Local craft brewers and distillers are making great strides toward opening their much anticipated businesses here in Monroe County.
Stubborn German Brewing Company, owned by Chris and Tammy Rahn of Waterloo, just secured a building in downtown Waterloo at 119 South Main Street.

They held an open house and tasting Thursday evening at their new home.

“We had a huge turnout and this makes us even more excited to start remodeling and bring this brewer to our town,” the Rahns stated on the brewery’s Facebook page.

They will be at downtown Belleville’s Brew & Que event June 5 and Waterloo’s Porta Westfalica Festival on June 16 with samples, but then they plan to focus time on remodeling the new shop.

With about nine months of remodeling planned, most of which the Rahns plan on completing themselves, Chris says they are still on track for an early 2016 opening.

The Hopskeller Brewing Company, owned by Matthew Schweizer, also has secured a downtown Waterloo location for his brewhouse at 116 East Third Street. A May 13 open house introduced the location and Schweizer’s plans for it to the public.

Schweizer has also been entering his creations in local and regional competitions, racking up awards and accolades for his Northern English Brown Ale and Amber Ale. He will also offer samples at Porta Westfalica Fest.

And, most exciting of all, according to Schweizer, “We ordered our equipment. It’s being custom-made by engineers and mechanics from Alpha Brewing Operations in Nebraska.”

He said that process will take about four months and he is hoping to be open to the public by this fall or winter.

Stumpy’s Spirits, owned by Adam and Laura Stumpf, is located at 1727 Centreville Road in Columbia, on farmland that has been in Adam’s family for seven generations.

In April, they received their license to officially operate as a distillery, making boubron, vodka, whiskey and moonshine.

And perhaps most unique about Stumpy’s is that their products will be “grain-to-glass.” Everything used to create their libations will be harvested from the Stumpf family farm. They even plan to make their own malt.

They hope to be fully operational sometime later this year and are looking ahead to a big milestone:

“Barley harvest is only a few weeks away!”