{"id":43275,"date":"2025-01-23T16:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T16:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/beer\/wolfden-brewing-company-americas-most-haunted-brewery\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T16:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T16:27:08","slug":"wolfden-brewing-company-americas-most-haunted-brewery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=43275","title":{"rendered":"Wolfden Brewing Company: America’s Most Haunted Brewery?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A spirited conversation with Wolfden owner Katie Wolf<\/h3>\n
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Note: This Halloween-y post about Wolfden Brewing Company is a little different than usual, and it\u2019s not terribly beer-y, but it\u2019s at the very least beer-adjacent and I thought it\u2019d be fun.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most of you read this via email, but this post also has audio of alleged spirit encounters that are only available outside of the email format.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll return to our normal news roundup next week, but until then, for the full experience we recommend you click over to our Substack page.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year we went all out.\u201d That\u2019s how Katie Wolf, co-owner of Bloomingdale\u2019s\u00a0Wolfden Brewing Company<\/strong>, describes how they\u2019ve been handling spooky season, considering the very haunted nature (assuming you believe in such things) of the 19th-century farmhouse that currently is home to their brewery and taproom.<\/p>\n

Katie and her husband Krystov opened Wolfden in 2018 and have always been happy to share stories about the spirits that can be heard \u2013 and sometimes seen \u2013 at their space. Their building dates back to 1851, and\u00a0according to the lore documented on their website<\/a>, multiple people may have been buried or even died there over the decades.<\/p>\n

As Halloween approached this year, they\u2019ve increased the number of Ghost Tours that they host at their brewery, with all of them quickly selling out. More about these tours shortly, but you should know that the final Ghost Tour for the month\u00a0is already sold out<\/a>. You can still attend\u00a0their Black & White Howl-O-Ween Party<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday, though!<\/p>\n

I wanted to know more about what it\u2019s like running a haunted brewery, so Katie and I chatted recently about her spooky experiences. If you\u2019re inspired to visit Wolfden and hunt for ghosts, they do have other Ghost Tours throughout the year, so keep an eye on their Events page on Facebook for more.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, go drink their beer and see what happens. (See the video below for evidence that anything could happen at any time.)<\/p>\n

For now, here\u2019s the story behind the most haunted brewery in Chicagoland, where, thanks to spirits named Jack, Brian and maybe Rupert \u2026\u00a0you never drink alone\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

GDB: What were you looking for when you found this location? And what made you say, \u201cYeah, we want to open a brewery here.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Katie Wolf:<\/strong>\u00a0My husband and I were looking for a place that we could make our own. We really wanted something very different from everything else that we were seeing pop up in the burbs. You know, everything was really industrial and kind of cold feeling, and we really wanted it to feel more like Cheers. Like a warm hangout.<\/p>\n

We took a lot of inspiration from the Leinie\u2019s Lodge, because that was our first brewery [visit], and it was such a wonderful experience that we had together. We just loved it so much. That\u2019s kind of what brought us into this industry. And so when we found this building, at first, we were like,\u00a0\u201cThis is crazy. We can never do this. There\u2019s so much renovation needed in the building.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

But the building was from 1851, and personally, my father and all my uncles were carpenters, steel workers; they all were in construction and development and I kind of have that in my blood. So when I showed my dad, he got super excited about it. He\u2019s like, \u201cWe can do this.\u201d So it was the first family project that I got to do with my uncles and my dad and my husband, and it was just such a cool experience. They really made it happen for us, because we wouldn\u2019t have been able to without them.<\/p>\n

But I also grew up really loving antiques. We always had antiques in our house; it was always beautiful and I always loved them. So when I saw this place, I was just like, \u201cOh my god, I could put my aesthetic in this so easily.\u201d So it just worked out. And the city really wanted us there. They really wanted a brewery, so they were super supportive. We tried a couple other villages around the area and they did not support us, so we definitely were really happy to be here.<\/p>\n

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\"Katie\"Katie<\/a>
Katie Wolf and an unnamed guest in Wolfden\u2019s Beer Garden, circa 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

