CHICAGO: SUDS IN THE CITY
Fused loves to drink beer and Chicago loves to make it. The Windy City is a beer town. When they’re not making beer, many of Chicago’s breweries are also serving it in their taprooms and brewpubs, where visitors can investigate new brewing styles and flavours and learn about their offerings.
Chicago has deep roots in brewing, dating all the way back to 1833. Today, the craft beer scene is booming, as more microbreweries and brewpubs open their doors for sudsy soirees for seasoned barflies and curious newbies alike.
If you want to drink a Dunkel, Lambic or Indian Place Ale in the same place it was made, go order a pint at some of our favourite Chicago craft beer havens.
DOVETAIL BREWERY
Founders Hagen and Bill live and breath beer. After meeting in Germany, whilst studying for their Master Brewer certifications from the Siebel Institute Brewing Course, they bonded over their mutual interest in continental European beer styles. The two formed a friendship that has resulted in an authentic German style brewery dedicated to old world brewing methods complete with a ‘lauter grant’; a 100 year old piece of brewing equipment that Bill and Hagen acquired from a farm outside of Munich.
As Dovetail puts it, “We brew like monks (minus the vows)… Quality ingredients, custom tools, and thousands of years of tradition ensure each product meets our highest standards.”
Try: the Rauchbier
HALF ACRE
Half Acre Beer Co., a stalwart on the Chicago beer scene, is a prime example of how American craft brewers continue to produce their own unique take on classic beer styles without tainting the heritage on which they were built. With their second facility on the north side of Chicago (which boasts a restaurant, taproom and beer garden) they are serving up classic American micro-styles along with a retail shop, a tap room and beer garden.
Half Acre also offer a number of one-off and seasonal brews that only come on the scene at specific times, so be sure to get a taste before they’re gone. Tours cost $10 and run every Saturday at 11am.
Try: the Daisy Cutter Pale Ale
SPITEFUL
It’s tiny but mighty. Spiteful Brewing prides itself on being a nano brewery which hand-delivers a few kegs at a time to local bars and restaurants.
What started with a spiteful incident as kids playing hockey on the pond, turned into a lifelong friendship for Brad Shaffer and Jason Klein. With a passion for beer and a desire to start their own business, Spiteful launched in 2012 with G.F.Y. Stout, setting the tone for the aggressive flavours and attitudes of Spiteful’s beers.
Situated on the same block as Half Acre’s Balmoral Brewery, drinkers can sit at the long wooden bar and when the weather is warm, the garage doors that line the front of the building go up and the outdoor drinking commences.
Try: Working for the Weekend double IPA
METROPOLITAN BREWING
Serving up German-style lagers since 2009, Metropolitan Brewing is located in a converted warehouse in the Ravenswood neighbourhood. Its popular beers – such as Dynamo and Krankshaft – are named with a nod to the industrial history of Chicago.
Try: Krankshaft Kölsch style beer
GOOSE ISLAND
One of the first and best known craft breweries in Chicago, Goose Island was founded back in 1988. This brewery has two locations in the city where you can enjoy tours and watch the brewing process, all while sipping tastes of six current beers.
Try: 312 (named after Chicago’s area code)
MOTOR ROW BREWING
Motor Row Brewing takes its name from the historic Motor/Record Row area of Chicago. At the turn of the last century, the Motor Row neighbourhood was famous as the home of more than 100 different makes of cars that were sold on this historic stretch of Michigan Avenue. Later, Record Row in the 1950’s and 60’s was home to the World famous Chess Records. Take a trip to the neighbourhood to try one of the wonderful craft beers and enjoy a part of Chicago blues and Chicago booze history. There’s also a tasting room and upstairs taproom.
Plan your trip for Blues and Brews on Thursday nights, and pair your pints with tunes by The Original Chicago Blues AllStars.
Try: Out Of The Loop IPL
LUCKY DORR PATIO & TAP
Lucky Dorr, a friendly hole in the wall bar and patio with unique local beer offerings is just a baseball’s throw away from Wrigley Stadium. Across the street is the new Hotel Zachary, part of a development which includes a slew of contemporary eateries such as Mordecai (Merges’ whisky-forward sister to Lucky Dorr), West Town Bakery & Tap, Big Star and Smoke Daddy.
The beer specials rotate with eight to ten unique brews on draft at a time, offering a spotlight on the incredible beer culture across Chicago.
Try: all of them (but maybe not all at once)
BURNT CITY
As close to a classic brewpub you can get. Burnt City has dark wood walls, tin ceilings and framed vintage beer ads. Perfectly set up for enjoying a few brews.
Try: Face Melter Hibiscus IPA
HAYMARKET PUB & BREWERY
Located on the site of the Haymarket Square, in the West Loop, Haymarket Pub & Brewery is a large brewpub that serves up its own house beers, as well as many guest and collaboration brews. The beers here change almost weekly with specialty ones made for occasions such as weddings, and unique creations thought up in collaboration with local chefs and brewers, such as Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard of Girl and the Goat.
