Great River Brewery

3.53/5  rDev -11.5%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.75 | selection: 3.25

Small establishment with the majority of its seating outside on wooden benches. It's their brews that are the showcase, but the real treat here is the great location with a beautiful view of the nearby dam and drawbridge.

★ 222 characters

4.37/5  rDev +9.5%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5

My favorite local place. Great vibe with a great patio. Very nice BT's. Their Golden Keg events are a blast. They are tapping of new beers and the first keg is free. Great 1/2 price growlers on Sundays and Mondays. Not top tier beer, but they try. Fresh beer because close to home. Dog friendly with lots of bikers. Have a coupon that they print locally in which carry out even cheaper. Redband stout is their best!

★ 425 characters

4.36/5  rDev +9.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5

Definitely the best of the Quad City area breweries. Patio is great during the summer -- dog friendly, lots of places to sit, extra tap island for busy days. No food service but several local places will deliver. Friendly staff and patrons.

Good variety of seasonal brews and standards. Big fan of the Golden Ale and the 312 Pale.

Tip: If the Government Bridge swing span is open tap beers are 1/2 off.

★ 409 characters

3.5/5  rDev -12.3%

The others have pretty accurately described the place. I think that I visited on a night in the middle of the week, so there was not a lot of people, which is ok with me. It may have been close to closing time. The bartender was friendly and knew what she was talking about. There was also a couple of refrigerators for carry out, which is nice, especially for out-of-towners looking to sample the local brew. I don't recall any music being played. If I am ever back, I am sure that I will stop by.

★ 508 characters

3.93/5  rDev -1.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5

A diamond in the ruff!

I stumbled on this place last night. A small taproom with a bar that holds about 12 w/ a few tables. It seems to be pretty popular watering hole because it was busy with people constantly coming and going.

The bartender was able to recommend several beers through very descriptive means; I went with their american stout brewed with coffee, very balanced and enjoyable.

I also tried the barrel aged straight pipe stout - also good.

This was the second bar I have visited that allowed dogs, The Mitten bar in the state up north was other. There were three dogs on the grounds last night. this contributed positively to the atmosphere.

★ 661 characters

4.03/5  rDev +1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5

Stop #330 on my world brewery tour.

Visited around 8:00 - 9:00 closing time on a Monday night.

Small tap room in an old corner building. Nice character. Got to stand in the brewing room when I took a call and someone working there told me I could go into the brewery where it was more quite. Very pretty hot-side gear. Guy said more bigger equipment is on the way.

Had a very nice and fresh canned IPA and a good Abbey on draft. They do have a barrel aged program but nothing available tonight.

There was an ebb and flow of people including a group of cyclists who made it pretty crowded.

In two trips to the Quad cities I've visited all breweries and this is among the finest (just no food).

★ 702 characters

4.44/5  rDev +11.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4

Stopped in here on the way out of town from work when I noticed the very distinctive smell of wort. Very glad I did.

Not a very beautiful setting, but I guess it is right on the river and on a major thoroughfare in/out of the Iowa side of the Quad Cities. It's a small taproom (maybe 25 people can fit in there) attached to the production brewery. You can see it through the glass inside and as you approach the place. All wood bar, tall barstools with backs and a couple small tables. Mellow local crowd inside. No music, just the sound of brewing.

Had 6 of their own brews on tap +1 special barrel aged offering, which was sadly out. Had the Straight Pipe Stout, which was an excellent slightly coffee'd milk stout. They also do growlers (sadly clear ones), sales of their cans (4x 16oz.) and have some merch like shirts and patches.

No food but there looked to be some decent places to eat right across the street.

Service is 5 because the bartender was smokin', attentive, and talkative. Made me want to stay there longer and try all their beers.

Would be here at least weekly if I was a local.

★ 1,103 characters

4.16/5  rDev +4.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4

Downtown Davenport is not exactly a tourist area, with that binging said the Great River Taproom grew on me while I was there. The taproom is small, but there is an outside area as well. Everyone seemed friendly and I thought the beer was very good. The Farmer Brown Ale was tasty and both of there stout offering were very good. I like this place and is worth a stop if you are in the area.
They had 5 or 6 beers on tap at 4 bucks a pint and it looked like they run specials from time to time. I will go back every time I am in the area.

★ 538 characters

3.58/5  rDev -10.3%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4

Emily and I were both very surprised when we walked in the door to find only about 12 bar stools, and a very small "tasting room". So I had to knock a few points for atmosphere, because when it's full, it's full, and uncomfortable. The quality of the beer was middle of the road. Tried the Farmer John Brown Ale, and felt it was a decent brown, nothing too extraordinary, but nothing too bad. We however did enjoy the Aged Series Farmer Johns brown ale, which was supposedly aged for 7 months on Rye Barrels. It was very tasty...the oak and rye spice did nice work to the middle of the road brown. Then we tried their Straight Pipe Stout, and it was the same. Medium cream head, medium bodied. Seemed almost the brewery was aiming not to miss, rather than shoot for bulls. We then tried to Stout aged in Oak Barrels because the Farmer John in Rye ran out. Once again, the Stout was a lot better after some age to it, and barrels did some nice creamy/spicing to the beer. Will return when in the area.

