Chicago's craft beer bars are among the best in the United States, and outside the coasts they are arguably the best. We logged three separate visits across Logan Square, Wicker Park, Andersonville, and the West Loop to separate the bars with good tap lists from the bars with great ones. These 10 craft beer bars in Chicago are the ones we recommend without hesitation.
The Best Craft Beer Bars in Chicago: Logan Square and Wicker Park
Chicago's northwest side runs the craft beer scene. Logan Square and Wicker Park have the highest concentration of serious tap rooms in the city, with a mix of brewery-owned spaces and independent multi-tap bars that rotate fast and buy well.
01
Maplewood Taproom
Logan Square$$Neighbourhood / Welcoming
Maplewood runs 18 taps out of a converted corner store with exposed concrete and custom woodwork. The house beers cover every major style, but the barrel-aged programme is exceptional — the annual bourbon barrel stout releases in November and sells out within two hours. Arrive early on weekdays, or plan on standing at the bar, which is not the worst thing in the world here.
Order: Barrel-aged stout if available, or the flagship amber ale on nitro.
02
Bucktown Tap Exchange
Wicker Park$$Self-Serve / Experimental
A self-pour tap wall with 46 handles across three rooms. Bucktown Tap Exchange charges by the ounce and refreshes the list weekly, with a deliberate focus on Midwest producers that rarely distribute to the coasts. The result is a beer list you will not find anywhere else: small Minnesota wild ale producers, Wisconsin farmhouse saisons, and Illinois IPAs that deserve wider attention.
Order: Build a four-sample flight and work through the Midwest farmhouse section.
03
Schiller's Cellar
Logan Square$$$Serious / Knowledgeable Staff
The most serious craft beer bar in Chicago, full stop. Schiller's Cellar stocks 30 taps and a 400-bottle cellar program, and the staff can hold a conversation about any of them. The focus runs toward Belgian and Belgian-influenced American beers: lambics, gueuzes, flanders red ales, and oak-aged saisons. Bring someone who drinks beer this seriously. Leave the lager drinkers at home.
Order: Ask for the current cellar recommendation. It changes every week.
The full Chicago bar guide
Every category, every neighbourhood. Our Chicago guide covers 130+ bar listings from River North to Andersonville.
Craft Beer Bars in Andersonville, Pilsen, and the West Loop
Chicago's craft beer geography keeps expanding. Andersonville has been a quiet stronghold for years. Pilsen added three excellent tap rooms in the last four years. The West Loop arrival is more recent but the quality is already high.
04
Clark Street Pour House
Andersonville$$Neighbourhood Classic
Clark Street Pour House has been in Andersonville since 2014 and has quietly become the anchor of the neighbourhood's bar scene. The 24-tap list covers mostly American craft with a genuine commitment to Chicago-area producers. The back patio runs from May through October and is genuinely one of the best beer gardens in the city: unpretentious, well-maintained, and correctly priced.
Order: Local Chicago IPA, back patio, afternoon, no phone.
05
Pilsen Ferment Room
Pilsen$$Industrial / Community-Focused
A former tortilla factory converted into a shared brewing facility and public tap room. Pilsen Ferment Room hosts three resident nano-breweries who rotate their beers through 20 shared taps. The result changes month to month, but the quality is consistently high. Weekend afternoons bring in neighbourhood residents with dogs and children; Friday evenings belong to the beer nerds. Both crowds coexist without tension.
Order: Ask which resident brewer is pouring this week and order their newest batch.
06
Fulton Tap Co.
West Loop$$$After Work / Polished
Fulton Tap Co. arrived in the West Loop two years ago and immediately found its audience: finance and tech workers who take their beer seriously but do not want to travel to Logan Square to drink it. The tap list is curated around hazy IPAs, dry-hopped lagers, and one rotating sour. It is the most professional-looking craft beer bar in Chicago, with prices to match, but the beer quality earns them.
Order: Hazy IPA on tap, or the dry-hopped lager if you are heading back to work.
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More Great Craft Beer in Chicago
Four more bars that nearly made the top six and are worth your time on a longer stay.
07
Ravenswood Rail Tap
Ravenswood$$Locals Only / Unpretentious
Under the elevated rail in Ravenswood with trains passing every eight minutes. The noise does not bother the regulars, who come for the honest tap list of 16 local and regional beers, decent prices, and a bar staff that remembers your order. No cocktails, no food beyond bar snacks, no tasting notes on the menu. You ask. They tell you. That is the experience here.
Order: Whatever local Chicago lager they have on. There is always one.
08
Hyde Park Brew Exchange
Hyde Park$$Academic / Relaxed
The best craft beer bar on the South Side and one of the most underrated in the city. Hyde Park Brew Exchange serves the university crowd with a 20-tap list that leans toward session-strength beers and well-priced pints. The food is better than it needs to be: proper sandwiches and charcuterie boards that work well with the beer programme. Open from noon on weekends.
Order: Session IPA and the charcuterie board. Stay for two hours minimum.
09
Northwest Fermentory
Humboldt Park$$Small Batch / Specialist
A production brewery with a small tap room attached. Northwest Fermentory makes around 200 hectolitres per year and sells most of it on-site, which means the beer is always fresh. The speciality is mixed-fermentation ales: saisons, brett beers, and seasonal wild ales fermented with fruit from the Green City Market. Not for everyone, but exactly for the right people.
Order: Current seasonal mixed-fermentation ale. Check their social media before visiting for this week's release.
10
Lincoln Park Alehouse
Lincoln Park$$$Classic / Well-Stocked
The oldest entry on this list and the most consistent. Lincoln Park Alehouse opened in 2008 and has maintained a 28-tap rotation that has only gotten better with age. The bottle list runs to 200 selections including imports that are hard to find in the US. Staff turnover is low, the regulars are loyal, and the bar itself is the kind of place that feels right after 10 minutes regardless of the occasion.
Order: Ask for the bottle list and find something Belgian you have not tried before.
Chicago craft beer guide: all venues by neighbourhood
Our full Chicago craft beer listings cover 45+ venues. Filter by neighbourhood, style focus, or price range.
Chicago is consistently underrated as a beer city by people on the coasts, and consistently overrated by people who have only been to the Lincoln Park Alehouse. The truth is in the middle: the top 10 bars here are as good as anything in New York or San Francisco, and the neighbourhood tap rooms are better value than almost anywhere else in the country.
For a first visit: Schiller's Cellar and Maplewood Taproom are the two non-negotiables. For a longer stay, add Pilsen Ferment Room on a weekend afternoon and Northwest Fermentory if you drink wild ales. Plan at least one afternoon in Logan Square and work through it on foot — the bars are close enough to visit three in a day without it becoming a tour.
New York's best craft beer bars
How does Chicago compare to New York? Our New York craft beer guide covers 40+ venues across Brooklyn and Manhattan.
