Doc G’s Brewing Company

We are from out of town and took a chance on this place to test out local brew and food. It was great! I had the 3^rd ward Red and the Hardwood Stout and liked them both. Delicious pulled pork sandwich, although I could have done without French fries and pickles on the sandwich. Good homemade chips. The service was slow, but I think because they were busy and understaffed. I would recommend it!

This is one of those reviews that I’m kind of torn about star-​wise. A few high points, but I guess kind of a stinker overall. Maybe it was just because they were starting out, but the beer was pretty bad. I had their Jefferson Line IPA. It tasted astringent. I really didn’t like it and I’m normally a huge fan of IPAs. My husband agreed with my assessment of the IPA and our friend didn’t care for the wheat beer he ordered (it didn’t really taste like what I would expect for a wheat beer). We did not opt for a second round, which is a shame at a brewery.
We didn’t eat a full meal but ordered some wings as a light bite for the evening. The wings were actually good. They come in the whole wing format (which I don’t really like but I’m not going to ding them for that as it’s just a preference thing). Overall, the wings were well sauced and the sauce itself was very tasty. Served steaming hot.
Service was prompt but weird. The two servers who were working both kept stopping by like they were trying to outdo one another with service. It got a little intrusive and annoying, but at least they were friendly. They seemed like they wanted to be there, which is always nice.
Finally, I was disappointed with the décor. They could have gone a lot of different ways with the look of the place but it seems like they settled on «small town restaurant.» It didn’t look like a brewery as we approached from the street. Kind of boring inside and just lacked any charm.
So I settled on a two because the whole experience ended up being «meh,» and we were really excited to try this place out. I’m going to give it another go over the summer when we’re in town. It’s gotta be tough to open a new place — I want to give them a chance to get all the kinks worked out.

Went here again with a friend who wanted to try it. The prices are absolutely outrageous for what you get. $ 7.50 for cheese curds and you get like a handful. They were delicious, but I could have gotten more for the same price at Long John Silvers and they would have been just as good. Took 40 minutes to get our main meals and people who came after us, got it first. Service was TERRIBLE this time. No eye contact, didn’t come to see if we were okay. We went in the winter time and the draft from the door made it freezing. The food is just not that good. Chips are over done. No real flavor to sandwiches. The ONLY reason I give them a 2 star is the beer is good.

Well after about my fourth visit I couldn’t wait any longer. I really like this place and they have been good to me each time I’ve been there. The food is delicious, I really enjoy their appetizers and salads. I had a burger and it was really good too. I’ve not had to wait too long for my food even when they have been busy and the beer is pretty good also. I like that it is unfiltered and cloudy. The zombie IPA and the 3^rd ward ale are probably my favorites. From the color to the head retention, the beer simply looks great in the glass. I don’t like stouts myself but I’m told the Doc G’s stout is very good by a few buddies of mine who do drink them. Every time I’ve been in I’ve been greeted and talked to by many members of the staff which really makes you feel at home. You don’t find that kind of attention many places these days. Kudos to the owners of this establishment for bringing brewing back to the Dubois Area. I know this place will only get better as time goes on. Still working my way through the menu. I intend to try everything and would def recommend to others to check this place out. By the way, the place is very clean and cozy. Gotta give props on that also!

