For the first time in years, Carlyle Brewing Co. beers are on tap outside of downtown Rockford

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — It’s been years since craft beer lovers could taste one of Carlyle Brewing Co.’s signature brews anywhere outside of the four walls of the downtown brewpub.

The brewery’s new owners have changed that.

Joe and Anne D’Astice, who took over ownership of Carlyle last April, have restarted distribution for the first time since the early days of the downtown brewery at 215 E. State St. You can now find it in a small handful of local restaurants, adding Carlyle to a list of local breweries such as Prairie Street Brewing Co., Urban Forest Craft Brewing and Pig Minds Brewing Co. that have their drinks on tap at area restaurants.

“We thought it was time,” Joe D’Astice said. “Not everyone wants to come downtown to grab a beer, and if they go to their favorite local restaurant or bar and they can get a Carlyle beer there that’s really pretty cool.”

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Don Carlyle, who founded Carlyle Brewing in 2003, had worked with distributors early on in the downtown brewery’s run but ultimately decided to keep his creations in-house.

Count Zak Rotello among those who was waiting for Caryle to change his mind.

“Don was a regular guest of ours over the years, and every time he would come in I’d say, ‘Don when are you going to sell me a keg?'” said Rotello, the general manager of The Olympic Tavern. “In my opinion, Don always made the best beer in the area for a very long time. Don was a scientist behind the scenes and did a good job.”

Last week, The Olympic Tavern, 2327 N. Main St., was the first restaurant not owned by the D’Astices to put Carlyle’s vanilla cream ale on tap. Rotello said he saw it on the hot sheet from his distributor, Loves Park-based LaMonica Beverages, and added it to his order.

“I snagged one, and I’m like, ‘hey that’s kind of cool to say we’re the first bar in 18 plus years to have a Carlyle beer on tap,” he said.

The vanilla cream ale is also available at Lucha Cantina, 1641 N. Alpine Road, Woodfire, which the D’Astices own, at 408 E. State St., and soon-to-be at both Cantina Taco locations, 117 S. Main St. and 6342 E. Riverside Blvd. in Loves Park.

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Rotello said that when Carlyle initially started distribution craft and micro breweries were not as widespread as they are today. Distributors were accustomed to handling bigger brands.

“Nobody understood distribution for the small guy,” he said. “They knew mass quantities of Bud Light and the bigger players in the industry, but they didn’t know what to do with a guy like Carlyle who could only produce so much at a given time.”

D’Astice worked with Carlyle for months to learn how to make the brewery’s signature beers. He said the vanilla cream ale is one of the most popular drinks at Carlyle, along with humulus lupulus IPA, and it was a fitting choice for the first to go on tap outside of the brewery.

“It’s a very easy, pleasant beer to drink and it appeals to a lot of people,” D’Astice said.

Rotello said the beer has the same flavor profile as it did when it was made by Carlyle himself. That was important to him before deciding to put it on tap.

“We always like to support local when we can, but one thing I have said over the years is it’s got to be good before it’s local,” he said. “This tastes like the cream ale I remember.”

“It went really well over the weekend, we had a lot of good feedback.”

Josh Binning, the owner of Lucha Cantina, said customers were excited about the addition of Carlyle to the restaurant at the start of the week.

“We do our best, especially with our draft beer lineups, to carry local/regional beers,” he said. “Why have something shipped across the country when I can have it shipped, in this case, just up the street, or in some cases just about an hour away?”

D’Astice said the goal isn’t to expand too far outside of Rockford. Instead, he hopes to have Carlyle’s beer added to a few more local restaurants and bars.

“To be able to have Carlyle beer outside these four walls is pretty amazing,” he said. “We’re thrilled that it’s going out into the local community, and we hope to do a little more in the future.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas