5 days in Chicago. Am I missing anything?

Also, it's only open thurs-Sunday, but the Goose Islamd taproom is great too. No food, but one offs from goose are great, and they throw on BCS and variants semi-regularly.

 

OP, that is an insane list and getting through half that list would be ambitious.

for the beer bars, I'd recommend looking up their draft lists ahead of time and only going if there are 3 or more beers which are must try's in your opinion.

of the breweries on your list, i've been to or tried enough of their beers to say that the only must visits are corridor, forbidden root, and half acre (new balmoral taproom list is much better)

going to 18th st / FFF will kill a half day at least and will most likely put you in a sour mood due to the traffic unless you time it perfectly, wait, that's impossible.

 

No Clark Street, Bangers & Lace, or Longman & Eagle?

BOOOOO!

 

Spend a day doing More, Mikerphone and Noon Whistle. Don't get pulled over.

Spend another doing Half Acre, Forbidden Root, Corridor, Begyle, and whatever else local.

 

I hope if you're planning on doing any sort of More/Mikerphone/Noon Whistle/Imperial Oak that you just put some cash aside and make it an uber day. Even if you drop $100 in cabs, it's far cheaper and far safer than getting a DUI, and you'll probably have much more fun.

And for a point of reference, depending on time of day, you'd be looking at about 45 minutes from downtown to Mikerphone and then you're probably looking at 20-30 minutes between Mikerphone -> More. Probably 10 between More -> Noon Whistle. And then 20-30 between NW and IO. And then 30 back into the city if all goes well. In other words, you'll be covering some ground and I'd say a couple of those times are kind of optimistic.

 

I know YoungLad hinted at this but I feel the need to say since you're coming in from out of town: Imperial Oak is NOT on the way to Three Floyds if you on Michigan Ave. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite direction you want to travel if your goal is to get to FFF.

I know it may not look that ambitious on google maps, but it is.

 

Yeah. You're going at least 45 min out of your way, and that's if there's zero traffic. It's more like 2+ hours on a normal day.

I'd still recommend hitting up 3 Floyds. It's fantastic, and one of the real beer ticker destinations in the country, and 18th street is close enough at that point, that you'd be stupid to not go.

Imperial Oak checks neither of those boxes.

 

OP, as someone who lives in the hinterlands I'd recommend staying in the city proper. Driving out to the burbs and back is a colossal waste of time. Save that for your next trip. There is plenty to see in Chicago to fill up your week & with spots left over even.

 

Prioritize Forbidden Root, Corridor, and Dovetail as far as breweries go. Please don't miss Dovetail; they don't get nearly enough play because they're "only lagers." These three are among the best breweries in the city, and you won't find their stuff around very many other places. This is not true of Rev and Half Acre, whose beer is everywhere. Most of the other breweries (Haymarket, Begyle, Cruz Blanca, Motor Row, Band of Bohemia, etc.) are either not good enough to be worth your time or are easy enough to find in package or on tap somewhere. Half Acre's new taproom may be worth it, but I haven't been and so can't speak to it.

Bottleshop musts are Beer Temple, Binny's on Marcey, and Bottles and Cans.

Food musts are Au Cheval, Big Jones (amazing cajun food), Kuma's Corner (Belmont), Owen and Engine (casks, usually a great taplist, and some of the best food in the city), and Laschet's (great German food and a generally amazing German taplist).

Bar musts are Delilah's, Beer Temple, Fountainhead, Hopleaf, Local Option, Bad Apple, Bangers and Lace, Clark Street Ale House, Maria's, and the highly underrated, undermentioned The Barrel, which is a real divey dive bar way off in the middle of nowhere but has nothing but local Chicago beer on tap ever and is run by the nicest guys.

If you don't have a reservation already for Girl and the Goat, it's probably not happening.

Lastly, seriously, you're dramatically underestimating how long it can take to get places in Chicago, and with FFF and 18th Street on the list (not to mention all the suburb stops), you're looking at an itinerary that would be tough to get through in two weeks if you want to do everything.

 

Perhaps, but I would point OP to the new HA Balmoral location. There might possibly be draft beers which will not be available 'everywhere'. Hell, even Rev might have something nice on draft too. Don't count your draft beers before they are tapped, OP.

