Don’t tell Boston, Milwaukee, or whichever city the big silver train in those beer commercials comes from, but Chicago is filled with breweries, ranging from huge warehouse taprooms to coffee-shop-sized brew pubs. There’s approximately one for every Chicagoan, and not all are created equal—so we put together a list of the 22 best.
For the sake of defining what exactly constitutes a Chicago brewery, we’re talking about places that (1) brew and serve their own beer on-site, (2) may or may not have food, and (3) are within the city limits, meaning some of our favorite suburban, or Indianian breweries (sorry Three Floyd’s) didn’t make the cut.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Michelle Horn
The taproom of Half Acre Beer Company in Lincoln Square isn’t trying to be a full-blown restaurant with 689 things on the menu. The short food menu here consists of tasty things like currywurst and a fried chicken sandwich with gochujang mayo that go really well with the house beers. Plus, they have a spacious beer garden, and host fun events like movie screenings, holiday markets, and even Magic: The Gathering game night if you’ve been wanting to show off that deck you’ve been building.
photo credit: John Ringor
The Marz taproom in Bridgeport feels like an art gallery from the future, has its own arcade, and serves excellent fried cheese tacos and smashburgers from their current resident pop-up, Taco Sublime. They also have karaoke, pub trivia, drink-and-draws, comedy shows, Super Smash Bros. tournaments, and more. Basically, this place is an event space as much as a taproom, but one where you can order a wine-cask-fermented wild ale.
photo credit: John Ringor
Whiner is inside a massive Back Of The Yards warehouse-research facility called The Plant. And while we’re not exactly sure what type of research goes on here, we support it because Whiner’s beers are fantastic. They focus on barrel-aged brews with a variety of funky beers ranging from mango coconut stout to lime and cucumber ale. And make sure to check out their resident pop-up Heffer BBQ, which happens to have one of our favorite burgers. Their industrial taproom makes you ask “Is that really a crack in the ceiling or is that an artistic choice?” But there’s plenty of room here,
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