12 different Two Brothers beers on draft, including some only available at the brewery. And all for $5. more ›

Under dozens of kitchen sinks and tucked behind countless closet doors, something is brewing in Chicago. It's beer. More precisely, it's home-brewed beer. And with more and more beer enthusiasts adopting the hobby of fermenting their own suds, Chicago home brewers Jared Saunders and Whit Nelson realized the community begged for a place to gather, learn, talk shop and gear up. From that idea, Brew Camp was born. more ›

We found out earlier in the week that City Provisions would be serving limited edition beers on tap brewed by Cleetus Friedman and local breweries. The first beer, a cherry dunkelweiss called Kirsch von Blucher made with Flossmoor Station, got rave reviews - and it turns out that this is going to be a monthly affair. more ›

The on-site brewery at Moonshine restaurant has tapped JD McCormick to take over operations following the departure of former head brewer Bob Kittrell. McCormick has been working under Kittrell at Moonshine and found recent success with White Lightning, a hoppy original creation that became Moonshine's fastest-selling house beer. more ›

This Friday, July 15th, every beer lover in Chicago should be heading to Logan Square Kitchen. Not just because LSK is a great venue (though it is) but because they are hosting their very first "Brewer's Night," where beer lovers, home brewers and reps from Half Acre Beer Company can come together and drink, gossip and learn more about their favorite hobby. more ›

The right for Illinois craft brewers to self-distribute their beer is just a signature away from becoming Illinois law, and the veto-proof majority in both houses of the Illinois legislature means that SB754 is almost a done deal. Yesterday, by a vote of 112-0-3 in the House, Illinois overwhelmingly voted to allow small breweries to self-distribute their own product (up to a certain amount). We say it's almost a done deal because there's one last hurdle to cross - the motion filed by Anheuser-Busch in the courts that continues to argue in favor of a solution more beneficial to them. more ›

Pipeworks Brewing Co. is the brainchild of Beejay Olson and Gerrit Lewis, who met while working at West Lakeview Liquors, one of the better beer geek havens in town. Olson and Lewis have been slowly getting their brews out to Our Town's beer drinkers, brewing from a location in Bucktown. more ›

In the weeks since Goose Island's Jared Rouben, Rare Tea Cellar's Rod Markus and I started fermenting our lemon tea saison wort at Goose Island Clybourn, our individual schedules were such that the three of us couldn't nail down a time to taste the beer together. Meanwhile, Rouben updated us in the weeks following the brew day with rave reviews from someone new who had sampled the beer. the anticipation was starting to gnaw at me. What I found out later only heightened the anxiousness. more ›

Here's a fun craft beer fact for you: Surly Brewing is the fastest growing brewery in the country, with an projected production of over 15,000 barrels in 2010, only it's fourth year of existence. As a comparison, Three Floyds and Two Brothers, each in business since 1997, only crossed the 10,000 barrel threshold last year. more ›

(Part 1 of this series can be read here.) more ›

Been fighting one mother of a chest cold all wee and was nearly inclined to name Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine this week's "BotW." Then the fever dreams subsided and we remembered the best beer we had after our brew day at Goose Island. more ›

(Part 1 in a series.) more ›

The Year of Beer keeps on flowing downstream with Chicago BeerHoptacular tonight and tomorrow at the Aragon Ballroom. Thirty-seven breweries will be pouring selections for attendees. Every brewery in the Chicago area appears to be representing at the event. more ›

Goose Island is set to increase their brewing capacity next week with the installation of a new 5,000-lb. stainless steel receiver tanks capable of holding 2,000 gallons of wort. According to the brewery, sales of 312 Wheat Ale, Matilda and the new Green Line Organic Pale Ale have each increased by 30 percent. The new receiving tank, which Goose Island had to demolish part of a wall to install, will allow them to increase their production from seven brewing cycles a day to eight, allowing them to keep up with demand and increase the brewery production by 15 percent. more ›

One of the best beers we had last year was the Goose Island/mado beer brewed in collaboration between Rob and Allie Levitt and Jared Rouben. Rouben intimated in our visit to the Clybourn brewpub a couple months back that they were collaborating on another beer for Craft Brewers Conference using cocoa nibs provided by Allie Levitt. more ›

Stone Brewing subscribes to a one word philosophy: Arrogance. It's a belief that their beers are simply better than all others, and that the quality of the beers the Escondido, CA-based brewery produces is so high that they stand above all others. "We aren't one of those breweries that feels as though we have to cut deals with distributors and bars to obtain placement on their menus," Stone co-founder Greg Koch said in an interview I conducted with him a week after the announcement that Stone was finally launching in the Chicago market. "We don't offer discounts or stocking incentives such as free glassware or other disposables, because we at Stone believe once you taste our beer sells itself on word of mouth. Your better beer houses understand this, which is why they're full all the time." more ›

Since Goose Island renewed the lease on their Clybourn brewpub at the last minute in 2008, they've been actively moving forward to improve both the quality of both its beers and its food. John Manion's short stint at the brewpub laid the foundation to the new menu advancements of current chef Andrew Horza. Hroza is a certified cicerone and well-qualified to know the intricacies between pairing beer with food. more ›

Fans of craft beers know that Dogfish head's Sam Calagione is one of the more progressive brewers around. The man seems to live for coming up with a brew that's never been done. Calagione's research into the history of brewing nearly rivals that of the late Michael "the Beer Hunter" Jackson. Beginning with their "Midas Touch" ale in 1999, Dogfish Head has worked closely with Dr. Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania to recreate ancient ales using molecular evidence from archeological digs. Dogfish's "Ancient Ales" line has since grown to include Sah'tea (based on a 9th century Finnish recipe); Theobroma and Chateau Jihau, unearthed from a 9,000 year-old Chinese tomb. more ›

One of the biggest things happening in the world of brewing these days is collaborative brewing. Bell's and De Proef just released their team-up. Three Floyds has worked with both Mikkeller and Dogfish Head. Tomorrow night Life & Limb, the collaborative beer effort between Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada, will be given a proper launch at Sheffield's. Chefs are even making beer with craft breweries. Chris Pandel of the Bristol brewed a sahti with Goose Island, and need we remind you about Paul Kahan's trip to New Holland? more ›

Get this beer while you can. Van Twee is the long-awaited collaboration between De Proef and Bell's breweries. MAde by De Proef's Dirk Naudts and Bell's John Mallet, Van Twee is a porter-dubbel hybrid, with Michigan sour cherry juice and brettanomyces in the secondary fermentation. more ›

Back when we visited Half Acre's Lincoln Square brewery in April, one of the construction projects still in progress was the buildout of a retail space. Gabriel Magliaro's plans were to have an in-wall draft system featuring Half Acre selections, special brews and guest beers; bottles and merchandise. more ›

(Today we wrap up our week-long series following chef Paul Kahan as he brewed beer at New Holland Brewing and planned a menu for an August 23 beer dinner at the Publican. If you haven't already, you can go back and read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4) more ›

(This is Part 3 in our week-long series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to the actual dinner. IF you haven't already, read Part 1 and Part 2.) more ›

(This is the second in a series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to reality. Read Part 1 here.) more ›

“Cooking with beer is a little new for me.” To hear a chef say such a thing would be surprise enough. That the chef admitting this was Paul Kahan made me take even more notice. more ›