PIVO Brewery — Restaurant in Calmar

Pivo brewery was one of our favorite places to stay on our road trip from Florida up to Michigan. We parked our RV there overnight, through the Harvest Hosts program. We liked everything about it.

The vibe and atmosphere were cool.

The employees were friendly and told us about other places to see in Iowa.

For food, we started with the High, Wide, and Handsome Swirls. They are swirls of dough, with stuff inside such as pepperoni. Then we got a pizza. The swirls were fun, and the pizza was delicious.

For drinks, they had so many options that sounded good, so Bret got a flight. They all tasted good and unique. For example, the red beer was a strawberry rhubarb sour. And the dark beer at the top was a (takes a deep breath), bourbon barrel aged salted caramel dark chocolate brownie milk stout 🤯.

As for parking overnight through the Harvest Host program, the site was clean and pretty level, and the outside noise wasn't bad at night when we were sleeping.

We would love to...

Visited here after visiting Decorah (the other brewery beginning with a P, not the one that tastes like Thew...both of which I hate). Pivo is incredible by comparison. 41 taps with 38 or so actual alcoholic beverages they brew on site at Pivo. Wait staff was good despite a party going on in their large hall next door. Food? Well if you really want a filling meal, go somewhere in downtown Calmar, Iowa, because you're only going to find typical brewery kitchen specialty items here. But we're all here for the beer in its many varieties, aren't we? And that is what Pivo offers. A "Flanders Brown" that might need more refinement. A Cucumber Ale that was really quite impressive. A Berliner Weisse that was actually refreshing. Probably too many sours. A decent Session IPA. The only "Roggenbier" or "Gruit" beers I've ever seen on tap (are these actual styles?). A true...

The short version: this place is well worth a visit! You should go!

The long version: 20+ taps of original beer, seltzers, and ciders! The beer lineup reminds me of the golden days of craft beer, before hazys dominated. So many unique styles! I had the award-winning Gruit, Ligonberry Lager, British pub ale (on Nitro, so smooth and so good that I got a full pour after my flight), and the Brown Ale. My wife got the Helles and the Maibock. We both agreed these were our favorite beers during our trip to NE Iowa (and that includes a stop at a major craft brewery in Decorah 👀).

The workers were exceptionally helpful! We accidentally spilled a beer and broke a glass. A worker was at our table immediately and helped us clean it up. AND they comped us a beer for the one we spilled. Amazing.

10/10...