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Howdy, label-loving friends! Hot on the heels of the newest Rev barrel-aged labels comes this late entry, which I’ve decided is… The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: “Silken spice with apple reverie.” That’s just fun wordsmithing there, Revolution. Untappd shows that this has recently been brought back at the taproom, and I definitely think this label is a visual improvement over the previous version.
Some good news and bad news to launch a new week in beer: The good news: The Aurora Beacon News reported on this year’s charitable efforts of the STC Six , aka six breweries in the St. Charles area that are coming together to do some good: 93 Octane Brewery, Alter Brewing + Kitchen, Broken Brix Fermentation Emporium, D&G Brewing, Pollyanna Brewing & Distilling and Riverlands Brewing.
Here’s some fun news I spotted today, brought to us by what I believe to be the very first LinkedIn post I’ve ever shared in these emails: Randy Mosher has another book coming out soon. If the author of the legendary Tasting Beer is coming out with another book about tasting…a bunch of other stuff, well, that’s something that I’m interested in and I figured you would be too.
Happy Label Wednesday! It’s getting hotter out there (we just had our first 80+ degree day of the year up here in Traverse City yesterday) (yes I broke down and already turned on the AC) so it makes sense that we’d kick things off with a new light lager… The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: Usually when I’m bringing you a MORE label it’s something crazy like a Triple IPA or one of their massive Henna stouts.
We don’t pay quite as much attention to beer law as we used to around these parts, but it’s worth mentioning that as Springfield shuts down for the summer, one of the bills that didn’t move forward was SB618. The ICBG’s Advocacy page currently cites a number of things they were looking to accomplish this session with this bill, including legalizing mug clubs, legalizing beer donations to nonprofits and - perhaps the biggest ask: Increasing Self-Distribution for Class 3 Br
Before we get to this weekend’s events, I wanted to flag a few things coming up for the sour beer lovers among us. Next week is a great week to get some one-on-one face time with two great makers of things tart, funky and sour around Chicagoland. Like that. For starters: The 5th-generation owner and brewer of Duchesse de Bourgogne, Morgane Vanden Borre, will be appearing at The Green Lady on Tuesday afternoon starting at 5pm with four Duchesse beers on draft.
Given how many sex-referencing names have been applied to beers by horny immature brewers over the years (especially in the late Aughts / early 10's), I’m a little surprised to discover this week that there are only 16 beers listed on Untappd with the name “ kamasutra ” and even fewer appear to have ever been produced. But we’ve got a new one coming out for drinkers in PA, via suburban IL, per the below: The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: Samsaric Brewing Company is
Greetings, friends - another Memorial Day weekend is upon us and with it, the ceremonial start to our summertime beer drinking marathon. 1 While Midwestern weather isn’t exactly cooperating right now with those of us looking to pound Oberon Lights by the lakefront, to me, this means we still have a bit of an extra opportunity to crush an extra amber, porter, ESB, mild … you know, anything nice and malty.
Hi, friends! Happy Wednesday and Hail George Wendt. RIP to the Chicago native who reminded us weekly for years of the joy of the community you find at your Third Space. And the man who gave us our collective Sout’ Side uncle, Bob Swerski. You want a beer, Norm? It’s a big week for barrel-aged beer labels, and the biggest of them (volume-wise) definitely has to be… The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: We’ve got a bunch of new BA beer labels to show you shortly, but rig
A New Goose Island taproom is apparently now open… … in Hong Kong. This spot hasn’t made it to the International Locations page on Goose’s website alongside Sao Paolo, Shanghai, Seoul and Toronto. That said, neither have the Dubai pubs either. More info is here , including a detail about the “Brewmaster’s Choice Flight” which serves up twelve different beers for $298 in Hong Kong currency (about $38 USD).
A few quick brewery status changes to report at the tail end of this Illinois Craft Beer Week: First the bad news: FoGDB Darryl kindly informed us that after not being able to find a buyer, Bosacki’s Brewery in Mundelein closed at the end of April. Now, an address change: We’ve moved Liquid Love to District Brewyards now that they’ve moved into their space.
