TribLocal Naperville - 14-20 June 2012
Special section inside
Naperville
with news of Aurora • Lisle
JUNE 14-20, 2012
New Naperville brewery experimenting with craft beer
By Melissa Jenco
TRIBLOCAL REPORTER
City may fasttrack restrooms
By Melissa Jenco
TRIBLOCAL REPORTER
Like many of his classmates at DePaul University, John Barley spent his breaks living with his parents. But for Barley, that meant staying at their home in Belgium, where he spent weeks at a time touring breweries and developing a passion for beer. “At that time you kind of realize it’s not all light beer…. The only option isn’t Harp if I want to get exotic,” said the 31-year-old Geneva man. Barley himself is now adding to the options available for craft beer drinkers with the opening of his Solemn Oath Brewery on Naperville’s west side. What was once an auto body shop in the industrial park is now a 7,000-square-foot warehouse brewing Belgo-American beers that already are being distributed around Chicago and the suburbs. The beer, said Barley, president and CEO of the brewery, “will have Belgian malts and yeast characteristics and then we still hop them with an American style, so really aggressive flavors.” “We’re really looking to push the limits with people with what their experiences are,” he said. For instance, there’s Kidnapped by Vikings, which the brewery describes as “featuring distinct caramel sweetness dominated by grapefruit, tropical fruit and piney hop nodes” and the Oubliette, with “aromatic Belgian malts balanced by bold tropical fruit/ripe citrus hop presence and fruity Belgian yeast.” The recipes come from the creative mind of head brewer Tim Marshall, 33, of Romeoville, who spent 12 years honing his knowl-
Solemn Oath Brewery President and CEO John Barley, left, and head brewer Tim Marshall are creating Belgo-American beers out of a warehouse space on Naperville’s west side. Melissa Jenco/TribLocal photo
edge of hops while brewing beer at Rock Bottom locations around the country. Marshall said he constantly has beer on the brain, always looking for inspiration for new brews. He currently is aging several of his creations in barrels that once held Jack Daniels, chardonnay and cabernet. “That’s just going to add another depth of flavor that we can’t achieve otherwise,” he said. Barley, who previously had been working in marketing at a nonprofit, started thinking about opening a brewery nearly two years ago and said he began formulating a serious business plan in January 2011. Reaching out to others in the industry, he found “business plans started falling on my
lap” and said he considers other local brewers like Two Brothers in Warrenville, Half Acre in Chicago and Three Floyds in Munster, Ind. to be friends, not competitors. “It’s a pretty cool collaborative effort,” he said. “There’s lots of room for all of us to grow.” Barley chose Naperville for his endeavor due to its reputation as the nightlife hub of the western suburbs and worked with the city to create a new liquor license classification for his facility. Last summer, he brought Marshall on board, then recruited his brother Joe Barley, 35, in November. The entrepreneur gave the brewery a
PLEASE SEE BEER, PAGE 8
Central Park may be getting long-awaited permanent restrooms earlier than planned. Naperville planners told the City Council June 12 they have been looking for creative ways to build and fund the project. “We think it’s feasible to be able to do this project and get it up and running and installed in order to have it ready for next year’s concert season,” Director of Transportation, Engineering and Development Marcie Schatz said. The city recently made other upgrades to the park at 104 E. Benton Ave. such as new seating and improved lighting, but hadn’t planned to add permanent restrooms until fiscal year 2016 at an estimated cost of \$328,000. There currently are portable restrooms at the park. But residents have long been asking for permanent restrooms at the park that hosts Naperville Municipal Band concerts, and Bette Kalina implored the city once again at the council’s May 15 meeting. “We seniors, families with young children and babies and just plain folks do need to use the facilities from time to time,” she said. During that meeting Councilman Joe McElroy also urged staff to push up the plans. “They have such a wonderful facility and to have a situation where sometimes people have to leave the concerts early … it just doesn’t make sense,” he said. Schatz said the city can use the designbuild process to more quickly construct a restroom facility, which would be located on the west side of the park. However, it still may have to overcome some storm water issues. Councilmen agreed staff should return with a formal amendment to the capital improvement budget that moves up the timing of the restroom construction.
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