I wanted to like this place, but there were two big strikes for me. First, no food. That was on me for not looking first, but I just assumed I'd be able to grab a bite. Apparently they are adding wood fire pizza later on, which will be nice. The big strike for me was a racist comment by the owner. I overheard a patron ask how they got the chai flavor in their chai beer and he said "We grind up Asian people to put in there. I guess that's a little bit racist." Correct. I'll check out the many other breweries around the Quad Cities instead. It's unfortunate, because the Hazelnut brown ale I had was fantastic. It was also my last.
Kandi H.
My husband and I stopped in on Thursday and loved it. A special shout out to Wendy-who was a great hostess, I told her what I like, and let her pick out my flight-everything was spot on and delicious-especially loved the Cranberry Cream Ale. We shared a large pretzel and awesome Boetje's Mustard. As we sat at the bar a few locals filtered in-we said hello and had friendly chats. Nice neighborhood bar that I would definitely frequent if I lived nearby. Don't miss this place if you are in the area!
Allyson C.
Stopped in to ''tis brewery today and was thrilled we did! Lindsey was delightful and very knowledgeable about all of the beers and beverages. We noticed a significant amount of" locals" which says a lot! Every beer we had- cranberry cream, smokehouse stout, and cinnamon (???) - were all good. We will definitely be back to try the vanilla stout!
Eric E.
How many breweries can you bike to, bring your bike into the outdoor seating area of, and hop off for a quick glass of beer? Great River checks these boxes, and I liked it. On a sunny mid-80's October afternoon, I found myself half way through my bike ride at the steps GRB. Spotted another bike in the outdoor seating area and decided this was the place for me. I had a considerable ride ahead of me so one glass was all I could go for. The Vintage Blonde sounded good so I went with that. Good call. The Vintage had a great kolsch taste. Struck up a conversation with other bikers while we drank. The beer menu here is pretty extensive, I'd love to stop back in sometime and give others a whirl. Cheers
Jason F.
I stopped by here a couple of Sundays ago with my wife. We were in the Quad Cities area and wanted to try a local brewery on the IA side and so I consulted Yelp. Great River Brewery came up and so we headed on over to it. Whenever we first walked into the tasting room we were on what we would later find out was the sports bar. Since the menu wasn't on that side, one of the bartenders encouraged us to walk through a door on the side around to the other side and so we did. We happened to be the only people there at that point which was sort of weird. On this side of the bar they had a ton of merchandise for sale and I could see a large board with what they had on tap. The back side of the room was filled with coolers of beer which you could get to go. As I often do whenever I visit a new brewery, I went with a flight. Flights at Great River Brewery consist of your choice of 6 beers and so I went with the roller dam red (my little chalkboard was missing this one), the spooner, 483 pale ale, vintage blonde, an experimental peanut butter brown and finally the milk stout. The beers here were all decent and the two that excited me the most were the roller dam red and the Peanut Butter Brown. It was amazing to me that they got as much of the taste of peanut butter into a beer and that it worked well. By the time I was finishing up my flight, a number of other people had started arriving at the taproom including a number of cyclists. The bottom line for me is that I would head here again in the future. While it was a bit weird being the only people there for a while, I would really love a chance at trying that Peanut Butter Brown again.
Andrew K.
The strawberry blonde here was the best I've had anywhere across the whole country. The service was great too. The ambiance is par for a typical dive bar, so if that's what you're looking for, look no further. A great place to hang out with friends on a weekend night.
Amazing kids great show
I wanted to like this place, but there were two big strikes for me. First, no food. That was on me for not looking first, but I just assumed I'd be able to grab a bite. Apparently they are adding wood fire pizza later on, which will be nice. The big strike for me was a racist comment by the owner. I overheard a patron ask how they got the chai flavor in their chai beer and he said "We grind up Asian people to put in there. I guess that's a little bit racist." Correct. I'll check out the many other breweries around the Quad Cities instead. It's unfortunate, because the Hazelnut brown ale I had was fantastic. It was also my last.
My husband and I stopped in on Thursday and loved it. A special shout out to Wendy-who was a great hostess, I told her what I like, and let her pick out my flight-everything was spot on and delicious-especially loved the Cranberry Cream Ale. We shared a large pretzel and awesome Boetje's Mustard. As we sat at the bar a few locals filtered in-we said hello and had friendly chats. Nice neighborhood bar that I would definitely frequent if I lived nearby. Don't miss this place if you are in the area!
Stopped in to ''tis brewery today and was thrilled we did! Lindsey was delightful and very knowledgeable about all of the beers and beverages. We noticed a significant amount of" locals" which says a lot! Every beer we had- cranberry cream, smokehouse stout, and cinnamon (???) - were all good. We will definitely be back to try the vanilla stout!
How many breweries can you bike to, bring your bike into the outdoor seating area of, and hop off for a quick glass of beer? Great River checks these boxes, and I liked it. On a sunny mid-80's October afternoon, I found myself half way through my bike ride at the steps GRB. Spotted another bike in the outdoor seating area and decided this was the place for me. I had a considerable ride ahead of me so one glass was all I could go for. The Vintage Blonde sounded good so I went with that. Good call. The Vintage had a great kolsch taste. Struck up a conversation with other bikers while we drank. The beer menu here is pretty extensive, I'd love to stop back in sometime and give others a whirl. Cheers
I stopped by here a couple of Sundays ago with my wife. We were in the Quad Cities area and wanted to try a local brewery on the IA side and so I consulted Yelp. Great River Brewery came up and so we headed on over to it. Whenever we first walked into the tasting room we were on what we would later find out was the sports bar. Since the menu wasn't on that side, one of the bartenders encouraged us to walk through a door on the side around to the other side and so we did. We happened to be the only people there at that point which was sort of weird. On this side of the bar they had a ton of merchandise for sale and I could see a large board with what they had on tap. The back side of the room was filled with coolers of beer which you could get to go. As I often do whenever I visit a new brewery, I went with a flight. Flights at Great River Brewery consist of your choice of 6 beers and so I went with the roller dam red (my little chalkboard was missing this one), the spooner, 483 pale ale, vintage blonde, an experimental peanut butter brown and finally the milk stout. The beers here were all decent and the two that excited me the most were the roller dam red and the Peanut Butter Brown. It was amazing to me that they got as much of the taste of peanut butter into a beer and that it worked well. By the time I was finishing up my flight, a number of other people had started arriving at the taproom including a number of cyclists. The bottom line for me is that I would head here again in the future. While it was a bit weird being the only people there for a while, I would really love a chance at trying that Peanut Butter Brown again.
The strawberry blonde here was the best I've had anywhere across the whole country. The service was great too. The ambiance is par for a typical dive bar, so if that's what you're looking for, look no further. A great place to hang out with friends on a weekend night.
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