After delays, Belvidere couple ready to hop to it with new downtown brewery

By Paul Anthony Arco
Rock River Current
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BELVIDERE — The long wait for beer lovers of Boone County is over.

After more than a year of delays, mishaps and other obligations, Cheryl and Ryan Morris will officially open the doors today to 5 Bines Brewery, a microbrewery and taproom at 515 S. State St. in downtown Belvidere.

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This is the first business venture for the Belvidere natives. Ryan is an operations manager for a local company, and Cheryl has been a stay-at-home mom.

“It’s a little surreal to finally reach this point, but we’re ready to jump in with both feet and see what happens,” Cheryl said. “We feel like we’ve been holed up in the brewery for so long. We’ve missed seeing people.”

For now, 5 Bines Brewery is only open this weekend to coincide with Heritage Days, Belvidere’s two-day summer festival.

“We will see how this weekend goes and how much beer we have left,” said Cheryl, who predicts a full opening soon.

The road to opening day has been filled with plenty of potholes.

Originally scheduled to open in the summer of 2023, the Morris family’s Belvidere home was struck by lightning, which left three large holes in their roof and a power surge that “fried” all their electronic devices.

“We had two projects going on at once,” Cheryl said. “Ryan was fixing our house and working on getting the brewery ready at night and on the weekends. Plus, he was doing more traveling for his full-time job.”

Getting the building ready presented its own challenges. They had to hardwire smoke alarms, update restrooms, replace light fixtures and handle ventilation work. Not to mention the stack of applications and permits that go along with opening a business.

“This building is 128 years old, and as we tore things apart, we found more issues like rotten floors and leaks in the ceiling,” Cheryl said. “When Ryan cut the hole in the basement for the pump fill, we found buckets of decomposed rubber-soled shoes down there. That took a whole weekend to clean up. All these little things add up.”

They decided to change the name of the brewery to 5 Bines from the original name, Full Circle, when they discovered a beer of the same name. Cheryl says the new name is more fitting. “We decided to do our own thing,” she said. “Besides, 5 Bines has a nice ring. It rolls off the tongue.”

Thanks to a helping hand from family and friends, the couple was able get the bar top, which is an old bowling alley lane that Ryan sanded and finished, ready for opening weekend.

There is table seating for 65 people and standing room for an additional 40. The brewery will offer snacks, but customers can bring order-in their own food.

The couple has maintained their sense of humor through the many setbacks. When making the official opening announcement on their Facebook page, they wrote “after working on this project for 400 years, we are opening our doors.”

“We got a little discouraged because it was taking so long, but we knew we could pull it off,” Cheryl said.  “Now we’re ready to move on to the fun part.

“We’re long overdue for a cold beer.”

5 Bines Brewery | Know before you go

Where: 515 S. State St., Belvidere

Opening weekend hours: 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, June 28; 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 29

Limited Menu includes:

Boone County Pale Ale
County Seat American Wheat
Honey Ale
Ryan’s Root Beer (non-alcoholic)
Water and soda also served

Because most sales are alcohol, a parent or guardian must accompany any customer under 21.

This article is by freelance journalist Paul Anthony Arco. Email news@rockrivercurrent.com with any feedback or questions.