Bearded Brewer Artisan Ales | Omaha, NE
Beer Trip: Bearded Brewer Artisan Ales in Omaha, Nebraska
Between each of our jobs, we visit Omaha a few times annually, so we’ve been able to check out many of the city’s breweries. With some extra time on this latest visit, we ventured into the suburbs and found Bearded Brewer Artisan Ales. This place is truly a hidden gem offering awesome beer, a vibrant atmosphere, and very friendly staff.
The Brewery
Bearded Brewer sits within a shopping center with plenty of parking available on multiple sides. They are fortunate to have a spacious outdoor area with 6 to 8 tables, all covered with two large sun shades. The indoor space offers tons of natural light with large windows surrounding the exterior, and an overhead garage door tying it to the patio outside. The venue isn’t large, but it has about a dozen bigger tables and a 14-person bar that spans the length of the room. The whole place has a mountainous yet modern feel to it via the wood accent walls, concrete floors, and neutral colors. This makes sense with Kirk, owner and head brewer, having spent several years living in Colorado. In fact, they actually have a second site in Longmont, Colorado - but make no mistake, Omaha is their original location.
The Beer
Walking in knowing nothing about the place, we were blown away to find 18 different beers on tap. They only keep 2 or 3 as flagships and rotate the rest of the menu as the taps run dry. They will, however, maintain a few “base” brews and alter the flavorings during the brewing process with each batch. A prime example of this is the local favorite, The Satchel. During this visit, the offering was Beans in my Satchel, which took the source cream ale and incorporated coffee, vanilla, and peanuts - which turned out to be our favorite beer here!
The owner and head brewer, Kirk, happened to be in during our visit, and he took the time to talk beer. Their menu features eight (yes, 8!) different New England Style IPAs, which is crazy. When asked, “Why so many?” Kirk simply said “Because I like hazys.” Fortunately for us, we do too - and their Intuition V2 was the top one we tried. If we had lived locally, we would certainly come to do a taste test of each hazy to compare and contrast.
Food, Merch, & More
You won’t find a full kitchen at Bearded Brewer, but they almost always have a food truck on-site. There are also several restaurants nearby for you to bring your own grub in. If you’re just wanting a quick snack, they have a variety of locally made pretzels and cheese balls available. Their merchandise display near the end of the bar is small, but it includes quite a bit of glassware, shirts, hats, and brewery stickers - which we found to be one of the coolest designs we’ve encountered! Located directly beside this is the to-go cooler,r where they feature several of their own brews to take home.
Bearded Brewer provided a great experience and is a place we’ll certainly return to. Make sure to pay them a visit and sample one of their top-notch brews on your next Omaha trip.
Cheers!
