This Week's Beer News: A Bit About Our Best New Bars
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This year’s “Best New Bars” feature from Chicago magazine went online in the last few days, and if you happened to stumble across it you may have recognized a familiar name on the byline. (Mine!)
Assessing bars and taprooms for a package like this isn’t something I take particularly lightly - having worked for a long time in travel marketing has informed my thinking on how accolades from a publication like Chicago magazine are valued by small businesses - and sometime soon I’ll go more into my thoughts on how I look at places for something like this.
For now, though, I’ll try to give you some baseline thoughts here more tailored to a beer-loving audience.
2024 wasn’t a wonderful year for beer and breweries, all told, but there were still places to celebrate, thankfully.
Sitting at Is/Was Brewing made me want to think more about the beers I drink: I found it to be a contemplative, almost monastic space (probably all the brick!) and I love a place that has a focus. Seeing people respond to saison the way that folks have embraced Is/Was gives me hope for smaller craft brewers with a very personal outlook and approach to a style. I also love the Flemish-feeling cartooniness that carries throughout the brand and into the murals.
I found Monochrome Brewing to be welcoming in all the best ways: The staff was happy to talk about their offerings and make me feel taken care of despite being just a solo guest at the bar. Even in 2024-25 hospitality is still a place where brewery taprooms are lagging; not so at Monochrome. It’s a place that immediately feels like a community space and there was a lot of joy in there, which is also something that is much needed right now.
Very few new bars have a defined sense of personality or a perspective other than “look cool on social media and appeal to as many people as possible to make as much money as we can". Which is only one of the reasons that I love the weirdness of Electric Funeral. The spooky decor and the theme? Definitely for me, but certainly not for everyone. But I know that they would be more more than welcoming to anyone who chose to come through their door.
More on this later! We’ve got a bit of news to dig into.
Yuengling’s debut in Chicago after a nearly 200-year wait made a pretty big splash this week with tons of coverage; I’ll point you to Block Club and FOX-32 as two of our main destinations for beer coverage these days.
Block Club also reported on Middle Brow bringing Detroit-style pizza to The Beer Temple.
The Naperville Sun profiles the pour-your-own-beer franchise Tapville Social. Really would like to know which taco-spiced beer founder Joe Tota hated.
Opening this month in Dewitt: Twisted Paddle Brewing.
In Fort Dodge, River Hops Brewing has new owners.
Traverse City’s Workshop Brewing has a new majority owner in the form of Amber Carr, who has experience at nearby Right Brain and Identity Brewing.
MLive reports on the USAToday nominations for Hop Lot and Watermark as Best Beer Gardens in the country.
Speaking of Watermark, one of their employees spent nearly half a day inside their vending machine to raise money for Michigan Special Olympics. (Watermark is the home of this famously weird outdoor vending machine so apparently it’s something of a destination!)
We mentioned this on Friday, but it’s worth mentioning again. Want to help keep your favorite places open? "Go out and spend money twice a week at an independently-owned restaurant, brewery or bar from now until the end of March," says Batch Brewing owner Stephen Rogison in a video posted to their socials that resonated enough to make the news.
The latest brewery to dabble in dill pickle beer production is Three Blondes.
In Caledonia, Railtown Brewing Co. just got a street named after them.
Fair State announced plans to close their production facility; their taproom and smaller brewing space will remain open.
In Owatonna, Foremost Brewing Collective announced that they will be closing at the end of the month.
Happy 30th birthday to Fitger’s Brewhouse.
After taking it over from Trailhead Brewing near the beginning of the pandemic, Schlafly opted to close their Bankside location as their lease expired.
The Ohio Craft Brewers Association has renewed the fight over franchise laws and distribution rights, trying to level the playing field for small brewers.
This News-Herald piece shares all the things that Tricky Tortoise Brewing is doing to keep people coming in during the slower winter months. Not many breweries install dance floors; maybe more should?
The Cincy Winter Beerfest is changing locations after 17 years.
The soon-to-reopen St. Francis Brewery has named Tyler Killips, formerly of 1840 and Enlightened, as their new head brewer.
The original brewery at New Glarus is now open for tours for the first time since 2007.
Lake Louie’s Dockhouse brewpub will open to the public in mid-April.
Fancy a trip to central California this year? The lineup for this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational is out.
Elsewhere in California: Many of you probably saw this when
wrote about it but San Francisco’s famous Toronado beer bar is up for sale. Very much hoping someone picks up the mantle here.Okay, one more California story: Happy 36th birthday to Karl Strauss Brewing Company.
Last week’s most-clicked link: The Revolution Brewing sales rep job posting. Guessing y’all were wondering what the salary for that was.
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