 

Sure, they have some one-offs, no doubt, but most aren't that different/impressive to go to if he's trying to focus it down to a reasonable amount of visits; if he sticks to the plan and hits the insane amount of stops, sure they're obviously worth going to. I'm notoriously unimpressed by most Rev/HA stuff, though, so I admit that bias (it's all solid stuff, but to me it feels like the current beer scene has passed them by a little).

I forgot about the new Half Acre taproom, which I haven't been to but plan to check out myself, so I'd add that to the list, and the taplist looks pretty good.

 

I guess my take is that if someone is coming in town, and has never been to HA on Lincoln, or Revolution, I would still recommend that they go. As a local, we can get somewhat numb to how damn good they are.

And, every time I stop in at HA, they have something on tap that either a) I've not had before, or b) is so damn fresh that it kills that same beer if you find it on tap or in can somewhere around town. Plus, and my last $0.02 on HA - I think their people are the coolest nicest folks, and it's always a good time there.

Sorry, I do have one question for you, though - in what way has the local scene passed them by?

 

is this post from 2013? regardless, anyone who recommends dovetail over half acre has a clear agenda in mind.

 

I agree that perhaps if you've never been, then they're basically a touchstone that you must go to. As far as the "passed by" comment, this is more for Rev and not HA, but their lineups are a bit stale to me, and it seems that they don't really want to branch out too my stylistically, or when they do, it's not great (Rev Pils is pretty terrible as a pilsner for instance).

Counter to my indifference to Rev and HA, though, I must say I really enjoy Vallejo, GoneAway, and Navaja, and Straight Jacket is still one of the best BA barleywines around.

No agenda, I have literally no affiliation with them. I just think they're fantastic and woefully unsung.

There are a lot of breweries that do IPAs and sweet stouts well (I can think of at least five in the city alone, including HA), not to mention all those that excel throughout the country. There are still very few that do lagers well nationwide. Dovetail is special and unique in that regard.

Also, I said many times that this is my opinion, which honestly should go without saying. I don't need an agenda to have a different opinion than you, even if it's a radical, against the grain one like "HA and Rev aren't that special."

Also, a 2013 post would probably have been praising Pipeworks, Half Acre, and Rev as essential breweries to get beer from. Dovetail, Forbidden Root, and Corridor weren't around then.

 

Definintely pick one place in teh suburbs to go to-Three Floyds, Mikerphone etc- and that's it. You can cruise around on the CTA or uber downtown and hit up a ton of great places to more than fill your 5 days here. I live in the western suburbs, and believe me, at the wrong time of day, it can take 45 minutes to go from one end of Naperville to the other. You'll waste a ton of time driving..but more importantly, even if you have one beer at 4 different suburban breweries you're just asking for a DUI. I'd suggest just tour the city, maybe check out a Cubs game(hopefully there will be some playoff baseball then).

 

I think we're on the same page. I'm also a fan of a lagers, and woefully haven't been able to get up into the city to check out Dovetail yet. All of my beer-migos have been raving on it.

 

Girl and the Goat is very doable if you get there around open. You might be able to get a table, but you'll definitely be able to get a seat at the bar.

If you show up any later though, forget it.

As a big fan of Dovetail, I think you'd be nuts to skip Half Acre or Revolution and go to Dovetail. They're good, but the other 2 destinations.

Rev has the best barrel program in the city outside of Goose, almost always have something BA on draft at the pub or taproom.

 

Are there any places near Logan square, or off the blue line that have NFL Sunday ticket, and a decent beer selection? I did not mean to steer this another direction, but did not feel this warranted a seperate thread.

 

Links Taproom is off the Damien Blue line in Wicker park and has a great beer menu and a lot of TVs. Not sure about Sunday ticket, but I'd be surprised if they didn't.

Here's the current beer menu. www.linkstaproom.com/beer-menu/

Logan Bar and Grill might have it, and they're beer selection is pretty decent. Nothing spectacular though.

I'd be shocked if Innjoy Logan Square didn't have it. They're a sports bar mostly. Again, solid list, but nothing crazy. Probably a few IPAs and local beers.

 

I'm not sure about Sunday, but I know Links typically shuts it's TVs down after a certain hour or will put on some live music (typically Phish) videos to shed the sports bar image. I have seen local sports on during the afternoons though, just can't remember what was on in there on Sunday's, but would be surprised if they had Sunday ticket and took game requests. But I could be off on that.

Fat Pour off the Division blue line most definitely has Sunday Ticket and a decent beer list.