Brian’s “Holi-DAY Drinkin’ Bus Trip” to Spring Grove.

On Saturday, December 17th, we took a bus filled with kick-ass Rock listeners to Spring Grove for a day-drinkin’ excursion to Fat Pat’s Brewery & BBQ, and RockFilter Distillery.

After a week of snow, sleet, ice, & rain…the roads weren’t in the best shape. But we had ‘Dan the Bus Driver Man’ from Ready Bus Lines and he was absolutely fantastic! Nobody I’d rather have behind the wheel on any of our bus trips.

Our first stop was at Fat Pat’s Brewery & BBQ. It’s attached to Red’s IGA in Spring Grove and has a small coffee shop(Jo’s Coffee House). It’s small, but quaint…and according to Pat, they’re working on expanding, and should be moving into a bigger, new location sometime soon!

Fat Pat’s offers wings & burgers on Thursday nights, the full BBQ menu on Fridays, Burgers & sides on Saturday, and Burgers & soup on Sundays. Check out the menu here.

Even though they don’t normally serve BBQ on Saturday, Pat was gracious and made brisket sandwiches just for our trip! He even added some house-made coleslaw, beans & fries! Needless to say, the food was absolutely fantastic! Smokey, juicy, delicious! Definitely going to make a trip up there on a Friday for more BBQ!

For being a small batch brewery with limited experience, Pat has a really nice selection of beers on tap with sampler flights available, or you can grab a pint of your favorite, or a growler to go! I chose the Hefé named Jefé, Steady Eddy Stout, Vienna lager, and Farm House ale for my flight. The Steady Eddy was the stand-out of the bunch, but all of the beers were on point and highly drinkable. Even took a growler of the Steady Eddy with us!

They also have some N/A options and a sour on the menu!

And after we finished eating & enjoying our beers, Pat took us all in back for a brief look at the full operation!

After Fat Pat’s, we hopped on the bus for the brief jaunt to RockFilter Distillery. My wife & I have been there before, but it was back in 2020, shortly after things started reopening, following the Covid shutdowns. They hadn’t finished their beautiful back room at that time, and we didn’t take the tour of the facility, but the drinks were delicious and the hospitality was top-notch!

This time around, they had some a really nice variety of drinks on the menu, including a few holiday specials like the Bourbon Hot Toddy, the Pink Tinsel Tree, and others. I opted for the Strawberry Blossom for my first beverage(sweet & delicious!) and went with the smoked bloody for my second beverage(#drooling).

The owner of RockFilter, Christian, showed up and gave the entire group an extremely informative and fun tour. Sometimes, tours at breweries & distilleries can be a bit dry, but Christian gave a great tour and answered all of our questions. And, RockFilter is a veteran-owned business…so it felt even better to spend my money there. If you enjoy drinking local, you’d be hard pressed to find something more local than RockFilter. They are involved in the ENTIRE process of making spirits, from growing the grains to making the booze to serving the drinks. And with that fantastic back room, you should DEFINITELY show up with a group of people for some insanely good cocktails & merriment!

We had a blast visiting a couple of amazing local businesses on a Saturday! Looking forward to our next bus trip!