Galena Brewing Company

We only had a few beers and some bread. The beer was pretty good. We got the nut brown which had a nice color and mild coffee flavor. It seems like it’d be a great place at night. A bar always looks a little open and strange in the day, so I might be a bit biased about the atmosphere. It’s a good place to meet with friends

Really great place to sit and have a beer or drink and the food is awesome! Beer cheese soup is a must to try! Very family friendly too! Very fair priced too!

Nice looking place. Hope to get a chance to give them a second chance… Really slow service! Took 15 minutes to have a server acknowledge us. Less than 40 people in the place with 4 servers. Probably just bad timing, but they looked like they were completely lost. Decided to not eat here. Beer was good.

Really cool place. Got the flight of house beers, and I actually loved each of them! Also tried a seasonal beer, Leap of Faith, and loved that too. The beer bread with honey butter, which costs extra, is worth it in my opinion. I got the garlic Parmesan flatbread, which was more like a pizza but still delicious. Lots of TVs which was great because we wanted to watch some March Madness. Apparently they have live music every Saturday, which any other night would have been great but was a little weird because of the aforementioned basketball tournament going on… So needless to say we left before that started. Waitress was very nice but kind of pestering us to order food right away despite the fact that we were clearly there primarily to drink and watch basketball. Overall great spot, worth a visit if you’re in Galena.

Great beer and friendly staff. There happened to be live music when I wondered in too, which was a bonus. Their Seasonal English ale was delicious, as was their Amber. That’s all I sampled, but if those two are any indication of the rest of their menu, you’re in good hands!

Awesome food, great staff, and their beers are FREAKIN GREAT! Try their beer flight to get a taste of their beers and they’ll pair them with your food. Had their chicken salad sandwich and it was bomb diggity.

Great place to get a craft beer in Galena. Did a beer flight and love them all. Did brewery tour with bartender Chris. He did an awesome job! Lunch menu was average at best. 2 lbs pretzel appetizer is a must.

I was blown away by the quality of the beer at this brewery. In a tourist town where they could have just mailed it in and still made a killing, this brewery actually tries new things and makes some truly great beers. I recommend ordering off the seasonal menu where the try new things. Awesome! Awesome! You should go if you love beer.

The host was a smart ass.
The waitress is in the wrong business.
Saying the food was bland is giving it credit.
The beer was okay even tho she didn’t bring me what I ordered.
Saturday Jan 9^th 6 p.m.

Galena is a tiny little town in the «hills» of Illinois. It has some historical significance, a «mountain» on which to ski and beer. I can only comment on the brewery.
The beer was pretty good. I had the IPA (Phuzani) and the Farmers Blonde. Phuzani was fun to say and fun to drink. It has the right amount of hops and isn’t overly bitter. Would have stayed and had a few more except Iowa was 16 miles away. I rarely am out this way unless I’m gambling in Dubuque.
Where I’m knocking this down: there is part of the bar that is cut off from the main bar. They don’t serve food in that little front section which is, in my humble opinion, absurd.
Since I can’t comment on food or other beers here, I’m leaving 4 stars. Of course that can change on my way to/​from Iowa.

Here’s the thing about Galena: EVERYTHING shuts down around 5:00 PM. Only a few places stay open, and this was one of them. (in fact, I don’t think they even open until 5ish on weekdays). So we wanted to grab some dinner, and we figured we’d check this place out.
Place was empty when we got there (about 6:00 PM) and we were greeted and seated pretty quickly. Server gave us a heads up about a beer special they had ($ 4 pints I think?) which is always good… I hate when servers don’t let the guests know if they’re running specials…
Skimmed the menu, got some different wings and some beer bread (light snack before we head onto the road). Ordered up a Uly’s Dark Oatmeal stout.
So here’s the good: The $ 4 pint was excellent. If their stout was any indication of their other beers, they know what they’re doing and it really doesn’t get much better than the $ 4 pint.
The bad: Food wise, it’s not terrible, but it’s not good… The beer bread is fairly dry and crumbly… it’s decent tasting with the butter, but nothing stand out that has your craving. The wings are baked, which is excellent for health purposes, but terrible for texture/​flavor unless you really do a great job of drying them out in advance. (Hint, use baking soda/​powder mix with some salt combined with an overnight air dry should bring up the alkalinity of your wings so that baking them will make them crisp). I recognize that this process may not be easy or even allowed in commercial kitchens though… but the wings were really rubbery/​not enjoyable…
Verdict: Come here for beer. They know what they’re doing. And it’s very good stuff. But they need to work on improving their food program… granted we only tried two things off their appetizer/​bar menu, but neither would have us wanting to come back.

