Argus Brewery

I’m still drunk which means, I’m a lightweight lol but I had a freakin blast. I had a choice between some pretentious snooty Northside beer tasting and Argus, I made the right decision. This isn’t a «tasting» at all this is a I’m going over to my buddy’s crib and we drankin’. As soon as you arrive you’re greeted with beer and refills, before the tour even starts! OMGAWD! Now, the tour is real laid back and not too technical and the guides are funny and very knowledgeable.
This «tasting» is for every creed, color, and or religious affiliation it’s a relaxed environment where ppl come over a common love of beer!
Oh, it’s alot of beer not a little sample taste but a nice pour so if you’re a «lightweight» eat something because I’m still drunk lol lol lol… fun times, I shall return. Oh they sell beard oil too.

Went to the Argus Brewery tour today. The beer was very good, the tour directors, funny and informative. I would highly recommend this tour… one of the best I’ve been too. Very generous with the tastings too!

Great time! The crew gives you some information during the tour but most of the time you’re drinking the various beers and eating snacks. The building is historical and very unique. This is great for a date with another couple. The Pullman area is also nearby and is great to drive around.

Awesome Brewery. Had a great tour, staff is so fun to talk to and they are not shy on the samples. Great neighborhood with lots of history. A must check out.

An absolute hoot! Can’t remember the last time I had so much fun and spent so little.
Nick, J.T., and crew led us on a most excellent adventure. The BF and I arrived a bit ahead of the appointed time (there are only certain times and you need to reserve ahead). Our group was smallish (ten of us altogether), but it allowed for maximum sampling and enjoyment. One of the first things that happened after we entered the historic building — –a bottle of cold, refreshing Argus beer was placed in our hands.
We first were led back out to the front of the building, beers in hands, to get a bit of Pullman history from Nick, the historian. The building was once horse stables. The train runs by on the track just above. We raised our beers to the waves of passengers going by. Then we were led up the «stairway to heaven» and reminded that an elevator will return us to reality, so if you are driving, be cautious and if you are not, sample with wanton abandon.
The «stairway to heaven» (yes you walk up a set of narrow stairs) leads to a tasting room, with a small bar, a pool table, with balls racked and ready to break (but everyone was too busy tasting and chatting) and seven or so taps. I forget the name of the chap pouring our beers into our keepsake Argus glasses that they let us carry around on the tour, but I kept telling him, «perfect pour. thanks!» to which he finally said, «wait til the third tour of the day, it’s all foam!» The Pegasus IPA is tasty and true to the style. The Holsteiner is an easy drinking lager. They had an experimental Schwarzbeer that I was quite fond of. None of them over the top boozy and all delightful to drink. There was popcorn from a machine outside the tasting room that tasted like the stuff your mom fried up at home and sent you to the movie theatre with in a concealed brown bag — –help yourself to seconds and thirds.
After you’ve tasted freely for about an hour, the tour begins, with a little bit of information about the tanks and ingredients and very rudimentary bottling operation. There is more humor and finally a ride down a big old horse elevator.
You can’t buy any of the beers there to take home for sharing with the uninitiated, but they have a nice selection at the nearby (clean and friendly) WalMart.
We want to go again and take friends. CHEERS!

Awesome Brewey! Can’t wait to go back again! Make sure you stop by when you can, you wont regret it! Fucking awesome place!
–Ralph

This tour is the real deal. They don’t just walk you around and say hey look at our shinny equipment. They also tell a story, they tell a story about the neighborhood, about the brewery, and about their beer, and speaking of the beer…
It was great, you get to try out a ton of different beers in their tap room which has a pool table and it very wonderfully decorated. I would definitely rent out the tap room for party! And at the end of the tour you get to ride an old grain elevator down — very cool!
Easy street parking, great tour. Highly recommended!

What a great time and amazing beer. Went to celebrate my sons birthday and was blown away. History lesson, waving to metra trains, lots of beer, fun personalities and soap and lotions! My son was even given a huge stein. Didn’t even use a groupon and still consider it an amazing value. We had such a good time we stopped at the Walmart in town to buy Argus beers for home. Looking forward to coming back in the summer. Thanks for making me look like the cool mom.

One of the best breweries around Chicago! Great beer, super cool and informative employees and awesome location. Enjoyed it so much planning our next trip back and where to buy their beer from. Thanks for the great afternoon!

Amazing time, you get unlimited tastes of all of their beers, including some experimental beers. J.T. and Danny lead the tour. Both bad ass tour guides, and then you get to stay in their game room for about an hour and taste their beers. Have been there 3 times and about to go my 4^th tomorrow. Keep up the good work guys.

Used a groupon to try my 1^st beer ever. This tour rocks! Had an amazing time with the hubby. I enjoyed the Rosy Cheek and Maibock and the Mr. liked Holsteiner. The staff was cool too.

Best brewery tour you’ll ever take. So much fun. Good beer and the employees were a lot of fun. Don’t forget to raise your glass to the train as it goes by.

My wife and I have been to a bunch of Breweries and tours and Argus is by far the best… Its even better than Finch’s… Nice discussion of the history of the area and brewery and GREAT beer too boot. You cannot go wrong. While you are there, check out Pullman… Perfect all around. Maximum Stars!

AWESOME brewery tour. It starts out in their cool bar room that has a couple game tables. They give you a pint glass and tell you ‘If your glass is empty, it’s your own fault.’ During that first hour you are in there, you can drink all you want. And they have some yummy bar snacks as well.
Loved their version of blonde Guinness!

Without a doubt my favorite brewery tour experience, for one it’s cheap, only $ 7 off groupon, and then the neighborhood has the historical significance, as the brewery itself is an old stable from the 1910s, and then the coup de gras– you get all you can drink in the tap room for like 45 mins, literally any of their beers, the tour guides are funny and knowledgeable (and drunk lol) The tap room where you drink is so cool, I really wish they would make it a real public tap room one day, I’ve been on the tour 3 times and will gladly return again with some new people. Plus it’s the only brewery tour this far south in the city

Everything you read about Argus is absolutely, completely, unequivocally true.
Like beer?
Like friendly people?
Like Chicago history?
You’ll love Argus.
Argus Brewery doesn’t have a formal tap room but they offer a tour on the weekends that is just awesome. I have my buddy Jarrett Payton to thank for turning me on to the Argus brews. I met him at an event and he was so insanely nice, I can’t even explain. Truly a great example of just the kind of people everyone at Argus are. His beer #swheatness is delicious and Argus has some other very yummy brews.
My friend and I went on their tour last weekend. You know it’s good when some people on the tour have been coming consistently each week for months on end!
The tour started off with us hanging in their informal tap room upstairs. It was just like hanging in a friend’s basement bar area complete with wood barrel tables, several on tap beers and a pool table. They were awesome & even brought us some of their Argus pizza which was surprisingly delicious. For about an hour we were treated to as much beer as we like that we got to drink out of a cute take home glass. I had their:
Clyde’s Ale — My favorite of the bunch for sure. It’s considered a extra special, strong bitter beer — yum!
Ironhorse — Solid brew said to be a California Common… not even sure what that is.
McCaffery’s Irish Cream Ale — Smooth cream ale that’s a favorite of many.
Holsteiner — I’ve seen this one in some stores for sale so glad I got to try it straight from the mother tap. It’s a fall brew marzen.
They also had Jarrett’s Wheat Ale on tap but since I had it before wanted to try some new to me beers.
All of the guys working were really friendly and fun, which quickly put all the people on the tour in the same high spirits. It made for such an enjoyable tour. Following the hour long drinking session, the brewery historian (I think his name was Nick) gave us some background of the building. Then we were passed to the next tour guide who went through their actually brewing process, along with more history of the building. It was all truly fascinating and I enjoyed every second of it.
This tour is super amazing, their beer is super awesome and the guys are super rad. The $ 10 tour is more than worth it, so get down there now!

Fuck Yes.
What began as a groupon turned into true love.
We arrived 15 minutes before the tour started. Bad move. They are only open on Saturday for tours, so there is no tap room/​tasting room open to the public just yet. We lingered about until the doors were opened and made our way up some rickety stair to what can only be called a drinker’s idea of an office.
In a medium size room there is a pool table, taps, two or three tables and of course a full bar. But honestly, what more does one need to have a good time? So here we settle and Nick, a robust Pullman historian and drinker, delivers the history of the hood, building and the company. Considering the area is off the beaten path for many the background was interesting. Yet Nick considers the narrative a mere prelude to the drinking portion of the tour. With the flick of the handle we were all poured the beer of our choice and left to hang out before the tour.
After 2 beers I am slightly amused
After 3 beers I am entertained
After 4 beers I am entertaining others with my efforts at using my «indoor» voice
After about an hour of drinking the tour actually began. We walk around the brewery which is split between two floors and allows for a fun ride on the old horse elevator. We get the obligatory information about mash, wart, hops, and other words that I should know but don’t. Afterward we are invited to take our glasses home. That is good because mine was going in my purse anyway, but they were nice enough to rinse it out before I could pilfer it.
I even won a shirt! I t was likely because i had grown obnoxious and me not winning may have started a one woman riot, but whatever my free shirt is freaking awesome!
We have since gone back and while the copious amount of drinking continues they have created pizza from left over beer ingredients. The pizza is delicious – delicious like you don’t think it is possible to make such doughy crust in your own oven delicious. You can pick up the Brewery Pizza at your local Jewel.
There are really no negatives: the parking is ample and free, the pours are generous and refilled before you can ask, the history is interesting, and sometimes there is pizza?
Get the EZ Rider Pale Ale and enjoy!

