The Best Breweries in the Midwest

The Midwest is full of great breweries—let’s be real there’s not much to do from November-March when you are snowed in other than brew and drink great beer. As a result there are some stellar spots spanning across these states!

The best breweries in the Midwest, in no particular order:

Phase Three Brewing Company: Lake Zurich, IL

Speciation Artisan Ales: Grand Rapids, MI

Pulpit Rock Brewing Company: Decorah, IA

Lua Brewing: Des Moines, IA

Forager Brewery: Rochester, MN

Side Project Brewing: Maplewood, MO

Jackie O’s Brewery: Athens, OH

New Glarus Brewing Company: New Glarus, WI

BlackStack Brewing: St. Paul, MN

Transient Artisan Ales: Bridgman, MI

Revolution Brewing: Chicago, IL

Drekker Brewing Company: Fargo, ND

Which of these have you been to? What are your favorites? Let me know in the comments! Cheers—Alexis

My Top Beers in February

February was a month full of fire beers! Between Super Bowl parties, a bottle share, beer releases, Queen City Brewers Festival, @wanderinghops coming to visit, and a trip to Greenville—I tried 145 different beers this month. There were some real delights!

In no particular order, here were the best beers I had over the past month:

Seven from The Veil Brewing in Richmond, VA

Seven is an Imperial Stout aged In Willett, Utopias, Maple And Weller Bourbon Barrels for an average of 21 months and conditioned on chocolate sandwich cookies, toasted coconut, Tahitian vanilla and truffle. I gave this a 4.75 on Untappd, meaning it was absolutely incredible.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Not Your Nana’s Pudding from Resident Culture Brewing in Charlotte, NC

Resident Culture put out several variants of this beer, and the Banana Pudding edition was my favorite! This is an Imperial Stout aged in Willett Bourbon barrels for 12-20 months then conditioned on wild Thai bananas, vanilla, and Nilla wafers.

Backpack Full of Cans from Monkish Brewing in Torrance, CA

Backpack Full of Cans is a Triple IPA with Citra, Motueka, and Simcoe hops. Another Monkish banger, no surprise there! Best paired with a fantastic book from Book of the Month.

Wormhole Junction from Newgrass Brewing in Shelby, NC

Wormhole Junction is a solera of elaborate imperial stout bases, with 37.5% aged for 37 months in Old Forester Bourbon barrels, another 37.5% aged in Willett Bourbon barrels for 23 months, and the final 25% aged in MGP Bourbon barrels for 18 months. After blending, the solera base was conditioned with a curated selection of Ugandan and Comoros vanilla bean. This was my top beer at Queen City Brewers Fest and extremely delicious!

Brabantiæ (2018) from Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium

Brabantiæ is a Gueuze that was finished in Port wine barrels. Upon description I would not think it would be quite my cup of tea, but this was superb. It was incredibly well-rounded and light.

Nucleate (2019) collaboration brew from HOMES Brewery in Ann Arbor MI, Speciation Artisan Ales in Grand Rapids MI and Transient Artisan Ales in Bridgman, MI

HOMES creates this beer each year in celebration of their annual Nucleate Beer Festival. They collaborate with different breweries each time, and the 2019 version happened to bring together my 3 favorite breweries in Michigan! This is a Mixed Culture Sour Ale with a blend of the house culture from each brewery, then refermented on strawberry, blackberry and raspberry and bottle conditioned with champagne yeast.

Three Times Three from North Park Beer Company in San Diego, CA

This is a collaboration with Omnipollo, Monkish, Trillium, Other Half, Troon, Brujos & North Park, and it is North Park’s version of the collab. Three Times Three is a Triple Dry Hopped Hazy Triple IPA with Citra, Citra Cryo, Motueka, Nelson Sauvin and Riwaka hops. After doing a side by side of 5 different versions of this beer, North Park’s was above and beyond the best! Our entire group at the bottle share agreed.

Microcosm IV, No. 4 from The Eighth State Brewing Company in Greenville, SC

Shout out to Jesse at The Whale in Greenville for sharing this wild brew! Microcosm IV, Number 4 is a Strong Ale Blend consisting of: 4-Year-Old Barleywine aged in a Laird's Apple Brandy barrel, 3-Year-Old Imperial Stout aged in a Maple BLiS barrel, 2-Year and 3-Month-Old Imperial Stout aged in a Single Pick Four Roses barrel and conditioned on roasted pecans, New Hampshire maple syrup, Tahitian vanilla and toasted coconut. The barrel flavor and adjuncts come through nicely without one note overpowering the others. A really well done beer. Also a special shout out to Neck and Neck (Batch 3) from Eighth State, which was another fantastic beer I had during my Greenville visit, but I had to narrow down the list. Check out my Greenville beer and travel guide here.

