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Located near the Miami Valley Bike Trails Creekside bike trail in Beavercreek, the building and surrounding two-acre parcel previously housed Banjara Banquet Center and All In One Banquet Center, as well as a Factory Lighting Outlet store. It opened in the 1970s as the Beaver Valley Golf Center, with miniature golf, a driving range, batting cages and a game room.
Williams and his brother-in-law have been fermenting their idea of opening a craft brewery for two years, and have looked at spaces, mostly along the I-75 corridor between Dayton and Cincinnati. But the Beavercreek property drew them in.
“We used to travel down that bike path and see that place, and we thought if it ever became available, it would be a great spot for a brewery,” Williams said.
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The renovation has taken the building’s interior “down to the bare walls,” Williams said, and if all goes smoothly with the build-out, Southern Ohio Brewing could open as soon as the spring of 2020.
“Our goal is to have a community gathering place, a neighborhood place,” the brewery’s co-founder said.
The brewery will offer a broad array of beers and styles, and there is no plan to specialize in a specific style, Williams said.
“Our goal is to have a little something for everyone,” he said.
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Williams said he has visited with several other Dayton-area craft brewers, including Devil Wind Brewery in Xenia, Hairless Hare in Vandalia, Yellow Springs Brewery and Crooked Handle Brewing in Springboro, to get some advice and tips on how to navigate the opening of their new brewery.
“The brewing community in our area is amazing,” Williams said. “Everyone has been very supportive and super-helpful.”
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More than 15 craft breweries have opened in the Miami Valley in the last eight years, and another three or four are in the works. None of the most recent wave of new breweries has shut its doors, and nearly all have expanded their offerings, packaging or brewery space, or added second locations, since they first opened.
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