In an indication of where the American brewing scene is heading, less than half of the labels I’m showing you this week are from for actual beers. And nearly all of them are “from” breweries. Which is just another reason that I’m happy that this new helles lager is… The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: If you weren’t already planning a trip to STL’s Little Lager bar/taproom 1 , perhaps this collaboration between Millpond Brewing and Jeppson’s M
We came, we drank, we BUG’ged out. Since we’ve been attending Beer Under Glass events for over a decade, it’s only right that I make you read my takeaways and thoughts on this year’s event the way we started: In a blog post. Yes, for the first time in months, I’ve put something on the GuysDrinkingBeer.com site and you get to read all about it right here: Beer Under Glass 2025 on GDB Click that button for all my top-level takeaways plus beers I loved from Sundial Bre
If you were waiting for the last second to grab Beer Under Glass tickets, bad news: This year’s event is sold out: ilcraftbeerweek A post shared by @ilcraftbeerweek Looks like switching locations was a great decision, and sunny weather in the mid-upper 50s looks pretty great too. Even if it were worse, we’ve slogged rough stuff at the Garfield Park conservatory and I’m excited to see what this year’s event may bring.
Happy Wednesday, my beer-label-loving friends. We start with a little bit of a jump start on the social media news updates this week… The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: Old Irving Brewing sent through a number of new labels this week (I liked this one the best; nice and tranquil). All of these submissions had their Montrose address listed on them, which got me thinking … “wasn’t OIB supposed to be taking over the old Finch Brewing production space?
In a week where thousands of representatives from breweries around America gathered en masse in Indianapolis for the annual Craft Brewers Conference, the biggest news from the world of beer was … Anheuser-Busch’s announcement that Busch Light Apple would be returning for a little while. Here’s just a taste of the coverage: I try to avoid conspiracy-theory thinking, but still, there’s no way the timing of that release was an accident, right?
As this year’s Craft Brewers Conference comes to a close, the results of the World Beer Cup have been released following last night’s medal ceremony. I’ll have a full Midwestern breakdown for all of y’all on Monday, but it’s clear that having the conference in Indiana meant that Hoosier brewers showed up in a big way. They took home 11 medals this year.
It’s that time of year again, y’all - and a bit early, too. Strap in. The New Illinois Beer Labels of the Week: The first batch of this year’s Goose Island Bourbon County Stout variant labels were submitted to the TTB this week, and we’ve pulled every single one of them for our Premium Subscribers. We don’t have any barrel-specific labels yet - everything so far is an adjuncted variant (okay, one with a cask finish).
Good news, Chicagoland: Side Project arrives soon. theopenbottle A post shared by @theopenbottle Side Project has long been one of the most praised, awarded, beloved breweries in the Midwest (hell, the country), and their beers are finally about to hit the Chicagoland area. Even better: If you want to hang out and chat with owner/brewer Cory King, you’ve got a couple of chances to do so.
We’ve got a few closures to note at the top of this Friday’s email. Sadly, D and G Brewing has announced that they will soon be done: After six years in business, the St. Charles brewery said this week that they’ll be shuttering when the taps run dry, which they estimate gives them less than a month for you to stop by one more time.
Hi, friends - here we are again at a Label Wednesday. Hope your week is going well. If you need something to brighten your day, how about an Akari Shogun from Half Acre? They very slyly announced its availablility yesterday: halfacrebeer A post shared by @halfacrebeer I always loved this hoppy wheat ale when it was in wide release (loved their old can art, too) and I haven’t seen it out in what seems like forever.
Hi, friends! Apologies for the delay but a travel day precluded my usual Monday send yesterday. It gave me a few more hours to think about this year’s annual Industry Production Report from the Brewers Association, which came out last week and saw significant Midwestern(-ish) changes. Consolidated beer groups helped lead to some new faces squeezing into the BA’s Top 50 this year, but that only made the drops that much more surprising.
