12Image Credit: Windy City Smokeout

The Windy City Smokeout is a huge BBQ and country music blow out, featuring three days of live music, BBQ and, of course, great beer.

While taking in the sounds and sights, guests can enjoy the best of beer and BBQ from restaurants and breweries around the city and nationwide. From Bud Light to Goose Island, Chicago’s original craft brewery, to Shiner Bock, the legendary beer of Texas (and everything inbetween) there will be a beer for everyone to enjoy.  See below for the full list of participating breweries!

We love this event so much that we’re giving away a pair of Friday tickets! CLICK HERE to enter.

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The Breweries

Goose Island Beer Co

Goose Island Beer Co. is a brewery located in Chicago. The brewery opened its doors in 1988 after John Hall took a life-changing trip to Europe, where he gained an appreciation for local beer as well as a realization that Americans did not have nearly enough options. Hall decided to open Goose Island Brewery and Brewpub on the north side of Chicago, a city classically set up for brewers; with easy and ready access to one of the largest fresh water systems in the world. What started off as a local craft brewery and brewpub in 1988 had, by 1995, become so popular in Chicago that Hall opened a larger brewery and a bottling plant. In 1992, Goose Island introduced their first Bourbon County Stout to mark the anniversary of their 1,000th batch of beer brewed, which made them one of the first breweries in the Midwest to venture into barrel-aged beer.

Shiner

Since 1909, every drop of Shiner beer has been brewed at the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas (population 2,069). Today, our little brewery sends more than 6 million cases of delicious Shiner beer to states across the country. We think our founder, Kosmos Spoetzl, would be pretty proud.

Against the Grain Brewery

Against the Grain Brewery, like the name implies, has distinguished themselves from other breweries in their home town of Louisville, Kentucky. As Louisville’s first brewer-owned brewery, Against the Grain has consistently bridged the gap between production and innovation by never producing the same beer twice. The brewers feel that this enables them to be consistently creative without ever getting too comfortable.

Moody Tongue Brewing

Moody Tongue Brewing was opened in 2014 under the direction of acclaimed brewmaster Jared Rouben. Moody Tongue, a nickname for a guest with a discerning palate, features “culinary brewing”, Rouben’s original approach to brewing that combines the worlds of brewing and cooking through the application of a chef’s mindset to the brewing process. Rouben, classically trained from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, worked in kitchens such as the Michelin star Martini House in Napa and Thomas Keller’s three Michelin star Per Se in New York City before moving to Chicago and becoming Brewmaster at Goose Island Brewery. While at Goose Island, Rouben created the brewery’s Farmers’ Market Series and Chef Collaboration Series, brewing custom beers for renowned chefs such as Rick Bayless, Stephanie Izard and Paul Kahan.

Founders Brewing Co. was started in 1996 when Grand Rapids, MI natives Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers, who quit their jobs and took out sizable loans to make their dreams come true. Mike and Dave wanted to make the beer that they liked — big bodied, in-your-face ales with complex flavors, large aromatics and above all, tons of flavor. This taste for something bigger struck a chord with beer drinkers throughout Michigan (and the across the world) and their full-flavored brews were a success. As a “thank you” to the Michigan community that has supported them over the last two decades, Founders hosts their annual “Founders Fest,” a massive celebration of food, music, art and of course, craft beer. It’s easy to see why Grand Rapids is so proud of Founders Brewing; they have won six World Beer Cup medals, three European Beer Star medals and two Great American Beer Festival medals in the past decade. With the pace they’re going, Founders doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon, with distribution in 25 states and a production capacity topping 340,000 barrels per year. At Founders, their focus is to offer a product that stands alone on the shelf and offers a true drinking experience to their friends: you.