GDB: So is the original 1851 farmhouse still a main part of the structure? I assume it\u2019s been added on to over the years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:<\/strong>\u00a0The original structure is all still there. We we tried to keep it as original as we could. I really love renovating things and keeping that\u00a0soul<\/em>\u00a0to it. I didn\u2019t want to knock down everything. [The previous owners] never registered [the building] as historic, because they thought whoever was going to buy it was going to knock it down. And when we came through, they were even more excited to hear that we didn\u2019t want to knock it down. We wanted to try to keep it original as possible.<\/p>\n

So when you walk in, you can see the ceiling is all original. You can just tell it\u2019s really, really old. I left the ceiling exposed, and the cellar is original, and you can see the stone walls that were built there in 1851. Everything\u2019s reinforced now with cement, and obviously we reinforced all the wood in the building. And because it\u2019s all original wood, we had to sprinkler the shit out of it. There are sprinklers everywhere in that building. It\u2019s never gonna burn down.<\/p>\n

GDB: And I understand that you\u2019ve taken a few scars away from from this particular haunting as well, according to the story on your website?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: Correct. When we were excavating the backyard, we found what looked like some sort of old bullet or something, but it was made out of clay. So I did some research, and I figured out that it\u2019s a soldier\u2019s marble. They\u2019re actually pretty well known; if you look it up, you can see they look the exact same as what I found. It\u2019s like a clay ball, I think it\u2019s three quarters of an inch or something.<\/p>\n

So I took it home with me, so I could build this shadow box to document the history of the building and the things we found in it. And\u00a0right away<\/em>, all this weird stuff started happening to me. I ended up almost dying in a Menards. I had 12 paint cans, like a big box of full paint cans fall from 20 feet above me.<\/p>\n

Within one week, I sliced my Achilles tendon on one of the wires that they were using to build the fence around the building. There was just so much weird stuff. So I randomly had a friend of mine who \u2013 I didn\u2019t know this at the time, [but she] was a medium. She texted me and said, \u201cI know this is really weird, but I have a spirit telling me that you need to bring back whatever marble that you took away.\u201d And she didn\u2019t know about it.<\/p>\n

So for me, that solidified it. Like, there\u2019s no other explanation for that. I don\u2019t know. It was crazy to me that that happened, and instantly I was just like,\u00a0\u201cOkay, well, this is very real.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0And since then, we\u2019ve had people experience scary things, but nothing\u00a0too<\/em>\u00a0crazy.<\/p>\n

[Ed. note:\u00a0She did put the marble back<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

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Click here to view the video on Facebook.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GDB: I know it\u2019s available on your site, but if you don\u2019t mind, please just give me the Cliffs Notes of what you understand The Haunting of this property to be.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: We are pretty sure we have one main spirit whose name is Jack. We think he was a soldier because of the marble, and when he\u2019s [appeared] to people at our business he\u2019s portrayed himself as a very tall, thin, dark, shadow figure. And many people have seen him.<\/p>\n

He comes out when we\u2019ve asked for him to interact with us; he\u2019s actually come out during the Ghost Adventures and spoke through some of our equipment. And then things just happen when we start talking about him around the tap room. So we always feel like he\u2019s the most present.<\/p>\n

GDB: And when you say, \u2018speak through your equipment\u2019 what does that mean? Like a voice coming from the brewhouse or something?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: We have a piece of equipment called\u00a0a spirit box<\/a>, and it basically flips through radio frequencies, like a hundred a second. So you just hear the static of the frequencies flipping, and if you hear something speak through it, it\u2019s basically [the box] giving the spirit enough energy to be able to communicate. That\u2019s the theory.<\/p>\n