A quick programming note: I am on the road next week, so any updates will be coming from Central Florida. Wish me luck and send recommendations for any Space Coast destinations , please and thank you. In between now and then, go find a liminal space and have a beer in it, like we did at Haymarket Bridgeman this week. Winter’s done, leaves will be on the trees soon, but for now we’re in the In Between.
Let’s bid a fond (soon-to-be) farewell to a Chicago meadery with one last label chock full of smoked sea salt, cacao nibs, and a bunch of other fun, tasty ingredients. The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: Second City Meadery recently announced that their last day in operation would be June 28 , so in honor of them still doggedly pushing labels through the TTB, here’s a rare mead offering as our label of the week.
Some sad news to kick off this week’s email: Our condolences to the team at Falling Knife Brewing in Minneapolis, whose owner and chief brewing officer, Tom Berg, passed away last week at just 46. Berg loved craft beer, the local music scene and Timberwolves basketball, famously helping to make Falling Knife a big destination for Wolves games since opening the brewery in 2019.
After a busy week, here’s some positive Chicagoland beer news from the past few days! A new brand called Brutalist Brewing - aka “ your favorite brewery’s favorite brewers ” - came out of the box with a pretty impressive opening announcement for their first beers being released from Pilot Project. Love the attitude. This team wasn’t on my radar at all until a couple of weeks ago and now I’m really looking forward to seeing what they’ve got.
We’ve got a lot of work for trademark lawyers in this week’s email, but not when it comes to… The New Illinois Beer Label(s) of the Week: New labels from the Dryhop Brewers Group ( Dryhop Brewers, Crushed by Giants and Corridor Brewery ) are few and far between, so it’s nice to see a couple new ones pop up this week for a 1980’s-vibe hazy IPA and a 1960s-ish “summer pilsner.” I wonder how that IPA pairs up with, say, Rockford Brewing’s Eddie Van Ha
There has been plenty of coverage of the potential impact of the Trump tariffs on American breweries in the news for weeks now, but now we have the first specific casualty of those price hikes: In Minnesota, CBS News reports that after considering all the incoming cost increases, Luce Line Brewing put a halt to the new food hall they were planning to construct.
Another week, another brewery has sadly announced its closure. This week it’s Tonality Brewing , who will shutter their space on April 13th , less than a year and a half after opening in November 2023. To their major credit, they’re really trying hard to find new jobs for their employees. In addition, I’ve finally been able to confirm via a message from the restaurant that Evanston’s Peckish Pig no longer makes their own beer.
I had so many labels to pull from this week! I can’t help but think that breweries may have held a few back pending a government shutdown and then sent them all through when that stopped being a threat. Nice to have options, which means it’s extra impressive that I selected this one as … The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: If you were at this year’s FoBAB, you probably remember people talking about Neuronova Brewery , as in “ who the hell is Neuronova Brewery?
I drank the beer! If you missed Friday’s email , I arbitrarily decided that this past weekend was going to be Just Drink the Beer Already Weekend at my house. I successfully drank two of the three long-lingering beers I intended to crack open, and that third beer is the newest one in the fridge, so it’s okay if it sticks around for another week or so.
First up: A couple of sad Chicagoland closures to note. After ten years in business, The Open Bottle’s original Tinley Park location is closing tomorrow night. They will remain open in Lockport. Also calling it quits (not quite as soon) is Second City Mead , who accomplished a lot in their years in business … but financially, they say, it just wasn’t working out.
