Lil Beaver Brewery

Years ago there was a young, eager lil beaver who enjoyed beer. However, he soon grew tired and bored with the commercial beer offerings in his neck of the woods and their false claims of ‘more flavor’ or ‘better taste’ that never quite met his expectations. After touring a local microbrewery and learning the process, the lil beaver decided it was time to brew his own beer.

If you’re familiar with beavers, you know they are extremely dedicated to everything they do, so he quickly became obsessed with honing his skills as a homebrewer. It wasn’t long before he was crafting delicious beers of all different types and styles.

When he approached his woodland creature friends about tasting his wonderful craft beers, he quickly realized several of them – and the community in general – were not all that familiar with craft beer. In order to help spread the knowledge he decided to get involved with the only local beer festival in his town, now called Bruegala, which also serves as a fundraiser.

Once the event organizers found out he was a homebrewer, they asked him to handle all the beer-related responsibilities, FOR THE ENTIRE BEER FESTIVAL! The lil beaver gladly accepted this challenge and the event was a huge success. He was asked to again help out the following year, and in addition to handling the very important beer duties for the festival, he thought it would be fun to serve some of his own personal homebrews.

So, that year, he set up a serving table and poured his hand crafted lil beaver beers. Just for fun he decided on a “special tapping” of his most coveted brew: a 13% ABV imperial stout affectionately known as ‘Big Hairy Beaver.’ The crowds loved it, the keg was emptied in minutes, and their responses were overwhelmingly positive.

Due to popular demand he decided to do it again the following year, but with more flavors and styles than before. Fans remembered these beaver beers from the year before, many by name, and a large line immediately formed for samples. As the countdown approached for this years’ special tapping of The Big Hairy Beaver, the long line that had formed erupted into chants of “Tap that Beaver!

Tap that Beaver!!!” It was at that moment he knew a local favorite had been created. Fast forward to 2016, and not only has Lil Beaver helped grow the Bruegala event into the largest downstate beer festival in Illinois, he’s also created quite the following of lil beaver lovers!