Breweries to visit?

Ok everyone, I would love some suggestions from your personal experiences. I live in Bloomington, Illinois (literally the center of the state) and I am looking for breweries/brew pubs to tour/eat and drink at. Preferably something that is no more than a 3 hour drive. My wife and I want to do just a day trip on the weekends.

Obviously, I could just do a google search and hit breweries close by. However, I want to hear from people who have actually been to these breweries and what their thoughts were.

So far on my list I have Schlafly, 3 Floyds, Goose island and Two Brothers. Has anyone been to these? What are your thoughts? Any others that I should check out?

SCHLAFLY!!!!!!!!!

St Louis

If you go to schlafly you won't want to go anywhere else and if you do go somewhere else you'll wish you were at schlafly. It's some of the best beer you'll ever have. Great representations of many different styles. I have t had a bad beer from them.

Well! There you have it. poll closed.

Any questions? Just google schlafly.

I have had many schlafly brews. One of my favorite breweries in fact. I was just wondering if anyone has been there and done the tour. If so, how was it? I would love to see the facility and hear its history.

Honestly , I love Schlafly, but I am bemused by the 100% batting average here.......Oh well!

Uhh,three floyds??! Two brothers ,New glarus. To start. Wild Onion maybe. Do them. I like Flossmore station also-looks like a cool resturant as well around Chicago.

If you're in Bloomington you've probably been to Upland. Boulevard brewing in Kansas City is an awesome brewery experience with incredible views of the city. Stone Brewing Co. is in North County San Diego and is also an incredible experience - as a plus they have a high end pub that you can order quail or caviar in with a large, gorgeous biergarten. It doesn't hurt that lost abbey, green flash, and lagunitas are all extremely close to there as well. Colorado has some incredible experiences: Breckinridge, new Belgium, great divide, left hand, and many, many more brewpubs than could possibly be named.

I love breweries, and although some are "better" than others, there is something unique about each experience that makes it worth it.

Hopefully you can enjoy each for its own size and attitude and not wish you were at another brewery.

Just saw the three hour drive limitation - that's gonna cut most of mine out!

gadbrum said:

If you're in Bloomington you've probably been to Upland. Boulevard brewing in Kansas City is an awesome brewery experience with incredible views of the city. Stone Brewing Co. is in North County San Diego and is also an incredible experience - as a plus they have a high end pub that you can order quail or caviar in with a large, gorgeous biergarten. It doesn't hurt that lost abbey, green flash, and lagunitas are all extremely close to there as well. Colorado has some incredible experiences: Breckinridge, new Belgium, great divide, left hand, and many, many more brewpubs than could possibly be named.

I love breweries, and although some are "better" than others, there is something unique about each experience that makes it worth it.

Hopefully you can enjoy each for its own size and attitude and not wish you were at another brewery.

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If you like 30 hr drives instead of 3?

Solemn oath in naperville if your going to two brothers also stop by world of beer. All within 15 minutes of eachother

Haha, I am guilty of not catching all of the post. But, KC is only 8 hours and Schlafly is on the way; and Colorado and San Diego aren't too far a flight from indie

I've done the schlafly tour a few times and it is quite enjoyable. One of the times I went they were bottling and the woman pulled a beer off the line and popped it for us. There were only three of us on the tour and we were all friends so we shared the beer. Talk about fresh.

2.5 hrs to Cincinnati.

The Moerlein lager house has tours on Saturday mornings. This reminds me that I still haven't done it yet. Their beer is mediocre, but the building is amazing and has a ton of guest taps.

We have a ton of smaller breweries that are cool - Mt. Carmel and Rivertown I have toured their breweries and they are good. Mad Tree is opening on Saturday so I haven't been. 50 West has a cool tap room. As far as I know, they don't have official tours, but I've gotten to tour Rivertown and 50 West because I'm in a local homebrew club that had events there.

We also just got a Yard House, which has 148 taps.

