When spring finally kicks in, it’s a great time to be a beer drinker in the Midwest.
Over the weekend, we saw the opening of not just the Goose Island Salt Shed Pub but also the opening of Monochrome Brewing in Pilsen1, and we’ve also got ten news items from around the Midwest today about taprooms opening, breweries announcing plans to open new beer gardens, new locations for beer-centric bars (including a HopCat!) and more. With all that going on, allow yourself to be a little hopeful about craft beer this week.
For us, the annual Beer Under Glass festival always serves as a kickoff for a great few months of warm-weather beer drinking and this year was no different. Our Eric Krol and Jaime Hernandez hit up the event at Union Station and found a lot of new beers to like (including a new downstate standout that you’ll want to know about).
You can check out the full recap with many more great photos on the GDB site! While you’re there and thinking about all the breweries around Chicagoland, check out the Chicagoland Craft Beer Map to find a few places to put on your must-visit list for the summer.
Goose Island’s Salt Shed Pub opened officially on Friday, coverage came from Block Club, Fox 32 Chicago, and Axios.
Fatpour’s third location recently opened in Lincolnwood. (All three are on the map.)
The Lake County News-Sun hung out with the hundreds of drinkers at the recent Long Grove Craft Beer Festival.
Following fights at a nearby carnival in Lake of the Hills, “The Village of Huntley and Huntley Police Department in a joint statement Tuesday afternoon announced the upcoming carnival organized by Citius Illinois Baseball and More Brewing has been canceled.”
WBEZ’s Reset chatted with Laurin Mack about reviving the beers of Conrad Seipp.
Crain’s looks at the efforts of Industry Ales to capture the Loop’s lunch and post-work-drinks market.
It’s Craft Beer Week all around the state, so here’s Peoria’s coverage referencing some local breweries like Keg Grove and Iron Spike.
Axios visited Metazoa Brewing’s dog park and taproom to try their new fruited Big Kahuna IPA.
Guggman Haus announced plans to open a taproom in Meridian-Kessler.
Bier Brewery’s new Noblesville location is now open.
Brewbound has the announcement on the new Dark Lord whiskey from Three Floyds; NWITimes has a story here (paywalled).
As tulip time kicked off, Gezellig Brewing released a new batch of their now-famous tulip-infused wheat ale.
Saugatuck Brewing is teaming up with the state DNR to donate a portion of the proceeds from every case of their Rainbow Rodeo IPA to protect wildlife needed by fish and game.
What’s the story behind the iconic artwork on the label of Bell’s Two Hearted? A new film tells the tale.
Houghton’s Daily Mining Gazette looks back at 20 years of Keweenaw Brewing Company, where pints of beer are still under $4 at their taproom.
Eater’s list of breweries & cideries in and around Grand Rapids is pretty solid; I’ve added Arvon and Harmony to the top of my list for my next visit.
The Detroit News covers something you rarely see these days: The opening of a new HopCat.
South Lyon’s Witch’s Hat Brewing Company is fighting the village over their decision not to mow their yard for No Mow May and trying to change the local ordinance.
The new “law-themed” Barrister Brewery is now open in Owosso. Hey, Banging Gavel - seems like a good place for a collab brew.
Three Twenty Brewing has a new owner: The former head brewer at Dangerous Man.
Speaking of Dangerous Man, they announced plans for a new seasonal tap room and beer garden … but they’re asking for help to do it.
This story made me realize that I haven’t heard anything about Hammerheart Brewing in a long time … which is because it took them a long time to find and build their new production-only brewery in Ely.
The Riverfront Times tells the story behind the name of Heavy Riff’s Disco Apocalypse (which actually doesn’t have anything to do with Steve Dahl for once) and breaks the news that their beers will soon be sold in South Korea and Japan.
Based on the latest World Beer Cup awards, Axios says that Cleveland is “a hefeweizen hotbed.”
Eater has a nice list of places to drink in Madison; breweries include Working Draft and Young Blood (that crunchwrap looks pretty awesome) and there are some great beer bar selections in there too.
Wisconsin Brewing Company partnered with Harley-Davidson to come up with a new NA pilsner.
Per OnMilwaukee, the Third Space Innovation Brewhouse in Menominee Falls should be open by early June.
Stevens Point Brewery finally has a taproom, which opened this weekend. It cost $1.1 million and fills 4200 square feet.
1840 Brewing’s new West Bend taproom is now open.
After selling out the batch in six weeks last year, New Glarus announced that their pilsner would be going year-round.
Apparently LaCrosse’s City Brewery smells like rotten eggs and local residents are not very happy about it. It’s costing the brewery $100 per day while they figure out how to mitigate it. In happier news, the brewery reached an agreement with the Teamsters Union and a strike of nearly 500 workers was averted.
Joshua M. Bernstein’s look at the new economics of craft beer for Seven Fifty is worth a read for a good cross section of what breweries are facing and what they’re doing to adjust. The days of tens of thousands of SKUs are over, for better or worse.
One month after shuttering their Highwood brewery, Kings & Convicts announced that another brewery would take over at Ballast Point’s Miramar brewery and they’ll be pivoting to contract brewing until they can find a new facility that’s the right size.
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Thank you all for being here!
Love what you do, Karl.
Thank you.
Sorry to say, but you can remove Oswego Brewing from your map.
Nice little brewery. Too bad.
All the best.
Dan Ott