Is/Was Brewing

Post trade show debauchery as is in order for last day Chicago. We’ve got our flights tonight but are looking at some brewery play today. Out and about bouncing around now, up north some pregaming that other place we’re due at an hour from now. Little place in a strip on the right side of the tracks, on their doorstep at 2pm opening…

Small ‘Z’ shaped glossy varnished plank topped bar, vertical wood plank base, and a piping foot rail. Seating for 8 on wood steel chairs. A row of 20 mostly non-descript green cylinder handles taps, 1 of which is a Lukr, split 10 & 10 on a piping piece from the barback brick wall over a wood counter shelving piece lined with some dead soldier guest bottles & house logo mugs. Glassware countered to the left side, and house bottles shelved below. 3 door cooler alongside with bottles, glassware & snacks atop.

Brick walls, windows forward to the street, & pillars down center of the room. Concrete floors with rug spaces, and a plank ceiling with ductwork & spinnys. Drop filament bulb pacman lamps tracing the bar and pan lamps about. Potted plants hanging. Logo piece on the wall above the taps, merch in the corner, flat on the end wall, and a horizontal board to the right listing draft & bottle pour selections (beer, serving size, ABV). 7 forward tables; square, rec, hightop, and a long shared table. Cut ways to the rear room. 7 tables back there, high top and not, and a cushy couch set up. Flat in the rear room, too, showing The World’s End (Rosamund Pike, she does not return my calls). Back back room space with a half dozen picnics running the far wall, some hightop action, and a pair of skee-ball machines to the rear.

A dozen + entries, the list farmhouse forward of course. 9 house beers up, 2/3 of which are Saisons (Will Be, Flagship Saison, 5.3%; Bourgeois Daydreams, Table Beer, 3.2%; Akahoshi Biiru, Saison conditioned on Koji Rice, collab with Akahoshi Ramen, 5.2%; Horses… Elephants, Maybe, Oat Saison, 5.6%; Le Bizon, Saison brewed with Bison Grass, collab with Goldfinger, 4.9%; Spandrel, Saison brewed with aged hops, 5.4%), 3 non-Saisons (Mid-West Pale Ale, 5.2%; Stout, 4.9%; Coffee Stout, 4.9%), and then 5 guest taps (Goldfinger, Original Helles Lager, 5.2%; Begyle, Blonde Ale, 5.4%; Hop Butcher, Queso Fundido IPA, 6.5%; Tandem Cider, Evercrisp, 6.7%; Blaugies, La Vermontoise, collab with Hill Farmstead, 6%), + a few bottle pours (Finer Points of Bad Behavior Vol. XIX Cranberry, 7%; Tree Tipper, Saison with spruce tips & honey, 6.1%), + N/A, soda, & coffee.

Am thinking maybe we should have a beers while we’re here (Le Bizon, Saison brewed with Bison Grass, light, dry, peppery, lovely; Spandrel, Saison brewed with aged hops, dry, funky, lightly tart, excellent; Will Be, Flagship Saison, citrus, funk, pleasant, win; Mid-West Pale Ale, biscuit & grainy, in a way that I like; Stout, dry, roast!; Coffee Stout, chocolate, coffee face!; Finer Points of Bad Behavior Vol. XIX Cranberry, Saison, a Bretty Betty, crancrazy, just my speed; Tree Tipper, Saison with spruce tips & honey, sappy, sprucy, slight sweetness, pleasant). Spandrel, Will Be, & Finer Points of Bad Behavior Vol. XIX Cranberry for the wins.

Lizzietender today, pleasant & knowledgeable. Some really nice beers here, word is/was that they used to brew at Pilot Project. Good chill house. A lot of bottles for sale so funk for the takeway, I dig it.

Revisited 6 months later with the unusual suspects on our annual beer & baseball excusrion (Bourgeois Daydreams, Table Beer, 3.2%, really, really nice brettiness; Always Zag, Dry Hopped Saison, 5.3%, dry, funk, yep; Blackberry Bourgeois, 3.2%, tart, fun).

I like this place. It’s now on my list for in town visits.

 

 

 

 

Were it not for the bartender over at Half Acre a bit earlier in the day, I would have never known this place was open. I had heard of the loss of both Empirical and Urban Brew Labs, but I hadn't heard that Is/Was had taken over in the area. Right on, always down for some farmhouse brews. The place is a standard brick prism facing the train tracks; a relatively quiet area that certainly loves its canine inhabitants (who doesn't!?). Inside, its something of a cantina-style space, with a fairly small-ish bar right by the door and plenty of table seating throughout. It gives the impression of an old-school loft apartment, the kind Josh got when he got some money in Big (just less, you know, childishly flashy). Tarsem's The Fall was playing on the screen, a welcome bit of nostalgia from my Blockbuster days. The beers on offer were mostly saisons and the like, with some hitting the fruity/grainy style and some opting for a wilder approach. (The Ensemble variant of the Maestro 3.0 was particularly enjoyable.) A few guest taps are featured as well, including a collab with the good folks at Goldfinger. Game recognizes game, both directions. The bartender was rather helpful in guiding my sampling, and we even talked about The Fall a bit. I'm not sure about food being on offer or not, but I wouldn't have been in the mood regardless. So there. Overall, I am most certainly coming back, especially now that I know it's there. Good to see the previously distro-only breweries getting some brick-and-mortar (literally, in this case) love.

First visit to the newly opened taproom. Industrial feel, exposed brick and concrete floors, high ceilings. L-shaped bar, tall wood chairs with metal legs. Taplist and merch display behind the bar, plus at least 16 taps.

Selection was great, plenty to choose from including smoked agave saisons, mixed ferm and barrel aged beers. Plenty of guest taps to round out a few different styles, including Goldfinger, Hop Butcher, and Begyle. Ciders and NA drinks too. What’s amazing is the bottle list, a literal library of every beer they have released over the last 5 years. Saisons are their niche, and they cover a broad spectrum of sub-styles.

Service was great, they were able to describe the beers and offer recommendations.

Great addition to the Ravenswood brewery corridor, only a few blocks away from Hopleaf for a good 1-2 combo.

 

Super chill vibe in a sneaky big space, really dig it. Went on a Saturday night and despite decent crowd you felt you had plenty of personal space and it wasn't too loud for conversation. Spacious, clean, gender neutral bathrooms a plus. Staff was super quick to fill pours, in the proper glassware, and were happy to explain the menu at all. There were obviously plenty of off-the-wall saisons, their staple, but there were also lagers and other non-extreme options. Beer all around were good, very clean. Very happy they have their own space now and it is a nice one! Worth a visit for sure