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Last season I introduced our Friday Drankin’ series focusing on many Indiana breweries. It grew out of my love of exploring new breweries pretty much wherever I go. One of my favorites was Troegg’s Brewing in Hershey, PA, which I discovered on my way out to Rutgers. that place was excellent and their seasonal pumpkin release was among the best I have ever had.
That brings about the slight change to Friday Drankin’ this year. Instead of focusing on Indiana breweries, I am going to try and profile a brewery from the city of our respective opponents. The only one I did this for last season was Bloomington Brewing for the Bucket game. For many of these I haven’t visited them, but they are definitely on my list to try the next time I am in their city. Let’s start out in Evanston with Smylie Brothers Brewing, the closest brewery to Ryan Field.
1615 Oak Avenue
Evanston, IL
It looks like Smylie Brothers combines both pizza and beer, two things that go together at all times. They even have a special pizza bar that stays open an our after the full kitchen closes. It is located just west of the Red Line/Metra tracks in downtown Evanston and is a reasonable walking distance from the stops there.
As far as beers go they get bonus points for having a 20 ounce draft for what many places charge for a 16 ounce draft. I will ALWAYS take a bonus four ounces of beer. They currently have four Year Round beers on tape: A lager, Pale Ale, Cali Common, and a Farmhouse Saison. They also do growler fills on site.
As far as seasonals go they currently have some very itneresting options. The King Paimon Belgian Strong checks in at a whopping 9.9% ABV. They have a tasty looking Porter at a 6.75% ABV. It also looks like they specialize in different farmhouse saisons because they have one in their year-round rotation, one on their current seasonal taps, and one on deck.
Smylie Brothers has a full restaurant on site with pizza and BBQ, so you can’t go wrong. Everything is reasonably priced as well. They are closed on Mondays, but the kitchen is open until 10pm on weekends.
As someone who goes to Chicago quite often I am definitely going to have to check this place out. Hopefully Purdue increases their business this weekend by sending Northwestern students to drown there sorrows in good beer.