Chicago Breweries Pt. 3
I’m absolutely crushing it this week! Here’s part 3 of our Chicago brewery tour & other touristy things to do post. As I said in our Chicago Breweries Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 post, this is not an all-inclusive “Top” anything list. With so many breweries to choose from, our decisions were mostly based on factors of convenience.
District Brew Yards
Another fun collaboration site to visit while in Chicago is the District Brew Yards, a collab brewhouse that is home to: Around the Bend Beer Co., Burnt City Brewing, Casa Humilde Cervecería Artesanal and Bold Dog Beer Co.
Despite being a 4-in-1 brewhouse, each brewery offers their own stall of self-service pours courtesy of an old friend and sponsor of ours “Pour My Beer.” Each stall offers 10 taps so that’s up to 40 brews (and beer alternatives) that you can sample! And did we sample our hearts out – so lets just pick our favorite from each brewery.
Around the Bend Beer Co. offered a super tart fruited sour called “Can you pass the the Acid Test?” and no, that’s not a typo. The blueberry and lemonade sits at 4.4% but isn’t for the faint of heart as it was easily one of the more face puckering experiences of our Chicago trip.
Not to be outdone, the Cherry Berry Berry Berlinerweiss from Burnt City Brewing also offered up a tart blueberry overload except instead of lemonade, the Berliner was ripe with red raspberries flavor. With less punch to the face, this Berliner was more of an Andrew style sour.
We haven’t imbibed in a Michelada since our time in Texas, so the next pour was a welcomed change of pace. Casa Humilde Cerveceria Artesanal served up the Pa’ La Tamarindo Michelada, a 4.7% Michelada right from the tap and probably as authentic as you can get in Chicago.
Last up was a pour of Nana Beary, a strawberry hefeweizen from Bold Dog Beer Co. The light and refreshing brew had the traditional banana and clove notes with just a slight kick of fresh strawberry flavor and aroma.
Spiteful Brewing
We ended our evening in Chicago in spite. Spiteful Brewing that is. As this was our last brewery of the day, the night was still young and our Chicago friends had just joined the fray we decided to go full HAM and sample 8 brews on tap.
Of the 8 brews we had, a traditional Oktoberfest took 2nd place overall. The Munich style gold lager was just a crisp and solid way to end a night of crazy beers consumed that day. Speaking of crazy beers though, the winner at Spiteful was a strange one even for us.
Absinthe Barrel-Aged La Diabolique Fee Verte Porter was a handful to say as well as to drink. This porters untappd score is all over the map and largely depend on two things as far as we can tell; did you drink it fresh, and do you even like/appreciate absinthe? If you enjoy absinthe and can obtain this crazy sounding porter fresh, then you will most certainly enjoy this 8% brew. Over the years we’ve maybe had a dozen or so absinthe aged beers in varying degrees of quality.
Portillos Hot Dogs
One of the things we didn’t know we had to do was Portillos. They’re a famous hot dog eatery that also offers a super delicious Italian beef sandwich served wet. Yes, wet. The dipped beef sandwich is fully submerged in beef gravy. While you can get it without the gravy, or gravy splashed on – you need to order it wet for the full effect. We took a photo, but it really doesn’t look appetizing.
Aside from the beef sandwich, you should also try a Chicago style hotdog served with a pickle. Be prepared to wait for food and a table at Portillos because it is a local favorite.
