06/05/2026
Dear 515 Faithful,
First off, thank you to everyone who has stopped by the taproom, sent us a message, or liked our posts. We’re incredibly excited and eager to re-open the doors and let the good times roll, and your enthusiasm helps keep us going! Now that we’ve entered into June, it’s time for an in-depth update in the form of a good news / bad news / good news sandwich.
The Good News: Since we got the keys to 515 Brewing on the 1st of May, we have been working tirelessly to get things ready for reopening. Over a collective 500 hours we have:
Disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the brewing equipment
Completely gutted and replaced all keg lines in the keg room and taps
Ordered over 4,000 lbs of grain, malt, and hops
Scrubbed, cleaned, and sanitized the taproom
Reached out to previous vendors and partners to bring them back to 515
Replaced or repaired tools and equipment
And we were honored to talk with so many of the 515 Faithful who swung by the taproom just to say “Hi!”
There’s still more work to be done, but we are working around the clock to make the taproom the best that it can be.
Now for the bad news: We have to delay our opening until the end of June. We don’t have an exact date we can open yet, but we’ll keep you posted. I know, this isn’t the news we wanted to share, but we need to make sure all of our paperwork is stamped and approved with both the City of Clive and the State of Iowa when it comes to full licensure and certification. As eager as we are to start, everything needs to be done correctly and signed off before we can open our doors. We are currently planning to re-open during the 4th week of June.
As it stands, we currently have our beer brewing license which has allowed us to get a head start on bringing back 515 originals. We continue to make positive progress on our license to sell beer and alcohol (important right?). After that, the final step is a Food Safety Inspection (while we don’t have a kitchen, the state wants to know that we’re clean!), which is set for the third week of June. Assuming there’s a little bit of down time for paperwork processing and getting everything in order, we’re hoping we’ll be ready around the week of June 22nd. We are chomping at the bit to get folks in the door, but we need to make sure we do things right.
Every cloud has a silver lining, and ours is this: as of yesterday we have completed our first double batch of Mexican Spring! If everything goes right and our math is correct, we’ll have over 3,000 glasses ready right around when we open! And even better, next week we’re set to brew a double batch of OJ IPA! Once things have sat for a few days and we can take some readings, we’ll have a better idea of when they’ll be finished. Which leads to the most important good news of all:
KEG TAPPING PARTY FOR MEXICAN SPRING AND OJ IPA! DATE TBD
We’re still ironing out all the details so there will be more information to come, but you can expect a food truck and festivities for the whole day when we celebrate the return of 515 Brewing and its Gold Medal Beers. Once OJ IPA and Mexican Spring are finished, we’ll have a big ol’ party! We cannot wait to celebrate and drink delicious craft beer with you, and it’ll happen before you know it!
