Half Acre Beer Company

Last updated
Half Acre Beer Company
Half Acre Beer Company logo.gif
Location Chicago, Illinois
United States
Opened2007
Annual production volume43,000 US beer barrels (50,000  hL) in 2017 [1]
Owned byGabriel Magliaro
Website halfacrebeer.com
Active beers
NameType
Daisy Cutter West Coast pale ale
Akari Shogun Wheat ale
Pony Pilsner Pilsner
Gone Away India Pale Ale
Lead Feather Black Ale
The Half Acre brewery and tap room on Lincoln Avenue in 2015 Half-Acre-Brewery-02.jpg
The Half Acre brewery and tap room on Lincoln Avenue in 2015
The Half Acre brewpub on Balmoral Avenue in 2018 Half-Acre-Balmoral-01.jpg
The Half Acre brewpub on Balmoral Avenue in 2018

Half Acre Beer Company is a brewery in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The company was founded by Gabriel Magliaro in 2006, with its office located in Chicago. The recipes for the beers were developed in Chicago and the beer was initially brewed at Sand Creek Brewery in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Half Acre's first beer, Half Acre Lager, debuted in August 2007. [2]

Contents

History

In March 2009, Half Acre Beer began production in its own brewery on Lincoln Avenue in the North Center neighborhood of Chicago. [3] Building upon its growing popularity, a tap room adjacent to the brewhouse opened in 2012. [4] A 2013, Chicago magazine annual poll named the Half Acre tap room the city's eighth best bar. [5] Because of its continued success, a kitchen was added in January 2016, completing the transition to a full service brew pub. [6] In 2015, the brewery expanded by opening a second, larger brewhouse and pub on Balmoral Avenue in the Bowmanville neighborhood of Chicago, approximately a mile and a half from the Lincoln Avenue facility. [7] In 2021, they consolidated operations into the Balmoral Avenue location, closing the Lincoln Avenue facility. [8]

Since 2007, the company has sponsored the local bicycle club Half Acre Cycling. [9]

To minimize waste from brewing, the company challenged engineering students from Northwestern University to find the best ways to reduce or reuse byproducts.

Beer

Half Acre brews six year-round beers, three seasonal beers, [10] as well as monthly special releases and small batches for its taproom and beer garden. [11]

When asked about the citrus flavor of Half Acre Lager, Magliaro has said that the only thing in his beer is water, yeast and "lots and lots" of German malt and Saaz hops. [2]

In October 2014, Half Acre Heyoka won a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the category of American-style IPA. [12] In January 2015, Heyoka was renamed Senita after members of the American Indian Movement objected to the term "heyoka" being used for commercial purposes. [13] In June 2015. the beer was renamed again, to Gone Away, after another brewery claimed that the name Senita infringed too closely on the name of one of its beers. [14]

Half Acre Beers
NameStyle ABV  % IBU Notes
Daisy Cutter [15] West Coast pale ale 5.2 Available year-round
Akari Shogun Wheat ale 5.5 Seasonal
Lead Feather Black Ale 6.0 Seasonal
Pony Pilsner Pilsner 5.8 Available year-round
Gone Away India Pale Ale 7.0 Seasonal
Alpenglow Winter dark ale 5.0 Seasonal
Baumé Rye stout 7.0 60 Seasonal
Beer Hates Astronauts India Pale Ale Seasonal
Big Hugs Imperial stout 10.0 Seasonal
Bodem India Pale Ale 5.7Available year-round
Callow Knife Pale ale 5.0 Seasonal
Canyon of Heroes India Pale Ale 6.1 Seasonal
Chocolate Camaro Stout 6.0 Seasonal
Chub Step Porter 6.0 Seasonal
Smoking GullHazy pale ale5.2Seasonal
Crystal Norde Baltic porter 7.0 Seasonal
Double Daisy Cutter Pale ale Seasonal
Ginger twin India-style red ale Seasonal
The Grotto Extra pale ale 4.5 Seasonal
Half Acre Lager (Fader) Lager Available year-round
The Hammer, the Bullet, & the Vise English brown ale 5.0 Seasonal
Lager Town Oktoberfest 6.0 Seasonal (fall)
Mr. Ouroboros German pale ale 6.0 Seasonal
Navaja Double India Pale Ale 9.5 Seasonal
Over Ale Brown ale 6.0 Seasonal
Quakerbridge Barley wine 10.0 Seasonal
Space India Pale Ale 6.7 Seasonal
Sticky Fat American dark ale 6.3 Seasonal
Thunder & Son Brown ale 10.0 Seasonal
TomeHazy Pale ale Available year-round
TendUnfiltered American Ale5.8Seasonal (winter)
Vallejo India Pale Ale 6.7 Seasonal (spring)

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Marotti, Ally (2015-04-23). "Foreign beer drinkers are craving Chicago brew. Hard". Crain's Chicago Business . Retrieved 2015-10-28. North Center-based Half Acre Beer brews about 15,000 barrels a year and is focusing on expanding at home before it goes abroad.
  2. 1 2 Bayne, Martha (August 23, 2007). "A Chicago Beer, Brewed Right Here in Wisconsin", Chicago Reader. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ Kannenberg, Liz (October 21, 2008). "Craft Brewer Bucks Trend by Moving Production into Chicago". Medill Reports. Archived from the original on 2008-12-22. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
    - Benderski, Ari (June 25, 2009). "Chicago's New Wave of Microbrews". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
    - Stedt, Zach (October 13, 2010). "Citing Environmental Advantages, Microbreweries Turn to Cans". Medill Reports. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ Noel, Josh (May 3, 2012). "Half Acre to Open a Brewery Tap Room This Summer". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
    -Baldacci, Jason (October 31, 2012). "A First Look Inside Half Acre's New Tap Room". Chicagoist. Archived from the original on November 19, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
    - Wetli, Patty (January 22, 2014). "Half Acre Beer Co. Won't Open Restaurant Next to Taproom, Owner Says". DNAinfo. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Best Bars in Chicago: The Top 10 Bars in the City", Chicago magazine, January 11, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  6. ↑ Noel, Josh (January 7, 2016). "Half Acre to Open Kitchen Next Week". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  7. ↑ Noel, Josh (March 24, 2014). "Half Acre to Open Second Brewery". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  8. ↑ Selvam, Ashok (May 7, 2021). "After 13 Years, Half Acre Beer to Leave Lincoln Avenue". Eater Chicago. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  9. ↑ Half Acre Cycling official website. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Beers". Half Acre Beer Company. Archived from the original on April 27, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Half Acre Beer Company". RateBeer. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
    - "Half Acre Beer Company". Beer Advocate. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  12. ↑ Montoro, Philip (October 13, 2014). "A GABF Silver Medalist for Your Fridge: Half Acre's Heyoka IPA". Chicago Reader. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  13. ↑ Noel, Josh (January 5, 2015). "Half Acre Beer Renames Heyoka as Senita After Complaints". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  14. ↑ Noel, Josh (June 16, 2015). "Half Acre Changes Name of Award-Winning IPA Again". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  15. ↑ Noel, Josh (April 19, 2019). "A Decade of Daisy: How Half Acre's Iconic Daisy Cutter Pale Ale Changed Chicago Beer Culture". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
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