Beer Lover’s Guide to Evanston, IL’s Craft Beer Scene

Just a short train ride from Chicago, Evanston is home to Northwestern University. Downtown, you’ll find lots of shops and restaurants, as well as some great breweries.

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Saugatuck Brewing Company | BBA Imperial Neapolitan Milk Stout

Living in Michigan as a beer lover is pretty much the best. You can’t throw a beer bottle without hitting a brewery, particularly in West Michigan. Because of this, our standards are quite high, and we do not suffer bad beer to live. In the same note, to stand out, breweries must be more than above average at something. Saugatuck Brewing Company is one such brewery, and what they excel at is making layered, complex and all around tasty beers. One of their mainstays is Neapolitan Milk Stout, a beer I particularly like, and have said so on this website. Because of my nice profile, Saugatuck contacted PorchDrinking.com and asked if we’d like to profile the barrel aged version of Neapolitan, their Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Neapolitian MIlk Stout, to which I immediately said hell yes. Read More

Brewery Showcase | BiXi Beer

When brewmaster Eymard Freire first joined the BiXi Beer project he wasn’t married and had no kids. But by the time BiXi opened, Freire was married and his daughter was six months old. Plagued by multiple setbacks, BiXi finally opened in August 2018. The wait was worth it.

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Brewery Showcase | Oswego Brewing Company

The addition of suburban-Chicago’s Oswego Brewing Company (May, 2018) further demonstrates that the craft beer industry is far from “too crowded.” Oswego Brewing has fit in nicely, thank you, and is drawing in its own new loyal crowd of craft beer fans. Operating out of spacious building — the town’s former fire station — and under the direction of the multi-award winning head brewer, Marc Wilson, Oswego Brewing deftly balances the art of offering sophisticated special releases alongside solid, versatile year-round and seasonal choices.
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BrewDog’s DogHouse Craft Beer Hotel is Disneyland for Drinkers

Craft beer is always best enjoyed locally, straight from the brewery taproom. But if you can drink at the source, why not sleep at the source, too?

While Columbus, Ohio, has seen a craft beer renaissance in recent years, it has never reached the status of a beer destination that Portland, Oregon, or Asheville, North Carolina, have achieved. That quickly changed once BrewDog’s co-founder James Watt stepped foot in the heart of the Buckeye State. Impressed with the midwestern city’s hospitality, he and his BrewDog team set out to build the world’s first craft beer hotel, raising funds through a crowdfunding website. It didn’t take long before they had more money than they knew what to do with, and the rest is history.

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Braven Brewing Makes a Home in New York’s Bushwick Neighborhood

Sincerity can’t be faked — and it can make something that’s good transform into something absolutely wonderful.

Walking into the newly opened Braven Brewing Company in Bushwick on a Tuesday night, you’ll likely receive a warm welcome from the bartenders, hear friends laughing after work and see Cheer’s playing on all the televisions. Read More

The PorchCast Ep 56 | Novel Strand Brewing

The PorchCast team of Tristan, Sam and Sami gathered to bring you a Thanksgiving treat. For episode 56 of the PorchCast, they spoke with Novel Strand Brewing co-founders, Tamir Danon and Chantel Columna, who were sadly without their third co-founder Ayana Coker, to talk about their brewery/coffee shop, their unique approach toward beer and community, as well as some more controversial views on Instagram culture, flight boards and Untappd.

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Brewery Showcase | Honest Weight Artisan Beer

One of my favorite aspects of the craft beer community is just that: the community. There’s a sense of comfort when you’re able to strike up a conversation with locals about the happenings around town. Contributing to the community is one of the main values for Honest Weight. Located on the edge of the Pioneer Valley and neighboring the Quabbin Reservoir (one of the primary water supplies for Boston), Honest Weight Artisan Beer has started to become a household name in the area.

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Liberati Blends Innovative Beer-Wine Hybrid with Elevated Italian Cuisine

When you enter Denver’s newest brewery, Liberati Osteria & Oenobeers, it’s hard not to imagine Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, “L’inverno” … Read More

Brewery Showcase | St. Elmo Brewing Company

I’m not sure what age I was when I started favoring breweries to bars. I distinctly remember frequenting the only brewery in my tiny college town more and more, while braving the sticky floors of the dive bars less and less. Not to say there isn’t a time and a place for a great dive bar; however, if you’re reading this it’s more likely that you’d rather drink something exciting, fresh and flavorful than pay for a bottom-shelf vodka soda. What hasn’t changed as I have gotten older is the desire to socialize over a drink.

Enter the neighborhood craft brewery. A far cry from the empty warehouses of my college days. Neighborhood breweries have become gathering places for the entire family, both two and four-legged, to come together to listen to music, play games and explore new styles of beer. However, occasionally these neighborhood breweries transcend beyond just a community hangout by producing extremely high-quality beers.

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Brewery Showcase | Brickstone Brewery

Brickstone Brewery has won medals at FoBAB, the World Cup, and GABF. One can find Brickstone at every Jewel, several Buffalo Wild Wings, throughout Guaranteed Rate Field (White Sox games), at beer fests — and even gas stations these days. It’s tough to find a Chicago-area bar without some tap handles adorned by Brickstone artwork. Yet, most Chicago-area beer fans have never been to Brickstone. Born of a family-restaurant in the 1990s, the Bourbonnais business added a brewery in 2006 and has since evolved into a dually-located, full-fledged, 9k to 10k barrel-per-year brewery (with a capacity for 18k) and, as it always has been, family restaurant. Located 45 miles south of downtown Chicago, Brickstone has simultaneously discovered a way to cater to its local clientele while also existing among the biggest names in Chicago beer.
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Solemn Oath in Logan Square | Emporium Pop-Up Bar & A New Taproom

Solemn Oath Brewing, located in the large and populous Chicago suburb of Naperville, has remained a stabilizing force within the broader, changing Chicago craft beer market. Since opening in 2012, the brewery has adapted to internal and external changes without ever losing its identity, nor its popularity among beer fans; that’s what good people serving well-executed beer will do for a brewery.

