Published October 9, 2024 | Updated May 6, 2026

In recent years, there’s been an explosion of craft breweries in not only Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska’s largest cities, but across Nebraska in places like Grand Island, which takes us to our next installment of our brewery series.

Prairie Pride, like many other breweries in the small cities and towns in Nebraska, has been successful in adding jobs, attracting tourists, and stimulating the local economy in areas that were long forgotten by the rest of the state.

Like many of these towns before Prohibition, Grand Island had its own brewery. Grand Island Brewing Company seems to have been operating before the turn of the century before closing in 1917 due to Nebraska’s enactment of Prohibition that year. Fast forward almost 100 years and the town once again witnessed the opening of its very own brewery.

Prairie Pride opened in 2016, its name inspired by a beer that Louis Kraus brewed after he established Hastings Brewing in 1908. Its symbol is the Hopffalo, which represents its owners’ pride of place and love of craft beer.

The brewery was started by Jay Mack and Alex Brinner, home brewers from Aurora, Nebraska, along with Brad Shearer and Amos Anson. Located in the heart of the city’s Railside District at 1515 East South Front Street, they selected the location in order to help make the area the “Old Market of Grand Island,” a reference to Omaha’s Old Market.

The building it calls home was constructed in the 1880s and originally housed a plumbing supply business. The building, owned by Chicken Coop restaurateur Dean Pegg, had been vacant since the 1990s. The owners added a new entrance to the building that faces the parking lot out front. Inside, it has exposed brick walls, slab ceilings, and concrete pillars. They also converted a storage area into a gameroom with pool table and darts. In addition to its dozen or so beers on tap, they also serve pizza.

Before closing in 2025 due to health issues affecting one of its owners, Prairie Pride, like Kinkaider Brewing Company out of Broken Bow, played a role in the recent revitalization of downtown Grand Island.

This is part of a series in which we explore the history of Omaha’s breweries past and present.

Please feel free to comment to share your thoughts and memories.

Until next time, keep exploring!

More pictures

Omaha Exploration is sponsored by

Click here to contact me if you’re interested in sponsoring OE.