Bad Habit Brewing Ready to Break In New Taproom

ST. JOSEPH -- If you ever had the occasion to go into the former St. Joseph City Hall, the building is unrecognizable now.

The new Bad Habit Brewing taproom features three skylights and a big garage door with glass windows. Co-owner Aaron Rieland says they were "spoiled" with their big front windows in their previous location, and they wanted to make sure they brought as much natural light in as possible in their new space.

Rieland says a noticeable difference is the size of the taproom.

So our old space was only 1,800 square feet and that was including bathrooms, the production area, the taproom and everything.  This is 4,000 square feet on the main floor, so definitely doubled in size.  And then our patio over there maybe only comfortably sat 30 people, where this will be five times that many.

The entire building is about 8,000 square feet when you include the basement, which gives them more storage space and an employee breakroom.

Rieland says all your favorite beers will still be there, but they'll also have several other varieties for you to try.

We'll have 14 beers on tap and then two sodas.  Five of our normal beers we'll have on tap and then we're going to open up with nine new beers, so it will be fun to break it in.  We've got to do a Star Wars-themed beer too for Saturday.

Rieland says they actually started brewing the beer in their new location Wednesday. He says they plan to eventually offer up to 20 varieties of beers. Bad Habit Brewing also expanded their brewing capabilities with 11 fermenters now, compared to seven in their old location, and just three when they started out.

The taproom also has a private room for small events, bigger bathrooms, and a self serve water station. Rieland says those are all things their customers and staff have been asking for.

Their new patio area won't be finished until about a month from now, but that will have a lot of green space for yard games and a fire pit.  Seating outside will be enough for up to 200 people, compared to about 30 at their old location.

Bad Habit Brewing's opening day in their new building is this Saturday.

Bad Habit Brewing started on Halloween weekend in 2015.

Their new address is 25 College Avenue in St. Joseph.  Besides being the former St. Joseph City Hall, the building was also previously a bank.