Just outside Assumption, Illinois is Cypress Grove Farm, where "belties" - a traditional Scottish…read morebreed of beef cattle properly called the Belted Galloway - are raised. Cypress Grove has a farm store as well, and as of 2019, a side business as a brewery.
A bit of digging through online newspaper articles showed that the owners were partners in the original iteration of 1905 Brewing Company in town, but left the partnership when that bar burned down in 2019. Now they make beer out on their farm, offering it by the cup, crowler, and growler in their farm store. Plenty of picnic tables and lawn chairs were spread under large oak trees on the lawn.They have food trucks on the premises on select weekends; for our visit, just brats and chips were available, plus meat and cheese from the farm store. Guests are warmly greeted, and welcome to stroll around the property to see the fields and cattle. During our COVID-era visit, masks were worn indoors and parties were safely distanced outside.
The beers we tried were excellent, including an Irish Red, a "Trials and Tritical-ations" experimental pale ale, and a couple sours. We took home some crowlers, including a "Pork Snout Milk Stout" which really is infused with pork... interesting, but not for me!
Cypress Grove was definitely worth driving a few miles off our planned trek through Christian County. It's a lovely setting with friendly folks and great brews.