Solemn Oath is now ready to take the next step in its craft beer journey by expanding to a second location and joining a slew of breweries in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. But first, a pop-up bar is in the works.

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Une Année Quietly Emerges as One of Chicago’s Best Breweries

Lieferbräu Brewery is About Family, Small Town America & Great Beer

First, a piece of advice. Do not speed as you travel the picturesque country roads of southern Illinois. The first reason is, of course, the cops. The speed limits drop quickly from 55 to 35 as you near and enter the small farming towns along Highway 158. The second reason is the simple beauty of the drive. Country roads should be cherished and with the debut of Lieferbräu Brewery as a reward for heading in this direction, you’ll be driving with a smile the whole time.

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Brewery Showcase | The Booth Brewery

The Booth Brewery, originally based in Korea, is taking it global.

The Booth Brewery has recently expanded to the U.S., with a brewery in Eureka, California. They purchased the 30-barrel brewing facility from Lost Coast Brewing, who recently expanded to a new location. The new facility is up and running, and The Booth has set a goal of producing 10,000 barrels in the next year. This will include both U.S. distribution and Korean exports.

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Brewery Showcase | Rogue Ales

Here at PorchDrinking.com, we ran a series in August titled “the OGs of Craft Beer,” in which we featured classic or well-known beers that have helped to define and grow craft beer culture throughout the country. One beer featured in our series was Dead Guy Ale from Rogue Ales, a beer born in 1990 when the craft beer wave was in its infancy. Rogue Ales, established in 1988, is one of the true OGs of craft breweries and we’re proud to be featuring them today. Read More

Brewery Showcase | BuckleDown Brewing

Enter the BuckleDown Brewing taproom and you’ll find, among other elements, an arrangement of leather furniture around a table (barrel) that makes one feel as if they have been invited into the BuckleDown home. It’s a fitting setting for an inviting brewery where the people matter as much, if not more, than the beer served to them. Ironically, BuckleDown opened with a production mindset in place rather than a brewpub or any concept intended to draw people through the door. Nonetheless, people arrived and relationships were forged. Catering to people isn’t a business strategy at BuckleDown: it’s organic and genuine. Read More

Red Truck Beer Company Revs Engines in Fort Collins

Many craft beer fans are apt to consider Fort Collins, Colorado as integral to the genesis of America’s craft beer boom. It’s not uncommon to hear this northern Colorado town described as the “Napa Valley of Craft Beer.” With this in mind, it is understandable that the introduction of any new brewery could prove challenging. It is an even more daunting task then to bring an established brewery from a foreign country and set up the first state-side shop in the former lot where long-time beer veterans Fort Collins Brewery stood (FCB was acquired by the Vancouver brewery last year). While a hefty endeavor indeed, the crew at Red Truck Beer Company relished the idea of such a challenge.

(READ: Fort Collins Brewery Acquired by Vancouver’s Red Truck Beer Co.)

The Vancouver brewery opened the doors to the Truck Stop, their Fort Collins location, on August 17; they did not disappoint. We had the chance to discuss the opening with general manager, Laird Mulderink, who shared the process behind the opening. We also spoke with head brewer Shaun Salyards, previously of Fort Collins Brewery and Snowbank Brewing, who provided insight on the 18 (yes, 18) beers on tap.

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New Belgium Partners with The Source Hotel on The Woods Rooftop Bar

The long-awaited project pairing a budding local mixed-use development empire in Zeppelin Places, with one of craft beer’s most storied pioneers, New Belgium Brewing, has finally opened to the public.

The Source Hotel, the fourth major mixed-use space in Denver’s River North Art District from the Zeppelin team following Taxi, The Source and Zeppelin Station, has been a long time coming. In fact, New Belgium Brewing and Kyle Zeppelin’s team had been collaborating on this project since 2014. Normal construction delays and accidents made opening a practice of patience for everyone involved, but the excitement was palpable as Kyle Zepplin (developer), Stephen Dynia (architect) David Stutz (The Source Hotel GM) and Kim Jordan (New Belgium) addressed the crowd at the soft-opening this past Thursday.

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Brewery Preview | Burns Family Artisan Ales Set to Open in Denver on Saturday

Last Fall, the Denver beer scene saw two pioneers embark on a unique partnership, which left the brewery space at Wit’s End available for purchase. As Wit’s End was closing their doors, two industry veterans happened to be looking to begin a new path of their own. Taking over the space and equipment at Wit’s End gave Wayne Burns and Laura Worley just the opportunity they were looking for.

Wayne, brewing resume dates back to the early 90’s having spent time with Michigan staples such as Bell’s Beer and Kuhnhenn’s. And since moving to Denver, he’s spent time brewing with Vine Street Pub, Jagged Mountain, Wynkoop, and recently Holidaily. Burns’ wife Laura has also run the gamut of brewery experience, having spent time bartending or serving as General Manager as the likes of Tommyknocker, Lost Highway, and Woods Boss. Together this combined experience of front to back of house operations is something both Laura and Wayne believe will help them succeed with Burns Family Artisan Ales which opens tomorrow August 18th at 2:00 PM. Read More