Happy Wednesday, friends. Let’s look at some beer labels together. The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: As much as the use of elderberry compels me to make a Monty Python reference, I will restrain myself and simply say that a lime-berry lager sounds like a great thing to sip while wandering through an arboretum. Morton has always been a friend to craft beer in my mind - they’ve hosted many a beer fest there over the years - so I’m happy to see Noon Whistle working with the
Best wishes to Carrie Yunker today. Yunker, the 21-year Bell’s Brewery employee who worked her way up to be the Executive Vice President of the company and its leader in the post-Larry era, has chosen this Oberon Day to be her final day at the company. Extensive profiles of a woman leading a nationwide craft beer brand are quite rare, so definitely take a few minutes to read this MLive.com piece about her time at the brewery, where she helped transition it from a Larry-led one to a “
It probably won’t surprise you to find that most every brewery posted some sort of event or social post about college basketball this week, so I will spare you from all of the bracket-referencing updates that I saw. I would, however, note that tickets are now on sale for this year’s Beer Under Glass at the Harris Theater Rooftop Terrace.
Remember Draftmark? The “draft beer system” you could put in your fridge that pushed A-B beers out of plastic bottles using compressed air? Ten years after we tried it , I guess they’re still trying to make a new version of it happen, as evidenced by… The New Illinois Beer Label(s) of the Week: I’ve never seen a PerfectDraft label before these, but apparently the device has been around for a couple of years now.
Beer Under Glass gets a new venue this year! On Friday, the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild announced that this year’s Beer Under Glass, the kickoff event for Illinois Craft Beer Week would be held at “the acclaimed Millennium Park Harris Theater Rooftop Terrace in the heart of Downtown Chicago.” Other than the odd Oktoberfest gathering, I’m pretty sure the only other true craft beer festival ever held in that space was Half Acre’s Far & Away Invitational in Octobe
Years ago, I wrote a story for an outlet called AskMen.com called “Why is there no spring seasonal beer?” That story focused on seeing brighter, floral, citrus and tart beers to celebrate the return of spring weather, but more recently (and especially this year) I think brewers are really coalescing around the embrace of malt in spring - specifically via Irish-style beers.
Happy Label Wednesday, friends! What if we kissed by the fenugreek bushes? Trees? Plants? IDK but it’s part of… The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: I’ve been seeing a handful of new barrel-aged beer labels emerging from Pipeworks over the past few weeks, but this one caught my eye as being one of the more interesting to pop up: A wee heavy?
Grand Rapids Retains its “Beer City” title for another trip around the sun. At least according to readers of USAToday’s 10Best.com, which voted to give them the title for the fifth consecutive year. Elsewhere nearby, GR’s City Built Brewing was voted as having the 2nd-best beer label in the nation while two of the nation’s three best beer gardens are also based in Michigan: Hop Lot in Suttons Bay and Watermark in Stevensville.
was absolutely right… beeraficionado A post shared by @beeraficionado And now they’re here! The Untappd Award posts are flying fast and furious and there’s no way that I could ever catch all of them. So I didn’t even try. If you’ve seen one, you know pretty much what the rest look like. I do encourage you to check out all the winners here - and I would specifically note that in the top five-scored beverages from the USA, four are from the Midwest with Pips Meadery a
Happy Label Wednesday, friends. It’s a grainy, gourdy, goofy-name kind of week in beer labels. The New Illinois Beer Label of the Week: It’s been a minute since we’ve seen an Old Bakery Beer Co. label cross our paths, and I’m not surprised to find that OBBC - who has been making Certified Organic beer for many years - is brewing with the sustainable, perennial Kernza grain.
I get a lot of press releases. Most of the time, they get deleted. (I got two offering me samples from “Beer Girl” just now.) But this week I got one that caught my eye for a reason unrelated to why this release was sent. An email announcing this year’s Hops for Heroes 2025 Campaign, sent by a brewery in Texas, included a mention of a participating beermaker called Great Chicago Fire Brewery.
On Monday I asked if anyone had seen any other Black Is Beautiful beer releases this year outside of the one that I had spotted ( Funkytown’s version at Pilot Project ). Good news! There is something to report! Bad news: I only heard about one more beer. miskatonicbrewing A post shared by @miskatonicbrewing Thanks to FoGDB Kevin for letting us know that Miskatonic tapped a barrel-aged version earlier this week and a portion of the proceeds are going to support the NAACP Legal Defense and E
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