I was really excited to try this place. I haven’t been to galena in several years so my husband and I thought we would try it out.
Our visit started out pretty good; our waitress was very friendly and the place was half empty. We ordered a hot toddie (hot apple cider and fireball and caramel drizzle) and my husband got a beer. We also ordered the beer bread and honey butter. The drinks came in a timely manner but mine tasted like watered down apple cider. The beer bread was slightly cold in the middle and super dry and there was no honey in the butter.
When the server returned to take our order I told her about the beer bread and she took it and said she would tell the kitchen. That was the was the last time she came to our table. Several minutes later, our chicken salad sandwich and sweet tots (we spilt it) came out and half of the sandwich was just bread and lettuce and the tots, although flavorful, were mushy.
After our server passed by several times without any acknowledgement about how we were doing or the beer bread, we finally grabbed her for the check.
I would MAYBE give this place one more try but I left feeling hungry, sober and super disappointed.

Tried their Hefe and Blonde ale. Both were everything you look for in the type of beers. I also ordered their brat. The brat was delicious! Food and Beer were excellent!
I came in here having a terrible day and left with a smile on my face thanks to the outstanding customer service of the staff and especially David. Thank you Galena Brewing Company!

We looked forward to trying a local brewery after the drive from Chicago. The bar and restaurant were busy, but not overly so. Were seated right away, as the singer was starting his sound check. Noticed the energy in the room was weird, and that they were quick to clean tables up, but not to greet their customers. Made it through the whole sound check and his first two songs and no one had yet to check in on us. We left and took our business elsewhere.
And didn’t regret where we ended up.

Had a lunch here once and beer only twice on a recent visit to Galena. The space is very nice with an open floor plan and retro-​industrial look. Our server was very nice and knowledgeable — we even got a little history lesson from him on the town and brewing legacy of Galena.
The beers were very good — clean and fresh — especially enjoyed the John-​Jon Lager. Prices were extremely reasonable (in the $ 4 to $ 5 range) for a pint.
The food was good but pretty typical bar fare. We started with a small loaf of the beer bread served with honey butter which was tasty. My wife had the buffalo chicken wrap served with sweet potato tots and I had the Bratwurst which was served on a rye brat bun (nice touch).
We will definitely be back when in town again.

After endless wine tasting we decided to come into Galena brewing company to try a beer tasting. There were two options of beer flights: seasonal beers and Galena brewing co beers. We were here two times so I was able to try both. While the seasonal beers were good I really think the Galena brewing co beers were much better. The second time we came here we had food with our beer and were both disappointed. We had pretzel bites as an appetizer and they were just gross. Normally I love pretzel bites but the cheese was just awful. Yuck. My boyfriend had hot wings while I had a pulled pork slider with the beer cheese soup. He wasn’t crazy about his food but I thought mine was pretty good. The small portion was just the right amount.

Beers are all really good. Clean and without infection. I enjoyed the blonde, wheat, amber and nut brown.
Food was really good as well. We ordered the beer bread — SO GOOD. Got the beer cheese soup… Even better. The chef salad I ordered was huge! Couldn’t finish it all. I would definitely come back for the food and beer.
Service not so much. That’s what’s stopping this from being a five star review. Our waitress seemed very disinterested in waiting on us. I had to ask for water twice. She never filled it because she noticed I was empty. One time she walked up to the table on her way to another table, asked if everything was good and I had a mouthful of food. My husband didn’t notice my empty water so he told her everything was good and she walked away. Had to wait another five minutes for my water to be refreshed. Other than that, I would rate this place a five star. It’s awesome. Very tasty!

I was slightly disappointed with my experience at Galena Brewing Co. What should not have been a no wait to be seated turned into 10 min (room was half empty). I am mixed on the meal. The Cuban was above average and beef and mushroom sandwich was below average. The beef had a funny off taste not sure what was but if that is the standard, I would not recommend.
Service was good and the live music was really good.
If would like to sample some nice locally brewed beers I would recommend Galena Brewing Co! That was the high point!

