The Beer-Loving American City With The Most Breweries

If you have a passion for pale ales, pilsners, porters, and lagers, nothing beats a Saturday afternoon throwing back brewskis at your local brewery. And, if you're a beer lover in the U.S. city that's home to the highest number of them, you can sip your way through a different taproom every weekend for two years before hitting the same spot twice. So, where is this hoppy heaven? That would be none other than Chicago, Illinois. 

Chicago is known to serve some of the best beer the country has to offer (along with plenty of great food to go with it), thanks to a booming craft brewing scene that has developed over the past 15 years or so. A 2022 report by Smart Asset identified the Midwestern metropolis as having the most breweries of any U.S. city, with 103, while an article published in 2023 by Choose Chicago suggested the number was quite a bit higher at 160+. Either way, the Windy City's second nickname may as well be the Beer City.

Boozy history buffs may not be surprised by Chicago's enduring love of the fermented beverage — after all, residents once fought for their right to drink it. During the Lager Beer Riot of 1855, the city's first major civil disturbance, a group of German Chicagoans organized against a temperance-advocating, anti-immigrant group of politicians who sought to raise the price of liquor licenses and shutter taverns on Sundays. Needless to say, that policy wasn't around for long.

From the West Loop to Lincoln Park to Edgewater, you can find a brewery in (or near) nearly every Chicago neighborhood. One of the most notable beer companies in town is Revolution Brewing, the largest independently owned brewery in Illinois. The beloved brewer originally opened shop in Logan Square in 2010, before expanding with a 90,000-square-foot production brewery in Avondale. Revolution is probably most famous for its Anti-Hero IPA, which it describes as an "uncompromising hop bomb" that combines five varieties of hops.

Over in Irving Park, you'll find the groundbreaking Eris Brewery and Cider House, Illinois's first-ever cidery and brewery owned and operated by women. Named for the Greek goddess of Chaos, Eris and the team behind it — including a Revolution Brewing alum — have certainly navigated its fair share of it. After transforming a former Masonic temple into a taproom and restaurant, Eris had to convert its parking lot into an outdoor patio to stay afloat during the COVID pandemic (which hit two years after it opened). Then there's the fact that Eris' female team operates in a still male-dominated landscape. Of course, that hasn't stopped them from creating award-winning brews, such as the Foiken Haze, which took home a bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2018. The accolades abound across Chi-town's beer scene, though, and these brewers are just two of many more worth discovering.