CLEVELAND, Ohio – Brewery trails are a way to get folks into taprooms. But a new one starting in Northeast Ohio aims to get you out.

The mission of the Cuyahoga River Brewery Trail really is to support the Cuyahoga River Water Trail. The National Parks Service is promoting the water trail as a resource for low-impact recreation and tourism while promoting conservation and stewardship of the river.

The brewery trail's kickoff is slated for Friday, June 21, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the notorious Cuyahoga River fire, said Andrea Irland, outdoor recreation planner at National Park Service. Official designation for the water trail has been pushed to September, she said.

The water trail has been in the works for 11 years, Irland said, and it "got me thinking about a collaboration with breweries because I do a program entitled 'All trails lead to beer.' "

She said "facilitating trail development" in conjunction with breweries that were up and coming was a natural fit.

"Besides," she added, "that's fun."

Irland had considered potential partnerships for programming and economic development at trail symposiums.

It led her to ponder " 'Wow, why can't I do that in my own community?' "she said. So she approached the folks at HiHo Brewing in Cuyahoga Falls who "really helped to champion it."

"Recreation people like to drink beer, and people who drink beer like to recreate," Irland said.

Getting breweries located close to the water involved makes for a way to promote the ecological effort, said Jamie Sipps of HiHo.

"It's not another passport," she said. "It promotes ecotourism and tourism in Ohio (involving) breweries within one mile of the river. We at HiHo Brewing took the lead and reached out."

Organizers kept the focus on the educational and promotional aspect of clean water, she said: "We didn’t want to do another stamp type of thing. Those are a lot of fun, but that’s not what we're focused on."

Passport stamps she refers to involve many brewery trails throughout the country, including the successful Summit Brew Path and Cuyahoga Brewery Passport. Those serve as incentives to get craft-beer drinkers into their taprooms.

Participating breweries in the Cuyahoga River Brewery Trail all sit within a mile or so of the water:

Cleveland

Brick and Barrel

Butcher and the Brewer

Collision Bend

Forest City

Great Lakes

Hansa

Market Garden

Nano Brew

Noble Beast

Saucy

Terrestrial

Thirsty Dog Flats East Bank

Other

HiHo, Cuyahoga Falls

MadCap, Kent

McArthur's, Cuyahoga Falls

Missing Mountain, Cuyahoga Falls

R. Shea, Akron

It's a natural marriage for breweries to champion a water trail and other outdoor efforts in Northeast Ohio.

Great Lakes has been at the forefront of promoting sustainable practices, including clean-water preservation through several ways, including its annual Burning River Fest. Fat Head's Brewery in Middleburg Heights has long been a supporter of the Cleveland Metroparks. And Terrestrial Brewing supports the Cleveland Zoological Society.

Participating breweries in the water-trail group "will act as a source of information for the paddlers along the trail," Sipps said.

That means if you wander into the breweries, you'll get info about safety, beginner-paddling spots and access points. That's important, Sipps said, because paddlers might see a calm area but not realize rapids lurk nearby. And, breweries hope, after some time on the water, folks will put down their paddles for a pint.

Because breweries are involved, that means beer will be made to promote the effort as well.

The breweries are making I Paddle Around to raise awareness of the water trail, Sipps said. The beer is less a collaboration and more of a "common-goal beer," she said.

It will be a sessionable India Pale Ale, with local malts in the brewing process, and fall within a specific alcohol range. But breweries can each add other ingredients as they see fit.

That approach seems like a win-win: Brewers can exercise their creativity while water enthusiasts can quench their thirst with a beer that isn’t too heavy. And the beer's universal name will be recognizable for the trail.

The beer's release is slated for the first week of June, Sipps said.

"I think people falsely think of a bar crawl on the water," Irland said about the trail. "That isn't the kind of experience we want. The name of it still embraces what it is. It's not meant to be (where) you have to go to every one."

Irland added a decal or sticker will be sold, appropriate for kayaks or cars, with 50 cents from each supporting the water trail. Other events will be considered, she said.

“It’s been fun to see the brewers embrace it,” she said.