Beer in Chicago

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Photopilot

Photopilot

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Messages
1,196
Reaction score
123
Location
Jackson
I am going to be in Chicago tomorrow night. I have had a few excellent beers from Goose Island so was thinking of having dinner at their brewery. Is there a better brewery I should visit?

How about beers unique to the midwest, what should I pick up to take home and where should I shop for a unique selection? I am flying into MDW and staying downtown.

I appreciate any local help to make the most of my 23 hours in Chicago.
 
Revolution and Half Acre. I'll give you my address so feel free to ship me some Akari Shogun. If you have the time and chance, head south a bit and hit up 3 Floyd's


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Natdavis777 said:
Revolution and Half Acre. I'll give you my address so feel free to ship me some Akari Shogun. If you have the time and chance, head south a bit and hit up 3 Floyd's
Click to expand...

I wish I had thought ahead and I could have packed up some rare San Diego Beers and brought out care packages for some Midwest HBTers. Unfortunately my boss waited until the last moment for this trip.
 
Goose Island got me into craft brew, so they will always have a soft spot in my heart. But yeah, as others have said above, Revolution is where I'd go.
 
I really like Goose Island Clybourn, and go there more often than anywhere else in the city (the 20% AHA discount on food and drink helps). You wouldn't go wrong with the other places people are suggesting though.
 
Thedutchtouch said:
Will you have a car? Blow off work and go to three floyds for lunch.
Click to expand...


No car but can do lunch tomorrow and dinner. May be back in two weeks, will get a car and do three Floyd's then. Turns out my co worker does not drink beer so gonna have to make it easy to get to.
 
+1 for Half Acre. If they're too busy, or if you want food, you can go across the street to Bad Apple. It isn't a brewery, but they have a huge tap and bottle list and good burgers.

For stuff to take home, find the nearest Binny's. If you can't get Founders (from Grand Rapids) or 3 Floyds (Indiana) where you're from, I'd recommend grabbing a few of those. They're reliably good.
 
jjz said:
+1 for Half Acre. If they're too busy, or if you want food, you can go across the street to Bad Apple. It isn't a brewery, but they have a huge tap and bottle list and good burgers.

For stuff to take home, find the nearest Binny's. If you can't get Founders (from Grand Rapids) or 3 Floyds (Indiana) where you're from, I'd recommend grabbing a few of those. They're reliably good.
Click to expand...

I think I may be in Elkhart in a few weeks, is that close to 3 floods?

So what does goose Island lack that others overlook it for other options? I had some of their Burton County Porter for Xmas and it was pretty good. My Wife loves the Sophie. I'll find a Binnys and stock up for home.
 
Photopilot said:
I think I may be in Elkhart in a few weeks, is that close to 3 floods?
Click to expand...

Not really. 3 Floyds is basically on the south side of Chicago.

Photopilot said:
So what does goose Island lack that others overlook it for other options? I had some of their Burton County Porter for Xmas and it was pretty good. My Wife loves the Sophie. I'll find a Binnys and stock up for home.
Click to expand...

It's certainly not a knock on Goose Island. They have good stuff! But I only went there once because it's a pretty busy area. Half Acre seems a little more "local" because they're smaller and their tap room is still new. Plus I have friends near there, so I'm biased :)
 
I don't think Goose Island Clybourn lacks anything compared to the others (it has more selection than both in fact, maybe the food is a bit better at Revolution), but Revolution and Half Acre are both smaller local breweries people like. I'll second the recommendation for the Hopleaf, especially if you like Belgian Beer. But another plus for Goose Island Clybourn is that one of the biggest Binnys in the city is right across the street.
 
Finally got some photos and willing to share my trip to Chicago.

I was only supposed to be there one night. My coworker does not drink beer, actually turns out he does not like to leave the hotel, so I was on my own. I woke up from a nap around dinner time. It was very windy and starting to storm. I was tempted to take my coworker up on the executive lounge dinner in the hotel but figured I would rather see the city or at least drink some of its beers. I had already figured out how to get to Goose Island and I have been so impressed by the Bourbon County beers, so I headed out to the subway before I got trapped in the hotel by laziness.

I stopped at the Binnys first. I really did not see many bombers worth carrying back across country, all of the 3 Floyds were in 6-ers. So I went to Goose Island. The place was nearly empty. After talking to the bartender and hearing about the 5 oz tasters I decided to do a round of those to start. The bartender poured me two of them then told me something was wrong with one of the other kegs, but he'll get to it. I was hoping to sample the missing two first as they were the less body or hopped beers, but after quite a while I realized they weren't coming soon. When they all arrived they were of different pour sizes, nowhere near 5 oz though.

The servers did not seem to have any passion or true knowledge of beer. It seemed like it was just a job to them, they could be working in any restaurant. The food was not very impressive either.

