As craft beer has exploded in Chicago over the past ten years, so has coverage of the local craft beer scene. But despite hundreds of articles on the subject over the years, nobody has published a print guide dedicated entirely to breweries in Chicago and the suburbs. Now, suddenly, there are two. The Beermiscuous Field Guide, published in July by the self-described “coffee shop for beer” that loaned the book its name, is a pocket-size guide to Chicagoland taprooms and brewpubs, excluding breweries where you can’t drink onsite. Karl Klockars’s Beer Lover’s Chicago, released in early December, is more comprehensive, including not only breweries but also bottle shops and beer-focused bars and restaurants.
Beer Lover’s Chicago is the kind of book you’d be tempted to read cover to cover, whereas the nuggets of information in Beermiscuous seem designed to be absorbed quickly and piecemeal. That’s not a criticism of the latter: it works perfectly as an at-a-glance guide to taprooms and brewpubs you might want to visit, sorted by location. It sticks to what’s happening right now in Chicagoland brewing, rather than digging into the history. Beer Lover’s Chicago tells you not only what’s going on, but also how we got to where we are today.
