We celebrate craft beer in Chicago every day but that doesn’t prevent us from getting excited when Chicago Craft Beer Week rolls around. This year we sent Matt Tanaka, our blogger and beer traveller out into the city to liveblog his way through all 11 days of #CCBW. He drank fantastic beer, ate tasty food and spent time with people from every corner of the Chicago craft beer scene — and brought his camera with him as he did so.
Check out this video we put together of some of the highlights and then see our favorite photos below.
Music: "Rob Myself" by Mooner
Chicago is not known for being kind to its residents weather-wise. Day 10 of Chicago Craft Beer Week, however, was one of those days that makes us forget the midwest’s moody temper(ature)ment (couldn’t help myself…is anyone reading this?) as we spend the day in the sunshine. Saturday was Welles Park Craft Beer Fest, the official closing event of CCBW, although the week technically extends into tomorrow. Read More
Beer Under Glass. Beer Under Umbrellas. Beer Amongst Ferns. There are a lot of names that this event tends to go by, but any way you slice it, BUG is a great way to kick off Chicago Craft Beer Week. It’s also one of my personal favorite events of the year.
Beer Under Glass is great because there’s really nothing quite like sipping beer with a few thousand friends in the beautiful Garfield Park Conservatory. But it’s also a rare opportunity to see such a large collection of Illinois breweries under one (glass) roof. From self-distributed operations all the way up to Illinois’ largest producers, everyone’s pouring beers and celebrating the beginning of the magical celebration of our community that we call CCBW. Read More
We’re pleased to announce that Motor Row Brewing Company, the brand new South Loop brewery, has joined the Lakeshore Beverage family and will begin distribution across Chicago this month. Who is Motor Row? Well, they’re kind of small. I mean, there’s only three people there… but don’t let their size fool you, they are mighty and make mighty good beer.