Rolling Meadows Brewery began as an appreciation of good beer and a desire to create a fine product utilizing the abundance of natural resources on our family farm. When Caren Trudeau and her son, Chris Trudeau established the brewery in 2011, they drew upon their combined experiences of homebrewing, craftsmanship and design detail to create the Rolling Meadows brand. Together with Connie and Dustin Regan they have been crafting Rolling Meadows’ signature beers- Lincoln’s Lager, Springfield Wheat and Abe’s Ale- and bringing them to the Springfield area.

Our Philosophy

Cloud to Keg

The main ingredient in beer is water. Our water comes from an artisanal well on our property. The journey a drop of water takes- from cloud to keg imbues gives it the character of our land. Slowly percolating through our sandy prairie soils, our water picks up trace minerals and organics giving it the taste of the land, what the french call terroir . This flavor is the product of hundreds of years of bedrock decomposition, of leaves blown off the Oak trees, prairie grasses and forbs growing and dying back. And, in more recent history, organically grown wheat and hops.

To us, water is the heart of our beer. So we treat the natural systems on our property with respect. Any wastewater we have from the process of making beer is returned to the land, allowed to percolate back through the soil from which it came.

Interconnected

As a farm based brewery allows us to see very clearly how what we do in one area affects everything around it. So we are trying to make sure what we do has a positive effect. We try to grow as many inputs to our beer as possible- limiting the resources it takes to bring ingredients to us. We try to source ingredients locally. We are surrounded by extraordinary farms and farmers, like Jeffries Orchard, so we have a great base to build from. We do not use genetically modified ingredients and we purchase organic when we can.

Beer’s Best Friend… Food!

That would be GOOD FOOD! We love pairing our beer with food fresh from the field. We value this partnership, so we’ve teamed up with American Harvest Eatery and Augie’s Front Burner to grow fresh herbs and vegetables on our farm. They use the produce in their restaurants and serve our beer along side. Special farm to table events, beer dinners and beer pairings round out our commitment.

Our Brew Crew

Chris Trudeau

Dustin Regan

Seth Koerner