Students looking for a break from the usual campus revelry spots can head to The Bling Pig Brewery at 120 N. Neil St. in downtown Champaign.

The Blind Pig Brewery found its roots as a live music club in the early 1990s at a different location in downtown Champaign. As the bar evolved, it eventually grew, opening a total of four different locations in Champaign and winning a number of titles such as Champaign’s first official whole grain brewery.

Though the venue has changed, there is still a warm and homey vibe associated with The Blind Pig Brewery. It continues to be a comfortable and well-known bar in C-U.

The Blind Pig Brewery adopted a brewery cat back in 2017 and posts links to various adoption sites on their website in the hopes of finding more homes for animals in the C-U area.

In addition to bringing the community together through animal adoption, the bar hosts weekly trivia nights on Sundays at 7 p.m. and has an established social aspect to be enjoyed along with their drinks. The brewery takes pride in its wide selection of beers, adopting the unofficial title as the “Beer of Champaign.”

The brewery is open daily from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., with the exception of the shortened Sunday hours of 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. For anyone looking to find their new favorite bar in C-U, The Blind Pig Brewery is a friendly and welcoming option for all.

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