Since I have a bit of a weekend with no listing, following the rush of Christmas and New Year’s events, I thought I’d try to summarize a few things about 2014.
More new beer!
The most astonishing thing about the year just passed is how many new beer brewing establishments have opened in our area in the past year. I had to reach out to my Facebook fans, and I’m sure there are still a few I missed (let me know)!
Openings:
- 350 Brewing Co., Tinley Park
- 51st Ward, Westmont, split off from Urban Legend
- All Rise Brewing Co. (Cobra Lounge), Chicago
- Andersonville Brewing, Spun off from Hamburger Mary’s, Chicago
- Antithesis Brewing, currently a gypsy and collaborative group that has poured commercially, Chicago
- Aquanaut Brewing Co., Chicago
- Arcade Brewery, Chicago
- Burn ‘Em Brewing, Michigan City, IN
- Cademon Brewing Co., Genoa
- Crystal Lake Brewing, Crystal Lake
- Devil’s Trumpet, Merrilville, IN
- Dry City Brew Works, Wheaton
- Empirical Brewery, Chicago
- Forbidden Root, Chicago
- Four Fathers Brewing, Valparaiso, IN
- Granite City Food & Brewery, Naperville
- Hailstorm Brewing, Tinley Park
- Illuminated Brew Works, Chicago
- Imperial Oak Brewing, Willow Springs
- Lagunitas Chicago Tap Room, Chicago
- Mad Mouse Brewing Company and Moxee Restaurant, Chicago
- Marz Community Brewing Co., Chicago
- Mercenary Brewery & Distillery, Chicago
- Middle Brow, a community brewing outfit with beers in stores, and a space to come.
- Moody Tongue Brewing Co., Chicago
- Noon Whistle, Lombard
- Peckish Pig, Evanston
- Penrose Brewing Co., Geneva
- Pollyanna Brewing Co., Lemont
- Route 2 Brews, Lowell, IN
- Scorched Earth Brewing Co., Algonquin
- Sketchbook Brewing Co., Evanston (that’s one I had to reminded of already)
- Smylie Brothers Brewing Co., Evanston
- Vice District Brewing Co. Brewing Co., Chicago
- Werk Force Brewing Co., Plainfield
Look at the math. That’s 14 new brewers just in Chicago. TwoThree brewers joining Temperance in the historically “dry” village of Evanston. A lot of these new names are small production or nanobrewers whom you might not have found yet. Then there’s Lagunitas, whose new Chicago branch has twice the brewing capacity of all Chicago’s other brewers combined… and they’ve only built out half their new space.
Closings:
We saw a few places close, both brewers and beloved beer spots:
- Goose Island Wrigleyville Brewpub
- Big Chicago Brewing, Zion. Once the next phase of the old Flatlanders Brewpub, the production brewery was sold to one of its contract customer, Ten Ninety.
- Four Paws Brewing, brewhouse purchased by Aquanaut.
- SmallBar Division St.
New Beers in Chicago:
A couple of popular brewers established toeholds in the Chicago market. Destihl has become more firmly established, and Schlafly from St. Louis is finding room on local shelves. Urban Chestnut, a St. Louis brewery started with golden parachute money by displaced Anheuser-Busch executives, is coming, as are beers from Figure Eight in Valpo. Sweetwater is one of the first Georgia brewers to distribute our way. Those are just the labels I can remember at the moment.
Revivals
Old brands that have been relaunched to suit a retro fandom include Champagne Velvet, remade by Upland in Bloomington, IN, and Drewry’s, returning to South Bend. The relaunched Baderbrau and been bringing out new seasonals, and the reformulation and new beers for Berghoff have brought new interest to this 120-year-old brand. Unfortunately, despite the fact that my article on the Meister Brau trademark remains my most popular on this blog, no brewer has expressed plans to revive this old Chicago brand.
Stores and Bars
I sure have noticed an upsurge in new beer bars, and more older establishments adding a craft beer lineup. It’s almost become the exception to find a bar that doesn’t have at least a Goose Island Belgian style tap. Of course, that means the bar is being pushed by InBev/AB to also have a Stella Artois tap. But how many places have you found that no longer have more than one “Light” on tap?
And you may have noticed that local outlets of national chain stores have focused on area brands, with Local Option, Revolution and 5 Rabbit at Trader Joe’s, or Off Color and Ten Ninety at Costco. When Angelo Caputo’s Fresh Market took over the closed Dominick’s near me, the built in a bar (where the Pharmacy used to be, there’s your irony) with taps that started with the usual Goose, Stalla and Sam Adams, but also rotated selections from local brewers Urban Legend, 51st Ward and Church Street. The Mariano’s stores that took over other Dominick’s were already known for an in-depth beer section.
Are We Where It’s At Yet?
A brief flurry was stirred this past November, when The New Yorker magazine printed a cover by cartoonist Peter de Sève, titled “Hip Hops,” depicting two tattooed hipsters at a trendy beer bar, in poses very familiar to anyone who’s been to a wine tasting: the girl is looking intently at the label of the bottle held by the “beer steward,” while the boyfriend is carefully swishing his sip around his mouth. Except the sommelier is wearing grunge plaid flannel (is that retro now? I have a hard time keeping up), and the couple’s tats, piercing, and boyfriend’s horn-rimmed glasses are much in evidence (the cartoonist got one thing right in not showing a dump bucket. Beer guys swallow, not spit). This caused much discussion on the various beer fan forums, pondering whether this kind of magazine recognition meant that our little world has finally gone mainstream. Well, if we really were mainstream yet, then there wouldn’t be hipsters involved. But at least I hope this helps us kill one and for all the image of hipsters as fans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
As for me…
Your faithful Beeronaut can report he got his favorite compliment when competing in the AAJA all-media Trivia Competition in November. On my team was Curtis Shaw Flagg, who authors the ChicagoNow blog As I See It, and who has also been managing events at local clubs. He had convinced Galway Bay on W. Diversey to host a viewing party to The Walking Dead’s season premiere in October. Curtis told me he wasn’t sure if anyone would come out for this, but to his surprise, a big crowd turned out. He asked some of the attendees how they knew about the event, and they told him they read it in The Beeronaut, where I had picked up the event listing without knowing he was behind it. I’m just happy to be providing some useful information to you out there.
Additionally, I organized the first presentation sessions on Craft Beer and Popular Culture at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association’s annual conference when it came to Chicago in April. I was one of nine presenters offering articles and research on the impact of the craft beer scene on popular culture, and afterward I was able to take these visiting scholars on a pub crawl of Hopleaf, Atlas and Half Acre, thanks to Chicago Brew Bus. The conference also led to an offer for me to write a book on beer culture. Which I need to still force some time to get started.
And thanks you readers and your many clicks of support, I have been engaged by Groupon to compile some articles listing favorite brewpubs, tap rooms, beer bars, and so forth, in Chicago, for their new Chicago Guide Section. So far I have tracked down the four tap rooms in Chicago proper, as seen in the teaser box below, with plans to add to it as more open in 2015. But that’s a story for another article.
