When Half Acre opened their larger Balmoral Brewpub in 2017, most of their energy shifted north. There’s a chance to bring back food in the future, but nothing concrete. They even had food from an accomplished chef, Nick Lacasse, who created tasty burritos and unique nachos made with “ science cheese.” Hop Butcher’s Jeremiah Zimmer writes, via email, that the taproom is only for beer and drinks for now. Half Acre was a pioneering brewpub that found a niche as a neighborhood beer bar. There will be 14 beers on tap, plus coffee from Metropolis, and other non-alcoholic options, including sparkling tea. The deal was simple: Half Acre needed to downsize and Hop Butcher, which had been around since 2014, needed a space. That wait is over as Hop Butcher for the World opens its doors on Thursday, November 10 at 4257 N. brewpub has been quiet since October 2021 as its new tenants prepared to take over. They intentionally give fans few clues about what beers to expect until just before each release.A North Center brewery space that endeared itself to beer lovers for more than a decade will roar once again. Some beers are new and some have been previously released. Hop Butcher has abided by a modern approach to brewing that embraces no flagship or year-round beers - just fresh batches every week. Zimmer and LaRose crafted an ethos to match the Hop Butcher for the World name, becoming one of the first Chicago breweries to embrace the hazy IPA trend that became a foundational industry shift. Realizing they likely couldn’t trademark the South Loop name, they turned to a moniker riffing on Carl Sandburg’s legendary poem “Chicago” and reflecting their love of hop-forward beer. Zimmer and LaRose, who met selling season tickets for the Chicago Rush in the Arena Football League, entered the beer business in 2015 as South Loop Brewing, making tiny amounts of beer at the now-defunct Aquanaut Brewing in the Bowmanville neighborhood. Zimmer said having two breweries of different sizes will offer “all the flexibility in the world to make appropriately sized batches and put them where we want.” “It allows us to stretch our muscles and take bigger swings on smaller batches,” LaRose said. Operating their own production facility will allow Hop Butcher to enter supermarkets, but it’s not a priority, Zimmer and LaRose said. Hop Butcher beer is available largely in beer and liquor stores and has yet to be sold in supermarkets. “We’ll follow what has made us successful to this point: growing organically and being smart about where we put things.” “Just because we can make more beer doesn’t mean we will right away,” Zimmer said. Though about 90% of its beer is sold in the Chicago area, Hop Butcher has built a national following that includes being named 14th-best small brewery in the country by readers of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine in 2021. Hop Butcher, which specializes in trendy beer styles such as hazy IPA and rich, flavored stouts, will grow in 2022, but Zimmer said it will be measured growth. They have been brewing there full time since the deal closed. Zimmer and LaRose said they will build a taproom in Bedford Park they hope to have open by fall. The former 5 Rabbit location is in a south suburban industrial park that provides larger-scale production - at least double and potentially four times the output possible at Half Acre’s former facility. Zimmer and LaRose said they’re awaiting city and state permitting and hope to be brewing and open to the public by May, if not sooner. It’s a smaller brewery that will provide opportunities for experimentation and smaller-batch production. The former Half Acre location, which has a popular taproom and bottle shop that will allow Hop Butcher to sell directly to consumers for the first time, is in a densely populated North Side neighborhood with ample foot traffic.
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