So we use that and we definitely get responses. The first time I tried to talk to him, and I said, \u201cIs your name Jack?\u201d He said,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m Jack.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0And we have that recorded. Two weeks ago, we had a ghost hunt and we have a very clear sound clip of a lady asking him what his name is. And he said,\u00a0\u201cRupert.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so crazy because it\u2019s so clear \u2013 and we\u2019ve never had a Rupert. We don\u2019t know about Rupert, but we have a portal, we\u2019ve been told, where spirits can come in and out upstairs. It used to be our party room, but now it\u2019s our \u201cPortal Room,\u201d and because of that, I think we have a pretty good amount of spirits that come through all the time.<\/p>\n

Visit our Substack to listen to Rupert and Jack.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s also been kind of verified, because we have mediums come in and say they\u2019ve never seen this many spirits in one place. And sometimes they literally want to leave because they can hear everyone talking, and I\u2019ve had multiple people say this to me. I know it sounds crazy, but when you hear it from a couple different people and they don\u2019t know each other \u2026 that\u2019s very hard to debunk. I mean, it\u2019s pretty crazy. They\u2019ve said that they\u2019ve seen people from the 1800s walking through the tap room wearing, like, a bustle skirt. It\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n

We think we have a younger spirit named Brian that likes to joke around with people. We\u2019ve been told he\u2019s too young to drink, so he just kind of fucks with everyone at the bar because he\u2019s jealous. We just have so many different experiences, and the spirit box really helps them talk to us.<\/p>\n

GDB: And when you were looking at this place originally, was the the haunted nature of it disclosed? Or was that something that you discovered later?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:<\/strong>\u00a0So when we first did our walk through with the village, we went into the cellar and they joked around that, \u201cThis is where the ghosts live.\u201d And you know, we all laughed, had a good chuckle. And pretty much right after that was when we kind of started experiencing things.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never \u2026 I\u2019ve never experienced anything [supernatural] before this. So I can\u2019t say I was a believer or a non-believer. I was just open to it. So I was excited about it, and I\u2019ve been excited since day one, I still love it. I think it\u2019s the coolest thing ever. Nothing really scared me ever. I just want to experience as much as I can.<\/p>\n

GDB: You\u2019ve mentioned the portal room, but what do you use the oldest parts of the of the house for? Is that where the tap room is, is that where the brew house is?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: The cellar. The cellar is the oldest part, and the only way to see it is to go on the ghost tour, because it\u2019s storage. It\u2019s where we keep, you know, all our dry stock, and there\u2019s three creepy little rooms. One of the rooms, we were told, may have been used for the Underground Railroad, because it\u2019s very, very small. There\u2019s a lot of cool history down there.<\/p>\n

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\"The\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

We also feel like we may have Native American spirits, because the post office in Bloomingdale [is on] a Native American burial ground, per the public library. So we tend to think that we have some Native American spirits, and we\u2019ve been told that we have one in the cellar that really doesn\u2019t like when people come down. So a lot of people get very uncomfortable in the cellar.<\/p>\n

GDB: I once lived in a house in downtown Naperville that was built in the 1870s or so, so I can absolutely picture the type of cellar you have. Weirdly, I was told the same thing about that house \u2013 we had a semi-enclosed space in the basement that was also \u201conce used on the Underground Railroad.\u201d And I had some spooky things happen to me there as well. I\u2019m as skeptical if not moreso than the next guy, but as you said \u2013 when these similar events happen to people who have no relation, or have no idea that something might be going on \u2026 well, I get why someone would choose to lean into that feeling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: I mean, it\u2019s a lot based on feelings. When I have my ghost hunts, you know, I always ask, who\u2019s sensitive? And it\u2019s crazy, because the people who\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0sensitive, they get legitimately the most response on out of anyone when we do our ghost hunts. We\u2019ll literally just give them the equipment, and they will get so much more response than anyone else. So I\u2019ve seen everything with my own eyes. You know, I\u2019m definitely a believer at this point. Like, there\u2019s no doubt in my mind. It\u2019s too real.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s crazy too, because sometimes we\u2019ll go for a couple months and we won\u2019t feel anything, we won\u2019t hear anything. And we\u2019ll have a ghost hunt, and nothing will happen, which is terrible, because it always just feels so disappointing, even though people have such a fun time. And we always say, you know, if nothing happens, that\u2019s just the way it is. We\u2019re not gonna fake anything.<\/p>\n

