WAUPUN — Hoyahophousebrewing finally announced their grand opening for this weekend in a post to Facebook last Sunday.
The post came after a private party was held Saturday night as a test run to the new establishment, which generated some public interest from passersby.
Located at 520 E Main St, the new brewpub is run by Michelle Brown and her son Jarrett Mack, who has brewed since 2019. The family purchased the building on Janaruy 12, 2024, with their grand opening scheduled for January 11, 2025—just one day short of a year from purchase.
Inside the newly renovated building is the main room, a spacious full service bar, an event room to fit 40 people, and a “greenhouse” lounge room. In the back is a full brewery and kitchen, where the brewery’s magic happens—both of which are visible from the main room through a huge bay window behind the bar.
As for what motivated the business, it only solidified in the year prior to the purchase.
“It’s an interesting story, actually,” Michelle said. “I worked with Lauren who owns Stone and Suede at Beaver Dam Hospital—we worked there together for probably four years on the night shift—so I’ve known her for a long time.”
“My family, we’d always wanted to start a family business,” she said. “We weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do—nothing really seemed right. But the older kids, two of them lived down in Milwaukee and so we would go down to visit them when they were in college, and we always went to breweries—it was kind of our passion.”
“So one time when we were in the Piggly Wiggly liquor store and see Lauren—and that was the first time I was able to see her since she had opened the store. So I was congratulating her and everything. And she said to us, ‘you know, the only thing that this town really, really needs that everybody asks from out of town is if we have a brewery, do you know a brewer by any chance?’ And I’m like ‘I do actually, my son is a brewer.’ And one thing led to another and if you Lauren, she is very strong-minded and she set us on the way to going ahead and looking at the possibility of opening a brewery.”
“We went home, we talked about it—my husband and myself—with Jarrett, and we didn’t realize he knew as much from the brewery standpoint, like sales and what it takes to go ahead. He was an assistant brewer, so he definitely brewed, but we didn’t realize all of the other information that he knew, because none of us have any business experience. And so one thing led to another and we worked really really hard finding people that would pair with us and everybody has been so amazing, business-wise, definitely mentoring us. All of that and we just put our heads down. I mean once we start as a family and we commit to something, we definitely see it through. So that’s kind of how we got started.”
“And the name, Hoya Hop House Brewing, Hoya is a plant and so we love plants. We have tons of Hoya plants and it seemed fitting to have a plant named somewhere in our, the name of the brewery. And then house, we definitely feel like we’re opening up our home, you know, this is an extension of our homes to the community.”
Several Hoya plants can be seen throughout the brewery, including some very long ones in the “greenhouse” lounge room near the back of the building.
The setup in the new brewery is quite professional, with room to expand in the future. Tanks line the walls with a large refrigerator in the back.
Jarrett Mack, the family brewer, lived in Milwaukee for several years working as a brewing apprentice, then at a homebrewing supply store. When his parents brought up the idea of starting their own family brewery, he jumped on the idea. Many of his former coworkers have done the same, starting their own breweries in their own hometowns.
Jarrett explained the brewing process, which starts with mixing grain and water, then extracting the sugar, boiling, adding hops and other ingredients, and finally fermenting. Fermentation usually takes about one or two weeks, and once that process completes it’s put into the finishing tanks for clarification and carbonation, which could take as little as a few days to several months depending on the brew.
Most of the drinks are then kegged and stored, ready for the tap at the front bar. Also in the back is a canning machine, but due to the cost and length of the process Jarrett said he might get rid of it.
He has experience with a wide variety of drinks, many of which will be available on tap starting this weekend.
“I have 12 taps in total, 11 being beer,” Jarrett said. “One tap will always be in a cocktail tap, right now it’s espresso martini. And then the 11 beers will rotate besides four consistent beers. Right now, it’s an American lager, a pale ale, coffee, and then a strawberry basil seltzer. As far as the other beers go, they will rotate based upon the season and I guess what I’m feeling at the time.”
“There’ll typically always be a couple seasonal beers, whether that’s like am Oktoberfest, anything that is seasonal based,” he said. “And then as far as the cocktails go, there are currently six cocktails. One being in Wisconsin old fashion, and one’s a classic old-fashioned. And then I have a non-alcoholic cocktail and then sangria as well, making it eight kind of in total. We’ll be offering four wines as well.”
When it comes to seasonal beers, the more fruit-based ones have a much shorter lifespan at three to six months compared to lagers which can last for a year or more.
Jarrett also explained the thought process behind the bar setup, which was very spacious to allow for maximum flow for barstaff.
“Most of the bars I’ve ever worked in were probably half the size of this if not three-fourths less, where you would be kind of shuffling back and forth,” Jarrett said. “This bar setup was to be very grand—when you have giant windows like this, you can’t really put a small bar in front of it. So the goal with it was to kind of encapsulate the space in this being the focal point—when you walk in, it needs to shine.”
“That’s also why I have the tap tower on the front of the bar—it sits between both wells, therefore, you don’t ever have to cross each other’s paths, you just kind of meet in the middle,” he said. “A lot of times, you see tap systems on the back of the bar, but you lose the contact, you lose the communication with the people that are in front of you. There’s no real reason to turn around other than grab a glass, and this maintains communication.”
“You’re building a drink in front of somebody here so they can see you—they can watch, you can maintain conversation when pouring a beer, you’re maintaining your conversation, your visual, you’re looking at everybody. So that was kind of the goal with this towers to focus everything at the front.”
When it comes to the tables however, most of it will be self service.
“We don’t have a giant staff. We have a lot of family, actually mostly family, that will be working here, so the goal is self-service,” he said. “So people will come up and order with the bartender or order via our QR codes for the food, and we’ll give them pagers to go sit down. They’ll get paged when they get food and then they’ll go pick it up from the window. You can also order through the barcode and that will text you when your food is ready.”
While Jarrett handles the bar and brewery side of things, most of the business adminitration tasks are handled by Michelle.
“We will have food, we will have a small snack menu with flatbreads, dips, sourdough pretzels, churros for the kids, sourdough chocolate chip cookies, and more,” Michelle said. “Not a huge fancy menu but definitely a little bit elevated and will pair well with the beer and the cocktails just to fill your stomach a little bit.”
Once the brewery is up and running they will also have the whole building available to rent out for parties and events, including hosting weddings and bands. The whole facility can comfortably fit 150 people at once, and during the spring and summer they will set up the patio for use as well. On the front facade and east side wall were new garage doors that will be open during the summer. Also in the event room are shelves of board games for parties and events.
Following the brewery’s announcement post, the Waupun Historical Society posted a “then & now” comparison of the building from 1930 and 2025.
“In 1930 Schuyler Brooks and William Pluim partnered and built a garage at 514 E. Main St. They sold Nash, Hudson and Essex automobiles. Later Barry Motors and Schulz Auto Body would occupy the space,” the Historical Society wrote in their post. “Beginning in 2025 a new enterprise will be dispensing liquids, not at curbside, but from the updated interior. Let’s make sure they’re a success, Waupun!”
The building previously housed REACH Waupun and Snow Law before the building was sold to Hoyahophousebrewing.
As part of the renovations, Hoyahophousebrewing restored the original peaked brickwork facade, which had been demolished long ago and replaced with a slanted roof. Much of the construction was done by Matthew Brown, the husband of Michelle Brown. He, along with another of their sons, Aydenn Mack, will be assisting with the business.
The hours for the grand opening will be Saturday, January 11, 12PM noon to 10PM and Sunday, January 12, 12PM noon to 6PM.
They also emphasized that their menu was not yet final, and will be adjusted as time goes on to meet community interest and demand.
