Our only question: Are there enough tattooed metal-heads qualified to make and serve beer in our fair city? We shall see. more ›

One year after its sale to A-B InBev, we found that Goose Island's soul still nests here in its hometown. more ›

The Grand Rapids brewery jumps into the Chicago craft beer market. more ›

Local beer geek darling Three Floyds will help local music geek darling Reckless Records celebrate Record Store Day with Rye'd Da Lightning, a rye pale ale. more ›

Beer geeks rejoice! Sixpoint, one of the Northeast's best craft breweries, will hit shelves and taps in Chicago next month. more ›

Soon-to-open Solemn Oath Brewery teamed up with Rock Bottom's Lombard brewpub to create Solemn Oats, a 10.5 percent ABV behemoth of an American barleywine. Our only question: Can we have it for breakfast? more ›

Beer events don't get much geekier than this. Jerry's Sandwiches is pouring an impressive selection of barrel-aged beer (hence the oak) alongside metal music and medieval movies (hence the iron). more ›

As part of your pre-apocalypse preparations, do yourself a favor and grab a few bombers of End of Days, the second offering from Pipeworks, Chicago's newest production brewery. more ›

Of all the breweries-in-planning in Chicago, Spiteful Brewing is as small as they get. We sat down with the founders to find out how they reconcile their pint-sized start-up plans with their barrels of ambition. more ›

Stone Brewing's provocative co-founder and CEO Greg Koch will be in town later this month to celebrate the second anniversary of his beer's distribution to Chicago. Will he pipe up on pay-to-play again? more ›

We sat down with Rock Bottom-Chicago brewmaster Chris Rafferty to discuss his lowly place in the craft brew food chain. He's brewing beer for a bland chain restaurant, with recipes handed down from national, right? more ›

Have you abandoned Goose Island since its sale to A-B InBev last March? Good. More for us. Old Town Yard is our beer of the week - and one hell of a Helles. more ›

It's getting hard to find a good bar in town that isn't pouring Metropolitan beers. So we jumped at the chance to see the spot cranking out all that Krankshaft. more ›

Quenchers kicked off their Stout Fest 2012 on New Year's Day and the 24 beers they have featured over the month of January is a solid mix of everyday stouts and special selections. more ›

Who needs cheap champagne when you can drink beers from Three Floyds, Lagunitas, Bell's and Founders? more ›

Now don't start refreshing your browsers every 15 seconds like you're waiting for Dark Lord Day golden tickets to go on sale. more ›

New Belgium's Tour de Fat is still looking for someone to trade in their car for a shiny new bike when they come to Palmer Square Saturday. more ›

Is InBev/Anheuser-Busch looking to repeat the success of Goose Island's 312 Urban Wheat Ale by trademarking area codes? more ›

Quad Cities-style pizza upped its presence in Chicago on Tuesday with the grand opening of Roots Handmade Pizza, the latest venture from Fifty/50 owners Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner. Always eager to expand our culinary horizons, we rushed over to get a look at the new digs and then get down to the business of disappearing some 'za. 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 ›

By a vote of 48-1-3, the Illinois Senate passed SB754, which maintained and defined the right of a craft beer brewer and brewpub to self-distribute their product, defined a "craft brewer" as one that produces less than 15,000 barrels of beer a year with the right to distribute 7500 of those barrels, as well as serving as a bulwark against Anheuser-Busch's efforts to take a controlling share in a distributor. more ›

So begins Goose Island founder John Hall's op-ed in today's Tribune explaining his company's decision to sell to InBev/Anheuser-Busch last week for $38.8 million. Hall goes the extra length in the space he's given to accentuate the positives of the deal and reinforce his position that, while A-B may now own Goose Island, he'll still be the one calling the shots. Hall also takes some time to praise his son and outgoing brewmaster, Greg, as one of the reasons Goose has been successful. more ›

Today we follow up on yesterday's podcast with some timely Four Loko querying. What does one of the biggest craft brew leaders on the scene think of the FDA cracking down on alcoholic beverages? Will it affect brewers trying to make products featuring coffee or tea or chocolate? When was the last time Mr. Craft Beer Brewer had a macrobrew? And finally, three words: "Pond scum beer." more ›

In the first part of our conversation, Calagione and I talk about his take on Chicago as a craft beer community and whether or not the city is unfairly tagged as Old Style Central, how the Brewmaster show came about and whether or not it was one big research trip writeoff for him. more ›

Here's another entry into what's turned into the Summer of Saison, from the best (only?) craft brewery in Norway. Nøgne Ø Saison is a bottle conditioned saison that pours a cloudy golden, with a lot of sediment at the bottom of a 22-ounce bottle; you've been warned. The decanting emits a pleasant grassy aroma, with esters that tickle the nose. 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 ›

We understand it can become an over-whelming experience when peering into a beer cooler or down a long line of tap-handles. There was once a time when your selection was limited to domestic and imported. Now, we have cult-craft breweries entering the market faster than Dark Lord Day tickets sell-out. How do you call one brewer your home? Your constant? For us, it’s a combination of taste and reliability and for these reasons Dogfish Head is high on our list. Disagree? more ›

Arguably the most anticipated restaurant of the year, The Publican finally opened its doors before they were torn down by the hungry, excited masses. We were initially surprised there wasn't a wait, being 8:00 on a Saturday, until we saw the space. Eyeballing it, The Publican is about the size of three avecs and although we were seated immediately, the German-style beer hall was full of people at long wooden communal tables, small groups at pig pen-esque private booths, and others just sitting at the bar for a drink. more ›