Country’s only NA brewery with a taproom isn’t far from Milwaukee
When I walked into Go Brewing in Naperville, Illinois, I was instantly hit with the familiar skunky smell that comes from brewing hops, yeast and malt. Behind the bar were 15 tap lines and a view into the brewhouse behind, filled with large silver tanks and hoses that transport brews from one tank to another. There also were the makings of any modern craft brewery, with a small stage for live performances and some couches next to a wall of games. All that to say, I didn’t need to drive 90 minutes to visit a 1,500-square-foot taproom for a few craft IPAs, a stout or two, a sour or a pilsner. There are more than a dozen craft breweries within a five-mile radius of Milwaukee that I can visit more easily. But Go Brewing offers something I hadn’t heard of before: a fully nonalcoholic brewery with an adjoining taproom. The brewery has anywhere from 12 to 15 nonalcoholic beers on tap that are brewed on site. “In terms of what we do, there’s nothing like it that I know of,” said owner Joe Chura. “There are certainly breweries that have an NA offering or two. To some people we were crazy, like, why would you create an NA taproom?”
NA taproom where sobriety is the norm
As nonalcoholic beers have grown in popularity over the last few years, Go Brewing jumped on the trend, opening a taproom where it’s normal to stay sober.
Event manager and bartender Cindi Robison said that she sought out a job at Go Brewing when she heard about its opening in January 2023.
“I quit drinking about 21⁄2 years ago and knew this place is my place to be,” Robison said. “When I watch people who don’t drink, for whatever reason, they come in and they are so happy to be able to go somewhere, and the vibe in here is just super chill.”
She said she has seen people from all over the country stop by so they could have a nonalcoholic brew straight from the source.
“We had a couple in an RV come in in. She doesn’t drink, and her face, she smiled the whole way in here, she was like, ‘This is the most exciting thing ever,’” Robison said. “They sat down and tasted everything. She even started to cry and said how wonderful it was.
“This is the environment you want to be in,” she said. “The people who come in are so genuine, down-to-earth, fun and having conversations they’ll be able to remember.
It speaks to the brewery’s motto, “Remember tomorrow” — a call to remember to take care of oneself today for tomorrow, and also to remember the fun of today without forgetting tomorrow because of over-drinking.
Though Go Brewing makes only nonalcoholic products, it does serve a few alcoholic beers in the taproom.
“We’re not teetotalers,” Chura said. “You don’t have to make a binary decision. You can alternate days and know that there’s still good beer for your day off.”
Jim Dolinar, who lives near the taproom, stopped by in early January. He was partaking in Dry January, a challenge that involves abstaining from alcohol for the month.
“You can try things here, which is a big plus,” Dolinar said. “I’ve had their beer before; it’s better than the others.”
Brewing nonalcoholic pilsners and IPAs
Go Brewing’s nonalcoholic brews are made using the same ingredients as alcoholic beer — water, grains, hops and yeast — though some ingredients are different for the brewery’s gluten-free offerings.
The difference comes in the brewing process. Go Brewing creates its mash — the mixing of water and malt to convert starches to sugars that can be fermented into alcohol — at higher temperatures so the sugars are less fermentable.
The inspiration for Go Brewing started after Chura and his wife cut out alcohol for 45 days in fall 2020.
“My wife and I decided to embark on this challenge; after a week I felt like I had super powers. What I realized is that I was under the cloud of alcohol for decades. I wanted more of that (super power) feeling and to keep going,” he said.
The nonalcoholic beer that was on the market at the time helped Chura stay sober. It inspired him to enter the market to try and make it better.
“One of the things I saw missing was variety, and although they were good, I thought they could be better,” he said.
By 2022 Chura transformed his garage into a brewery and brought on James Bigler as head brewer.
“James had never made NA beer, and I didn’t even know how to brew,” Chura said.
They decided they would tackle making a pilsner first.
“Pilsners are hard to get right, so we started with the hardest first,” Chura said. “From an NA standpoint, it’s even harder. It has to have enough flavor but be super clear and not compromise the flavor.”
Go Brewing succeeded in its first task. The pilsner is crisp and refreshing with a slight yeasty flavor, just like it should be.
Chura said their double IPA is the hardest to make.
“It’s tough because those usually have double the amount of alcohol content,” he said. “We use double the malt and hops, and when we do that it’s hard to control and make sure it’s under 0.5%.”
The double amount of hops gives their Not Just Another Story double IPA a lot of flavor. It has a good presence of hops and tastes like an IPA, but not quite as strong of a flavor as a double IPA with alcohol.
Other varieties like the Sunshine State Tropical IPA and Jab Jab Grapefruit IPA are tasty and fruity, not super hoppy, but still worth grabbing off the shelf. The New School Sour tastes more like a kombucha than a beer, but is delicious nonetheless.
For stout lovers, Go Brewing knocks it out of the park with its Donut Kill My Vibe vanilla maple stout. It’s indistinguishable from an alcoholic stout, with the same roasted malt flavors plus sweetness from the added vanilla and maple.
Nonalcoholic drink sales are growing
Nonalcoholic beer, wine and spirits sales increased 32% from 2022 to 2023 according to data firm NIQ, which tracks sales of U.S. supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchandise stores.
A big player in the nonalcoholic beer sector is Connecticut’s Athletic Brewing, which is commonly credited as the brewery that made nonalcoholic beer popular. It is found in many liquor and grocery stores and was the 13th largest craft brewery in the country in 2022, ranking just behind Wisconsin’s New Glarus Brewing Co., according to the Brewers Association. On the West Coast, breweries like Bravus Brewing and Best Day Brewing are big players in the market and have their beer distributed in Wisconsin as well.
While Athletic Brewing plans to open a taproom this year, none of those breweries currently has one like Go Brewing. They also are not based in the Midwest like Go Brewing.
“We’re at Midwest beer festivals,” Chura said. “We have people blind taste-test ours and beers with alcohol, and they get it wrong half the time. It provides an educational component and shows people what we offer.”
Go Brewing’s taproom is in an industrial area of Naperville, which makes it harder to find but makes sense since its distribution sales are the strongest part of the business.
The taproom opened in January 2023, and the brewery got its first distribution contract in the third quarter of 2023. It has seen exponential growth since and plans to grow its space by five times this year. Already this year, Chura said Go Brewing had more sales in the first three days of January than in all of the first quarter last year.
Thanks to its aggressive distribution, Go Brewing became available at more than a dozen grocery or liquor stores in southeastern Wisconsin in January alone. In December, Inmoxicated, an alcohol-free bar at 329 Main St., Racine, was the only Wisconsin distributor of Go Brewing.