Chicago Craft Beer Week, organized by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild and now in its fourth year, exists first and foremost to expose new people to the great beer made in Chicago—and even the hardest of hard-core beer nerds could probably use a refresher course. It’s not just Goose Island, Two Brothers, Metropolitan, Half Acre, Revolution, Haymarket, and Rock Bottom anymore—just in the past year or so, a burgeoning crowd of new players has crashed the party, among them Pipeworks, Solemn Oath, 18th Street, Off Color, Virtue Cider, Spiteful, Begyle, Flesk, Atlas, DryHop, 4 Paws, Lake Effect, Tighthead, the Ale Syndicate, Temperance, and Tolchez.
Tap This! Drink Local III (Thu 5/16, 6 PM, Fischman Liquors & Tavern, 4780 N. Milwaukee): It doesn’t have quite the lineup of Beer Under Glass, but with 16 local breweries, it’s not bad—and there’ll also be live music and food trucks.
Boomtown (Fri 5/24, 7 PM, Jerry’s, 1938 W. Division): Jerry’s hosts several breweries that have opened their doors in the Chicago area in the past year: Begyle, Lake Effect, Spiteful, Ale Syndicate, Off Color, and Solemn Oath. Each will have at least one beer on tap, and many of the brewers will be on hand.
