Chicago craft breweries?

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the_ale_scale

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My wife and I are headed to Chicago this weekend (Sunday-Tuesday) for our honeymoon. We are looking for breweries walking distance from the hard rock hotel, or any must go to places. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you in advance
 
Take the Chicago water taxi for $2a ride. A poor mans architectural tour! Go from the foot of the Wrigley building over to the Ogilvie train station. There are some good inexpensive eateries near the train station.
Lagunitas has a new brewery and I heard they do tours, not too far a cab ride.
Chinatown is good. Too bad, Cubs are on the west coast this week.
 
Yes, in the craft beer bars. You'll also see Revolution, pipeworks, Metropolitan, Half Acre, goose island, and some from the suburbs like Two Brothers (excellent), solemn Oath.
There is a place called the Farmhouse that I have on my list to check out, I hear they have their own brews and a wide assortment of craft on tap. Also on the list is a place called DryHop brewers.
Take your new wife to the 96th floor bar of the Hancock building. Great views during the day and very romantic at night with the lights of the city. I'm not sure what beer they have, but it is a great view, free (except for the drink). have her use the ladies restroom, my wife tells me they have a full length glass window view looking south over the city/lake/river.
 
I really enjoyed the Revolution brewpub. They usually have about 16 of their beers on tap and they will (begrudgingly) let you buy small samples of every single one.
 
They don't do taster!?! …ok


They serve their beers in as small as 4oz pours, though im sure they'd giver you a taster. When I was there, that's all I got. Think between the table we had every beer. The Crystal Hero was especially nice,
 
They don't do taster!?! …ok

There's two locations too. They have the brewery, which has a bar, and then the brewpub... which is a few blocks away. I prefer the brewery. Show up early and take the free tour. It's amazing how tiny they are for how big their name is getting. You can buy a year-long membership for $25. It's worth it because you get a free full growler (painted on logo, and you can keep it) of your choice of beer (which is $18-$20 usually), a snazzy card (lol), and 20% off swag... which you'll probably buy something because you're a tourist. Lol! Plus, the beer is all amazing!

If you go to either of them, a few minutes away is one of the greatest burger joints you will ever find... I'm not joking. It's ridiculously good.. I think the Food Network voted them #1 burgers in America. It's called Kuma's Corner (on Belmont). It's worth the wait to eat there, and they have a decent beer selection... Including Floyd's stuff. The food is unbelievable! Be warned though... They play heavy metal overhead. You get used to it after a few minutes though. Lol! (Oh God... I wanna go there right now after mentioning it!)

If you love live music, there's a fantastic bar in Lincoln Park (I think) called Kingston Mines. All very small local blues and rock bands. Most are really really good, and they're open until I believe 5am! The place is split in half, so one band plays for an hour then the next band plays in the other room for an hour. It's a great setup so the music doesn't become overbearing. The beer selection is not very good, but its still highly recommended you give the place a shot. They serve food too until 5am. Quintessential Chicago. Don't show up until after 9pm though.

I could go on for pages of stuff that's not in tourist's books for Chicago. This city is full of hidden gems. You picked a great week too! The weather is going to be fantastic...
 
Highly recommend Haymarket and Half Acre. The HA tap room puts a new firkin on tap every Friday at noon, usually interesting twists on their existing beers.
 
Half Acre, Revolution and Pipeworks are my votes. FFF is prob a 40 min drive south but we'll worth it. Though a lot of their beer is on tap in Chi usually. If you do venture down there, might as well try 18th Street
 
If the you like Pale Ales, hoppy wheats, and IPAs, then the Lagunitas brewery tour is a must. It is not too far from downtown. The tour is very casual, you sit in one of their tap rooms (which is more like a living room with couches and video games and Jenga) and chat with a few employees, they pour a bunch of tasters of different brews and discuss the history and philosophy of the company. At the end, you get a tour of their brewery, which is one of the largest craft breweries around. The atmosphere is great, the employees are super stoked and very enthusiastic. Music playing, dogs walking around the living room, ask any question you want, they have a tap room and restaurant before and after that a lot of locals go to for lunch. A total 180 degree difference from the Bud tour I took recently.
 
Thank you everybody for the help. Day one we had lunch at Miller's the food was ok and the staff no so much, we went over to Eataly and picked up three bottles of Three Flyods and a Revolution along with bread,meat and cheese for pairing for dinner. Day two we went to Haymarket (great beer) I have gotten food poisoning (not sure if I got it there or somewhere else) , and had dinner at Bella Bacinos (great food) had a stroll through millennium park. Day three took a trip down to twisted spoke had lunch at Exchequer and hung out at tap works (pretty good selection), and caught the train home.
 

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