Best craft beer bars in Chicago?

For anyone going to be downtown today/tomorrow Franklin Tap (across from the Willis Tower) currently has on draught: Zombie Dust, Permanent Funeral, Off Color Yuzu Fierce and Bourbon BA Narwhal plus some others. Highly recommend the bacon and cheddar burger.

 

I know it's not as en vogue as ZD, but Permanent Funeral is one of my all-time favorite DIPAs (and beers). I'd highly recommend anyone who takes @TheSamKuehn up on that suggestion to give it a shot.

 

Hopleaf, Fountainhead, Bad Apple, Kuma's Corner, and Kuma's Too all have amazing food and very good taplists.

Bad Apple is right next to Half Acre as well as probably the best bottleshop for a traveler, Bottles and Cans, where you can mix-a-six (or any amount of bottles over four) of literally anything in the store.

Kuma's has some of the best burgers I've ever had and is next to Beer Temple, another awesome bottleshop.

GI Clybourn is totally worth the trip for the unique tap-only stuff they do. Food is only okay to solid, though, and I think it's pricey for the quality. It is right next to the largest and most legendary Binny's as well.

Gotta give a shout out to Owen and Engine as well. In addition to great food and a good taplist, they have rotating casks, and I'm a sucker for cask beer.

Longman and Eagle can have some really great stuff on, the food is amazing (probably the best of the places I've mentioned, but you'll pay for it), and the whiskey selection is God Tier (along with Delilah's and the aforementioned Fountainhead).

The Map Room is often mentioned, but I've never been.

Hop Cat just opened and had a ridiculous quantity of beer on, but I'm not convinced of the quality of the taps. I like a more curated list, I think. It's also a chain, so it's not really Chicago to me.

 

I can't disagree with any of the options mentioned, but if you are going to hit up Bitter Pops, I HIGHLY suggest venturing about a 3/4 of a mile west to Roscoe Village and hitting up Village Tap Bar and Riverview Tavern. Neither are in the vein of a Local Option, but both have very good tap lists and you won't have to fight the crowds of somewhere like LO or HopLeaf. I love the Roscoe Village area in general and those are two of my favorite beer bars in the city.

And if you are just looking for lunch somewhere downtown, go to Jake Melnick's for the wings. Decent tap list, but killer wings.

 

Not a huge fan of Kuma's burgers myself (I don't think thicker pub-style patties), but they're definitely tasty, and I'd say it's one of the places most burger/beer fans should visit in Chicago. I agree on GI Clybourn (although it's my favorite brewpub); personally I'd get the All-American burger there, since it's (in my opinion) easily their best burger. But yes, trying the beer there is a must, because it will help erase the notion that GI is just the "312 and Goose IPA brewery."

I haven't been to VT for a while (despite only living blocks away), but they used to have good food, so I assume that's still true. Riverview Tavern has excellent food (really) and a great taplist. The dude there has some pull with local breweries, so they get good stuff. Obviously I also agree on Bitter Pops.

 

They both have great food. My wife (who used to live in Lincoln Park) visit Chicago a couple times a year and almost always do an AirBNB or Homeaway in Roscoe Village. Love the area. Village Tap had Lizard King on when we visited in June and that remains one of the best beers I've had on draft this year, and that includes my recent visit to NYC where I tried everything you could from Grimm/Other Half/Threes/etc.

 

Southport Lanes, not far from VT and Bitter Pops has a great rotating list. They update pretty regularly on beer menus. They also have Zombie Dust on more often than not. It gets overlooked int he lakeview area as well. Crowds are generally not bad, altho have picked up slightly due to most of the bars on the street closing down. The food is fair, standard good bar food but they dont really have anything they specialize in like say Kumas.

https://www.beermenus.com/places/3331-southport-lanes-billiards

 

Good call. Let's throw Corridor on there, too, then. They make good beer themselves, and have a nice food menu. A few blocks from SL, so you can bowl and drink, and then drink and eat!