JUST IN: Local brewery to launch second brand for ‘outlandish’ brews

Lost Tunnel Brewing Co. — a new brand designed to showcase a Dayton brewery’s “eccentric” and “outlandish” beers — is poised to launch in Dayton next week.

Lost Tunnel is the brainchild of The Dayton Beer Company's founder, Peter Hilgeman, who said the new brand will focus on "unique, unconventional, and off-centered combinations of ingredients" used to create "interesting and outlandish beers." Hilgeman said Lost Tunnel beers "will push the boundaries of not only our brewers, but our palates."

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The new beers will make their debut next week in both draft and package form (six-packs of 12-ounce cans) at pubs, restaurants and other retail accounts. A “launch party” is scheduled for 5 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Dayton Beer Company, 41 Madison St. off East Second Street in downtown Dayton. Hilgeman said six Lost Tunnel beers will be available on draft at the release party.

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Credit: Tom Gilliam

Credit: Tom Gilliam

The first four year-round beers scheduled for release next week are:

• Subterranean IPA: an American-style IPA brewed with honey, corn, and dextrose.

• Lily Water Lager: American-style lager brewed with sweet orange peels, tangerine peels and hibiscus flowers.

• Hidden Paradise Fruited Wheat: American-style fruit beer brewed with rotating fruits throughout the year.

• Deep Sea Diving Sea Salt Stout: English-style stout brewed with sea salt, lactose and chocolate.

“I have been working on this brand for about a year now, and I am very excited to get it going, as it will allow us to expand into some exciting new avenues of brewing exploration,” Hilgeman said. “We don’t currently have a location for a new taproom, but we have been exploring various options and will continue to look for a space for Lost Tunnel Brewing to showcase its brand and beers.”

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In addition to the year-round beers, “We are also implementing an extensive barrel aging and sour beer program that is already underway,” Hilgeman said.

The “Lost Tunnel” name is a reference to the underground labyrinth of steam tunnels that existed and still exist in honeycomb fashion beneath the streets of Dayton, and to the old NCR tunnels connecting their buildings, Hilgeman said.

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Hilgeman told this news outlet that he contemplated re-branding and relocating the original Kettering location of Dayton Beer Company at East Dorothy Lane and Ackerman Boulevard that shut down in August, “but we just couldn’t get the right building and the right fit in time.” So he decided to launch the new brand while still looking for space for its taproom.

“It is very much a passion project that is intended to complement and add to our growing diverse beer scene in Dayton,” he said.

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DBC’s Kettering location opened in May 2012, the first in a wave of nearly a dozen Dayton-area breweries that would open over the next couple of years. It opened its much larger production brewery and taproom in downtown Dayton in April 2015, and started canning beers for retail sale soon thereafter.

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