PEORIA MAGAZINE May 2023

It’s become something of a foodie destination, between the refined bar food at Kemp’s Upper Tap and the seasonal, locally sourced ingredients at Lexington Social. Into that mix last June came Analytical Brewing, owned by three McLean County homebrewers/friends and their wives: Andrew and Heather Arndt, Brian and Samantha Graves, and Nathan and Stacy Poehlman.

“Honestly, you didn’t know what to expect,” Graves said. “We weren’t as known in the homebrewing community as maybe some people are when they set out on this journey … We didn’t already have this built-in following. “From the moment we opened the doors … people were coming out, enjoying the space, enjoying the beer, and that’s really continued.” It has been a win-win for Analytical and Lexington. “It brings some new faces to town,” said Johansen. “The brewing industry has really stepped up over the past 10 years. I think when people come to town that haven’t been to Lexington before, they drive down Main Street and see what else we have to offer.” The brewery also might have changed Johansen’s flavor palate. “I wasn’t a big craft-beer drinker. I was always the old Miller Lite guy,” Johansen said with a chuckle. “But they’ve got me sold.” RESERVE ARTISAN ALES, GALESBURG

“My father said, ‘I think this would be awesome in the taproom.’ I looked at him, looked at it and said, ‘Yeah, right,’” Benedict said. “Over time, we started working on it. It used to be extremely rusty and in pretty bad shape.” Now, the gleaming bus covers 30 taps from which Reserve pours its beverages, although it’s more accurate to say customers do the pouring, as much or as little as they want. Indeed, Reserve has hopped on the pour-your own bus that’s been making a lot of stops throughout central Illinois. One such is Pour Bros. Craft Taproom in Peoria Heights. But Reserve’s version has a twist. It’s a self-pour place that brews its own beer. Customers activate the Reserve taps by using cards embedded with radio frequency identification chips. Beers are priced by the ounce, and the card keeps track. “Once people get past that initial … intimidation factor,” said Benedict, “they love it.” About half the taps are beers Benedict brews. The rest are produced elsewhere, along with some cider and wine. Benedict spent three years as a brewer at Iron Spike Brewing Company, located about two blocks west of Reserve, before deciding to go out on his own. His family long has owned the 18,000-square-foot building that houses the brewery and The Vault, an adjacent wedding and event venue. Among the previous tenants was Mechanical Service Inc., the Benedict family HVAC and plumbing business. “We were at the point of ‘What are we going to do with it?’” Blake Benedict said. “There’s a lot of space there. We were able to figure out we’d have space for receptions. We pulled the trigger on doing a brewery, too.”

Co-owner Brian Graves of Analytical Brewing

Lexington Mayor Spencer Johansen helped Analytical’s owners find a suitable building in town. Their presence on Main Street is the realization of a vision Johansen had after his daughter moved to Richmond, Va. “When we were first going out there, we got to go to different breweries and I said, ‘Man, we could make this work in Lexington on a smaller scale,’” Johansen said. “When they approached me, it was like, ‘This is meant to be.’” Brian Graves had the same feeling. “We had always kind of had our eyes toward Lexington,” he said. “We just really liked the town, liked the direction the town was going.” Graves and his partners still have day jobs. He and Nathan Poehlman work in insurance, and Andrew Arndt is a chemist (hence the brewery’s name) for a Decatur company. But so far, the beer business – Analytical focuses on ales — hasn’t been too shabby.

When visitors arrive at Reserve Artisan Ales in downtown Galesburg, it’s impossible for them to miss the bus. Or the beer. The centerpiece of the Reserve taproom, which opened in January 2022, is the restored shell of a 1960s-era Peoria transit-system bus. Blake Benedict, who with brother Trent co owns Reserve, said his family found the bus in a junkyard in Kickapoo.

Nick Vlahos is a longtime Peoria print journalist and regular contributor to Peoria Magazine

20 MAY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE