Robin Shepard
The Hop Garden in Belleville, overlooking the Sugar River.
The new taproom’s patio overlooks the Sugar River.
The Hop Garden is known for growing its own hops and its lively taproom on the banks of the Sugar River in Paoli. In June, owner Rich Joseph opened his third taproom, in downtown Belleville, with great views and a beer garden that’s also on the Sugar River. An Evansville location opened in 2023.
The Belleville taproom at 107 West Main St. is in a 1917 building built for one of Dane County’s first Buick car dealerships. It had been vacant since 2019; when Joseph saw it he could not pass it up. “Sometimes you can’t turn down opportunities, and this one fell in our lap,” he says. The building underwent more than a year of renovations.
Inside is a long main bar, dining room seating, a stage, and a private party room. The stage hosts a steady stream of live music. The convivial vibe continues outdoors in the beer garden overlooking the river’s dam and waterfall. Sitting there on a warm fall afternoon, any beer style is the perfect pint.
Rich and Michele Joseph started the Hop Garden on their farm near Belleville in 2014, after having supplied hops through the Wisconsin Hop Exchange, a farm cooperative that connects hop farmers with brewers. They opened the taproom in Paoli in 2015.
The Belleville location boasts 21 beer taps. Hop Garden beers are poured from roughly half; the rest feature an assortment of other breweries including Brewfinity Brewing Company of Oconomowoc, which packages Hop Garden’s core brands. Food focuses on barbeque, with ribs, pork, chicken and brisket all smoked in-house.
There’s also a one-barrel brewing system that Joseph uses for limited releases and recipe development. He also has a license to make wine and cider, currently available only in the Belleville taproom. Among the first house wines is Wild Wisconsin, made with nearly 700 pounds of locally grown grapes brought in by customers who wanted to share in making one of the first releases.
The beer list climbs a ladder of hop intensity. Paddlers Pursuit is a solid pale ale at 5% ABV. It starts a little timid, yet builds with grapefruit aroma and flavor from Cascade hops. A step up is Bushel Basket, at 7% ABV, loaded with citrus and piney notes from a combo of Cascade and Nugget hops. Nuggetopia at 7.1% ABV is rich in the herbal and woody character of Nugget hops. The brewery’s hazy IPA is Fuzzy Goat at 7.1% ABV. It has earthy-sweet tropical hints of melon and peaches from Cashmere hops.
A pleasant surprise is the seasonal pumpkin ale. Joseph grew the pumpkins on his farm, then smoked them over an applewood fire before adding them to the brew kettle. The result is an amber ale with light toasty pumpkin sweetness. Later this fall Joseph will release a beer made with Vista hops, slightly sweet with tropical fruit flavors, and bring back Paoli Gold, a light crisp ale made with Centennial hops.
The Hop Garden in Belleville is open Wednesday-Sunday.
