By our measure, the five best breweries in the suburbs are Three Floyds, Mikerphone, Roaring Table, Goldfinger and Phase Three. Only one of those crews hosts an annual multi-day Barrel-Aged Father’s Day celebration across its locations. Or a New Years Day Cellar Raid Brunch. Not to mention Happy Hour Chicago Fireboat Cruise, …
Goose Island’s newest Bourbon County collection reminds us that the most important ingredient was never the coffee, fruit or vanilla—it was always the oak. Instead of merely asking what flavors can be added to Bourbon County, the six-beer lineup asks a different question: What happens when the barrel becomes the …
The Beer Garden at Balmoral is top tier. Following the Sierra Nevada-focused edition, Daisies In Bloom returned with Allagash Brewing Company serving as featured guest and the collaborative Daisy Crown taking center stage. Built on the same Simcoe and Amarillo backbone as the original Daisy Cutter, Daisy Crown takes a …
How Whiner Beer and its neighbors turned a forgotten building into a living ecosystem of flavor. The gutted corridors of Chicago’s old meat-packing district, where the roar of trucks and the hiss of steam once filled the air, a new kind of craft is quietly taking hold: at Whiner Beer …
The Gravitational Pull of Begyle Brewing After countless Mayfestiversary and Oktoberfestivsary parties over the years, attending this event for the second time delivered a quiet revelation: the draw has little to do with who’s listed on the poster. People show up because Begyle Brewing is throwing the bash. That realization …
The Constant That’s Never the Same. Every Bourbon County release begins with the same question: What did time do this year? A hushed reverence settled over the Goose Island Salt Shed Brewpub—the kind usually reserved for museums or concert halls. But for the few dozen people admiring the bar filled …
At Thornton Distilling Co., the oldest standing brewery in Illinois becomes a destination for modern spirits and slow craftsmanship. The air feels different in Thornton. Step below street level into the limestone cellar at Thornton Distilling Co., and the temperature drops; the light softens to a mossy green. There’s a …
What Guinness has created on West Kinzie isn’t just another taproom — it’s a destination brewery in the truest sense. The space hums with the layered personality of Chicago itself: industrial yet intimate, global yet grounded. Every course, every pour, is an invitation to linger — to taste history, craft, …
