Nortons Brewing Company

Love the venue. Big open space with the bar in the back. Large patio space with real patio furniture. The beer I had were all pretty good. Nice variety of styles. The service was swift and helpful. I loved the food I had but others at the table said theirs was just "fine". Definitely worth a visit

I stopped in at Nortons for a couple beers while visiting Wichita a couple weeks ago. Stepping inside, I immediately liked the place. They were playing my kinda music, and the interior was maybe a little hipster but also very welcoming. Service was good up at the bar, and my server was joking around with me and having a grand old time. I didn’t have any food on this trip, just beers, though they do have a kitchen.

There were 12 beers on tap on my visit. Styles included a hoppy hefeweizen, West Coast IPA, a couple hazy IPAs, vanilla stout, peach Belgian strong, DDH session IPA, Czech light and dark lagers, Irish red, fruited sour, and a robust porter. All in all a good variation of styles, given only 12 taps. The quality of what I tasted, however, was mixed: some beers quite good, other beers need some work. If on the off chance I find myself in Wichita again, I’ll definitely come back to Nortons and check out more of their offerings.

We came into Wichita to watch a hockey game and decided to check out a few places before puck drop. This brewpub is located downtown, with ample nearby parking and close to other venues and hotels. It has a nice outdoor biergarten and a spacious taproom. We didn't try any food, but had a few of their beers. The Oktoberfest was average, but the Wit was out of this world good. Service was friendly and prompt and the place is inviting and enjoyable. Worth a visit if you are in Wichita.

No, no, don't tell me.
They - they don't understand you at home. They don't appreciate you. You want to see other lands, big cities, big mountains, big oceans, ha ha!

On walkabout, or driveabout state hopping as it is before the unusual suspects fly in a few days from now. Holy shit is Wichita dead on a Sunday, but there are sights to be seen, so let us get it on. Local beer guy at the last place told me that my ‘where to go in Wichita next’ place was to be scrapped and to come here instead (as local beer guys do). I would do the same if he were out seeing my scene. Beers, and the fact that I will need food and they can accommodate is an added boon, so yeah, sure, I’ll come and see what the what what be. Standalone, parked a lotted, past a small outdoor space and in…

Large open arched hangerish room with rafters on a black ceiling. concrete floors and cinderblock walls with large panel windows up front and to both sides, and a roll up door to the side exterior space. Drop mesh cylinder filaments tracing above the bar. Pan lamps across the floor, lanterny things, phat ducts, spots & spins.

A boomerangish shaped black slab bar spanning 2 walls off the back corner, horizontal wood base, & a slight concrete ledge. Seating for 13 on the most comfortable fucking black leather swivel chairs ever + a sunken section with 3 chairs that can be pulled out for accessible. On the rear wall, 3 rows of 4 plank pieces listing the draft selections in bright colors (beer, style, ABV, & pricing for shorty, full pour, & crowl, if applicable). 12 taps on a logo handled panel sits below alongside light art & signage, a double slushy machine & a crowl crimper. Glassware countered & shelved below, and mugs, stemware, & booze on the end in a vertical shelving unit with a stylish mash rake on center. Off the corner, an old b/w framed Black Sabbath print sits above the service window to the outside space. And a little further along, a cooler here and glassware & merch shelving there with large N-O-R-T-O-N-S marquee lighting above.

Cool art overhead; a tiny strung lighting wrapped Octopus-like sprawling branch piece of a tree with a skeleton sitting in it, a welder gone wild steel goddamn Pterodactyl piece that haunts my dreams, some crazy light bramble, a podded planting growth of some sort, wood pieced hop lamps, giant brass knuckles for crowd control, creepy dolls and little pieces of play, and other cool shit. R.I.P. MCA mural on the far wall. Respect! And a large projection screen on the front wall (Chiefs & Browns playing), with a framed guitar alongside.

Brewery to the rear which is where the beer comes from. 2 dozen square and rec wood tables high & low across the floor, angled & not, and a front corner waiting area of comfy. And a cool outdoor space. Step up stage to the rear for performer play, a grassy knoll in the center, hanging chairs from a trellis up front, and tables along the perimeter. Umbrellaings, tall shrubbery & potted plants, birdhouse action, and strung lighting back and forth and back across the yard again.

12 beers; half of them riding the range of hoppys and then some (Ozone, Hazy soft bomb IPA dry hopped with Vic Secret & Citra, 7.6%; Juice Cult, East Coast IPA with Calypso, Mosaic, Sabro, Apollo, Simcoe, & Citra, 6.3%; Milo’s Sparkly Eyes, West Coast IPA with Centennial & Amarillo, 7.4%; Ficken Jah! - F**K Yeah!, German IPA, 6.2%; Nico Eyed, DH Double IPA, 10.5%; Luvbug, Hoppy Hefe with Mosaic, 6.6%), and the other half of them being the kid mix of Lager, Malt, Roast, & Sour (Party Fridge, Dortmunder Export Lager, 5.5%; Oktoberfest, Lager, 6.2%; Sho’ Nuff, American Brown Ale, 5.5%; Don’t Poke the Bear, Imperial Milk Stout with Vanilla Beans, Chocolate, & Coffee, 8%; Polkadot Princess, Belgian Golden Ale on Peaches, 9%; Forever Home, Blackberry Lime Gose, 6%).

As any beer drinker who has his shit together would, I started with Party Fridge, Dortmunder Export Lager, which was solid and then moved around some. Oktoberfest was smooth & malty as it ought to be; Sho’ Nuff, American Brown Ale was very nice; good malt & hop; Lubug, Hefe, well, I’m feeling like the Hefe qualities are lost to the hopping; Juice Cult, East Coast IPA was assertive; Milo’s Sparkling Eyes, West Coast IPA was malt backbone with an aggressive parking lot beat down hop bill, wow!; Polkadot Princess, Belgian Golden on Peaches was just fucking dangerous, really nice and hid the booze too well. Am thinking Dortmunder Export, American Brown Ale, West Coast IPA, & Belgian Golden for the Wins.

Ah, yes, the aforementioned food. Berry chicken bacon salad for the win, minus the crumbled blue cheese because fuck that. I know you don’t win friends with salad but sometimes, you know, sometimes... salad. Glenntender today, he knows the game of beer, true. Good tunes, chill house, and some very nice beers. Hey, Norton!

Friendly, open, clearly popular with locals. What's not to love?