Our Story

Why Banging Gavel Brews?

Our team was started by a lawyer, Jim Richert, two accountants, Kyle O’Connor and Ed Richert, and a graphic designer, Beckie (Richert) O’Connor. The most interesting of those occupations to leverage was Jim’s profession of practicing law. There were so many ways we could take the name based on the industry, so we went with it. We wanted the name to be catchy, bold and loud—as well as have meaning. We learned that the acronym “BGB” stood for the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches GesetzBuch)…which made it even better! So that’s how it came to be. We love enjoying our latest crafted creation and sharing it with you. We know our passion, but leave the judging to you.

Our Team

We each focus on what we’re best at—we’re not trying to be something we’re not. We stay humble as we work our way to the top.

Jim Richert

Partner // President

Read his story

Kyle O'Connor

Partner // Business Operations

Read his story

Ed Richert

Partner // Treasurer

Read his story

Beckie O'Connor

Partner // Marketing & Creative Director

Read her story

Our goals

All the Best

We are excited that we found our home in Tinley Park. Although we are one of many breweries in town, we bring you something you won’t experience anywhere else. We have set our hopes on being one of the greatest breweries in the area, making history in our community.

“We love this community and hope to bring more people together with great beer, food and live music in a unique space.”
Jim Richert

The Vogt House

Get ready to step into the past.

The Historic Vogt House will be the home of Vogt Taproom, Banging Gavel Brews Brewery, and more. See what it was and will be here.

Review the evidence:

<

Photos from The Past

:

views of The Present

=

visions for The Future

A Dream becoming our reality

In 2013, Jim Richert became very interested in the craft brewery expansion. Nothing like this has existed since the pre-prohibition era. He figured, why not toss his hat in the ring. He and his brother, Ed, took a beer class at Bev-Arts in Beverly, which now has a meadery. They made their first homebrew, a Belgian Tripel, and branded it “Justice Brewing” which could have been our permanent name if it wasn’t already taken (what a relief). Through that experience, the brothers got the bug. Soon after that, the plans were discussed and the early stages of “Banging Gavel Brews” started taking shape.

Contract Brewing

In 2014 we formed as Banging Gavel Brews and began setting the foundation for the brand. This included coming up with names for our beers and getting our name out there in the local marketplace.

Even then the craft beer scene was growing quickly, and you could find a lot of craft beer festivals all over Chicagoland. We started contract brewing at the end of that year at Church Street in Itasca and packaged our first beer, Red Handed, an Irish Style Red Ale that December. We still work with them to keep our many beers flowing while our buildout is completed for our permanent location.

Finding our house

In the spring of 2016, we found a historic landmark building, the Vogt House, in downtown Tinley Park, which seemed like a great fit to open our brewery. We worked with the village of Tinley Park and experts on this type of project and eventually bought it in the summer of 2017. Since then have partnered with our contractors and architecture firm to preserve the historic site while building the Brew Pub. The project is in the works currently and we will share various updates with you as we go.

Hope you’ll come see us when we open our Brew Pub in Tinley Park very soon! Cheers. Prost. Sláinte!