Beer Events & Social Updates: A Busy Superb Owl Weekend
PLUS: Go see the Batmobile!
First up: After a brief soft open period (where they Mayor stopped by!), Diversey House had their official grand opening on Wednesday! Congrats mostly to the Moor’s Brewing team who finally has a space to call their own, but also congrats to Steep Ravine for coming through the other side of that whole trademark thing.
They’ve been added to our Chicagoland Craft Beer Map. Bookmark it if you haven’t already.
And now our very busy February events schedule continues unabated with a ton of stuff this weekend. Definitely didn’t catch all of the events out there, but we’re still looking at a ton of stuff to do this week. Go buy a few beers at any of these places if you can:
Reminder: Only Premium Subscribers are being sent Wednesday label updates via email. Lite Subscribers can click here to see this week’s very curious Cruz Blanca + Atlanta Braves label.
This Weekend:
Goldfinger’s Dark Lager Day 2025 is set for tomorrow, as is Eris Brewery & Cider House’s Goth Prom at Bottom Lounge, Marz Brewing’s Lunar New Year of the Snake party and rice lager debut, and in Woodridge, it’s the Hollywood Boulevard Craft Beer Festival, where you can sample from 30+ breweries throughout the movie theater.
If you happen to be in Colorado this weekend, you can say hi to Hop Butcher at the Weldwerks Invitational in Greeley.
Let’s check out some Superbowl events!
Hopleaf’s twelfth-annual Super Stout Sunday is taking place again this year. I don’t see a taplist out there but last year looked pretty packed so they must have some good stuff.
Casa Humilde is offering beer pitcher and hot wing specials ($20 craft pitchers? Nice).
For $50, you can get all the beer you want (and “some food”) from Illuminated Brew Works at their Soup Or Bowl gathering.
Suncatcher’s selling big beers for the big game - get two crowlers for $25.
You can grab a pre-game brunch at Banging Gavel (brunch wings! brunch nachos!) but they’ll be closing for the game.
Industry Ales is hosting an “ale-gate” party with a couple of drink packages. The “Superbowl commercial bingo card" idea sounds like fun.
Piece Chicago is taking the Super Sunday opportunity to launch a new collab pizza with The Wiener’s Circle (topped with polish sausage and sport peppers!) and proceeds benefit Paws Chicago.
Plenty of other to-go beer specials and the like out there as well. Add what you’re seeing in the comments!
And after their winter break, Plank Road Tap Room reopens on Sunday. Go show them some love.
Next Week & Beyond:
Stout Week returns to Side Project on the 11th with “Vanilla Day” and carries through to the 16th. Double Barrel night sounds like a headache-y morning would follow.
On the 15th, save the date for the release of the second annual Vibes collaboration beer with The Vibes Beer Project, Solemn Oath, Hidden Hand, and many others to celebrate the women, non-binary, and trans members of the craft beer industry.
On February 15, the newly created American Craft Beer Hall of Fame will announce their inaugural inductees. You can watch the livestream at a few taprooms around the country; in Chicago, they’re viewing at Dovetail. And speaking of Dovetail…
Dovetail’s annual "Thank You for Smoking” gathering of smoked beers is set for Sunday, Feb. 16.
Forbidden Root celebrates their 10th birthday on the 19th.
Spiteful takes over Big Star West Town for a Carnitas and Cans event on the 21st.
Tickets are now on sale for Destihl’s annual Dosvidanya Day, taking place on Feb. 22.
Also on the 22nd is the “Burning Rubber” Chili Cookoff benefitting Connections for the Homeless at Double Clutch.
All three Pollyanna locations are hosting an Eis Fest celebrating the relase of their Jötunheimr eisbock lager (and four variants of eisbock! Fun!) on the 22nd.
The annual outdoor Wuckfinter festival at Ray’s Wine & Spirits in Wauwatosa, in collaboration with Three Floyds, is set for Feb. 23.
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STL’s Wellspent Brewing announced that they’re looking for new ownership as the current owners have chosen to move on. Per the sale posting, you’ll get a turnkey business that the current owners spend two hours a week managing for just $99K.
Columbus’ Cersis Brewing Company announced their closure as of February 16th, stating that “due to many challenges, we can no longer sustain operations.”
Guinness Chicago tapped a special beer for Black History Month which was inspired by the “legendary Guinness Jamaican punch.” I didn’t even know that was a thing, but it sounds pretty delicious.
Job Alert: Midwest Coast is looking for a lead brewer and Half Acre is looking for a production brewer.
Even though Weathered Souls has closed, I’m glad to see that breweries like Funkytown are still brewing their Black is Beautiful stout.
Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d be typing: You can now go see the Batmobile at a Chicagoland brewery. Thanks for that, Double Clutch.
Apparently Church Street turns their old barrels into furniture built with barrel staves? Pretty cool looking stuff. I really like that table. Looks like they do custom work too.
I had forgotten that Ale Asylum had been revived, but now it turns out that they also have a new website.
Now available at Pho No. 1 Brewing: Crowlers!
Looks like work is underway on an outdoor space by the river for Sturdy Shelter Brewing in Batavia. That’s gonna be nice.
Me think PBS going to take issue with use of Cookie Monster on new Nik & Ivy beer (but me think also kinda fun).
Dovetail’s beer release and gravity keg schedule is out.
Love it when a bartender steps up to the brew deck, and also love a brown ale. This Alter Brewing post has both.
Thank you all for being here! Have a great weekend. See y’all on Monday.
~Karl, a Guy Drinking something that’ll pair well with Superbowl Nachos. Probably a pale ale.