{"id":23803,"date":"2017-08-22T15:18:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T20:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=23803"},"modified":"2021-08-31T13:36:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T18:36:44","slug":"site-visit-great-central-brewing-company-taproom-begyle-maplewood-kinslahger-funk-brewing-warpigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/site-visit-great-central-brewing-company-taproom-begyle-maplewood-kinslahger-funk-brewing-warpigs\/","title":{"rendered":"Site Visit: Great Central Brewing Company’s New Taproom"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n If you’ve been following our coverage<\/a>, I’ve been a little fascinated by Great Central Brewing Company<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For those of you playing catchup, they’re built for contract brew clients, helping\u00a0breweries like Begyle, Maplewood and Kinslahger to expand their production and move new beers into cans for retail sales. They’re also in business to help breweries outside the Chicago area — right now that’s Pennsylvania’s Funk Brewing, specifically — get into Chicago with fresh beer rather than shipping it across multiple states.<\/p>\n In the past few months, they’ve been cranking out batches of beer for the above breweries as well as helping pick up the slack for the new WarPigs line of beers, brewed in collaboration with the teams behind Three Floyds and Mikkeller. Pretty heady stuff for a brewery so new you can still practically smell the paint on the walls drying.<\/p>\n This weekend they opened their taproom, a huge space at the corner of Wood & Walnut just west of Ashland, within walking distance of the Goose<\/strong> Island<\/strong> taproom and in sight of the Finch Beer Co.<\/strong> facility (literally across the street). Between these two breweries, along with All Rise<\/strong> a little east and On Tour<\/strong> a little north, the West Loop coalition of beermakers is in full swing.<\/p>\n When we first looked into GCBC, their taproom was still months off. Back then, we said:<\/p>\n GCBC will have 24 taps onsite to showcase the\u00a0beers they\u2019re making in house,\u00a0which is kind of thrilling to consider. Between the\u00a0different beers for varying brands, it\u2019ll be like having\u00a0multiple brewery taprooms in one\u00a0single spot with fresh beer made just a couple dozen feet away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now that we’ve had a chance to visit, I don’t know if “thrilling” has quite paid off yet — their Chicago-heavy roster of clients means that the vast majority of their taproom beers will be well-known to craft fans — but “interesting” definitely qualifies.<\/p>\n Aesthetically, it’s not quite a taproom-in-a-box setup that is easily maligned these days — they don’t have Edison bulbs dangling from the ceiling and the waitstaff aren’t gruff burly bearded gents. If anything, the room takes its cues from the nearby Publican — large globe lights, somewhat communal picnic table style seating, and a photo-shoot-ready serving staff.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Let’s keep going with the “interesting” parts of the taproom. Light streams in through the two walls of windows on the north and west, but the most notable windows at the GCBC taproom are the ones they don’t<\/em> have.<\/p>\n As in, there are no windows that actually look into the brewery itself. I can’t remember if I’ve ever been to a brewery taproom where they didn’t want to show off their towering brewhouse or their forest of stainless fermenters, but Great Central has opted to keep its taproom as essentially one big concrete box, giving no visual indication that there’s a huge beer manufacturer cranking away behind the walls.<\/p>\n Another random\u00a0interesting<\/em> feature of note — the bathrooms are only accessible by elevator. That’s a new one for me too. Beyond that, the high ceilings and the subway tile-accented walls ensure that if you’re sensitive to loud rooms, you should probably opt for the nearby Kaiser Tiger patio — this room is built to get loud.<\/p>\n