YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- We've all been splashed by advertising for beers brewed with water from artesian wells and pristine springs and cascading Rocky Mountain snow melt.

We Northeasterners and Midwesterners have had to, shivering at home in winter, sit through ads for beers being sipped on warm beaches as the sun sets over the glowing ocean.

Ken Blair takes a different tack.

His beer is brewed with tap water from the city of Youngstown.

He does not filter the brews, and even takes pride that they contain a little brewing sediment.

But what else would you expect from a big bottle of Rusted River Irish Red Ale?

What else would you expect from Rust Belt Brewing Co.?

That's the microbrewery Mr. Blair started with two partners about a year ago in the B&O Railroad station where passenger trains no longer stop in a downtown that can be tactfully described as destitute. But Mr. Blair is making it work for him, and work for Youngstown and environs in the process.

With the rallying cry of "Get rusted," Mr. Blair is embracing the rust in Rust Belt, the swath of the country from the Northeast to the Upper Midwest that no longer manufactures as much steel, or as much anything else, as it used to.

The Rusted River Irish Red label depicts the ghost of a riverside steel mill and reads: "U.S. Steel. Youngstown Sheet and Tube. Republic Steel. These are some of the industries that built the Mahoning Valley. They may be gone today, but their spirit lives on in our Rusted River Irish-Style Red Ale. We brew each batch with the exact precision and dedication of the men and women who made these industries thrive. This beer is a tribute to their hard work and sacrifices that have stained our river a rusted red."

His other brands include Coke Oven Stout, the label of which depicts a goggled steelworker and describes "a brew that captures the brawny spirit of the workers who -- with the flames scorching their faces and the chill of the night at their backs -- so tirelessly kept the embers burning." There's also a Blast Furnace Blond Ale, not yet bottled, the name of which evokes a gritty industrial theme that lingers like a cloud over Youngstown and places like it.

In fact, that's the Pittsburgh skyline on the label for Old Man Hopper's India Pale Ale. Mr. Blair takes a bit of liberty on this one, as the old man depicted -- who "knew when to turn the other cheek" -- is not a Rust Belter but his step-father, a Californian who retired from Lockheed.

"What I was trying to capture with that again was the work ethic," says Mr. Blair, 40, himself a transplanted Californian who seems to genuinely embrace the Rust Belt's steel-strong values of hard work and family. He's hoping they help him sell more beer.

Rust Belt's president, he also works full-time as a Youngstown police officer, a job he's been doing for 11 years now, initially to support two daughters who'd moved to this region. And until recently, he was continuing to take information systems classes at Youngstown State University, but something had to go, as, in addition to his brewery, he has a wife and another daughter and an 8-month-old son.

In 2008, his interest in homebrewing connected, through a mutual friend, with Nick Rosich, a YSU criminal justice graduate who was living in Pittsburgh's North Side and helping to make beer for Penn Brewery. Mr. Rosich encouraged Mr. Blair's rust-colored vision of making and selling an indigenous craft beer -- "tapping Rust Belt chic," as Burgh Diaspora blogger Jim Russell described it. So Mr. Blair and Mr. Rosich, with another partner, fired up the 10-barrel system left at the train station by the short-lived and defunct B&O Station Brewing brewpub.

"I think the name would fly anywhere from Milwaukee to Buffalo," says Mr. Rosich, who is 29. "'Rust Belt' is just another synonym for this region."

About a year after their first brew, Rust Belt Brewing's beers are available at hundreds of area watering holes, dispensed from tap handles made with railroad spikes and other scrap, each topped with a ragged, torch-cut R. Now the brand is expanding into the Pittsburgh market, and being sought by Rust Belt ex-pats as far away as the Sun Belt.

"My sales here locally have just exploded," says Mr. Blair, who's still basically hand-filling the 22-ounce "bomber" bottles that he distributes. But he's now working on a plan to expand his tiny operation, including adding a bottling line for 12-ounce bottles in an addition to the station.

The B&O station, a 1905 National Register landmark, now is a restored brick beauty of a banquet hall on the banks of the Mahoning River, just across from the Youngstown skyline.

Rust Belt Brewing is not a brewpub, and while he might add a tasting room, he doesn't want it to become a place people regularly come to drink and eat. "The demographics here just don't support that." (You can drink Rust Belt brews in the cute Boxcar Lounge next door.)

He does regularly hold events in the big space. Last month, he started a monthly series of Saturday beer-tasting events there, each featuring another brewery from the region, as well as food and entertainment for $15. About 150 people came to the Jan. 16 one, featuring Akron's Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. The next one, on Feb. 20, will feature the North Side's Penn Brewery. Get details at the website, rustybrew.com.

Only about an hour away, Rust Belt has many Pittsburgh links, including Mr. Rosich, who, as head brewer, drives over from Morningside once a week or so. (He's also been helping out at the restarting of Penn Brewery.)

Mr. Rosich looks forward to expanding Rust Belt's line from the four mainstay "easy-drinking session beers" to include seasonals customers will help choose.

"Part of my marketing is for people to have a sense of ownership of [Rust Belt], not just identify with it," says Mr. Blair, who looks like a cop the way Mr. Rosich looks like a craft brewer. But, sipping a beer with his metal sculptor buddy Daniel Horne at the bar, Officer Blair says he plans to retire from the force in the next year if the expansion into a dozen more states works out. He's entering the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival, too, hoping Rust Belt can make a name for itself.

Right in the middle between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, he's careful talking about his loyalties. Because the brand entered Pittsburgh first, he rooted for the Steelers this year, but as someone who always roots for the underdog, he likes the Browns, too, and can foresee doing a Cleveland brown ale in their honor. "Maybe a Detroit one," he says, mentioning other towns to which he could dedicate brews.

Mr. Horne smiles and says, "The Rust Belt's a big place."

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