USA, WI: Hop Yard Ale Works shooting to open sometime in November

If you’ve frequented Appleton's north side over the past several months, you’ve probably noticed a new development just east of the roundabout at North Richmond Street and West Northland Avenue.

That development — a brewery that also serves wood-fired pizzas — will soon be open for business, The Post-Crescent reported on October 28.

Hop Yard Ale Works is shooting to open sometime in November at 512 W. Northland Ave., owner Amy Behm said.

Behm and her husband Oliver, with whom she co-owns the brewery, are partial to India pale ales, but Hop Yard will serve a variety of beer.

“We are big fans of IPAs. We’ve been homebrewing and that’s kind of what we would always lean towards, so that’s probably where we’re going to start,” Amy said. “But being a brewery, we’ll be offering as many as we can as quickly as possible.”

Amy said that Hop Yard will have “quite a few” taps. Their plan is to start with a couple of their own brews, but also bring in numerous guest taps until Hop Yard introduces more of its own brews down the line.

“We’d love to support the other local breweries here in town,” Amy said. “If they’re willing to allow us to have their beer on tap, we certainly will. We’re excited to support local breweries here as well as other Wisconsin craft breweries.”

Hop Yard Ale Works will open after months of renovations to the building that once housed the Behms’ car service shop. Team Behm, which started serving the Fox Valley in the 1950s, was Oliver’s family business.

But last year, the couple decided to follow their dreams. They shut down the auto shop and began to work on their vision of owning a brewery.

“You know, you’re tackling a mountain when you’re switching a business, and it’s a big risk and it’s scary,” Amy said. “But we just decided to follow our dreams and do what we love and so we changed. The idea of opening a brewery has always been in our mind as something we’d love to do.”

The fact that the building was once an auto shop is advantageous. The property has three garage doors, two of which can be opened to allow customers to move between the inside space and an outdoor patio, weather permitting.

In addition to beer, Hop Yard has a “beautiful wood-fire pizza oven,” Amy said, and will offer a pizza menu. They’re also applying for a wine license so they can eventually serve wine, ciders and seltzers.

Amy and Oliver — both New London natives who now live in Appleton — are proud of how far the brewery has come since renovations began. Aside from the electrical and plumbing work, all of the construction for the space was completed by the couple and their family members, who helped work nights and weekends to get it done.

“I think we’re pretty proud of what we’ve done,” Amy said.

Hop Yard Ale Works hasn’t set officially announced its hours yet, but Amy anticipated that they’d be open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays to start. They hope to be open Wednesday through Sunday by the new year.

28 October, 2021