Try: Beer Muse Lemon Rye Saison
CHISOX BAR & GRILL
Housed in the Chicago White Sox stadium and with a choice of up to 80 canned and bottled craft beers this lively spot is an ideal hangout for a pre, post or during the game drink. Ideal for baseball fans and beer fans alike, it’s home to more than 65 flat-screen TVs and a state-of-the-art sound system bring all the action right to you whilst you work your way through the beer menu.
Try: All Day IPA
CORRIDOR BREWERY & PROVISIONS
Corridor Brewery & Provisions is a craft brewery and restaurant in Chicago’s hip West Lakeview neighbourhood. Cool decor, vinyl records on the turntable and in the brewery, the beer choices consist of an ever-changing draft list with styles ranging from Double Dry Hopped IPAs to hop-forward saisons and other experimental styles. They also serve up great food from their rustic farmhouse kitchen including a (tastes better than it sounds) brussel sprout and bacon pizza to help soak up the hops.
Try: Wizard Fight American IPA described as “Amarillo, Mosaic, and Citra hops that create a citrus and pine blast.”
LAGUNITAS BREWING COMPANY
California’s finest brewing Company opened a brewery, distribution center and TapRoom just west of the hip Pilsen neighbourhood in 2014. Upon opening, Lagunitas Chicago instantly became the largest brewery in Illinois, housing a 300-seat taproom, with free tours every day. Sitting just above the brewery, Lagunita’s tap room and beer sanctuary serve up brews, music and bar food.
Try: Sumpin’ Easy
SIN & SUDS BEER TOURS
Follow in the footsteps of Al Capone and explore Chicago’s Loop and South Loop neighbourhoods located right downtown. Sample delicious beer, learn how well beer pairs with Chicago’s sinful history – including gambling, saloons, Prohibition and other fun and nefarious activities in the 1800s and 1900s. chicagobeerexperience.com
KOVAL
If spirits are more your liking then it doesn’t get better than Koval. Founders Robert and Sonat Birnecker, chose to leave their academic careers to bring the distilling traditions of Robert’s Austrian family to America. Koval is the first distillery within Chicago’s city limits since Prohibition and one of America’s largest craft distilleries with over 50 international awards under their belt.
Embracing the grain-to-bottle mentality, each step of the spirit-making process is thoughtfully monitored right down to the stylish bottle designs and merchandising.
All of KOVAL’s whiskies are single barrel and aged in 30-gallon barrels of New American Oak and in turn, each bottle can be traced back to the field on which the grain was grown making each drop of whiskey, gin, vodka certified Organic. KOVAL has grown to be one of America’s leading small batch, independent spirit manufacturers.
Try: the single barrel millet Whiskey
Once you’ve consumed all the beer you can take, try…
KINGSTON MINES
No visit to Chicago would be complete without hitting at least one Blues club and Kingston Mines is the largest and oldest. Its twin stages have been graced by scores of musical greats and are packed with the finest nonstop blues seven nights a week. With its motto: “Hear Blues – Drink Booze – Talk Loud – You’re Among Friends!” you know you’re in for a good time.
MORDECAI
A modern and understated bi-level bar and restaurant set inside the hip Hotel Zachary in the heart of Wrigleyville, Mordecai’s extensive back bar features one of the country’s largest selections of rare whiskeys as well as a good selection of local craft beer. A full menu serves refined, American-inspired bar fare and grilled entrees but this is at a high-end level far from the regular ballpark food offers.
Try: Roasted Bone Marrow and the fried cheese curds
CAFE TOLA
Espressos and their beloved empanadas are the order of the day at Cafe Tola. Empanadas; from the Spanish empanar, meaning “to wrap unique combinations of meats, cheeses and vegetables” are little pockets of fried goodness and hands down, the best snack food you will ever taste at this hole in the wall takeaway joint. The Lakeview venue bursts with colourful Mexican pizzazz adorned with bright artwork and a giant wall mural of Kanye’s face.
Try: Spicy pork empanadas
LOU MALNATI’S
There’s pizza and then there’s Lou Malnati’s Pizza that takes it to a whole new dimension. The original Chicago style deep dish pizza recipe, first created in the 1950’s, is immense. Chicago-style deep dish pizza is the heartiest of the pizza varieties and typically eaten with a knife and fork. If you’re looking for great pizza in Chicago, you don’t have to look very hard. Just skip the starters and get to the Deep Dish main event.
Try: The Lou Deep Dish Pizza (with extra sausage)
TIP: If you don’t have too much time to explore Chicago then head to MALT ROW; the cluster of streets around Chicago’s Ravenswood Corridor is home to some of the cities best and most unique craft beer options.
STAY
HOTEL ZACHARY
Inspired by Zachary Taylor Davis — legendary Chicagoan and the world-renowned 1914 architect behind Wrigley Field — Hotel Zachary blends new and old, refined and comfortable, unique and familiar, all at once. A boutique hotel in the heart of the iconic Lakeview neighbourhood, it’s an authentic experience that brings Davis’ vision to life in thoughtful and surprising ways. Just minutes from downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan, surrounded by unique shopping, dining and live music destinations, Hotel Zachary is the perfect home base for baseball fans, business travellers, curious vacationers and in-the-know locals. Rooms from £180 a night.
GETTING THERE
BA.com fly direct from the UK from £450 return.