★ 1,000 characters

4.14/5  rDev +3.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5

An impromptu trip to Davenport thanks to my wife's canceled flight so I took the opportunity to check this place out.

I will say, in the dark on a sunday nigth, downtown Davenport is quite eerie as there was no one around. Thought I was lost a few times but finally came upon the taproom at the end of the street. Coming from my direction its hard to even tell this place was a brewery. Walking in it's small with a nice taprrom setup with chalkboards listing brews behind a 15ft-ish bar with a few booths for extra seating. Lots of beers on tap, 6 regulars (483 pale, Roller Dam red, La Jefa light lager, Farmer Brown ale, Straight Pipe Stout, and an Espresso Stout) and 1-2 seasonals (An abbey Ale and their Big cock IPA). I ordered a sampler of all the brews. All were solid minus the Abbey, the stars being the 483 pale, which was dry-hopped with cascade, and the espresso stout that had been cold-pressed with coffee. I've yet to have a "coffee" beer come across with so much coffee aroma and flavor while still having good roasted malt character. The abbey was a mess with low body and very little ester quality apparent. Big Cock was a decent IPA but the 483 had better hop aroma.

Overall, this is a great place to check out, sit down and have a beer. Its intimate, to the point and cheap ($5 for 8 samples). I enjoyed it immensely especially on a 5 degree Iowa night.

★ 1,377 characters

3.9/5  rDev -2.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4

A nice, cozy little tap room right off the river, within walking distance of the Adler theater. Clean, laid-back, and nicely decorated: a lot like their Iowa City taproom used to be, back when they were known as Old Capitol.

We went around 8 PM on a cold week night and the place was filled with about a dozen regulars. The taproom is tiny, and so it was hard to find seating, but the music was soft and the regulars weren't sloppy drunk so the ambiance wasn't stifling or oppressive.

The place goes for a postmodern feel of polished industrialism--it's like you're at a work site that goes out of its way to make itself look like a work site. The affect works. Lots of brewhouses try to play up a workman image, I now realize: Lakefront in Milwaukee plays up its antique, dockerworker feel; New Glarus is like you're visiting a farm; Three Floyds is like you're at an old factory that some stoners turned into a loft and then, while still living there, they decided to turn it back into a factory. Great River does the same. The bricks are exposed, pallets of cans are stacked up everywhere, and the lighting and seating make it feel like you're at a capital-B Brewery, not a restaurant.

As to the beer... it's pretty good. Some are better than others, the everyday offerings are entirely solid but the rotating beers are hit and miss. Really, it's the same as it was at Old Capitol.

All the beers are listed on a detailed chalkboard, and everything but the barrel-aged stuff is available in growlers. The cans and pints are reasonably priced, but the growlers were stupidly expensive.

★ 1,592 characters

4.33/5  rDev +8.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 4

Great River was an unexpected gem of a find on a recent trip to the Quad Cities. Their beer was of superior quality, a step above the area brewpubs. After seeing a poster and cans at Trackside in Geneseo, IL, they were on my radar, and later a local friend recommended that we go here. Apparently the brewing operation used to be based at Old Capitol in Iowa City, and is now an independent brewery in Davenport.

From the street you can see pallets of cans stacked to the rafters, and fermenters behind a couple roll down garage doors. The tasting room bar has a corner door, and opens into the small lounge. The wood bar has 2 tap towers with 12 tap lines in all. 9 were running on our visit. There were a couple seasonals, a Hefeweizen and Far Out Espresso Stout, and the bartender mentioned they occasionally have barrel aged beers available. The beers were all fresh and brewed with high quality ingredients. The Espresso Stout was really rich and tasty, I left with a growler of it. The 483 Pale Ale was a bit hoppier than the random cans I picked up earlier, so get it fresh at the source if you can.

There were about 12 seats at the bar, one booth, and a table in the back, so there was seating for maybe 20 people at the most. The bar itself was darker wood with lighter inlay details. Music was playing from the bartender's ipod, and there were no tv's, making an ideal atmosphere for relaxed conversation and beer sampling. They don't offer food, but you can order in or bring your own food in also. It's a brewery tap room, not a giant chain brewpub, so don't expect a sprawling restaurant & pub here. Brewery-fresh beer in a cozy, laid back atmosphere.

Our bartender was knowledgeable about the brewery and their beers. Apparently they were pouring at this years Great Taste, unfortunately I missed them there, but still got the chance to try their beers today.

Quality beer here, I highly recommend a visit if you're in the Quad Cities area.

★ 1,961 characters