Our mission is to “Build a stronger community, one brew at a time.” That means the community of brewers, of craft beer drinkers, of foodies, of local food producers, and of course, South Bend. We plan to celebrate and support South Bend, honoring its long heritage of brewing and food producing by making great beer and backing it up with locally sourced food. Sustainability is hard at work in South Bend and it’s a core tenet for us. Adaptive reuse is a philosophy we’re embracing fully and you’ll see it throughout our pub. We are fiercely proud of this city and it is an honor to have it as part of our name and be part of its renaissance. 

This is how we believe a business should begin; by answering the question of how it’s going to benefit its community and customers. We see ourselves as being an important piece of downtown revitalization. Visit any great college town or vibrant community, like South Bend, and you will find brewpubs. Those brewpubs often become destinations, bringing tourists and locals alike downtown. You can see this in neighboring areas like Sawyer and Three Oaks, Michigan. The Brew Werks will be that type of destination for Downtown South Bend, helping spread the message of the South Bend Renaissance and giving people one more reason to experience our wonderful downtown.

You will also find us working hand in hand with those who are also working to revitalize this city,supporting them with our treasures and talents. All of our guests, from near or afar, will be part of the revitalization by helping to fund local community organizations like The Music Village, La Casa De Amistad, and Neighborhood Resources Corp because we’re donating $.50 of each pint sold to them. The best part? You get to choose which partner! 

Great beer, delicious food, and a stronger community? Heck yeah we’re excited! 

An important aspect of any campaign is understanding what we’re using your money for. We have a couple of reasons for running the campaign. As this project has progressed, and we’ve seen how excited people are, we’ve realized that we’re going to have to change things up a bit from the original plan. 

·  We’re expanding our production capacity beyond our initial dreams to make sure we’ve got enough beer for everyone so we’re building a bigger, custom walk-in cooler. We’re also insulating the hell out of it in an effort to make it as energy efficient as possible.

·  We don’t want people waiting for clean glasses so we’re adding in a glass washer. This nifty device cleans glasses lickity split. An added benefit? There won’t be any residues on the glass to cut the foam so you’ll get a great beer every time. 

·  We want to be as green as we can so we’re upgrading to denim insulation, Low/No VOC paints, and LED lighting. Long lived, efficient and dimmable. Very green. Very South Bend. Very Brew Werks.

·  Our location is blessed with a great sidewalk and while we can’t use it just yet, we want to make it an inviting place for those warmer months so we need to invest in furniture and things to make it shine! 

We're excited about these additions but they are a bit expensive and that’s why we need your help! Your contribution can really enable us to make these improvements and have an even bigger impact! 

For our stretch goals we’d like to invest in a really killer, low energy sign that will do justice to this beautiful building we are housed in as well as getting a more efficient, professional grade brewing system. 

Glad you asked! The Mug Club is one way for you to really make the pub yours. Local artist Paul Kuharic is crafting custom mugs for us that will bear our logo and your name and be hung prominently for all to see. These 20 oz mugs get you more beer for the price of a pint AND you get to take it home at the end of the year. This is the only place to buy one and we’ve got a limited number of them. Always looking to innovate, we've got some neat ideas for our members so you’re definitely going to want in. Especially this time around because if you buy into our initial offering, you get to add your name to our founders wall and be glorified eternally! 

South Bend is blessed to have many amazing groups that make this a vibrant place to live. We contribute to that spirit by partnering with just a few of these organizations that are striving to strengthen our communities in different ways: The Music Village through the power of the arts, La Casa De Amistad through our vibrant and burgeoning Hispanic community, and Neighborhood Resources Corporation which empowers neighborhood groups to be the change. 

For our part, we provide support in 3 primary ways: 

1) Each pint sold at the pub results in a $.50 donation to one of these groups. Patrons choose which one by taking their "token" and putting it in a vessel designed by the organizations 

2) Alongside the vessels, we provide space for the groups to tell their story and encourage people to get involved 

3) Providing customized beer products for the groups to use in their own fundraising endeavors. For example, The Music Village would love to create a Musical Note IPA that they would sell at concerts, providing them with additional revenue 

Learn more about these groups here:

The Music Village
La Casa De Amistad
Neighborhood Resources Corporation

We love the food movement to local, to understanding where your food came from and how it got to your plate. You’re not only benefitting your local economy, you’re benefitting your body. We work hard to provide a high quality, affordable farm to fork experience by taking classic concepts, like the grilled cheese sandwich, mac & cheese, and flat bread pizzas and making it something more.

One of our favorite things to do is share a great story over an equally great beer. That’s why our beers are named after the stories of our own company. How we got here and where we’re going. We also love variety and believe it’s the spice of life so even though we’re only launching with 5, you’ll see a lot of interesting experiments and true-to-style offerings coming your way. Just one of the many benefits of our small scale system! Here are 3 beers you can expect from us:

9 Aye – Black IPA made from 9 ingredients, 68 IBU, 6.9% ABV

The Story: One of the steps we had to go through to open the brew pub was to get approval from the St Joseph County zoning board. We’re located downtown in the Central Business District which means you can have almost any kind of business but if you want to brew, you need a special exemption. The final step in that process is to attend a board hearing where they vote on a number of proposals. Most of the ones we heard passed unanimously with a vote of 9-Aye. Hearing this spoken over and over, the idea of using it to name a beer became more and more tempting. When our vote came up and it was, in fact, 9 Aye, and this beer was born. 

Mr Elegante – Smoked Porter, 28 IBU, 5.5% ABV

The Story: One of our founders, Drew Elegante, came to beer through his family. After losing his parents at a young age, Drew became very close to his brothers, both older and, like many young men are wont to do, he looked to those brothers for inspiration. As he got older, his brothers began asking when he was going to start drinking so they could share a beer. Not a huge fan of bitterness (i.e. hops), Drew was drawn to darker beer styles like stouts and porters which he found to be delicious. As a lover of all things smokey, from bbq to tea to scotch, this is the one beer he requested. So, Mr. Elegante, this beer’s for you. 

1865 – Amber Ale, 26 IBU, 5.2% ABV

The Story: Every town, like every brew pub, has a beginning. A time when a group of dedicated individuals came together and said “let’s make something great.” For South Bend Brew Werks, that time was 2012 but for the city of South Bend, it was 1865. So to honor our kindred forefathers we are naming this beer after them, in a fashion. Because without their story, ours would never be told.