. But if I find it again, I’m definitely getting it. It had an ABV of 5% so 5% alcohol which is perfect for me if I’m gonna have a few beers throughout the day. I like to keep it low and slow. And John had the mango version of the hazy Jain which was also pretty good. It had a higher ABV of about 7%. So like I said, we we got into a room then like I said, we stayed in the punk suite. And it had a lot of amenities. There. Like I said, there’s a there’s a wet bar. minibar had a fridge full of beer and soda and ciders. And then the minibar, actually, up on the shelves had spirits to all extra, of course, there was a mini keg, there’s a mini keg in the wet bar that you can preorder a mini keg, I believe the pricing looked like it started at about $60. You know, we didn’t we didn’t do that because we wanted to check out other areas. There’s a coffeemaker there was two televisions, one for the bedrooms, you know, one for the bedroom side one for sort of the the living side, there was a guitar on the wall that you could take down and play There were games, a puzzle, there were some snacks for additional fees. There’s even a record collection and turntable which was pretty cool. Wi Fi was included and actually worked really well. We had a king size bed. There were actually ropes to in the closet that you could purchase a waterfall shower for those who who you know, like to you know, look at the bathroom and decide if it’s spa like but it was nice it was I’m not usually a huge fan of the water fall shower because there’s often not a lot of pressure to get shampoo out of my hair but it worked really well. I was a fan. They had great toiletries, great shampoo and stuff made with their beer by a I believe by a local local company. But the thing that everyone everyone posts about on social media and is very cool is they have a fridge in a beer fridge. In the bathroom, they call it the shower, shower fridge, and then there’s actually a can horror within the shower For said shower beer. We did not, I did not partake in the shower beer because we were showering in the morning before we were heading home. And didn’t really think that was the time to partake. But it’s fun, it’s cool. And it’s definitely one of those things that, you know, if if you’re showering a night or or you’re staying there next day, have at it, like go for that. And beers are bad. They I think the candy beers in the room were $5. So, you know, it wasn’t terrible at all. Another cool thing about the bathroom was there was a sign that said, if you hung your towels up and use them more than one day, you know, of course this is on a Multi Night visit, you could get a token for a free beer. So I mean, that sounds like a pretty good incentive to me to you know, use your your towels more than once. And, and that was fun. But, I mean, there’s so much in the room, at least in the suite, you basically wouldn’t have to leave the room, but there was just way too much for us to check out. And, you know, I sort of touched on some of the the merch fountains in the rooms, but um, just to give you an idea of how extensive it was. There was robes, there were patches, we actually took a patch home. There’s you could buy the puzzle, they had a lot of coal branded on glassware, coal branded, coffee mugs, bottle openers, you can even purchase the records that they the LPS that they had there. So a little little bit of everything for everyone. As far as the room size, like I said it was really nice. It was a suite It was bigger than a lot of suites. I’ve been in the minibar, you walked in the minibar was on your right, the sectional was in front of us that was sort of the living living area. There was this really cool product custom designed like wood and metal divider that had drawers had a TV on each side. On tons of BrewDog art on the walls, it they look like those cool screenprinted concert posters. They were just they were really cool. Like everything was just just so well done. Themed and branded, but like not knocking you over the head with it. Like it was just, it was really it was done really well. They also have this huge neon style LED light over the bed. And funny story is I could when it was time for me to go to bed. I couldn’t find the switch to it. Pro tip. It’s it’s on a cord that comes down the side of the headboard. And ours was on the opposite side from where I was sleeping. So I just I didn’t I didn’t discover it until morning. So pro tip, if you stay in a suite or you stay on the rooms can’t find it. Look for the cord alone the headboard it was fine. It didn’t really bother me at night. I slept no problem. You know, so but pro tip there for you. The one thing I will say about the suite was that it did face the outdoor courtyard area of the tap room. Which would not be a problem for most people, I’m sure but I’m a I’m a light sleeper and I go to bed way earlier, most people so if you’re staying up until after the the tap rooms closed, you know, after 11 o’clock, you’re good to go. But uh, you know, it did create some white noise I sleep with earplugs anyhow. So it didn’t really it wasn’t really a problem, but I just thought I’d, if you’re a light sleeper, pack your earplugs or maybe head into one of the internal ternal rooms. But you know, as far as the bed, the bed was really comfortable. And probably one of the best pillows. I know it sounds so stupid.
Beth 19:22
But, you know, if you go to hotels and you’ve been on those pillows, and they feel good, but next thing you know, like, you just they’re flat and you wake up and you’re just so uncomfortable. Like this was a nice firm pillow. So you know, kudos to whoever decorated and set up these rooms because it was a nice comfy bed and pillow. But, you know, beyond the room, I was talking about some of the amenities. We did go to the the quote unquote Museum, and this area had really cool exhibits and stuff talking about history or craft beer. We’re in home brewing and brew doc themselves. And then we just need to walk through and see things and, and but we had to laugh there was one sign that called Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the gateway beer to craft brewing. And it’s so so true. Like, John and I were talking like that’s the first craft beer we had had, like, a not together like it’s separate. We were not together at these points. Like that was the first craft beer that I had that was like, Oh, this is this is the kind of beer I want to drink. I don’t want to drink the other beers anymore. So I thought it was really cool that BrewDog sort of gave that that hat tip to Sierra Nevada for for having it for being the gateway beer. After we got done in in the museum, we went to the tap room. Because it was time for some food and of course, some more beer. Their menu is pretty much what you would expect to find at a brewery Taproom burgers, wings, pizzas appetizers. They have some entrees. But I mean, good solid menu, something for everyone. Everything we saw go by looked really good. And that place was packed. I mean, it was a Friday night, Friday evening, but the restaurant was packed and it was was a lot of locals. So you know people, people like the food. We went with a giant beer pretzel with cured meats, and with the cured meats and cheese addition. The pretzel I gotta say was so much better than a lot of brewery pets, pretzels, or even a lot of restaurant pretzels. A lot of times you get those pretzels out, and they’re really, really dense. And it just, I don’t know, it’s just they’re too chewy, and they’re just not good. This was so light and airy. It was it was just a really solid pretzel and the cured meat and the cheese. It was four slices, salami and four cheese slices of like wedges, a cheddar, which was really, really good too. And when it came out, and you know, it didn’t look like a ton of food, but it filled us up. But don’t worry, not too much. We did not skip dessert, we would not let you down. We had the Oreo and cookie ice cream cake, which was really really good too. And as for beer like I said, I like to stay low and slow. So I was drinking their Lightspeed session IPA. I think it was like a four or five percenter. So it was it was, it was good. It was a nice evening. We were told to when we checked in that, to make sure to come back into the hotel lobby between sometime between seven and nine. I’m forced for a stout and cookie dough guy, we did not I knew we had just had dessert, but we did not skip it. And I’m so glad we didn’t. The stat was there jet Blackheart oatmeal stout. And it was very good. Really good, really smooth. And for 7%. Stout, you know, that’s teetering on your, your Imperial, stout, you know, by one, one and a half percent. But it was really smooth for 7%. And the chocolate chip cookie they gave was just the perfect complement to that beer and really the perfect way to to end and the evening. Also, it was when we went inside from the courtyard area, and from the restaurant area into the lobby, it was so much more quiet than the tap room and stuff. So if you’re there and you’re looking to get away from the crowds, and you just want a little more quiet time, definitely go over to the lobby, they had a ping pong table there, there’s board games. It’s just, it’s just a really nice, nice, quieter place to hang out. And something that I wanted to, you know also share about BrewDog in general is their commitment to to the planet and the climate. As I said before, they had the incentive of free beer if you reuse your towels, but they also are a positive planet certified carbon negative company. mouthful but they just aren’t talking about their their impairment. They’re actually doing something about it and their goal is to love this is to make earth great again. I was nice to learn about how they plan to achieve that. So you know, like I said, we we spent the night and in addition to our check in beer and our stout and cookies. We also I got free breakfast as part of our stay which, which was a nice, nice surprise. So we headed down to the lobby before we checked out and headed out, you know back home. But then a nice variety of pastries, cereal, yogurt, scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes. It was a really nice nice spread very food was really tasty. And you know if you’re if you’re hanging around, they even had free beer mimosas for you. Again did not did not partake, we had five and a half hour drive home. But definitely if you’re you’re staying in the area or you’re staying a couple nights take advantage of that. Like I think I said earlier checkout is that 11 checkout was super, super easy. If you take any merch from the room, or you drink any of the in room drink beverages, they’re gonna hit your credit card later in the day after they go through and clean and they’ll count everything. I never received us email about the room charges, the details. But I did see the amount hit my credit card and I knew it was no it was correct. It was the amount for two beers in a patch. So just keep a heads up that you may not get an email but you’ll you know, they said if there’s any issues call them they’ll fix it right away. So they were super easy, super nice. Great place. But like I said it was it was it was a really fun visit. I definitely go back and recommend it to craft beer. Cider. Like again, there was just a drink for everyone. You know, it’s not just beer drinkers. I think one night was perfect for us and what we were trying to do but you know, if you’re going to be in Columbus for multiple nights, it makes sense to stay there for a couple nights. I don’t know that I would spend the money on the suite again, as we didn’t spend as much time in there. But I’m really glad we did check it out. let you guys know what it looked like. You know, like I said college move in. It was stressful. It was a four trips to the tiny target we called the little target right on the border of campus. And then one trips afford to tiny target and one trip to the regular target and a grocery trip. So it was it was a lot it was a lot moving into the apartment. So this was just a really perfect way. Just sort of to recharge before heading heading home and dealing with that. So you know, I would say if you’re on a road trip that takes you through that area, definitely you know, consider spending a night just you know, Pro Tip Don’t overdo it. Kind of drive in the morning and don’t be too hungover. But I like I said we had a really good time I recommend it. In general, I recommend and after drop off resorts day or somewhere just don’t go home right away. So thanks for joining me for my recap of our visit to Blue Dogs Dog House Hotel in Columbus. I hope these episodes inspire you to get out and roam even in your own neighborhood. Please subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes. And if you like what we’re doing here, please leave a review and a rating also to help support us. Please head to Yeti to shop to pick up some roaming Yeti merch and talk to you soon. Keep roaming
