The Brewers

Located in Columbus, Ohio, Boathouse Brewery is a homebrewery, so we're not open to the public to sell food or beer, although we are always interested in meeting other brewers and beer enthusiasts.

Benjy Edwards (me) has been brewing since November of 1996, when I started out while in college with a basic kit bought at a local store. The early days consisted of five gallon batches boiled on the apartment stove and bottled. Steve Chang, a friend of mine since high school, was involved back then as well, and shared the apartment with me. Now Steve lives not very far away and is a software engineer. What exactly he does is a secret best kept between himself and whichever government he works for. Brian Tuwalski, who also shared the apartment, now is fortunate enough to live in Portland, Oregon, and has great beer always on tap at his house. I met Brian on the rowing team at Ohio State, and the name of the brewery was inspired by where Brian and I spent much of our time as undergraduates.

The pictures you'll see on this site are from our home in northwest Columbus, where I live with my beautiful wife Jennifer and 15 month old son, Colin. Already at his age he enjoys checking on the latest batch as it ferments in a fridge!

John Brush is a great friend of ours who got into brewing about five years ago and who now turns out fantastic beer at his home, most of which is rapidly consumed by his friends. Most recently Jonathan Page has been helping with the brewing, whom we met courtesy of his finding this website.

I also enjoy cycling, fly-fishing, and the occasional pint of ale. My favourite type of beer is cask-conditioned ale, and I love to sample the infinite variety of cask ales when we travel to England. My favourite style is best bitter, for its fruity, hoppy flavour balanced by malt, with a relatively low strength to enable drinking in volume. I collect the badges from the breweries that are displayed on the handpump handles in the pubs to identify each beer. I have over 200 from English breweries. The list is here.

On the lighter side, I have compiled a list of the Top Ten Reasons Why I Hate Homebrew Competitions.

We appreciate any feedback and will try to answer any questions you may have. I enjoy discussing beer and brewing with anyone who shares this interest. Please contact us in one of the following ways: