Loading Flash... (Flash 7+ Required) Half Acre Beer Company began in October of 2006 when some friends took the plunge in figuring out how to create a new beer company in Chicago. The idea stemmed from a love of great beer, the community of people that surrounds it, and a desire to step out and contribute something new. From the onset we've had a lot of support, and have had the pleasure of connecting with a lot of people that believed in what we're doing. We knew that right off the bat we couldn't afford to drop the wad on our very own brewery here in the city, but felt good about working with some friends in Black River Falls, Wi to brew our beer. The Sand Creek Brewing Co is a good bunch of guys that work in a way that suits us very well. With their help and the use of their 20BBL, JV Northwest brewhouse we could begin making Half Acre beers in order to gain some awareness for our company and create some production numbers that could support our future brewery. We managed to develop our first beer, Half Acre Lager, acquire all the licensing needed to legally sell beer in Illinois and hash out a deal with a local distributor, by summer 2007. We brewed our inaugural batch in the middle of July, fermented it for 30 days, bottled it, and it dropped in the distributors warehouse in the middle of August. At that point we hit the streets doing our best to gain support from local folks. Thankfully, support came quickly and we were off to a small start in the beer business. Our initial base of establishments kind enough to sell our beer was mainly in the Bucktown area. We all live in and around that area, and our company was run out of a space just south of there at 2041 W. Carroll. By December we had released draft beer and started offering up real pints of Half Acre Lager to Chicagoans. All the while we'd been small batch brewing here in Chicago to develop future Half Acre Beers and keep us drinking the fruits of our labor. We managed to grow our sales base to over 100 establishments in 6 months and that number continues to grow. In July 08 we released our second beer Half Acre Over Ale, a beer we call an American Style Bitter. This beer is like an English Special Bitter, but we use an American yeast, American hops and brew it to a higher gravity. On May 6th, 2008 we purchased a used 15BBl brewhouse that we broke down in Colorado and shipped to Chicago in order to land in our future brewery. This purchase was another step in us realizing our goals of creating a great brewing company here in the city. On October 1, 2008 we moved into our current location: 4257 N. Lincoln Ave where we built the new brewery. We've been brewing here, and are in the process of building a tasting area and store. It's great to have a home where we can brew Half Acre Beers and continue the ride. Cheers! We hope you enjoy. Half Acre Beer Co Chicago, IL     © Half Acre Beer Company  |  4257 N. Lincoln Ave  |  Chicago, IL 60618  |  (773) 248-4038 All rights reserved.