A NAPERVILLE TAPROOM IS CHANGING THE WAY CUSTOMERS THINK ABOUT NONALCOHOLIC BEER

Like many people, Joe Chura found himself drinking more during COVID-19 lockdown. It wasn’t a new struggle for Chura, whose father had died from complications from alcoholism in 2006 and whose younger brother also had struggled with dependency, but the craving to have a drink would always hit him by 5 p.m. So he and his wife decided to take action, challenging themselves to abstain from drinking for 75 days.

“I did not think I was going to make it,” Chura says. “In the first few days, I was trying to exercise and I’d run past bars and I’ve never felt more of a craving. Then I came home and I had a nonalcoholic beer and that craving dissipated significantly. I made it through the night, and the next day I did the same thing.”

Chura knew nothing about making beer; his background is in e-commerce and digital marketing, but he saw an opportunity to help people like himself. He found a location — Naperville’s shuttered 2 Fools Cider — and put out a job posting for a head brewer for a nonalcoholic brewery.

James Bigler had been working at Downer Grove’s Alter Brewing and during COVID he’d found he started drinking earlier and earlier in the day. He decided to switch to nonalcoholic beer and immediately began thinking about how he’d make his own. Bigler saw Chura’s job posting on Facebook. A friend was making fun of the idea, but Bigler took Chura’s business idea seriously and submitted his resume.

“Joe asked ‘Do you think you can make the best nonalcoholic beer?’ and I said ‘Yes,’” Bigler says. “I know that he’s going to do the absolute best when it comes to running the business and doing the marketing and he puts the rest of the production in my hands.”

Go Brewing was born in Chura’s garage while their facility was built out. It opened at 1665 Quincy Avenue in Naperville in 2023 and is now one of the only nonalcoholic taprooms in the country, distributing its products to 20 states both direct-to-consumer and through partnerships with major retailers including Costco and Jewel-Osco. Last year the brewery sold out of everything they had during Dry January, so this year they stocked up in advance and created a joint venture with Lombard’s Noon Whistle Brewing to quickly ramp up production.

“The craft beer industry is declining a bit, unfortunately, so a lot of these breweries now have more capacity than they know what to do with, so it was great timing in terms of being able to help them and help us at the same time,” Chura says.

At the rate Go Brewing is growing, that deal may only keep up with its needs through the end of 2025. The company is expanding distribution to California and Texas and is looking into launching more hop water and starting to make THC-infused drinks based on feedback from consumers, who also encouraged them to add more gluten-free options. Go Brewing has committed to releasing a new variety every month this year, a challenge that Bigler welcomes.

“The nonalcoholic consumer is still very much aware of the current craft beer trends and they want to see those things,” he says. “They want to try out everything, so I’m looking at what small brewers are doing to get ideas.”

While some breweries use their taprooms to experiment with new flavors, Go Brewing’s first testers are part of its direct-to-consumer Beer of the Month club, who in January were sent a banana pancake stout. Nonalcoholic lagers and stouts can now be found at most supermarkets and liquor stores, and while Go Brewing offers both, its extensive collection provides room for other styles like sours, wheats, and porters. The company launched with five beers and now regularly stocks a dozen along with hop water.

“Taking a chance on flavor is really cool for a direct-to-consumer brand because I can test things online very quickly and if they work, I can double down on that and if they don’t, I just move on,” Chura says.

Some of the tanks in the taproom are now too small to satisfy demand, but the space serves as a community hub, hosting regular events including live music, improv theater and a variety of wellness classes including breathwork, tai chi, and barre. Go Brewing also offers a small selection of alcoholic beers from other local breweries including Hop Butcher for the World and Revolution Brewing.

“Nonalcoholic beverages still represent a very small fraction of drinking and we often find people in friend groups where you have a sober friend and a friend who likes to drink and we wanted to be inclusive to everyone,” Chura. “It also gets a wider population of people to try our products.”

Both Bigler and Chura credit the fast growth of their business to people thinking more about their health, one of the reasons Go Brewing also posts the calorie count of each of its beers in their taproom. When the U.S. Surgeon General announced this month that alcohol should carry the same health warning labels as cigarettes because of its cancer risk, Chura says he woke up to 50 texts with the general message of “turns out you weren’t a complete idiot.”

“A lot of us have a problem with alcohol and it’s hard to have one or two drinks and then stop,” Bigler says. “This kind of breaks the cycle and keeps us from going down the hole of not living the life you want to live. I don’t even have to go to a party empty-handed.”

Go Brewing’s taproom is at 1665 Quincy Ave Suite #155 in Naperville.

2025-01-09T23:33:49Z