The Pilot Brewhouse takes off with a variety of beers in unique location (photos)
Like its sister brewery, Lockport, The Pilot Brewhouse offers a sought-after mug club.
NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio – The Pilot Brewhouse has, quite possibly, the coolest back yard and best double-meaning name.
The Pilot Brewhouse uses a five-barrel brewing system and can accommodate smaller, experimental batches.
About 50 yards from the New Philadelphia brewpub sits the Harry Clever Field Airport runway. A pilot brewhouse is a small system used for experimenting with beers.
In August, Andrew and Lauren Marburger opened The Pilot Brewhouse in the space that previously held Five Barrel Bullet Brewing Co., which opened in 2020 and closed in 2024. The couple also operate Lockport Brewery in Bolivar.
The Pilot Brewhouse has a spacious patio.
“One of the chief questions we get is why we didn’t make this a Lockport outpost or some other Lockport branded thing,” Andrew said. “Our coasters are double-sided – Pilot on one side, Lockport on the other. We want people to know that connection, but we don’t want to set expectations that you’re getting the same Lockport experience.”
The bones of the place were intact, though they did overhaul the bar. It used to be made of concrete and stood very high. They lowered it and crafted a top out of wood. Taps were moved to open the kitchen area. Planter boxes now dangle under skylights, a design touch inspired by Noble Beast Brewing Co. in Cleveland, Andrew said.
Brewer Nick Burgess and co-owner Andrew Marburger.
The logo - a modernistic design of a propeller - is a cool touch, and appropriate; Andrew Marburger is a self-described aviation nerd. He eventually wants to have a bank of receiver-only radios available so brewpub customers can hear live traffic patterns and chatter. The thinking is people would trade in their driver’s license for the radio, sip a beer outside on a nice day as planes land and take off, hearing pilots talk.
A variety of styles are on tap at The Pilot Brewhouse.
It’s one of the unique features and ideas that brewpubs offer for their community. Marburger cited assorted industry reports that say brewpubs become community anchors that give local economies a boost.
“That’s always been our goal,” he said.
At Lockport, Marburger makes a point of hiring graduates from high school culinary programs while supporting local institutions with fundraisers. But the Bolivar brewery draws a lot of Interstate 77 traffic as well for craft-beer aficionados looking to check out new places.
The relatively new Pilot Brewhouse is able to experiment with a variety of beers, “so if something sticks we can scale it up at Lockport,” he said.
“You can make a batch of beer and move through 10 kegs of beer in no time and keep that turning over as opposed to a 30-keg batch of beer. That keeps the variety up,” he said.
And keeping the variety and the kegs filled falls to Pilot Brewhouse head brewer Nick Burgess.
Burgess, who brews on a five-barrel system, is originally from Beach City, a village 8 miles west of Bolivar. Years ago, he and Marburger applied for the brewer’s job at Millersburg, and Marburger got it.
The outdoor patio has the runway from Clever Field in the background.
But Burgess homebrewed, eventually applied at Lockport and started in the kitchen. And he got a foot in the brewhouse.
Andrew Marburger got the idea for the skylights from Noble Beast Brewing Co. in Cleveland.
At Lockport, top sellers are Ruckus, an American India Pale Ale, and Gateway, an American Cream Ale. The Pilot Brewhouse serves beer from both places.
At Pilot, top seller is Mount Crushmore, a “house light lager, easy drinker, low ABV, perfect for a hot day out there,” Marburger said. It won gold at the 2025 Ohio Craft Brewers Cup. As Burgess describes it: “Beer-flavored beer.”
The brewpub has a handful of tables in addition to the bar. A giant screen is set up as well.
They also have beers named Blueberry Bonanza, named for the Beechcraft Bonanza, and Blackbird, a Schwarzbier (black beer, not heavy) named for an early stealth plane.
They also made a Rauchbier, a smoked lager in collaboration with Hog Heaven Open Flame BBQ restaurants. Hog Heaven approached Marburger about joining forces on a beer, and the restaurant donates a portion of sales every quarter to a different local organization.
“It’s not a super common style, but I feel like smoke is very trendy right now,” said Marburger, who said it’s a great food-pairing beer.
Speaking of pairings, the director of the Kent State University-Tuscarawas County Performing Arts Center reached out to Marburger when the show “Choir of Man” came to town. The show, set in an English pub, often gets a local brewery to make a beer for the show.
The logo shows a propeller - appropriate since the brewery is 50 yards from a runway.
“We thought that would be awesome, we’re right down the street,” Marburger said.
So they made an amber ale, somewhat like an English beer, not super-hopped, he said. The beer was on the stage and poured for patrons and cast.
The Pilot Brewhouse, which offers crowlers and flights, carried over the idea of a mug club from Lockport Brewery.
The Pilot Brewhouse is in New Philadelphia.
When they started the club in Bolivar several years ago, people didn’t initially understand the concept. Now, there’s a wait list with low turnover and a capped capacity – just like any exclusive club.
They had hundreds of people who applied for the club at The Pilot Brewhouse so they had to hold a lottery.
Members receive a few more ounces of beer for the same price, free birthday beer, annual catered club party and other perks/merchandise. Annual cost is $80.
“We probably don’t quite break even on it,” he said. “People love it. They come in and bring their friends. For the first couple of weeks we awarded the mugs there was a black market going on, people exchanging dollars and services for mugs.”
The brewery has even auctioned mugs for charity.
Their approach to core and experimental beers and community outreach seems to be working. Will there be a third brewery?
“The answer to that right now is definitely no,” Marburger laughed. “But never say never.”
(Almost a) six-pack of facts about The Pilot Brewhouse
Location: 1690 E. High Ave., New Philadelphia. Dedicated parking lot.
Hours: 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday; noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Miles from downtown Cleveland: 87.
Nearest breweries: Hoodletown (5 miles to the north), Holey Moley (8 miles to the south), Lockport (15 miles to the north).
Nearby: Schoenbrunn Village State Memorial is half a mile down the road, near the end of a runway. The Moravian church founded Schoenbrunn, which translates as “beautiful spring,” in 1772. Its settlers crafted Ohio’s first civil code and built the state’s first Christian church and schoolhouse. Harry Clever, namesake of the adjacent airport that dates to the late 1920s, was an Army pilot instructor who taught John Glenn.
Amenities: Live music is planned to start this month. The brewery holds End of Prohibition and Cinco de Mayo parties. And they are in the process of getting the sound and audiovisual systems up to speed for a giant screen in the brewpub.
Food: They have a kitchen, make pizza dough and are considering pretzel baking in house. Recent specials included pierogi pizza, golabki (cabbage roll) soup, gzik (Polish dip) and sernik (Polish cheesecake).
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