If you’re a fan of craft beer, what a time to be alive. Bloomington-Normal is now home to a half-dozen breweries, with more just a short drive away.
But Bloomington-Normal’s beer history dates back a lot farther than Destihl’s opening in Normal 16 years ago.
That history will be covered Saturday during a History of Beer in Bloomington event at Keg Grove. It will be led by Rochelle Gridley, a volunteer at the Old House Society and the McLean County Museum of History.
“I just love local history. But it did let me explore even more than beer,” Gridley said on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Beer’s history intersects (obviously) with the influx of German immigrants into McLean County, she said. It also allows for discussion about things like women’s suffrage, as women voters were instrumental in turning Bloomington into a “dry” community a few years before national Prohibition began.
One of the most famous breweries to ever operate in Bloomington was the Meyer Brewing Co., also known as Meyer & Wochner, which operated from 1862 until Prohibition. It was run by two German immigrants (and brothers-in-law), Anton Meyer and Franz Wochner, and known for its “American Eagle” brand beer.
The brewery was located on what’s now the Highland Park Golf Course; the striking brick buildings on the property are from its days as a brewery. Other bricks from the brewery were repurposed for construction of the Ewing Castle at the corner of Emerson Street and Towanda Avenue.
“They had one of the biggest brewing companies in Illinois. That’s what they were saying in the papers in the 1880s,” Gridley said.
Bloomington-Normal did not have much in the ways of beermaking throughout most of the 20th century, as American production became concentrated in places like St. Louis and Milwaukee.
That changed with the rise of microbreweries in the 1990s and 2000s. Illinois Brewing Co. operated in downtown Bloomington until 2014. Destihl opened in 2007. There are now at least six breweries in Bloomington-Normal: Destihl, Keg Grove, White Oak, Lil Beaver, Casper, and Fiala Brothers. Analytical Brewing is located in Lexington.
“When I look at Destihl and their sort of new place (in northeast Normal), I see that as an old German beer garden. You can go sit outside, enjoy the fresh air, they have music there, and just enjoy it just the way people did when they went to Meyer & Wochner’s grove. They’d have picnics there every Sunday, beer being poured, bands playing. It was just a real party atmosphere, but for families. It was a real slice of German life come to America,” Gridley said. “It’s pretty exciting to see all this new business around making social places for everybody to get together.”
The History of Beer in Bloomington is set for 10 a.m. Saturday at Keg Grove Brewing Co. Tickets are $5, which includes one beer.
