Riverbank Brewing | Council Grove, KS
Beer Trip: Riverbank Brewing in Council Grove, Kansas
It seems like K-Staters always want to support other K-Staters, so we felt especially inclined to pay Riverbank Brewing a visit at some point after reading about it in the K-Stater Magazine a few years back. Lucky for us, they are both kid and dog-friendly, so during our trip to central Kansas to visit family, it offered the perfect chance to stop through.
Riverbank Brewin in its historic building
The Brewery
Council Grove has a nice downtown area, and Riverbank sits right at the east end, right on the banks of the Neosho River. They have a cool, covered outdoor patio that utilizes the remnants of the original structure, partially collapsed. The brewery occupies a 100+ year old building that has served countless purposes over the last century (most recently being a skating rink!), until being transformed into a brewery a few years ago.
The space has been completely renovated, yet leaves parts of the original exterior brick, concrete walls, and wooden ceiling exposed. They installed several glass garage doors that bring in lots of natural light, as well as open the indoor space up to the patio. With so much light, they’re able to scatter live plants throughout. In our opinion, the seating is what really stuck out to us here. They utilize groupings of couches and chairs, along with a few longer tables, thrown in. It’s similar to how you might picture a high-end cocktail lounge, but with a homier feel. We were big fans of this, especially with two kids and a dog with us.
A dreamy patio, but unfortunately too cold on our snowy visit
Teaching Warren about how beer is made
Pretty good traffic for 1PM on a Friday!
Lots of cozy seating
The Beer
You’re not going to find a huge beer selection at Riverbank, as they only offer 5 of their own brews and a few guest taps. We would anticipate that as they become more established, they may expand their menu as well. We were informed that they currently consider the Golden Grove to be a flagship beer, and their other four recipes cycle in and out depending on customer feedback. During this visit, the selections included a red ale, pale ale, Vienna ale, cream ale, and a stout.
A flight was the perfect way to sample the small menu here!
Considering the small menu, we really appreciated the diversity within it. The use of unique ingredients like chai and grapefruit, as well as the varying styles like Vienna ale instead of lager, really showcased the boldness of their brewer. While not everything we tried resonated with us, we love returning to places like this where you know the menu will have a unique twist each time. In line with their flagship, our favorite also ended up being the Golden Grove. This traditional-style cream ale (not lactose style) is really light, while still providing a true creaminess that we find is often lacking.
Food, Merch, & More
Riverbank doesn’t have a full kitchen, but it really has all of the essentials you could want food-wise. They offer upscale charcuterie boards, soft pretzels, and a couple of flatbread choices. During this cold visit, they even had a pot of chili going to warm people up. If beer isn’t your thing, Riverbank has a few wine selections and rotating specialty cocktails. For a brewery of this size, the merchandise selection is top-notch with several neat shirts, multiple ball caps and snow hats, and some glassware choices. Thankfully for us, they brought out a fresh batch of brewery stickers for us to take home.
Barley was pumped to tag along
9-week-old Gretchen slept through most of the visit
Warren found himself playing with every board game they had