10th Anniversary Collaboration #7 Smoothie Sour from Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn NY, Mortalis Brewing in Avon NY, J. Wakefield Brewing in Miami FL, Hoof Hearted Brewing in Marengo OH and Omnipollo in Stockholm, Sweden

For Other Half’s 10th Anniversary they released 10 different collaboration beers, only one of which was a Smoothie Sour. Other Half’s IPAs and Stouts are usually my favorite, so my expectations were not overly high when I cracked this can, but wow was I wrong. Collaboration #7 blends anejo tequila aged seltzer into the base beer along with strawberries, lime, a hint of tangerine puree, and some soft serve ice cream. It was tart, yet sweet. Full of body, yet smooth and light. Fruity, yet tequila-y. Sheesh!

Check back next month for my top beers in March! —Cheers, Alexis

My Top Beers in January 2024

January was a wild ride! I started off 2024 in Brazil before getting back home to Charlotte right in time for my birthday and then spent a couple of weeks bopping around Charlotte. In January I tried 99 different beers. Here were the best beers I had over the past month, in no particular order:

Pear Sauvie from The Ale Apothecary in Bend, OR

This is a Wild Ale with Mecca Grad Estate barley and rye malts, combined with Sauvie Island’s Crystal hops, brewed wild and naturally in the woods of Central Oregon. 100% naturally carbonated with pear juice. Unfiltered, open-fermented & barrel-aged. The Ale Apothecary’s unique brews are always a delight! I am a particular sucker for all things pear, so it is no surprise that this was one of my favorites this month.

A Rather Profane Sentiment Towards Things of This Kind collaboration beer from Burial Beer in Asheville, NC and TRVE Brewing in Denver, CO

This is an Imperial Stout with Toasted Hazelnuts, Madagascar Vanilla Bean, and Flamed Orange Peel. This collaboration was created to celebrate TRVE’s expansion to Asheville. Their new North Carolina taproom is slotted to open in early 2024.

Biggie, Biggie, Biggie from Monkish Brewing in Torrance, CA

Biggie, Biggie, Biggie is a Triple IPA dry hopped with El Dorado and Galaxy. Monkish continues to put out the bangers, particularly their Triples.

Methods of Excavation III from Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn, NY

Methods of Excavation is a Imperial Stout with almonds, cacao nibs, caramel chocolate ice cream, cinnamon, coffee, coconut, freeze dried ice cream, macadamia nuts, maple, marshmallows, molasses, Tahitian vanilla, vanilla wafers, walnuts, wild Thai bananas, and Madagascar vanilla. A wild amount of adjuncts come together in this brew to meld into a delicious beverage. Other Half has really nailed this style and I continue to be impressed.

Bueze (2023) from Transient Artisan Ales in Bridgman, MI

Bueze is a blend of 1, 2, and 3 year Weller Bourbon Barrel Aged Kentuckley Imperial Breakfast Stout with Comoros Vanilla Beans, Tugboat Coffee, and Maple Syrup. I snagged this while I was in Michigan last summer and was very impressed. The bottle came in a fun purple velvet bag which added some extra flair.

Fun Beer, Lovely Guys collaboration brew from Percent Tap House in Harrisburg, NC and Funguys Brewing in Raleigh, NC

Fun Beer, Lovely Guys is a Kiwi Topped Strawberry Birthday Cake Smoothie Sour with Double Strawberry, Kiwi, Strawberry Cake Filling, Yellow Cake Batter, and Marshmallow. This was a superb Sour—the cake elements were incredible. I could drink far too much of this!

Coating Consistency collaboration brew from The Eighth State Brewing Company in Greenville, SC, WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, Co, Tripping Animals Brewing in Doral, FL, Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn, NY, Moksa Brewing in Rocklin, CA and Bottle Logic Brewing in Anaheim, CA

Coating Consistency is an Imperial Stout with Toasted Coconut, Raw Coconut, Almonds, Walnuts, Muscovado Sugar, Vanuatu Vanilla, Indonesian Vanilla, West Papua Vanilla and Mayotte Vanilla Beans. Sheesh! What a killer collaboration. The vanilla really comes through strongly, but in a great way. It is no surprise that this was delicious given the fantastic breweries involved.

Check back next month for my top beers in February! Cheers —Alexis