Plans to replace the heavy wood doors inlaid with stained glass featuring the Methodist logo - a cross and a red flame - were scuttled when Lustina and Simon agreed that the doors looked good against their white, modern motif. The beer-flowing altar will eventually become the merchandise stand and be used to fill 32-ounce cans to go.

Kneelers will be incorporated into the bar. The lectern remains it will become the host stand. Lustina and Simon are reusing as much of the old church as they can. It had an iconic, straight-out-of-central-casting look, and the crooked cross on top helped name one of their first brews: Crooked Cross Cream Ale.

But they were immediately smitten with what they found in New Buffalo, 1.5 miles off the first exit Chicagoans pass when entering Michigan on Interstate 94. It needs to have the unmistakable visual for a 'beer church' to work.įor their initial beer church, Lustina and Simon planned to look for properties in northern Indiana. The requirement is little more than an iconic, historic church. Similar projects are underway in Chicago (Eris Brewery and Cider House plans to open this summer in a former Presbyterian church) and in Colorado Springs.īut Lustina and Simon are already thinking about expanding the concept to other locations, maybe as soon as next year. Joseph Brewery & Public House) and Cincinnati (Taft's Ale House and Urban Artifact). Churches have been transformed into breweries in Pittsburgh (The Church Brew Works), Indianapolis (St. Though no one had trademarked those two words together, Lustina and Simon weren't the first to have the idea. They quickly hit on the answer: a beer church. Both were ready for the next phase of their lives: Lustina was in digital marketing, and Simon was a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. They wondered what other classic experience could be wrapped into the joys of drinking beer.

Beer church brewing untappd