Blind Pig Brewery – Production Facility

“Owner and British person Chris Knight came to Champaign Urbana to join the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Illinois. After recovering from the realization that Champaign Urbana is not actually in Chicago, Chris settled down here in the Twin Cities, intent on getting out of them as soon as his contract allowed. That was over 30 years ago.

In 1990 he opened Blind Pig number 1, at the bar they now call Cowboy Monkey. A music club, it had live bands 5 nights a week. Over the years some unbelievably big names played there, and many people still associate the Blind Pig with live music.

Chris sold that first location and opened a second Blind Pig almost next door, on Walnut St., in 2004. Modelled after the village pub of his home town of Hemingford Abbots, it has a comfortable, cozy atmosphere, no TVs, and dozens of great craft beers. Within months, it was voted the 26th Best Beer Bar in the entire United States by Beer Advocate, and has now been included in the top 150 bars in the US by both Imbibe and Draft Magazines.

Amazingly, the Blind Pig is also consistently in the top 100 PBR and Jameson accounts in the nation.

As a student in England, Chris brewed his own beer, shortly before the first world war. Of course, it was revolting, but there were no fatalities, and he became more and more convinced that the merry community of Champaign Urbana would greatly benefit from his beer brewing prowess. Mercifully he met professional brewer Bill Morgan in 2003. Bill actually knew what he was doing, having graduated from the Seibel Institute, and had years of experience working in breweries in Cleveland, and later Japan. Together they planned Champaign’s first ever whole grain brewery, which opened in 2009 at the Neil Street location.