 

Local Option Bierwerker is the brewing division of The Local Option, a pub in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Owner Tony Russomanno has established himself in the craft beer community through years of experience, and today he partners with six different breweries to create all of Local Option’s diverse and innovative beers. Local Option Bierweker believes partnering with different breweries gives them maximum flexibility, allowing them to brew as large or as limited a batch as needed. They’ve taken up recipes long forgotten by the mainstream, such as the Kentucky Common, and perfected well-established favorites, like their steam beer Dampf Loc. Local Option Bierwerker offers a brash, in-your-face approach to craft beer; they brew with bravado and aren’t afraid of a little well-placed irreverence while still respecting the long-standing traditions that provide the foundation for their heavy metal brews.

 

Bell’s Brewery, Inc. began in 1985 with a quest for better beer and a 15 gallon soup kettle. Since then, they’ve grown into a regional craft brewery that employs more than 200 people over a 20 state area, in addition to Puerto Rico and Washington DC. The dedication to brewing flavorful, unfiltered, quality craft beers that started in 1985 is still with them today. The brewery currently brews over 20 beers for distribution as well as many other small batch beers that are served atour pub in Kalamazoo, the Eccentric Cafe. Their ongoing goal is to brew thoughtfully, creatively and artistically. We strive to bring an authentic and pleasant experience to all of our customers through our unique ales and beers.

 

Opened in 2011 by former Goose Island Brewmaster Gregory Hall, Virtue Cider is a Michigan-based craft cider company that uses modern fermentation and ageing techniques to produce old world farmhouse styles. Virtue Ciders partners with local family farms to find the highest quality heirloom apples and works with members of the food and cider community from all over the world with the goal of turning Southwest Michigan into the Napa Valley of the Cider world. Check out our beer finder to find out where you can try Virtue Cider’s classic ciders! Opened in 2011 by former Goose Island Brewmaster Gregory Hall, Virtue Cider is a Michigan-based craft cider company that uses modern fermentation and ageing techniques to produce old world farmhouse styles. Virtue Ciders partners with local family farms to find the highest quality heirloom apples and works with members of the food and cider community from all over the world with the goal of turning Southwest Michigan into the Napa Valley of the Cider world.

 

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company is an unconventional-minded yet tradition-oriented brewer of craft beer. They like to call their unique brewing philosophy Beer Divergency—a “new world meets old world” brewing approach wherein Urban Chestnut contributes to the revolution of craft beer with artisanal creations of modern American beers, and pays reverence to the heritage of beer with classically-crafted offerings of timeless European beer styles.

 

The story of Trumer Brauerei and their iconic beer, Trumer Pils, spans continents and centuries. It all began in 1775 when Josef Sigl, a German hops merchant, purchased the brauerei in Salzburg. Over 200 years later, Joseph Sigl VII joined his family’s brewing legacy to that of Carlos Alvarez of the Gambrinus Company. Together they imported Trumer hops, yeast and malt into the United States and brewed in Berkeley, California; a location with remarkably similar water to that which runs down the Alps in Salzburg. Trumer Pils is an Austrian-styled pilsner beer that began winning awards almost as soon as the first batch was brewed. From taking Silver at the Great American Beer festival in 2005, to taking Gold in the European Beer Star Awards, the World Beer Cup and the Australian International Beer Awards in 2008, Trumer Brauerei has been bringing the great brewing tradition of Salzburg and Austria to northern California for over a decade.

 

Bridgeport Brewery, located in Portland, Oregon, was founded in 1984 by Richard and Nancy Ponzi, two local winemakers. As Oregon’s oldest craft brewery, Bridgeport has maintained a commitment to high quality products even as they have expanded their capacity over the years.  Since its founding, Bridgeport has been committed to reducing its ecological footprint; re-using heat within their buildings, feeding cattle spent grain, and involving themselves in local recycling and composting initiatives has allowed Bridgeport to stay true to itself.

 

Enter To Win Tickets To The Windy City Smokeout

Fill our the form below to enter to win a pair of tickets to the Friday session of The Windy City Smokeout.