I don’t like giving bad reviews. Look at my prior reviews and you will see that I just try my best not to do that. But in this case, I wish I was Lana Kane, and you could hear this, so I could go «Nooope,» because this place is just a big old pile of nope, nope, nope. Are my feelings clear enough?
The atmosphere is nice, lively, like any good brew-​pub. And, to be honest, the beer was good. We had their seasonal, and nothing wrong there. We wish we had just kept it to the beer, then we wouldn’t have been out the additional $ 40 for a meal that was completely inedible.
This wasn’t our first choice. I wanted to eat somewhere else, but this was the 4^th of July in Galena and every single place had a crazy long line. Hubby was starving and about to start gnawing on my arm. Wanting to keep my arm, I agreed to this place. It looked liked it had plenty of empty tables, and, in fact, our wait was only about 4 minutes or so. The funny part was when we walked in, we noticed all the empty tables, but the woman behind the desk said there were a couple of people before us. But, regardless, we were quickly seat.
The minute we sat down, before even ordering drinks, we ordered the coconut chicken skewers. Seriously, starving man by my side, so no time to waste. We then ordered our meal. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich, and hubby ordered the Reuben on honey wheat instead of rye. He asked nicely if it could be made on rye because if not he would have to order something else as he abhors rye. Waitress said, they usually do not do special orders, but they could change the bread. (WTF! When did a change in bread become a special order in a freaking restaurant! What the hell, so you pull the freaking sandwich out frozen and nuke it or what!!)
Then we wait. And wait. And wait. Finally, out come the skewers. By this time, I am almost as hungry as he is, however, the skewers look completely unappetizing. They look like freezer burned frozen crap on a stick. I would honestly be beyond surprised if these things don’t come from a bloody box in the freezer. Even worse, they bake these things (kudos on trying to reduce the fat) and apparently don’t realize that you should turn things over in the over. Side A was black and Side B looked uncooked. I had one bite, and wanted to puke. So Hubby, ate them all. He didn’t like either, but he was so hungry he ate them all. At least, it wasn’t my arm.
Then we wait. And wait. And wait. And, finally out come the sandwiches. My pulled pork and his Reuben on rye. Yep, rye. Back goes the Reuben and the wait continues.
He munches on my fries, at least they were edible, while I take a bite of the pulled pork and… puke city. The pork tasted like pork in a tub that comes in the meat section of the grocery store… mushy, greasy, and favorless. Yuck! Needless to say, no more bites for me. They actually asked if we wanted to go boxes. Hell to the NO!
Anyhow, still waiting on Hubby’s sandwich, he decides the skewers of chicken crap made him sick and he is tired of waiting for his sandwich, so we ask for the check. We pay for the check — including the sandwich, because they still made us pay for it — and then finally his sandwich comes. He looks at it, with it’s disgusting gray sauerkraut — honestly, how do you make that stuff gray in the first place — and he doesn’t even bother to take a bite. It looks gross and our stomachs are already upset.
Worst part yet, the few bites we did eat hung in our stomachs and made us feel so sick we cut our afternoon in lovely Galena short. Who can walk around when your bellies hurt.

The stars are really for the beer. GREAT IPAs. Wish they sold this more broadly, like in Chicago?
The food, unfortunately, was not good at all. We got wings and nachos. First of all, they did not a great selection, which is why we chose these classic bar dishes. My fiancé’s wings were not slathered in sauce as much as half-​splashed. They were baked instead of fried, which I guess is healthier, but not what we were expecting. Then the nachos. Stale tortilla chips + tasteless cheese + insufficient sour cream on the side + guacamole I paid extra for that looked like it had just been squeezed from a tube. Sad face.
The ambiance has potential. It’s almost «there»…the modern post-​industrial there, that is. But something about the layout… the [good] dark wood features with the [bad] plastic-​top tables… the [good] modern exposed pipes with the [bad] bright tvs playing sports… it was like they were stuck between trying to appeal to a hipper clientelle and and the older, suburbanite clientelle that just wants to watch the Bears win. It just didn’t work.