White Rooster Farmhouse Brewery

 

finally got the chance to check this place out after hearing some great stuff about their wild beers. its way out there in rural land, but in a small downtown so not actually on a farm or anything. the space is cool, vaulted wooden ceilings and minimalist decor, old industrial meets modern country vibe. they have a little outside area, a spacious taproom, and a little bar right in the middle. one whole half of the place on the side is barrels, looks like they have a ton of capacity for this kind of thing, and are sure to have some cool beers coming out before too long. the brewery itself looks small and is in the back, some equipment visible from the bar. the weird thing for us was the vibe, the place is cool and its well set up, but we were literally the only people there for over an hour on a saturday evening! how can this be?! their beer is exceptional and they even had live music, we felt bad really, when we left, there was not a single patron in here, maybe the rural location has something to do with it, i hope they survive because their beer is really great, but it was a ghost town in here. the beers we had were awesome, the bottled wild stuff far more compelling than the clean stuff that dominated the tap wall, but a great selection across a huge range of styles and some real highlights, including the chardonel grape wild beer and turmeric beer they made with scratch. overall the beer is far too good here to not have more of an audience at prime time, thats troubling, but we had a great time in here nevertheless and enjoyed chatting with the brewer, a mellow guy who knows what hes doing. not sure when i will be back to sparta illinois, but i would recommend this place highly if you find yourself anywhere near by!

I visited White Rooster last week while traveling through town. It's a great place, if a little remote: big, welcoming taproom with indoor and outdoor seating. There were only 9 taps on during my visit, but the beers represented a good variety of styles and were all high-quality. They are doing a lot of interesting stuff with wild fermentation there, along with more typical styles; the foeder-aged saison is a real standout. Service is also excellent; if you ever find yourself driving through southern Illinois, it's highly worth checking out White Rooster.