Microbrews and Microbreweries in the Chicago area (Fulton, Time: costs, club)

[Mr.Bungle]

Perfect! Thank you! The Gage is right near our hotel. I think we'll hit it up for lunch tomorrow!

[Drover]

Skip Charlie's Ale House. You won't find anything there that the other places won't have. I'm also not a huge fan of Clark Street Ale House but it's a reasonable approximation of a real beer house and it's pretty much the only one in the River North area (the area where your hotel is). It's the ideal place to close after a night of pubcrawling before stumbling back to the hotel to crash.

The three must-do beer houses in Chicago, as have already been mentioned, are Hop Leaf, Map Room, and Quencher's. There are actually two Goose Islands, the one closer to your hotel being the one on Clybourn. But the other one in Wrigleyville is closer to Sheffield's, so maybe you can hit them both up in one train ride.

I didn't care for Piece's beer at first but I've really come around -- I don't know if it's that my tastes have changed or their beer has improved. They also make really good pizza, the only New Haven-style pizza joint in all of Chicago. Their red pizza (somewhat anathema to New Haven-style but I don't care) is one of my favorite pies in town.

I think Revolution is pretty good but they're awfully expensive. Piece and Revolution are along the same train line, two stops from each other, so they're another good comb hit. I'd hit Piece on an afternoon though, that place gets packed in the evenings.

[Chi-town Native]

Concur 100% with Drover's take above. And I'm a microbrewery, brewpub freak, I've been to the Church Brewery in Pittsburgh, Magic Hat in Burlington, VT, New Glarus, Petosi, etc. in WI, and it's just a great way to meet interesting people and gain an appreciation for the craft.

Has anyone here actually been on one of the Metropolitan Brewery's tours, btw? Keep meaning to check it out...

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Has anyone here actually been on one of the Metropolitan Brewery's tours, btw? Keep meaning to check it out...

I work in the same building as Metropolitan and it's definitely worth taking the tour. Doug and Tracy are great people and really know their stuff. Koval distillery is also in the building and sometimes you can arrange to tour both. Oh - and Hopleaf is just a short walk away too.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Attrill

I work in the same building as Metropolitan and it's definitely worth taking the tour. Doug and Tracy are great people and really know their stuff. Koval distillery is also in the building and sometimes you can arrange to tour both. Oh - and Hopleaf is just a short walk away too.

Very cool, thanks. I should have said, is it worth taking the tour given that you have to schedule pretty far in advance (and I'm always waiting too long and it's sold out!) - I can't imagine it's anything but a cool place.

[teachbeach]

Great thread~I just booked a trip to Chicago and we too are beer snobs, and plan our vacation around what's available for microbreweries or beer bars. Great suggestions, thanks!

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Very cool, thanks. I should have said, is it worth taking the tour given that you have to schedule pretty far in advance (and I'm always waiting too long and it's sold out!) - I can't imagine it's anything but a cool place.

If you can fit it in your schedule, it is definitely worth doing. They only make Lagers, which makes them very unique among microbrewers.

The Half Acre tours are also good, and usually have a 2 week lead time for reservations.

[Mr.Bungle]

Well gentlemen, Today I made a quick stop to Goose Island Wrigleyville and had a quick sampler. I'm bringing home a bomber of Bourbon County Stout and a second of the Coffee version. $20 is a lot for a bottle but it's so worth it! They have Daisy Cutter on draft at my hotel which is phenomenal. Like a thinner mouthfeel version of Pliny. Had some Matilda the other day as well as Bells Oberon which was nice and New Holland Saison, I forgot the name. Great stuff.

[tonythetuna]

This story is relevant to the topic of the thread. I figured I would post it here instead of starting a new one.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20101120/ISSUE01/311209986/pay-to-play-infects-chicago-beer-market-crains-investigation-finds
(http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/money/smaller-breweries-beer-must-pay-to-play-in-chicago-market-crains-james-ylisela-20101123 - broken link)

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by tonythetuna

This story is relevant to the topic of the thread. I figured I would post it here instead of starting a new one.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20101120/ISSUE01/311209986/pay-to-play-infects-chicago-beer-market-crains-investigation-finds
(http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/money/smaller-breweries-beer-must-pay-to-play-in-chicago-market-crains-james-ylisela-20101123 - broken link)

Yeah, i read this article in Crain's yesterday, it is pretty good and raises a good issue, but there are problems with it, in my opinion. The craft brewers are complaining in this article because they aren't getting taps, and most of the blame is on the big distributors. The issue is these same distributors that are getting blamed are the ones that carry the craft brewers brands...which would mean the craft brewers are also benefitting from pay to play. While I enjoy drinking craft beers, I find that craft brewers are a bunch of whiners. I just watched the video and I find it even more annoying, because the guy doesn't seem to understand that the distributors already are distributing craft beers...dumb.

Pay-to-play infects Chicago beer market, Crain's investigation finds | In Other News | Crain's Chicago Business