The weekend of October 22nd, Amanda and I visited Galena, IL for a wedding.
Before we left, Amanda looked for things to do. Since it's a couple of hours drive, we decided to leave Friday and stay the night before the wedding. We wanted something to do with the extra time. Amanda discovered Galena Brewing Company (http://www.galenabrewery.com/), and they were listed as having a live band - The Smiley Tillman Band from Chicago. So after making our way to the hotel, we headed into downtown to 227 N Main St. The door was open and we could hear the music out on the street. We walked in and grabbed a couple of seats at the bar to enjoy the evening.
We arrived fairly late and the bar closed at 11 pm, so I didn't order their beer sampler. Their sampler size varies according to how many beers they currently have on tap.
The band was engaging and the bartender attentive but not distracting. This microbrewery and brew pub was establised in 2009, and on the way into Galena we had seen a bilboard advertising Uly's Dark, their award winning beer.
That evening I ordered the Uly's Dark. It was definately good. Amanda, not being a big beer drinker, ordered their "Local Lemondade." It is made with VeeV acai spirit, lemonade and beer. It was shaken over ice and served in a mason jar. Amanda let me have a sip and it was really quite tasty.
I was looking at the their info and they have growlers available! More places need to make growlers available. It would be like picking up a gallon of milk for the week. Except better!
Amanda was kind of hungry so we ordered their meat and cheese plate. It was definately a nice late night snack. After finishing my Uly's Dark, I had their IPA. It was good. Really damn good.
The decor of the bulding is definately quirky - in a good way. It is open, high ceilinged with bright (but soft) light. It was comfortable. Some of the brewing equipment right there in the room behind the bar. It had the feel of being outdoors. In one of the corner they had kitchen cabinets, and the tables are in an area that somehow had something of a living room feel to it. As odd as the whole combination sounds, it's inviting and comfortable.
The hours are a bit limited since they close at 11 PM. But I have to say that for the small town feel, the hours didn't seem out of place. And after the long drive, I was happy to leave at 11 and head back to the hotel.
The next day after the wedding (and before the reception) we stopped back again. It was a busy day, as is to be expected in a place that is something of a quaint destination town with a lot of nice shops on the main street. The hostess was rather scatterbrained, but we were able to get a seat without much difficulty. The delay allowed us to poke around in their gift shop and I picked up a shirt.
After we were seated, Amanda ordered a Bloody Mary and I ordered their flight of beers. Right away we got some beer bread with honey butter. simple, but tasty. We received water not too much later, after a little wait, we received the food we'd ordered (3 tapas for $12) - The crostini was amazing, the tart and the flautas were good. Then, after all of that, we finally received our drinks. The wait was about 15 minutes from the time we ordered. Not terribly wrong, but for how easy it was, to make a bloody mary and pours some beers, it was kind of a long time. We probably would have been better off if we'd tried to squeeze in to the bar.
The bloody mary was mediocre with an unimpressive garnish, and it came with a farmers American ale chaser.
The beer, on the other hand, was good.
The beers that I received in my flight were:
- Farmers american ale
- Miner's Treasure amber ale
- Anna Belle's IPA
- Uptown Brown nut brown ale
- Uly's Dark oatmeal stout
- Oktoberfest
All were good. I like their Oktoberfest better than maybe 30-50% of other Oktoberfests I've had. The Uptown was interesting - it had a light smokey scent and flavor that wasn't overpowering. It was a nice beer with a definate coffee influence.
I would definately drink Galena beer again. And I would also go back to visit the brewery again too.