This review is about the beer only. I did not try any food.
As a longtime homebrewer and craft brewery fan, I was excited to learn that a brewery opened in my hometown.
When I first heard about Doc G’s, I thought, what an odd name for a craft brewery. Apparently, the owner is a doctor and his last name begins with a «G». Makes sense. But, I don’t understand the skeleton logo. I digress.
Me and my crew visited on Saturday January 16^th. Doc G’s has curb appeal with a giant picture window which allows you to see what’s going on inside. Place was busy with every table occupied and only 5 seats open at the bar (yay for us!)
There is no entrance to the brewpub. Meaning, you walk in the door and there are tables to the right and left. I can imagine people waiting for a table while standing against customers who are seated trying to enjoy a nice night out. Uncomfortable for both parties. Also, a giant cold breeze blows in. But, that doesn’t matter if you march straight to the bar.
The place is beautiful. Very well designed and finished very well. Great atmosphere and the staff is very welcoming. You can see they have a brand new 15bbl system in the back.
The beer. I wanted to try them all. I ordered a flight that comes with all 8 beers on tap.
First, I tried the Jefferson Line IPA. It’s an American IPA, but it had no aroma. Seemed like a West Coast style and a very piney taste. This beer was too aggressive with the pine flavor with the total flavor seemed off. Felt like I was drinking a pine cone. Maybe too much Gallena?
Next, Lazy Winter Wheat. This beer was ok, but nothing special. Seemed like a normal Winter Wheat. With a little more work, this could become a Winter staple. A December release to get excited about.
DuBois Blonde. Off flavor. This lacked balance and I was getting more hops than you should from a Blonde. I’m used to a sweeter flavor with Blondes. Might be the yeast? I found that Abby Ale yeasts provide the Blonde flavor that I’m looking for.
Hardwood Stout. I’m not a Stout fan, but this was smooth and very flavorful. Very nice job!
Zombie IPA. Awful. I did not like this whatsoever. I could not put my finger on it, but it wasn’t for me. No aroma and carbonation was low. I think I need to try this one again to give a better review.
Dunkel Gans. Awful x1000! Smoked beers are an absolute turnoff. Felt as though I had a mouthful of liquid smoke from curing beef jerky.
Down With Trousers. Nope. Again, I got a smokey taste from this beer. I was told this is a Scottish Ale. Did not get the malty flavor that I’m used to. It was more of a watery taste.
3^rd Ward. Best beer. Felt that this beer is another one that can become a staple at Doc G’s and something that their known for.
Overall, it was «meh». I know they’ve only been open a month, but I don’t care. If you’re going to put your product out there, it must be exact on day 1. You don’t have a second chance to make a first impression. If I were to guess, I’d say they are having trouble getting the same consistency from a 5 gallon recipe to a 15bbl (400 gal??) recipe. I heard a guy next to me talking to an owner or brewer and mentioned that they want to expand keg distribution and get into bottling/​canning. Before that can happen, I think the beer needs to be improved first.
I hope Doc G’s takes off because I love craft beer. It’s going to be tough because DuBois is more of a Natural Light and $ 2 beer kind of town. Would be nice to have more beer options when I visit.
I’ll go back a couple more times to see if anything improved and will update my review accordingly. I’ll bring in a few of my homebrews so you can review me… it’s only fair!

So, I have mixed feelings about this place after my recent visit. I was pretty impressed with the beer and my food was great. The atmosphere is nice and the prices are on par with that of a brew pub. The service and organization of the place needs some work though.
GOOD: The staff was super nice, you can tell they are trying hard to make sure everyone has a good experience. The prices are fair, no higher than any other brewpub in the region. Expect to pay $ 5 for a pint, $ 10 – 12 for a burger platter or salad. My fiancé had I two entrees, a glass of wine, and 2 pints for under 40 bucks! I didn’t try any of the hopped up IPAs or wheat brews but enjoyed the house Stout and Scottish Ale. Stouts are my go to drink and Doc G’s offering was on par with any of the bigger breweries in the State. The ambiance was nice, they did a good job with the word work at the bar area and achieving the «pub» feel. Lighting was fine and noise wasn’t an issue. When we ate I had a Chicken Salad. It was good, but it’s hard to mess up a salad. Our waitress and bartenders did a great job and provided top notch service.
BAD: So, the host was SUPER unorganized. He seems to have no clue how to seat anyone or make them feel welcome as they walked in. They don’t allow you to make reservation on the weekend (unless you have 10+ in your party… what?), so you end up walking in an hoping they have a table. Our host told us they were full and only bar seating was available for us to dine. I suggested to him that maybe we could put our name in for the next table and just have a drink at the bar while we wait (I didn’t want to eat at the bar, as he suggested. This idea of waiting there until my table was ready seemed foreign to him. I asked him how long the wait may be and he shrugged and looked around the room and said «20 or 30 minutes, I’m not sure»). He did write my name down and assure me that the next 4 top is mine. 40 minutes later tables become available and I watched as our host seated parties that had just entered off the street and hadn’t been made to wait. There was another party of 4 that was at the bar waiting as well for about 30 minutes. So we all sat and watched as others got comfy at their tables.
Just as others have said, much of the dining area is in close proximity to the front door. We ate with our coats on due to being placed nearest to the entrance. (So after not being able to make reservation and waiting 40 minutes while others walked in and were seated before us we go the worst table in the house… ugh.) My food was great, but 2 others in my party complained of their steak sandwiches being cold. My fiancé had a pizza and said it tasted like a frozen variety from a grocer. I was the only one who enjoyed their entrée.
Also, I asked the bar tender if they offered any «happy hour» specials during the week. I was told they only have $ 2 Blonde pints from 2−4pm. 2−4pm? That’s a strange time for beer specials. I thought the idea of a «happy hour» was to appeal to the work crowd who leave for work after 4 or 5pm. Just seemed odd to me…
OVERALL: This place is new so I’m sure it will be much smoother as time goes on. I like the people, the beer, the food, and the price point so much of what I look for in a dining experience are there. They NEED to get the entrance issue taken care of. I’ll just avoid the place all together in the winter if I have to wear a jacket when I dine. Maybe they can hire a more experience host/​hostess or train the fella they have now better, IDK. Minor details that they can easily improve on. Looking forward to trying it out again.

Save yourself the disappointment! I was ready to love this new place in a small town but they have NO IDEA what they are doing! They apparently opened on 12÷1÷15. When we tried to get a table on the 26^th not only did the host tell us, and everyone else who came in that he had no idea how long the wait would be, when we went to the bar they were out of 2 of the 4 beers listed on the board. First, why wouldn’t the host know how long the wait would be? Second, if you are a new brewery wouldn’t you make sure you’re ready to serve, well, uh, BEER?! One customer asked if the lights could be turned up because it was too dark and yet again, the host’s answer to every question that night was some variation of «I have no idea.» As a new restaurant you should hire/​teach better customer service skills like simply saying, «Let me see what we can do.»
After a 30 minute wait and watching the complete chaos between the host and one of the managers who was clearing tables, we asked again how long the wait would be and ended up getting into an argument with the host because he was extremely rude and disrespectful. When I asked to speak to a manager I was surprised to find that the guy who was trying to ignore our argument was in fact a manager, he stood there for about 2 minutes not saying anything to his employee about the way he was talking to us! What kind of manager stands by and listens to his employee be disrespectful to customers and doesn’t intervene?
I hope they will consider training their staff on customer service and actually start making beer.

I’ve been to this establishment twice.
The first time they had no beer. Incredible disappointment. A brew pub with no beer = just another mediocre restaurant. Food ok. Service ok. C-​/​D+
I returned to doc g’s for lunch today. A Saturday at prime time lunch. The first thing I noticed when I entered was a contractor drilling holes in concrete to hang a picture extremely loud to the point of being annoying. My wife and I sat down. Server was prompt and attentive. However my beer order was delivered after two groups that arrived after us were served. The food was typical bar food. The owner was there. Eating with his family and occasionally checking in with one or two tables. He would walk around with a smile on his face as if we were to thank him for bringing this establishment to the town for us to pay premium prices for average (at best) products. Clearly he is proud of what he has built. And I have to say it is a very nice facility. However, it is time to say the beer sampler yielded nothing remarkable.
The drilling to hang pictures continued throughout our visit. It was so loud my wife and I could barely conduct any kind of conversation. I grew increasingly aggravated as time went on. I resented it.
I’ve owned food service businesses. You do not conduct site maintenance during business hours unless it is mission critical emergency repairs. Drilling holes in concrete/​brick walls to hang pictures should never be done during business hours. «Com’n man»
I’m cranky. My expectations were much higher. Clearly the level of investment in the facility indicates the owners expectations are much higher. It is very nice.
In summary, the design of the facility is quite nice. The service is mostly ok. The food is typical pub food. The beer is unremarkable. The service is mixed.
Perhaps most importantly the owner is clueless. He is either incompetent or he just doesn’t care. It’s all about excellence in execution, not excellence in smiles. I believe he cares, but just lacks experience. I hope he figures it out soon.
What this place needs is active, knowledgable, experience management that really cares about excellence in products and service.
I would react defensively if I were the owner reading these comments. Understood. But I’m just trying to help. I really want you to exceed expectations.

