The East Wind Brewing Co. is establishing a microbrewery on Route 66 in Staunton, Ill., reported the Riverfront Times in St. Louis.
The newspaper talked to owners Eric and Keva Lee. A few excerpts from the article:
We will be producing roughly 100 gallons per batch. This allows us to get creative with our beers. We also really like the philosophy of “produce local – drink local.” […]
We plan to start brewing, straight out of the gate, our 3 year-round beers: an IPA brewed with local wild honey, an american amber, and a smoked porter. We also plan to have several seasonal beers such as a summer Kolsch, and some bigger winter beers. […]
We plan on starting with draught accounts in the Edwardsville area and expanding from there. We would like to bottle our seasonal beers and have those available at local stores. We hope in the next year to open a beer garden that would be ideal for picnics. We feel our location is a perfect spot for people cruising Route 66 to stop, have East Wind Beer and enjoy the quaint town of Staunton and all it has to offer.
So not only will the brewery serve its suds on tap, but it’s going to distribute the beer at bars in the Illinois side.
According to the brewery’s Facebook page, East Wind became an official LLC on April 12. A recent tweet by Eric Lee said he was hoping for “the end of the year” to launch the company’s beers.
And, yes, this will be the first brewery in Staunton.
St. Louis is well-known as the home of beer behemoth Anheuser-Busch. At least six microbreweries, including the acclaimed Schlafly, also run in the Gateway City. However, despite the region’s long and rich beermaking history, this appears to be the first microbrewery in on the Illinois side of the region.