Buy a beer for a firefighter as Star City Brewing marks the anniversary of Peerless Mill fire

Star City Brewing Company's Smoked Porter in their tasting Room in the former Peerless Mill building in Miamisburg. JIM WITMER/STAFF

Credit: JIM WITMER

Credit: JIM WITMER

Star City Brewing Company's Smoked Porter in their tasting Room in the former Peerless Mill building in Miamisburg. JIM WITMER/STAFF

Star City Brewing Company will commemorate the 17th anniversary of the Peerless Mill fire with a special tapping and an opportunity to pay-it-forward.

The event will be held Friday, Jan. 24 from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Miamisburg brewing company, 319 S. Second St.

Miamisburg fireman fight a blaze at the Peerless Mill Inn in 2003. STAFF FILE PHOTO

Credit: Ron Alvey

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Credit: Ron Alvey

“Repeated fires at Peerless Mill certainly took their toll, but they couldn’t burn away the significance of the site to Miamisburg residents,” said Justin Kohnen, the owner of Star City Brewing Company in a release. “If anything, this is just as much a celebration of our community’s resilience as it is a remembrance of the fire itself.”

In 2003 a fire gutted the old Peerless Mill Inn. A Dayton Daily News reporter covering the catastrophe noted the historic landmark was nearly as old as Miamisburg itself.

The history of the building started in 1828 when the Great Peerless Mills drew power from the recently completed Miami and Erie Canal.

A Miamisburg firefighter puts out a 2003 fire  at the Peerless Mill Inn, a restaurant in Miamisburg. STAFF FILE PHOTO

Credit: Ron Alvey

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Credit: Ron Alvey

The Peerless Mill Inn, thought to be the oldest restaurant in continuous operation in Montgomery County at the time of the fire, opened as the Peerless Pantry in 1929.

The restaurant featured flagstone floors and the beamed ceiling, along with colonial-era antiques in the original Mill Room.

A decade after the fire the Star City Brewing Company, a microbrewery and tasting room, opened in the former restaurant building.

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The anniversary event will include a special tapping of Star City’s Pozar 125 Smoke Wheat beer. Miamisburg’s own Big Axe Spice Salt Free Seasonings will provide five different hot pepper beer infusions.

Ten percent of the night’s sales will be donated to the local Miamisburg Fire Department and Star City is also inviting customers to pay it forward to local firefighters.

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Anyone can visit the brewery before Jan. 24 to donate $5, and Star City will donate another $2 to buy beer or wine for local firefighters on the day of the event.

“The best part about this event is that it offers an opportunity to celebrate our local fire department,” said Kohnen. “Stop by and show your support for these brave men and women!”

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