Chicago is an interesting, but slightly logistically challenging city for craft beer exploration. If you’re staying in the centre of the city as I was, and want to visit a number of breweries or taprooms, you really have to do some traveling by subway and bus to some far flung locations. Like every trip I plan, I pinned a number of potential destinations on a map, then using the limited time in the city, tried to hit the really interesting and convenient places.

By far and away, the brewery I was most excited to sample from was Rick Bayless’ Cruz Blanca Brewery. You already know I’m a bit of a Bayless fanboy, in love with every culinary thing he does, so of course I needed to see if I would be a fan of his brewery.

The verdict? Absolutely in love with this new venture. First, the beers were unique and well crafted with an emphasis on Mexican ingredients. Second, the brewery’s taproom is also a taqueria. The Palm Shade American pale ale was a great match for these spicy chorizo tacos.

The last beer I sampled here was a great example of creativity – it was a red lager, but the red came from prickly pear juice. Some candied ginger made this a nicely balanced sweet/spicy/tart beer.

Around the corner from my hotel was a decent liquor store with a wide selection of craft beer cans for sale as singles. I really wish more places would sell singles. I hate having to commit to 4 or 6 of anything when I’m only visiting for a limited time. I kind of struck out with this selection as the only one that stood out for me was Revolution Brewing’s flagship beer, the Anti-Hero IPA.

Speaking of striking out, I headed for what looked to be (and probably is on most days) a pretty interesting taproom only a couple of subway stops away from my hotel. Maybe I hit Great Central Brewing on a bad day, but the bartender was a bit of a jerk and it seemed the staff was more interested in hanging out with a few regulars at the bar than being welcoming. While the bar was a disappointment and a downer for that, I decided to order from one of their guest taps, and the Zip-Zap wheat beer from Maplewood Brewing ended up being my favourite from the entire trip.

Using proximity to my selected lunch spot of Fat Rice, I stopped in at Revolution Brewing’s brewpub near the California El station for a tasting flight. My beer luck swung in my favour with these selections all by Revolution. The Everyday Hero (far left, a lower alcohol version of their Anti-Hero IPA) was a great crushable summer beer. Second from the left, their peach sour was wonderfully balanced and tart. And on the far right, the Working Woman brown ale was an outstanding, flavourful, easy drinking brown. Great beers across the board!

It is hard to go wrong with any beer at a ballpark. Games at Wrigley and whatever corporate name they call the White Sox stadium were great backdrops for these tasty treats. If I could only drink one style of beer the rest of my days, it would likely be a bracing American pale ale – and the Daisy Cutter at the Cubs game was a great instance of that style.

Luckily, I didn’t have to restrict myself to one style at the ballparks or throughout my week in Chicago. All in all, I’ll chalk this up as a successful week of beer exploration.