But then the last couple times we\u2019ve done it, oh my gosh, there\u2019s been so much more response than last year. I guess sometimes there\u2019s more spirits in the building than others.\u00a0We also sage a lot<\/a>. So sometimes we may have saged them out.<\/p>\n

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GDB: Tell me more about your ghost tours. I don\u2019t remember seeing them in past years \u2013 obviously you\u2019re busy in October but are these available year round?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: Yes. We usually do them in the winter months when we\u2019re slower. And it depends on staffing, it depends where I\u2019m at in life, if I can handle doing, you know, these two hour tours. We used to do them at 11pm till 1am, after we closed, but then I decided, \u201cI\u2019m too old for this.\u201d So now we do them a little bit earlier, but we have to wait until the sun goes down.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s kind of just evolved. In the beginning, we didn\u2019t have as much equipment, now we have more equipment. Also, if my staff is not into it, I can\u2019t throw these events. The staff I have right now, they\u2019ve all had experiences, and they\u2019re like, \u2018\u201cFuck yeah, we\u2019ll do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

GDB: Is that a question that you\u2019re allowed to ask at a job interview? , If you\u2019re you\u2019re looking for help, can you ask, \u201cHow open are you to weird, spooky stuff?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: I literally ask that at every single interview. \u201cAre you okay with spirits?\u201d I\u2019m not kidding. I do. It\u2019s a serious question every time, because if somebody is really freaked out, they\u2019re not going to make it. Because I\u2019ve had grown men run out the door at night when they\u2019re closing. So my staff right now is very brave. They\u2019re awesome.<\/p>\n

GDB: Without giving away too much, give me a sense of what you do at these Ghost Adventure events.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: We do tours around the building, and we stop in different locations where we get more responses. And we stay at each location for 10 to 15 minutes, and we ghost hunt. We see if we can get the spirits with, at this point we have six or seven pieces of equipment that we use.<\/p>\n

We break off, we go into the yard, because we\u2019ve been told that we have many buried bodies in our backyard. [laughs] So we ghost hunt in the backyard too. We go all over the building.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve actually been told the whole downtown area is very, very haunted. The building right next to us was the coach house for our building in 1851 and it\u2019s vacant right now, but it\u2019s also really spooky. You can tell that the area is very old.<\/p>\n

GDB: Final question, just to bring it back to beer: Has this venue affected the the choices that you make in the beers that you produce, or the names of any of your beers? It\u2019s kind of got to infuse itself into some stuff, I imagine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: Oh yeah, it\u2019s a fun theme to play on, but honestly, I\u2019m very cautious about it, because in the beginning I really didn\u2019t want anyone to think we were faking it. I didn\u2019t want to make it a joke. People have said, \u201cOh, why don\u2019t you make a Jack\u2019s Beer,\u201d and, well,\u00a0we could<\/em>, but I want people to take it seriously, because it really is. It\u2019s not a joke. It\u2019s\u00a0fun<\/em>, but it\u2019s not a joke.<\/p>\n

So with the beer, I\u2019m trying to think \u2026 we don\u2019t really do a lot with the ghosts and our beer. Most of the stuff we do [with] our beer is Wolf themed, or woods themed, so, maybe we might do one eventually, but \u2026 we don\u2019t want to provoke [the spirits] too much.<\/p>\n

You can, and should, visit\u00a0Wolfden Brewing<\/a>\u00a0at all times of year (not just the spooky ones) at 112 W. Lake Street in Bloomingdale, IL. Tell them Rupert sent you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Looking for something else scary? This might be the spookiest beer I\u2019ve ever tried.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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About the Author<\/h6>\n
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Karl<\/h4>\n

Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Karl has written about food, travel and beer for Chicago Magazine, Thrillist, Time Out Chicago, AskMen and more. His book, Beer Lovers Chicago<\/a>, is now available via Amazon and other booksellers.
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\nIf you’re buying, he’s likely having a porter or a pale ale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n