Shorewood Brewery's Grand Opening A Huge Success

SHOREWOOD, IL - If everyday is like Saturday for the Will County Brewing Company, then it's only a matter of time before Jamie Albert, James Kennedy and Eric Wills replace Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett as America's richest businessmen. There was a lot of hype around Joliet surrounding the new microbrewery that opened its doors at noon Saturday here in Shorewood. Will County Brewing is on Route 52 in the commercial shopping plaza that includes Savarino's Pizza and Happy Place Cafe.

By 11 a.m., there were upwards of 60 people all standing on the sidewalk waiting to imbibe in the new craft beer company in Shorewood. By 12:19 p.m., the 300 vintage bottles of the Will County Brewing Company's specially made imperial vanilla beer called Zero Anniversary were all gone.

Around 7 p.m., Patch visited Will County Brewing and the place was still jam packed. It was a mature crowd. Most of the customers were people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Albert told Patch that he never envisioned that the grand opening would be so succcessful.

Albert said that he met some customers who traveled from as far away as Crystal Lake, IL and even Wisconsin to attend the grand opening festivities.

"It's been shoulder to shoulder most of the entire day," Albert told Patch around 7:30 p.m. "It's been unreal.

"It seems like everybody loves the beer and they like the atmosphere."

Patch also interviewed Kennedy and Wills. They, along with Albert, are all Shorewood residents. They emphasized how the village officials at Shorewood has been phenomenal. One of their primary goals is to be a civic-oriented business, they said.

"This has exceeded our wildest expectations," Kennedy said of Saturday's turnout.

"To sell 300 bottles in 19 minutes is pretty amazing, because, you're a brand-new brewery and it's a beer no one has had before," Kennedy remarked.

"Shorewood has been very good. We're happy to be working with Shorewood and be the draw" to the Route 52 corridor.

Will County Brewing is also fortunate to be nestled between the Happy Place Cafe and Savarino's Pizza, two popular restaurants that already occupy the plaza.

Will County Brewing opened on Saturday with six craft beers on tap. Albert said he will be adding two more in the coming days. "Eventually, we will open up all 16 taps we have," he said. "And we are kicking around some ideas for our next bottle release. That could be in the next month or so."

Will County Brewing also sells growlers.

Meanwhile, Plainfield resident Ricky Woods said he was thoroughly impressed with the quality of craft beer selection he had at Will County Brewing. He came here Saturday night along with his girlfriend. They read about the new microbrewery in the Patch, he said.

"I like it," he said. "It's going to stay around. It's close by, and it's convenient.

"As long as they keep up with the good beer. It has a good atmosphere."

Woods admitted he was surprised by the tremendous turnout.

"I did not expect there to be this many people," he said.

Main images via John Ferak, Patch Editor for Joliet, Shorewood, Channahon-Minooka, New Lenox and Bolingbrook.