Came here with some Unilocal frans about a week ago. They was apprehensive because Argus is in the hood. I reassured them that Mark Geezy is known in the ghetto, and as long as they’re with me, they’ll be AIGHT.
There’s something different about Argus that is difficult to put into words. Everything from where they’re located, their personalities, to the beer itself seems so working class and humble. Okay, maybe not that hard to put into words, because I just did it, because I’m a genius. Sky point.
The tour didn’t feel much like a tour. They made it seem as if they invited us to hang and drink beer in this building they own where they make said beer. That’s not to say they weren’t informative. They gave a brief rundown of the building and neighborhoods’ history, which was real interesting. And toward the end, a run-​through of their beer making process. Unlike many brewery tours, they didn’t lull us to sleep with boring and trivial information.
The best part was chilling in their rec room where they spend a lot of time while waiting for beer to get happy. They have a pool table, a little bar with about 4 – 5 of their beers on tap, and some tables. This is where we did some heavy sampling of Argus’ beers and talked amongst ourselves. They delightfully answered any questions, and even gave us pizza they make with grains from their beer, which they claimed will be sold in Jewel stores. Indeed, this was my favorite part of the Argus experience.
If you’re into craft beer and haven’t visited Argus, put it on your to-​do list now.

Man, these reviews and tips weren’t playing when they said «you’ll drink the entire time». From the moment we arrived until the moment we left, we always had a cold beer in hand! The best part? It’s actually GOOD craft beer.
A few of us decided to drink ourselves stupid alllll day and do a little «area pub crawl», or something like that. If you decide to follow in this brilliant idea, do like us and start with Argus. You start with a brief history lesson outside (and an interesting one at that!), then you head upstairs to get tipsy. I believe they had 4 beers on tap and you get to sit around and drink and talk and relax. Then you fill up your beer one last time before you go on the other part of the tour, where you get to see where the magic happens.
As others said, if you’ve been on one tour, you’ve been on them all, and in that last aspect, it’s true. Argus does set themselves apart though, especially with the start. For $ 10 and a pint glass you get to keep? I’m sold! It also helps that the guys just come off so damn friendly. I was chatting with my neighbor as I was dying on my porch the next day and before I even said where we went he was all «You went to Argus, didn’t you? I’ve known Nick for a long time, he’s a great guy» and went on to tell me about some non-​profit work he’s doing/​setting up down there. Kudos to you man. Makes me feel better about supporting a local brewery who’s trying to give back.
The metra is right there. Some guys who ended up in our tour group biked from Logan. Pay for your friend’s ticket and have them drive. It might not be in the best surrounding area, but suck it up and figure it out and book a tour immediately!

My sis bought their Groupon as a going away present for me and we showed up right on time to a quiet storefront. If it wasn’t for a couple with similarly lost expressions on their faces we probably would have left, thinking the tour was canceled with no advance notice. Turns out that the tour actually started a little early and started out front. We waited at the front door and someone finally came down to let us in. The tour is 90 minutes long but fortunately the start of it-​besides a quick history of the building/​area is actually spent drinking.
Fortunately, we got ‘caught up’ and of built up a good buzz trying a lot of their beers. We started with the Pegasus IPA which was pretty balanced and enjoyable. In my opinion, there’s a West Coast style IPA that’s just a ton of hop bitterness and not much else. Pegasus wasn’t that and it was explained by our docent, Nick that it was a merger between East and West Coast IPAs.
My favorite though was their Irish Cream Ale, which they brew for Ballydoyle in the western burbs. I seriously was thinking about this beer for weeks afterwards, with a malty, light flavor and a creamy finish.
Their other beers-​particularly the Jarrett Payton were also of note, but after having tried all they had to offer at the time-​and they offered freely and plentifully. I came back to their Cream Ale. The tour was fun-​once you’ve been to one brewery tour you’ve basically been to them all. The difference here was the focus on the history of the building-​which housed the Schlitz draft horses-​as well as beer history in the Pullman area.
Good beers, good times, good tour guide. Whole lot of fun.