Wednesday 9th of May 2012 01:43:05 PM

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My wife and I stopped in here very briefly on the way to Champaign/Urbana after flying into Bloomington. The Brewpub is close to the airport and we bellied up to the bar for a few tastes. The restaurant and bar have a nice modern feel and friendly staff. They no longer have a sampler, but you can order small 4 oz pours of the beers and basically make your own sampler. The beers we had were all fairly good, though none were stellar. The Rye wine was interesting, but needed some age. We did not stay long enough to try the food. Large selection of house taps was nice.

Friday 6th of January 2012 01:03:29 AM

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This person needs 3 or more reviews on the site for their scores to start counting.

The name of this place has always irritated me. Call your shop "distill" if you are making whiskey, not when you are brewing beer.

My distaste for the name was compounded by a distaste for the beer and the food, but that was several years ago when this location first opened.

Since then, vast improvement. Now the food is tasty and a decent value. The brews range from competent to really fine examples of their style. Among my particular favorites are the rarely available Sour Belgian Double Pale Ale and the Sour Rye. The Oktoberfest, Cream Stout, American Brown Ale, and the unusual Dampfbier are equally impressive.

Friday 27th of August 2010 08:27:46 AM

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Stopped by last week on my way through town. I have a buddy who lives nearby and said he goes there often.

It's a nice stand alone location in part of a larger mall area. The inside is nice and modern, with viewing of all the tanks behind the bar. I even saw a private room if you had a big party and didn't want to be seated in the main area.

The beer selection was pretty good for a brewpub. They had at least 12 beers to choose from (listed in the menu and chalk board) plus a bunch of rotating offerings. I was impressed with the options, but the execution of the beers was something that can be improved.

I tried a flight so I could cover as many beers as possible in a short amount of time. However, the very first thing I noticed, across all the beers, was that they tasted like rubber. I'm not sure if it was the tapping equipment that needed cleaning or what, but the rubber taste really effected all the different beers I had.

My flight consisted of:
- Strawberry Blond Ale (was hoping for more strawberry flavor, barely any to notice)
- Normal Lager
- WEISSENHEIMER HEFEWEIZEN
- REDBIRD ALE
- BALDOCK IPA

The waiter was cool and let me swap out the Irish Stout for the Strawberry Blond because I wanted to give it a try. He mentioned it might cost more, but ended up being regular price.

The food was pretty good and they had an extensive selection.

The only thing I didn't like was the taste of the beer, and that's a big deal. I'll try it again just to see if there was something wrong with the lines, but everything else about the place was good quality.

Sunday 29th of November 2009 10:09:35 AM

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Stopped for lunch on the roadtrip back from spending Thanksgiving with the relatives. Not neccessarily an easy short drive from the interstate, as it is tucked back into town. However the drive is worth it, as there isn't much else around as far as brewpubs in this part of IL. We were immediately seated, and greated with a server that had pretty good knowledge of their beers. She explained IBUs, SRM, and gravity, as they were each posted with their beers. This is something that isn't often done, and was a nice touch. I ordered the Schwartzbier, and my wife orded the Hefe. My beer was great, hers...not so much. Of course I had to sample hers because I'm a big fan of the Hefe style. I basically think the Hefe was past its prime (hefe is best when its young), or the downtube on the keg they are pulling from has a much too length for a unfiltered beer as the yeast amount was entirely too excessive, and left an unpleasent taste. On to the food.....great selection of items, and the sunday brunch...on saturday, was a nice touch. However, the fresh salad, wasnt very fresh (old tomatoes). The black bean soup was wonderful. You can pretty much get anything you want here. But then again, when you do everything, its hard to master anything.

Thursday 19th of November 2009 08:27:22 PM

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Four of us on the way to Milwaukee stopped here for lunch recently. We were seated immediately at a table; everything in the restaurant was clean and modern. We ordered two samplers that totaled 10 6-ounce beers. These included a lager, hefeweizen, red ale, two IPAs, stout, schwarzbier, brown ale, pumpkin porter, and scotch ale. The waitress also threw in their just finished Trappist Wheat Barrel Reserve. All the beers were good though the Trappist wheat was pretty sour. My favorite beer was the Cask Conditioned Double IPA. The brewing equipment could be seen behind the bar and around one of the corners. All the food was great; we had pizza, dogs, and burgers. Service was excellent. Parking is not a problem since they are at a stand-alone location with their own lot. The restaurant is entirely no smoking.

Monday 14th of April 2008 10:33:28 AM

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Stopped here for lunch on a recent road trip. We sat at the bar and sampled a few things, there were 15-16 house taps at the time of our visit. Their detailed website has ETA dates scheduled for seasonals and rotating releases. According to their website, they brew 25 rotating and seasonal beers, in addition to their 5 flagship beers. Very ambitious!

The seasonals I tried were the Coriander Saison, Roggenbier, and Bourbon Stout, in addition to a few of the house regulars. A sampler of 5 brews (6 oz.) runs $8.50. They are served with a black wrought-iron holder, which lines them up perfectly in front of you. Nothing really impressed enough to get a growler of, though the Doppelbock was my favorite. 67 oz. growlers (fancy fliptop like RR) were $18, more for high-gravity stuff. On our second trip, the beers I had were enjoyable, especially the seasonal Strawberry Blonde ale, Baldock IPA, and Obatar Bitter. They rotate a large amount of seasonals, so there are bound to be hits and misses.

The bar was polished, dim glowing lights were underneath. It was adjacent to the kitchen, so there was some high traffic on the left side. Brew kettles and an oak barrel were visible behind the bar, through large windows. There is patio seating past the bar, where you can look in on the brewing equipment from another angle.

Atmosphere was very clean and polished, "metro-industrial" decor. There were a number of dining areas, all sectioned off by walls made of contrasting wood/metal beams, with frosted glass. In some areas, the glass had actual sprigs of grain set into it. Lofty ceiling with beams and exposed ductwork. It was almost too shiny and polished, but it seemed that they had a diverse crowd to impress. There were lots of families, big groups, people of all ages.

There was an army of employees here, even though we just came in and were seated at the bar, we had contact with 5 people. Lauren the bartender was quick with recommendations and samples. Service was very attentive at lunchtime, with a decent crowd in the bar area.

Food was good, especially the pozole. Pizza and Reuben were just ok. The reuben was served on bread that had dried fruit in it, non-traditional I guess. On our second visit, the food was more impressive. The stuffed pepper dish and shrimp pizza special were both excellent.

Late 2009: Bumping up food/selection score due to several great meals here (pot roast, solid dinner specials) and innovative seasonals, such as a Brett-barrel aged sour, Pumpkin Porter, Dampfbier, Saison, and others. Also Destihl is one of the very few places that serve cask ale in downstate Illinois.