This Week's Beer News & One Question
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As we head into 2025, I thought I’d take your pulse real quick, especially as we’ve added hundreds of new subscribers/friends to this group over the last year or so. I know we send a fair amount of information out every week and I want to make sure we’re giving you what you want:
It takes a fair amount of time and effort to get all these out each week so we want to ensure we’re putting our resources where they’re most appreciated. Thank you for being here, thank you for your input, and especially thank you to those who continue to support these emails as a Premium Subscriber.
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Eater has a nice feature about Go Brewing, their Naperville taproom and how they use their DtC subscribers to test new flavors.
In case I don’t catch some of these on our Friday emails, Shaw Local has a helpful roundup of Northern Illinois / Southern Wisconsin beer fests throughout the winter.
It’s behind the Crain’s paywall, but they have a story about how the recent Maplewood lounge expansion and overall growth is “a rare bright spot for Chicago's struggling craft beer scene.”
Here’s an interesting story from Peoria’s 25 News Now about why “this $9 million Washington brewpub” - from Tangled Roots - “is still not finished three years later.”
Speaking of … Shaw Local recapped a number of Dekalb-area businesses that closed in 2024, including Byers Brewing and Tangled Roots’ Keg and Kernel.
KWQC reported on the upcoming 3rd anniversary party at Reserve Artisan Ales.
Registration is now open for this year’s Craft Brewers Conference in Indianapolis, which kicks off in late April.
The Indiana Brewers Guild is also hosting a number of events themselves throughout the year.
Travel Indiana posted a short piece about what’s new at Journeyman Distillery and their Sea of Monsters brewery, which I’m noting here because I love the name of their new seltzer.
Want to learn to curl and drink beer while you do it? Head to Stormcloud in Frankfort for a lesson or to join a league.
Second Wave Media’s Lakeshore publication has a good feature here on Virtue Cider. Sounds like Greg Hall is pretty happy to have the brand back and is ready to do some fun stuff.
Craft Beer & Brewing’s “Love Handles” feature checks out Ansari’s in Eagan “for shish kabobs, belly dancing and great beer”. Sounds fun!
Eureka’s Freestyle Brewing has closed.
Side Project’s newest project? A pizza place, opening soon in Maplewood.
After about a decade in operation, Cleveland’s Beerhead Bar & Eatery location shuttered its doors.
Milwaukee’s NPR affiliate reported on the recent closures across the area, most specifically on the loss of City Lights Brewing.
More on the plans that Explorium Brewpub has for their new Good City assets is here.
Here’s some happier news for the Milwaukee area: After closing in 2019, a new pair of owners is bringing back St. Francis Brewery this year.
UK NA brand Mash Gang is now available in Wisconsin, which I believe is via Pilot Project (news on that broke last February), though that’s not mentioned in the release, interestingly.
In Racine, Littleport Brewing Company announced it would be closing since “a couple of our original investors decided they wanted their investments back in their entirety, forcing us to put our building up for sale to resolve the matter” but “will survive and be reincarnated with a more focused effort at a new site.”
I really like this Hop Culture story naming their 17 breweries to watch in 2025, not just because it leads with a number of Midwestern selections (gonna visit Elder Piper soon, I hope!) but because 11 of them are outside the US. Read this; you’ll almost certainly learn something.
Tilray has started trimming SKUs from its craft brewery acquisitions.
Most-clicked link in last week’s email: The news that Funkytown Brewing had purchased a building for their own production facility.
Thanks for reading! If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this email and you’ve learned something beer-y from this, you should share this with a friend!
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Wed is both valuable and fun as a buyer, but just not as important as news and events. Feel like social could cast a wider net of platforms but that's more intensive to put together.
read all three, thanks for the content