Saturday Farmers Market Roundup
Saturday, May 15
Weather.com Forecast: Cloudy with occasional showers, high 60
Accuweather Forecast: Mostly cloudy with showers around, high 65
Division Street City Market, 100 W. Division St., Chicago
7 a.m. to noon
Downers Grove Farmers Market, 5001 Main St., Downers Grove
7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Downtown Evanston Farmers Market, 1800 Maple Ave., Evanston
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Grayslake Farmers Market, 201 Center St., Grayslake
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Green City Market Lincoln Park, 1817 N. Clark St., Chicago
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Homewood Farmers Market, 18020 Martin Ave., Homewood
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Kankakee Farmers Market, S. Schuyler Ave. & Merchant St., Kankakee
8 a.m. to noon
Palatine Farmers Market, Smith and Wood Sts. (Train Station), Palatine
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Park Forest Farmers Market, 152 Main St., Park Forest
7 a.m to noon
61st Street Farmers Market, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave., Chicago
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
South Chicago Farmers Market, 9000 S. Mackinaw St., Chicago
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Lincoln Park Farmers Market, 2001 N. Orchard St., Chicago
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Woodstock Farmers Market, Historic Woodstock Square, Woodstock
8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Crafting a Return to Chicago’s Brewpubs
This week is designated as National Craft Beer Week. This might lead fans to ask, “Isn’t every week craft beer week?” While that is true, the official celebration was perfectly timed, just as our society has started to emerge from the COVID-forced hibernation most of us have endured.
While not a life or death issue, of course, it was a tough stretch for craft beer lovers who love to cruise the region’s brewpubs in search of new expressions and styles. When I visited DryHop Brewers, with whom I go way back, on Tuesday, it was my first time sitting at a bar for well more than 15 months.
I was an early craft beer adopter. I went to college from 1973 to 1977 and drank a lot of bad mass-brewed beer (don’t want to name names because I don’t want to get sued, but if I said “The Beast,” I bet some of you Boomers would know which beer was so nicknamed). I grew up with a love for good food, so at least I knew the beer was bad.
When the early pioneers of craft emerged in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s — thinking about Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam, Pete’s Wicked Ale and Samuel Adams — I jumped right in. So 10 years ago, when I decided that 30 years covering politics in D.C. was enough and moved with Barb to Chicago, I thought I’d try to put my years of craft beer knowledge to use writing about it.
Two places I visited — DryHop and Begyle Brewing —were subjects of some of these early stories. Dovetail Brewing, who apply serious craftsmanship to German beer styles, was also on my route. I wrote about DryHop in Wednesday’s Local Food Forum, so here is a little taste of my visits in the beer-friendly North Side community of Ravenswood.
Dovetail Brewery
Dovetail and Begyle are located within one block of each other on Ravenswood Avenue, about six miles north of the downtown Loop and a few short block north of the Irving Park Brown Line station.
In fact, trains add some unusual ambience to this longtime industrial area. Ravenswood Avenue is actually two streets with the same name, separated by the Metra commuter train tracks (these breweries are on the west side of the tracks). Those Brown Line trains speed by on elevated tracks a block west.
Dovetail — founded by brewers Hagen Dost and Bill Wesselink — specializes in a variety of German styles of both grain-based and fruit-based beers. Germans were once the biggest immigrant group in Chicago and brought their beer culture with them (a Sunday “blue law” enforced in 1855 disrupted the German population’s biergardens and resulted in the city’s first major act of civil unrest). Yet before Dovetail arrived in June 2016, Metropolitan was the only impact craft brewer in Chicago that focused on German styles.
Over time I’ve tried several of Dovetail varieties and have always been pleased. One that made an impression was their Rauchbier (smoked beer). The only previous ones I tried were in bottles from brewers in Germany who used heavily smoked grain: There was novelty, but the overall sensation was one of standing over a meat smoker and taking a big deep breath. Dovetail’s Rauch, however, is much more mildly smoked and is much more accessible.
Speaking of accessible, barrel-aged fruit sours — like Dovetail’s magnificent Kriek in the photo above — are an acquired taste, but those of us who love them love them madly. If you believe in sour power, Dovetail is a great place to get your fix. If you are a newcomer, I can’t think of a better place to try one on.
Dovetail is located at 1800 West Belle Plaine Avenue. As of my visit Thursday they were serving only on their outdoor patio.
Begyle Brewing
I then took a block-long journey to Begyle. Led by brewer Kevin Cary — also the longtime president of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild — Begyle spans the range of beer styles (and alcohol content), and its barrel-aged Imperial Pajamas stout has such a following that it merits its own page on the brewery’s e-commerce site.
Since I left Dovetail in a middle European state of mind, I ordered Get the Pass, an oak-barreled Pilsner that, at 5 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) was just right for a little day drinking.
I can’t pretend to be objective about these guys. Begyle was one of my first beer stories in 2012, when the brewery was founded with a couple of small fermenters. They’ve grown a lot, the brewery has big old tanks, and it’s not hard at all to find their excellent beers.
Oh, and about the name. Kevin and his co-founders wanted to call the brewery Argyle (as in the textile pattern). But they got a cease and desist letter from an Oregon winery with the same name. Rather than waste money on lawyers, they changed the name to Begyle, pronounced like beguile, which made a nice double entendre for a second choice.
This is a highly recommended spot for your Chicago craft beer tour. Begyle is located at 1800 West Cuyler Avenue. As of Thursday they were only serving outdoors, at a sidewalk patio in front and a back patio biergarden Fridays through Sundays.
National Craft Beer Week ends tomorrow (Sunday), so get to one of the numerous breweries in the Lake Michigan region and… bottom’s up! Local Food Forum’s coverage of the craft beer scene will continue for the other 51 weeks.
Take a Quiz
How many craft breweries were there in the United States in 2020?
a) 3,214
b) 5,192
c) 8,764
d) 12,965
Answer:c) According to The Brewers Association (via Statista), there were 8,764 craft breweries across the U.S. last year. That is almost exactly five times more than the 1,758 counted in 2010.