2019 Visiting Chicagoland Resource Thread

Below is a list of breweries with taprooms open to the public within close proximity of each other, for visitors hitting a certain area of the city:

Andersonville (Far North Side)
Half Acre Beer Company 2050 W. Balmoral Ave.
Spiteful Brewing 2024 W. Balmoral Ave
Andersonville Brewing 5402 N. Clark St.
Empirical Brewery 1801 W. Foster Ave.

Avondale / Portage Park / Sauganash (Northwest Side)
Metropolitan Brewing 3057 N. Rockwell St.
Eris Brewery and Cider House 4240 W. Irving Park Road
Old Irving Brewing Conpany 4419 W. Montrose Ave.
Revolution Brewing 3340 N. Kedzie Ave.
Alarmist Brewing 4055 W. Peterson Ave.

Beverly (Far South Side)
Horse Thief Hollow 10426 S. Western Ave.
Open Outcry Brewing Company 10934 S. Western Ave.

Bridgeport / Douglas Park
Marz Community Brewing Company 3630 S. Iron St.
Whiner Beer Company 1400 W. 46th St.
Lagunitas Brewing Company 1843 S Washtenaw Ave.

Bucktown / Logan Square
BiXi Beer 2515 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Hopewell Brewing 2760 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Maplewood Brewery and Distillery 2717 N. Maplewood Ave.
Piece Brewing 1927 W. North Ave.
Revolution Brewing 2323 N Milwaukee

Fulton Market / West Town
All Rise Brewery 235 N. Ashland Ave.
Burnt City Brewery 417 N. Ashland Ave.
Cruz Blanca 904 W. Randolph Street
Forbidden Root 1746 W. Chicago Ave.
Goose Island Beer Company 1800 W. Fulton St.
Great Central Brewing Company 221 N. Wood St.
Haymarket Brewing 737 W. Randolph St.
On Tour Brewing Company 1725 W. Hubbard St.

Goose Island / Lincoln Park
Goose Island Brew House 1800 N. Clybourn Ave.
Local Option Bierwerker 1102 W. Webster Ave.
Off Color Brewing 1460 N. Kingsbury St.

Lakeview / Ravenswood
DryHop Brewers 3155 N. Broadway St.
Band of Bohemia 4710 N. Ravenswood Ave.
Begyle Brewing 1800 W. Cuyler Ave
Corridor Brewery and Provisions 3446 N Southport Ave.
Dovetail Brewing 1800 W. Belle Plaine Ave.
Greenstar Brewing 3810 N. Clark St.
Half Acre Beer Company 4257 N. Lincoln Ave.

Pilsen
Alulu 2011 South Laflin Street
Lo Rez Brewing 2101 S. Carpenter St.
Moody Tongue Brewing Company 2136 S. Peoria St.

South Loop
Motor Row Brewing 2337 S. Michigan Ave.
Vice District Brewing Company 1454 S. Michigan Ave.

 

If you're genuinely trying to stay around the Loop area, I'd 100% recommend checking out Haymarket, Cruz Blanca and Au Cheval. The latter is a huge pain to get a table at during peak hours, but you can leave your number, cross the street to Haymarket, and load up on their beers before you try Au Cheval's famous burger (or something else). If Haymarket's barrel-aged stuff is still on tap, that's a pretty easy can't-miss. I've heard great things about Cruz Blanca, and they're right around there as well.

 

Any northwest suburbs folks, specifically Arlington Hts, have a chance to check out the new Binny's that moved into the old HH Greg/Sports Authority space? That's a huge upgrade in square footage. Was most of the additional space allocated to wine? Did the beer section get upgraded to LP/SL levels?

 

Hop Cat - CLOSED

RIP

 

I'm not surprised. That building is one of the worst places to open a business in the city-everything in there has failed. Hopcat had a beautiful space9 probably way too large, just chose the wrong place and demographics.

 

Beautiful place? It was darker than most basements. Asthetic was completely off. Someone else already mentioned carpet. Surprised it lasted over two years.

 

Northwest Indiana Bottle Shops - not all Cask n Cellars are equal. I suggest the 9303 N Indianapolis location in Highland.

 

Shameless plug *** Middle Brow’s brewpub w/ in-house sourdough culture breads & pizzas now open in Logan close to all those others mentioned. Peace & love, peace and love.

 

Oh damn you guys are super close to me I'll have to stop in this week

 

Finally found myself with some extra time after visiting my parents to check out the new AH Binny's. Gotta say, really disappointed with the new location/expansion. They reduced the size and selection of the beer section! Wine wine wine and more wine.

I'm sure they have the data to support the decision but what a huge letdown.

 

I thought more of it was in coolers now?

 

Awesome, looking forward to a few pours at your new brewpub out after the thaw. Any plans for coffee based beers?

Will add Middle Brow to my neighborhood post in the next iteration of this thread, hope to also add Pipeworks as well to the strong Logan Square lineup.

 

Why would you go there for beer ( ) when they are rated one of the hottest restaurants in Chicago this February (7th one down)?

https://chicago.eater.com/maps/new-best-restaurants-in-chicago-heatmap

 

Tons of em...luv the flavor profile of cool origin/roasts coupled with light and funkier brews. Expect them pretty regularly starting in a couple months (as long as people buy em, ya know).

 

Will there be any at....Uppers and Downers?

 

The coolers are larger. But it seemed like all they did was duplicate their shelf selection into coolers.

Maybe I judged too harshly but the location is equal (if not bigger) in size to LP Binny's and yet the variety is worse. Shoot, even Grand has a better selection. Seems like AH really cut down non-IL product selection.

 

Binny's on Grand? Like one of the flagship Binny's stores?

 

Haha...did the invite get sent? Unless Pete was asked at hopleaf last week, I didn’t hear anything? Granted, the third wheel here is usually last to know. We did a dry-hopped Brett bier with gaslight last year that I loved.

 

Given the size of AH Binny's now why shouldn't I consider it a flagship? It's enormous

 

Size doesn't equal flagship. But I see what you're saying. I think the reason Grand has a bigger/better selection is its in Chicago where Chicago based breweries can self-distro to faster/easier.