Solon's Big Grove Brewery eyes Iowa City taphouse

IOWA CITY — Solon's Big Grove Brewery is hoping to put another brewery on tap in Iowa City by roughly the end of the year.

Matthew Swift, owner of Big Grove Brewery at 101 W. Main St. in Solon, said he had always wanted to expand the business into Iowa City's downtown area, but finding commercial space that's not only large enough for a brewery, but also available, is no easy task.

'I think for me it just boiled down to, we wanted to be near some sort of downtown, we always had that vision of being near that city center, which is difficult to do when you're looking for that big of a building,' Swift said Monday. 'We had no intention of originally going to Iowa City ... we just felt we would never be able to find that space.'

That space — 28,120 square feet of space, according to the city assessor website — was found at an old warehouse at 1225 S. Gilbert St.

On Tuesday, Iowa City's City Council Economic Development Committee — which consists of Mayor Jim Throgmorton and council members Rockne Cole and Susan Mims — unanimously approved Swift's request for up to $40,000 in aid to put a new facade on the 50-year-old building, which sits just south of Nagle Lumber.

Throgmorton said he was happy to see Swift's plan is to remodel — rather than demolish — the building, which once housed the Hawk Shop Outlet.

'I love the adaptive reuse of the building,' he said.

Geoff Fruin, interim city manager, said the project will be one of the first major additions to that portion of the city's Riverfront Crossings District.

'One of the areas where we have not seen a lot of progress is on the Gilbert Street corridor,' Fruin said. 'I think it's going to do a lot to jump-start activity in this corridor and set an example for what we expect.'

Preliminary plans for the site include a large outdoor patio, ample indoor seating, a taproom and full-scale brewery.

While Solon's Big Grove Brewery has a 3.5-barrel system, the new Big Grove Brewery and Taproom aims to have a 20-barrel brew house with 60 barrels for fermentation — one barrel amounts to 31 gallons.

'The footprint is huge and it's a big vast open space,' he said. 'It's huge and a significant portion of that is going to be dedicated to making beer.'

Swift said he's excited to branch out into Iowa City and he hopes the new taphouse provides a different experience to draw both the Big Grove faithful and new customers.

'Solon's is a great brewery with a great restaurant, I think this is going to be a pretty unique and different experience,' Swift said Monday.