Come on over and I can show you a good time

Might be a bit over three hours but Lexington has a few breweries to check out (Kentucky Ale, West 6th, Country Boy, and Blue Stallion - coming soon). There are also quite a few bourbon distilleries to check out, if you are in to that sort of thing. If you tour Kentucky Ale you can walk across the street and also tour their Town Branch Bourbon distillery.

Spend a few days in Chicago.

You already mentioned Goose, but here are some others to check out:

Revolution, Haymarket, Piece, Half Acre. Go to Binnys and buy anything Pipeworks. Lots of restaurants to go to with great beer selections.

West suburbs: Two Brothers and Solemn Oath

South suburbs: Flosmoor Station and 30 min to Three Floyds, One Trick Pony in Lansing gets some good reviews but I've never been

North suburbs: Tighthead in Mundelein is doing good stuff.

So many good places, and all within the 3 hour limit.

Entrepreneur640 said:

Ok everyone, I would love some suggestions from your personal experiences. I live in Bloomington, Illinois (literally the center of the state) and I am looking for breweries/brew pubs to tour/eat and drink at. Preferably something that is no more than a 3 hour drive. My wife and I want to do just a day trip on the weekends.

Obviously, I could just do a google search and hit breweries close by. However, I want to hear from people who have actually been to these breweries and what their thoughts were.

So far on my list I have Schlafly, 3 Floyds, Goose island and Two Brothers. Has anyone been to these? What are your thoughts? Any others that I should check out?

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Definitely check out Two Brothers! Great beer and awesome food in the Brewpub. My parents live about ten minutes from there and didn't even know it till I came to visit and we went there. Everyone enjoyed the food and even my dad(BMC drinker) enjoyed some of the beer. I can't say enough good things about that brewery. I didn't get to check out Solemn Oath while I was in the area, but they're not far from Two Brothers and I've heard good things about them. Three Floyds was pretty cool. I was there on a weekday afternoon and it was pretty empty. The beer is awesome. I didn't get anything to eat, but their menu looks unique and interesting and is posted on their website. The only mistake I made there was I didn't buy enough bottled beer to go before I left.
I didn't get to visit them, but Revolution makes some great beer too.

These breweries are slightly out of your 3 hour range, but you need to visit Point, Oso's, and Central Waters. They are located right in the heart of WI.

Most of what I've been to in the Chicago area has been mentioned, mlakota hit most of them.

I didn't see Church St. Brewery in Itasca. Kind of off th beaten path and their tap room is only open on Fridays, but if you are in town, it's worth the stop, imo.

The Lucky Monk in South Barrington. I've only been there once, but got a full tour of the brewhouse and was able to talk quite a bit with the manager about their beer and their processes. Very nice people and a really good burger. Beer was decent, They had just released an Irish Red that was a special. That's all I got to try though as I was driving that night.

Mickey Finns in Libertyville. Man, I haven't been there in ages, at least 10 years. I know it's still there though. They were brewing decent beers 10 years ago, I know it's changed hands since then, so it may be different now. It always used to be a must stop when I passed through Libertyville. I just don't get up there anymore.

Thanks for all of the great suggestions! I will have a whole darn list of places to hit this summer. Thanks everyone! And if anyone is ever out my way, I would love to meet you at Destihl for a pint. It's a local brew pub that is in the process of opening a new brew facility for distributing. Unfortunately that about the only brewery worth visiting within a few hours of me.

I hot a few for you and one in particular. I'm originally from southern Illinois and just spent 5 weeks out in the country.
St Nick's in DuQuion,
Route 51 Brewing Company Elkville,
And best of all Scratch Brewery Ava. Scratch brews wild beers. They have a wood fired kettle and forage for many of the ingredients. It is deep in the country very cool.

Only 7 years later. I hope he's taken his trip already

Well, he can take another. I didn't look at the date lol.

mtnagel said:

Only 7 years later. I hope he's taken his trip already

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And it was 'A three hour tour'. Maybe he's still out there trying to get home.

I'm a fan of the tongue table TBH

Brettomomyces said:

I'm a fan of the tongue table TBH

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Have you been there?