I was pretty disappointed at my lost opportunity. Fortunately the trip got extended one day and I was able to meet a friend for pizza at Lou Manaltis, which renewed my faith in Chicago dinning. Before leaving the next day I visited the local wine shop next to the hotel and was recommended a selection of local beers which I brought home.

IMG_6299.JPG
 
Oh dear, I'm sorry Goose Island was so disappointing. Were the beers you did try enjoyable at least?
 
metic said:
Were the beers you did try enjoyable at least?
Click to expand...

Not really. I may be a bit of a stickler on Service having waited tables for years and passion for what you are serving, but if the beers were good I could have overlooked that. In the SD area most every server knows their beer and most every brewery has 2 or more big beers to sample. Having tried the Bourbon County Stout I was expecting some big things from them. The Stout I tried was good and I remember a bock but everything else was forgettable.

I have since been back in the area (Indiana) and was able to stock up on some 3 Floyds and some other local beers I am looking forward to trying out.

The true eye opening experience for me was the L and subway. The L from midway was a nice convenient ride. My first impression of the subway was it was dank and dark and a little seedy. I was comparing it to our "Coaster" that has free wifi and wisks me down the coast with views of the Pacific Ocean. I like to sit on the second floor in the nice padded seats and check out the surfers when on it.

The only problem is there is only 11 trains on a good day, last one leaving at 5:15 PM and costs $5 per trip or $12 if you want to catch the amtrak which runs till 9PM. If i picked a random time in the day to travel it would take me 4 hours to get 35 miles from the airport to my home. I would guess there are more subways per hour than Coasters per day. Your public transportation rocks.
 
Don't know if this is proper post etiquette to jump in with my own questions about things to do in Chicago.

I'll be in Chicago on 4th of July weekend. Going to the DMB concert. I've been looking for restaurant ideas. Was planning to hit Lou Malnati's so I'm glad to hear that will be a good choice.

My wife does not drink beer so I thought about going to Dusek's for dinner one night instead of hitting a brewpub. There was a write up about this restaurant in Draft Magazine and it looked interesting. Beer pairings and beer stuff for me and good food and cocktails for my wife.

Anyone been to Dusek's, is it a good choice?
 
Photopilot said:
Finally got some photos and willing to share my trip to Chicago.



I was only supposed to be there one night. My coworker does not drink beer, actually turns out he does not like to leave the hotel, so I was on my own. I woke up from a nap around dinner time. It was very windy and starting to storm. I was tempted to take my coworker up on the executive lounge dinner in the hotel but figured I would rather see the city or at least drink some of its beers. I had already figured out how to get to Goose Island and I have been so impressed by the Bourbon County beers, so I headed out to the subway before I got trapped in the hotel by laziness.



I stopped at the Binnys first. I really did not see many bombers worth carrying back across country, all of the 3 Floyds were in 6-ers. So I went to Goose Island. The place was nearly empty. After talking to the bartender and hearing about the 5 oz tasters I decided to do a round of those to start. The bartender poured me two of them then told me something was wrong with one of the other kegs, but he'll get to it. I was hoping to sample the missing two first as they were the less body or hopped beers, but after quite a while I realized they weren't coming soon. When they all arrived they were of different pour sizes, nowhere near 5 oz though.



The servers did not seem to have any passion or true knowledge of beer. It seemed like it was just a job to them, they could be working in any restaurant. The food was not very impressive either.



I was pretty disappointed at my lost opportunity. Fortunately the trip got extended one day and I was able to meet a friend for pizza at Lou Manaltis, which renewed my faith in Chicago dinning. Before leaving the next day I visited the local wine shop next to the hotel and was recommended a selection of local beers which I brought home.
Click to expand...



I am so relieved you got Lou's instead of Uno. Greatest decision in the post.







Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
W0GWT said:
I am so relieved you got Lou's instead of Uno. Greatest decision in the post.
Click to expand...

I was fortunate I had a local friend that was guiding me, Lou's was good. I got a Giordano pie my first day and was not impressed. Zachary's Pizza in my hometown Oakland CA has set the bar high, for Chicago style pizza.
 
A good friend of mine is a Finnish Brewmaster who had a brewery in St. Louis for a while. He now lives in Chicago and is tweaking the recipes at Church Steet Brewery. He knows his stuff and is a BJCP instructer. I keep wanting to make the drive up and check out what he's doing. Anybody been there?
 

Similar threads

S
Cider to Beer
Replies
2
Views
193
sacandagabrewing
S
4_Sons_Brewing
Kansas City Breweries?
Replies
12
Views
898
GoodTruble
G
B
New Member - G'day from Australia
Replies
3
Views
315
Jeroen79
J
N
Hello fellow beer lovers
Replies
4
Views
181
ncbrewer
N
Zippy123
Need help kicking the bottles
Replies
29
Views
1K
Zippy123
Zippy123
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top