Josh Noel

Afterthought Brewing Co. owner Mike Thorpe inside the tap room in Lombard on Jan. 5, 2023.

Get ready to hit the road, beer fans: From saison to hazy IPA, here are 5 suburban breweries worth the drive

January 15, 2023 at 2:51 p.m.

Chicago has been a hotbed of craft brewing for more than a decade, but a funny thing has happened along the way: the suburbs. The city remains full of memorable...

A mural of martial arts actor Chuck Norris is seen on the exterior of Go Brewing, a Naperville brewery dedicated to nonalcoholic and low-alcohol beer.

It’s alcohol-free wines, tequila and beer — oh, my — as Chicago’s NA scene takes flight

January 6, 2023 at 6:31 p.m.

Cristina Torres walked home from the bar at 3 a.m. in early 2020 with tears in her eyes, despondent after a night out. The issue wasn't too much to drink;...

The Goose Island Brewhouse at 1800 N. Clybourn Ave. on Oct. 16, 2017.

With move from longtime Clybourn Avenue home to The Salt Shed, can Goose Island recapture what once made it essential?

December 27, 2022 at 3:59 p.m.

Goose Island Beer Co. was nothing short of revolutionary when opening in 1988 on an industrial strip of Clybourn Avenue about 2 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. Most obvious, of...

Non-alcoholic beer selection at Binny's Beverage Depot in Lincolnwood, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022.

NA Day is yet another beer and spirits festival — just hold the alcohol

December 8, 2022 at 7:37 p.m.

When Kerry Tuttle went sober two years ago, it felt like she was on an island when ordering a drink in a bar or a restaurant. "I was ordering a...

Burnt City/District Brew Yards head brewer and founder Ben Saller, from left, head brewer and co-founder John Saller, co-founder Steve Soble,and general manager Pete Rodriguez at their beer and food hall in Wheeling on Nov. 29, 2022.

Craft beer bubble burst? Not quite — but after years of growth in Chicago, closures and headwinds arrive

December 8, 2022 at 8:01 p.m.

In recent months, Urban Brew Labs went out of business in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. Just around the corner, so did Empirical Brewery. Smylie Brothers Brewing shuttered its Lakeview brew pub...

A selection of festive beers, from elegant Belgian imports to wild American brews packed with ingredients echoing the holidays, is shown on Nov. 30.

Beery Christmas and Hoppy New Year: 10 festive beers to stuff in your holiday stocking

December 7, 2022 at 4:13 p.m.

Candy canes are fun. Gift cards are useful. But nothing festively stuffs a stocking — or brightens a Hanukkah or Kwanzaa for that matter — quite like a beer tasting...

Goose Island's 30th Anniversary Reserve Stout

Review: Goose Island’s 2022 Bourbon County lineup is strong, with at least one unlikely highlight

November 17, 2022 at 8:10 p.m.

OK, for the last time: it's almost certainly not the 30th anniversary of Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout. As we first reported in 2016, the groundbreaking beer aged in bourbon...

Canned beer at Hop Butcher for the World.

First look: Hop Butcher for the World transforms former Half Acre taproom, opens Thursday

November 7, 2022 at 7:54 p.m.

The gleaming white tile floor is the same. So is the sturdy concrete bar, the handsome matching Douglas fir tables and benches and the warped, wavy wall of wood harvested...

The bar area at Double Clutch Bewing on Oct. 26, 2022, in Evanston.

Still short of 1st anniversary, Evanston’s Double Clutch Brewing named US’ small brewery of the year

November 3, 2022 at 12:05 a.m.

Many breweries would not be able to pull off what Double Clutch Brewing is attempting on a quiet side street in north Evanston. Double Clutch is the rare mashup of...

Pete Crowley of Haymarket talks to other brewers while they work together Jan. 9, 2022, at Haymarket Pub and Brewery in the West Loop.

20 years of FOBAB: How the nation’s signature barrel-aged beer festival grew into a Chicago legend

October 26, 2022 at 4:23 p.m.

This year's Festival of Wood & Barrel Aged Beer, held Nov. 4 and 5 in a sprawling basketball arena on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, will feature 356...

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