Stopped into TWO Springfield, IL, breweries the other day while on an annual elected official drive-down event for our local council of government. The first of the two was Buzz Bomb, which was juuuuuust getting off the ground when I was down there last year. As a beekeeper and a beer fiend, and a male known to drop bombs like your moms, I was excited to peep this place.
Walked in and found the place bumpin’, a bunch of people laughing, and a whole hell of a lot of glass clinking. I approached the bar and met Steve, who is the textbook definition of adorable, and immediately ordered both of their IPAs, because there is no time like the present to order two beers. I started asking Steve some pretty specific questions about platonic male relationships, and he nope’d the hell out of there when I asked if he wanted a friendship bracelet.
But, he handed me off to Bill, the brewer and one of the founders. Bill was immediately my best friend. Not because he was handing me beers, but because (as a guy who works in a compounding pharmacy) he was drinking out of a beaker. He mentioned that he got a great deal on them from a local urology office that closed down. I got the joke and asked Bill about the aforementioned friendship bracelet. He was down.
As new BFFs, we started talking about how Buzz Bomb is a few days away from being a year old, how they’ve tried to keep up with demand on a 5-barrel system, how they just bought another 10-barrel brewing facility in a town a few minutes away, and how they’re moving towards canning and will self-distribute. BUT THEN, HE WHIPS OUT A BALLS-ASS SCHWARZBIER AND THEN A VANILLA MAPLE PORTER FOR SUMMER, AND NEXT THING I KNOW WE ARE GABBING LIKE GIGGLE SISTERS.
I could go on, and what’s funny is when I asked if the other new brewery around the block was any good, he went on about the other brewery being great friends of theirs and awesome people and I’ll love them. How do you know a brewery is worth a shit besides awesome beer? They talk up what some might consider their competition. Get to Buzz Bomb. I fucking loved it. - Joel
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Brewery: Buzz Bomb
From: Springfield, IL 🇺🇸
