Hopskeller Brewing

The Hopskeller story starts with Matt Schweizer and a home-brew showing in Waterloo, Illinois. Noticing his popularity, several local civil and business leaders requested that Matt's home-brews, inspired by his experiences living in Northern England and the Pacific Northwest, become the basis of Waterloo's brewery. While Hopskeller Brewing Company may have started out as the flight of fancy of Matt Schweizer, that dream came closer than ever to becoming a reality at Monroe County's annual "Taste of the Region" festival in February of 2014. Matt, at that time a 29-year old history teacher and a homebrewer with 7 years of experience, had presented beers at contests, taught beer history and brewing lessons to enraptured (inebriated?) audiences, and served his beers at more private gatherings and parties than anyone would care to count. Matt's sampling booth at the Taste of the Region seemed to get everyone thinking and, even better, talking: Why can't I buy your beers? You should really look into starting something here in town. We've been dying to get something like that here in Waterloo.