Community Spotlight
Premier Celebrates 20 Years with Grand Re-Opening
December 2022
A local business is celebrating two milestones: its 20th anniversary and an expansion.
The community is invited to attend Premier Tumbling & Dance’s Grand Re-Opening on Friday, Dec. 30 from 5-7 p.m. A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned at 6 p.m.
The event celebrates the studio’s expansion at 523 Loveland-Madeira Road within the Shoppers Haven Plaza. Once separate spaces with the plaza, Premier will now house its tumbling and dance studios in a new 22,100 sq. ft. facility. The renovation includes seven new dance rooms and two new tumbling rooms to accommodate students of all ages.
Currently, Premier serves more than 1,000 families per week within Loveland and neighboring communities. In addition, the studio has a special connection with Loveland City Schools. They offer programs for the district’s elementary and special needs students.
Premier Dance & Tumbling offers a variety of classes for children, open gym sessions, adult fitness classes, competition teams and more. Visit their website to learn more.
New Microbrewery Coming to Loveland in 2023
November 2022
Dana Depenbrock has a dream, and it’s becoming a reality in Loveland. He’s turning his passion for beermaking into a full-time business by renovating a carwash into a microbrewery. (Yes, you read that right!)
Dana purchased the site of the former Johnny’s Carwash, 1555 Loveland-Madeira Road, in March 2022. After spending a year searching Greater Cincinnati for the perfect location, he chose the City of Loveland to build DVDBREW.
Anticipated opening is 2023.
The Dream
“I looked at another carwash, which sparked the idea. But when I found this site, I knew it was it. Its location and existing buildings make it an ideal setup for repurposing into a brewery and taproom — not to mention all that Loveland offers,” he explained.
So just how do you turn a carwash facility into a microbrewery? Dana hired Conger Construction to put his vision on paper. With site plans, the necessary permits could be filed with the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission to start the build process.
“The Commission recognized that DVDBREW is promoting investment and revitalization along a portion of the Loveland-Madeira Road Corridor. By repurposing the now-defunct car wash, Dana is bringing a community establishment to the southern side of the city and enhancing connectivity, which are both goals of the city’s new Comprehensive Master Plan,” stated Cory Wright, Assistant City Manager.
The Renovation
The site has two existing structures: a building that housed an automatic carwash and a former self-service facility with five wash bays.
First, Dana and his team tackled the building that housed the automated carwash. He had the automated system removed, totaling 30,000 pounds of equipment and structural steel! This building will become the Brewhouse, which will feature a five-barrel system to brew up to 150 gallons of beer per day.
“The building’s layout and concrete floors make it ideal for grain storage and the water drainage system,” Dana said.
The brewing process uses a lot of water amongst its various steps — from mixing Dana’s all- grain recipes with filtered water in a barrel called a “mash tun” and then moving the product to a boiling tank (where hops are added), fermenters, brite tanks to carbonate the beer, and finally to the kegs to be stored and served.
Once the beer is in kegs, it will be transferred to the former carwash’s self-service facility that will become the public space: an approximate 2,500 sq. ft. taproom. A cooler room will be located on the rear of the building to store the kegs, which will feed into the bar. On tap, Dana plans to feature 12-18 standard brews and 6-12 rotating seasonal brews.
Picture an industrial look to the taproom — exposed trusses, concrete walls. The middle garage door bays will be converted to full-glass garage doors, which can be opened during nice weather. The taproom will transition out to a 2,000-sq. ft. outdoor patio.
The site will not open with a kitchen, but Dana hopes to add food to his menu one day. In the meantime, food trucks will be invited to DVDBREW, where they can park under one of the former garage bays.
Plans also include enhancing pedestrian connectivity along the stretch of road where DVDBREW is located. The Planning & Zoning Commission would like the city and Dana to work together to improve sidewalk access or to install a crosswalk.
Turning a Hobby into a Career
An avid homebrewer for 20 years, sometimes Dana can’t believe he is on this adventure to open a brick-and-mortar brewery.
Dana is a true beer lover, and that’s really how his adventure began. After attending a friend’s wedding in California and enjoying a beer he tried on the trip, he couldn’t find it in Cincinnati. So, he searched the internet for local beermaking classes and learned how to make his own!
Over the years, his hobby turned into something more. He’s won national and local competitions hosted by the American Homebrewers Association, Cincinnati’s Bloatarian Brewing League, and his bock recipe was even chosen as the grand champion at Christian Morlein’s 2019 Bockfest.
Then a trip to Europe to explore his family’s German heritage made him consider the possibilities: “I visited many brew pubs, and it made me think about opening my own. Is it possible? I’m nearing retirement, and I started to wonder if the right place was out there to bring this dream to life.”
Now, Dana says it’s time to share his “hobby” with Loveland: “I love people – any walk of life. I love beer. I want people to come in, have a brew, hang out. I’m excited to be repurposing the carwash and joining the Loveland community.”