MISHAWAKA — Casey Stuber and his brother DJ once found themselves deep into the craft beer scene in the U.S. and spent their free time visiting different breweries to try unique beers with different hops, fruits and fermenting.
“The atmosphere they had, everybody was always chill and relaxed [and they] had great food. It was just more of us,” Stuber says. “We just liked the vibe over a normal corner bar.”
Growing up in Edwardsburg, Stuber and his family visited Mishawaka often, so it felt natural that when he and his brother decided to open a bar with a focus on craft beer, it would exist in Mishawaka.
Hop Station came to fruition after the opportunity to acquire their current building at 318 Union St. arose. Since opening in 2019, the “punk rock”-adjacent bar has introduced over 200 beers to customers while still selling well-loved domestic options as well, Stuber says.
Neon signs of local and nationwide breweries light up the bar that is filled with “Star Wars” memorabilia from Stuber and his brother’s childhood.
Whether a customer walks in as a beer enjoyer or beer hater, Stuber says he is confident Hop Station has something for everyone.
“I will find them a beer that they will like,” he says. “I don’t want them to drink a beer they don’t like. It’s your hard-earned money.”
The world of craft beer
During their time exploring beer festivals, Stuber and his brother found a variety of different bars that inspired their atmosphere at Hop Station and their love for highlighting small breweries.
Spots like The Porter Beer Bar in Atlanta, Tornado Pub out west in California and Local Option located just two hours away in Chicago became the blueprint for what a successful bar could look like to Stuber.
The Tornado Pub specifically introduced Stuber to aged kegs and the possibility of changing an entire beer’s flavor just by letting it sit untouched longer.
“We started being able to do that. We have some kegs that we’ve had for about five years just to let them age and tap into them for special events,” Stuber says. “… Sometimes we try to get two kegs of it [a beer], and we tap one right when we get it and hold on to the other for a few years and try it again later.”
Aging sours, beers brewed to have tart and tangy flavors, and barley stouts, top-fermented ale with intense roasted flavors such as coffee and chocolate, can make them more complex. Fruit notes will develop or the beer will take on a woodier flavor from being aged in barrels.
To constantly expose their customers to new companies and different styles of beer, Stuber says, Hop Station only keeps two core options on their draft line — Golden Road Mango Cart and Ash & Elm Fleeting Youth. Everything else is in constant rotation.
“Don’t fall in love with a beer here because it’ll probably be gone, but then we’ll have another really good beer to replace it,” Stuber says. “That’s what the fun is. You don’t want to keep drinking the same thing over and over again because it gets boring.”
Stuber says there’s no rhyme or reason for what beers get put on draft every week, and it’s “purely random.” The 34 draft lines are usually left to feeling and typically what’s available at the time.
On top of having numerous canned beer options as well, the bar has a seasonal cocktail menu that uses exclusive Hop Station specialty-picked spirits. Stuber works with a representative in Chicago that allows him and his brother to go to a distillery and pick an entire barrel to sell with their name on it.
The brothers also sell their own hazy India Pale Ale (IPA), which they like to call “Super Smash” and that they sell in cans rather than on draft. They’re currently on the custom beer’s fifth released variety.
“Smash stands for single malt and single hop, or to be able to smash the beer,” Stuber says. “We want it to be really approachable drinking.”
Eccentric pizza
Although many of their customers stop in to drink, Stuber says, Hop Station has a full pizza menu to satisfy any hunger needs. Starting with their own house-made sourdough or gluten-free cauliflower crust, the menu consists of 20 different topping combinations.
“People love having just really far out there” pizza, he says. “It’s fun for us, and it’s more our style to be eccentric.”
The bar’s galaxy pizza, made with mozzarella, provolone, chicken and applewood smoked bacon, get’s a “galaxy swirl” of ranch to finish it off, and, Stuber says, it’s a fan favorite simply for the house-made ranch.
More funky approaches such as their elote pizza and booyaka booyaka pizza come with more uncommon toppings that customers typically wouldn’t find at other places, Stuber says.
“We have one that is inspired by Taco Bell’s chicken quesadilla, so we kind of made our own version of the quesadilla sauce,” he says. “It has chicken, and we crush up cool ranch Doritos on top of it for texture.”
In addition to pizza, the bar also has “double-decker” street tacos and appetizers such as pretzel bites, nachos, breadsticks and more.
Stuber says he’s currently looking into bringing limited-time pizza options to the bar and is excited to introduce new combinations, such as a pickle pizza with dill aioli and garlic butter crust that is coming to the bar in March.
Hop Station
● What: Bar with craft and domestic beer and finger food
● Where: 318 Union St., Mishawaka
● Hours: 3 p.m.–midnight Sundays through Thursdays and 3 p.m.–1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays
● Price: $10-$30
● For more information: Call 574-855-4337 or visit hopstationcraftbar.com.
If you know of a restaurant that should be featured in an upcoming Taste column, email Tribune staff writer for Taste Jessica Velez at jvelez@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Hop Station brings unique craft beers to Mishawaka bar scene
Reporting by Jessica Velez, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
