Big Grove Brewery plans Nebraska distribution, new Omaha taproom

• Big Grove Brewery is opening its first taproom outside Iowa in 2025.
• Big Grove brands like Easy Eddy hit Nebraska store shelves this month.
• The move follows a big expansion into Illinois last year.
• Big Grove is able to expand rapidly thanks to its new distribution center opened in Iowa City earlier this year.

Big Grove Brewery is getting even bigger.

After opening a new distribution center in Iowa City and taproom in Cedar Rapids last year, one of Iowa’s largest craft breweries is set to head west with wide scale distribution and its first taproom outside of Iowa.

The expansion to Nebraska, starting next month, will be Big Grove’s second launch outside Iowa after expanding distribution to Illinois through Stern Beverage in December. The westward distribution, through Quality Brands, will send the brand’s flagship varieties like Easy Eddy Hazy IPA and Citrus Surfer Citrus Wheat to more store shelves.

The increased capacity to supply Nebraska drinkers is made possible by its new 42,000-square-foot distribution facility opened earlier this year, which aims to increase production by more than 50 percent in 2024. The brewery ranks in the top 2 percent for barrel production nationally.

“Seeing the success of Big Grove in their home state of Iowa has us extremely excited about our partnership. We are looking at our future together as not only an opportunity to bring some more great beers to Nebraska, but Quality Brands is privileged to be one of Big Grove’s first steps to becoming a major regional brewery,” said Justin Burr, director of brand development at Quality Brands. “We have a commitment to excellence in its simplest form. … Big Grove checks all the boxes.”

The new distributor will allow Big Grove to not only enter the market, but leverage its distribution footprint and assets to scale up quickly, said Matthew Swift, CEO and co-founder of Big Grove. Quality Brands supplies over 4,600 retail accounts through warehouses in Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado.

The opening of a full taproom and restaurant in Omaha, similar in size to Big Grove’s other taprooms in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Des Moines, is planned for the spring of 2025. The location, at the cornerstone of the ongoing Catalyst development in the University of Nebraska Medical Center, will be Big Grove’s fifth.

The Catalyst project is set to complete redevelopment of the Omaha Steel Works Facility, providing an innovation hub for the medical center by the end of this year and over $600 million in new office, retail, housing and park space in the heart of Omaha.

“There is a decade or more to come of announcements ready to fill this space, of which Big Grove is one of the first,” said Jay Lund, principal of GreenSlate, who oversees the development in partnership with Koelbel Companies and the UNMC. “Omaha needs a Big Grove of their own. This concept and these operators are going to raise the bar.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.