A liquor license for the state’s first nonalcoholic brewery has been approved by the Naperville Liquor Commission but the project can only move forward if the Naperville City Council increases the city’s limit on breweries from three to four.
Naperville resident Joe Chura has proposed opening Go Brewing in a 6,000-square-foot space at 1665 Quincy Ave., the current location of 2 Fools Cidery, which is moving to an undisclosed larger location.
The operation would have a taproom and a brewing operation producing craft beer with no or very low alcoholic content but a taste as good or maybe better than alcoholic beer, Chura said. It would initially open in January and be in full operation by March, he said.
“People want to live a healthier lifestyle. This is happening across the United States,” Chura told the commission, noting that nonalcoholic craft breweries already exist in Iowa, Connecticut and Massachusetts. “Our mission is to bring it to Naperville.”
The goal is to dispel the negative image nonalcoholic beer currently has, he said.
“This is foreign to a lot of folks,” Chura said. “When you think of nonalcoholic beer, you immediately think of what? O’Doul’s or something that tastes bad. There’s an opportunity to educate the market.”
In addition to a tasting room, the pub portion of the business will present live music and healthy activities like yoga and stretching and there will be a space for food trucks. They also will be selling beer to area restaurants, distributing cans for sale at grocery stores and restaurants, and providing delivery options to consumers,
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The healthy activities would be “just fun stuff to get people thinking of things they can do to socialize and have a healthier alternative to just going to bars and drinking,” Chura said.
The tasting room will have five or six nonalcoholic beers in addition to a small selection of local, alcoholic beers, which will make up no more than one-quarter of its volume, he said.
In an interview outside of the meeting, Chura said three of the initial selections will likely be a Mexican lager, a stout and an IPA. They’re experimenting with multiple brewing processes, including one that uses a yeast that releases less alcohol content and machinery that extracts alcohol from beer, he said.
Nonalcoholic beer is defined as anything with less than .5% alcohol content; regular or light beer typically has 4% or 5% alcohol content. Chura said their goal is to make drinks with zero to 1% alcohol.
Because they will be serving both nonalcoholic and low-alcoholic products, customers will have their IDs checked to ensure they’re 21 or older, he said. Illinois allows minors to purchase and consume nonalcoholic beer but Naperville prohibits it.
“What I love is the taste of beer, the ritual of having a beer whether at dinner or friends on a weekend,” Chura said. “That is exciting, but why can’t that ritual have less alcohol and be a little bit better for you?”