A group of four of us had dinner here last night. It’s great to see new businesses in the area. We were there as much for the beer as getting something decent to eat. The food is traditional pub food like sandwiches, burgers and pizza. Everything we had was good. nothing to write home about. Prices on the food are too high for what you get. Now the beer… I really wanted to like the beers but my tastebuds wouldn’t allow it. The stout is the only one that I can say has some potential to be a good beer. It just tasted like it was rushed and could use a few more weeks (month) of aging. They just opened so I am optimistic that they will realize the beer they are serving isn’t up to par and will step up their game. And if you visit in the winter the cold air blasting through the front dining area every time the door is opened will make you scramble for your coat.

Let me explain my one star review.
Let me start with the positive. The restaurant is nicely done and decorated. It has that old pub feel to it. The bartenders have all so far been very nice. They have a fairly large menu available. Ok so I am trying to think of more positives but I am having trouble. This place is new, so I am sure I will add to this in the future. I will update my review accordingly.
I had a juicy Lucy type burger with hot pepper cheese and the chips. The cheese is advertised as ghost chili I think. Hmmmmm. Not sure I noticed any heat. The chips were pretty good and the burger too. Typical pub food, not life changing in any way. I think the burger was $ 12 or $ 13 with chips. This is a fairly large price for this caliber burger in Dubois where property is cheap and labor inexpensive. If it was an amazing burger then the price would not be an issue. The fact that it seems there is a lot of frozen food on the menu made the burger price seem more expensive possibly. There is alway hope with breweries that the creativity level is going to be high. This isn’t one of those.
Now to the reason I gave one star. This is a brewpub. There are almost 4,000 breweries in this country. If you start brewing beer, it has to be good. This is not good beer… I have tried all their beers on so far. I had their IPA last night, there are so many great iPa out there. If I didn’t know this was an IPA I never would have guessed it was one. They say they used citra and mosaic, where? On this beer? Are you sure? It tasted like marshmallows, sweet malt with a bit of lingering bitterness at the end. If I didn’t know this beer was fresh I would have though it was a two year old double IPA, that is after they told me it was an IPA. I had their «Belgian stout», which is on nitro and tastes like a dry stout. I am not sure what is Belgian about it. They have a scotch ale with smoked malt or something I am no fan of. They also have like three wheat based beers on. I just don’t really have a taste for those, so I won’t say anything about them.
So like I said, this is a brewpub. The beer should be the highlight. It seems like the beer is last in importance on their list. It seems like this place was opened just to get in on the beer scene to make money. I just can’t see any passion.
I hope I can delete all of this in the near future with a great update.

I so wanted to like this new restaurant and was excited to try it, but was very unimpressed when I finally did. All the people at my table were also unimpressed with their food. My burger was raw in the center and I sent it back. The waitress seemed a little inconvenienced in sending it back. The pineapple salsa on the burger was good, but there was only maybe a teaspoon of it on the burger. For a $ 12 burger in this area, I expected much more. The nachos our table shared were good, but had very little toppings on them. Compared to other place in town, this place is skimping on the food for the price. The blonde beer I had was so strong with spice I couldn’t even drink it. The Trousers beer was pretty good though. I did also like the atmosphere of the place. That said, I hope they are just working out the kinks and would maybe give them another try down the road, I just wish my first visit would have been much better.

I had dinner and a couple of drinks at Doc G’s. My overall first impression is positive. The bar is really nice, the bartender was friendly, the food was decent, and the beer was fine.
I ordered the Moody Blues burger, medium, which came with house made potato chips. It was decent, but not worth it for $ 12. Overall I feel their prices are too high for «pub food» in DuBois. I was told the chef is experimenting with new items to rotate into the menu. I’ll look forward to trying them.
I tried the three beers they currently have on tap — DuBois Blonde, Hardwood Stout, & Down with Trousers. They were fine, but I hope they get a lot better. I was told the brewers are still experimenting so the next batch will be slightly different.
All and all I would recommend giving Doc G’s a try. It’s something new and nice for DuBois. Personally, though, I will only become a regular here if they can impress me with their beer.

So my husband and I tried Doc G brewery Company today for lunch. First of all they had no beer. They said it would not be ready for another week or so. The staff although very attentive they were very inexperienced. My husband ordered a hamburger and fries (which was extra cost). The burger was good but the fries were limp and soggy with grease. I ordered a traditional pizza. The toppings were tasty but the crust was obviously frozen. Tasted no better than one you buy in the supermarket. Overall I think it was overpriced and not worth it.