Chicago breweries that don’t need their own thread (2023)

....I'd say @REVZEB picked the correct thread....

 

If OI can make the 1st location work with what previously happened there, I think they are going to okay with the new cursed space.

 

Whoops

 

On an unrelated note, 1986 was a long time ago. Who knew?

 

From https://www.chicagotribune.com/dini...0221011-kq2x4oqfbjd4vn5gtgmtiy5lp4-story.html which is behnd a pay-wall:

Co-owner and head brewer Trevor Rose-Hamblin said one of those awards, a gold medal in the highly competitive juicy or hazy India pale ale category at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival, helped Old Irving surge past the production limits at its brewpub. It has had that medal-winning beer, Beezer IPA, made under contract at Great Central Brewing in Chicago for about two years.

The new space, at 1800 W. Walnut St., will allow Old Irving to bring all production in-house. While it will retain its original location as well, Old Irving also plans to build a taproom in its new West Town space in 2023 to sell draft beer on-site.

Beezer will be a priority for Old Irving at its new location, but Rose-Hamblin said he also sees room for growth for other styles including lagers, which have enjoyed a resurgence in the craft beer industry in recent years.

“We’re trying to tap into some styles with staying power that are your everyday drinking,” he said.

Old Irving makes about 2,000 barrels of beer per year at its brewpub and about 2,500 at Great Central Brewing, Rose-Hamblin said. The brewery hopes to get to about 10,000 barrels of production in the new space.

 

Mikerphone is worth a mention here as well. For my money they were they were the best of the initial bunch of Chicago hazy brewers.

I remember trying to track down 24oz bottles of Special Sauce and some of their old one-offs.

How times have changed, I can't remember the last time I've had a Mikerphone beer.

 

They just did their first hazy that is Citra and Mosaic (somehow). It’s called Rhyme Dust and easily check ins have been promising. Might be worth grabbing a single can as nailing a beer with that combo is a decent litmus test.

 

Fun fact, it wasn’t just one person that left Ram, but Justin Miller also left Ram to become the head brewer of Hop Butcher. So without Ram, there would be no More, Phase Three or Hop Butcher.

Their BA program remains on point, were the first non-GI local brewery to be putting out a line of BA non adjunct blended stouts, and their pastry game is still top notch- BA One Man Wrecking Machine is up there with Benthic 2x4 for my palate.

 

We all agree the owners at RAM were insane to not give their brew staff a cut in the business. The second those two left, it was goodnight for RAM.

that said, Justin didn’t head to HB until like 2018 or so. Co-Founders Jude and Jeremiah were smart to add Justin, but HB had already built a cult bottle shop fanbase by the time Justin joined the team

 

And more importantly, they had what is now one of my white whales, Galaxy Bowl!

 

I remember how much you loved the grossest batch of GB. Sadly, I don’t think you’ll ever to experience that grossness again.

 

While they existed, I might quibble about the “cult”following which is a more appropriate description for the people chasing Pipeworks BA bottles around the city following the distro van at that same time period. Besides Milkstachio and B1 Galaxy Bowl, I can’t think of anything notable they did before Justin or that people were camping out in the stores waiting for a HB drop. After hiring Justin, they became a go to for hazy distro and if not for him, I’d wager they wouldn’t be sitting in Half Acre’s old spot on Lincoln.

 

Garlic Bowl. That's what I recall from the last batch I had.

To be fair, I did have better batches, and I would love to see that beer make a comeback one day.

 

What month was Justin hired in 2018? Even though HB beers predated his arrival they didn’t really get hyped until Galaxy Bowl B1. That seems to be released around late Sep./early Oct 2018. If he was hired after that I won’t give him credit for HB’s haze, but if he was hired before I’ll give him total credit. Do we know when he was hired?

 

Oh man, forgot how underrated some of Forbidden Root's Hazy brews were. Saw Snoochie Boochie the other day and almost grabbed it. Been a while since I had one of those.

 

Batch 1 GB was October 2016

 

Canned 10/5/16, per my notes.

EDIT: and I should mention, the hype was already VERY real, at least in this little corner of the world (aka Chicago Beer Advocate).

 

Did a bit of digging, b/c it's a wild, social Saturday night for me. Note dated NFL reference:

Just popped a Galaxy Bowl...to paraphrase the late Dennis Green, crown its ass!!

Peach, mango, apple & orange...almost no bitterness...opaque haze...in my opinion, this is the real deal.

#510GuyFawkes, Oct 6, 2016

 

They were absolutely already selling out quickly and having people chase trucks/follow live Twitter updates in 2017 and early 2018. Not to say that they didn't improve and the fandom didn't increase after bringing him on, but they were very successful in their own right.