Chicago Beer Experience Beer Tours

Loved this tour! Definitely worth every penny. Even if you know nothing about beer or haven’t tried a lot of different beers, you will find the tour very interesting and fun! You learn everything from the beer making process to Chicago history. Phil, the tour guide is very knowledgeable and a great speaker. I highly recommend this tour if you’re visiting Chicago.

Great tour — Emma was so much fun and brought so much to the experience. I would absolutely recommend it!

Such an awesome experience and fun tour to do while visiting Chicago! Our tour guide was Bruce and he was spectacular! Super knowledgeable, friendly and personable. My boyfriend and I really enjoyed this tour and are big craft beer fans. Tour included about 16 different types of beer and a chicago hot dog! Really got to explore the different hidden bars in the city and try local beers. Would totally recommend this tour to any beer lovers out there! Its a must when visiting Chicago!

Did the Lincoln Pk/​Lakeview tour this past Sunday, 9 – 13. Lots of fun, learning, and beer! (bacon at Paddy Longs… mmmmm) Tour guide made the afternoon great!

Took my boyfriend on the lake view tour this past weekend. Phil was our guide and he was super nice and laid back. We got rained on hard at the first bar, so Phil decided we should wait another ten minutes to see if it would let up. He bought everyone on the tour a beer to pass the time. Great guy.
The tour itself was great. We learned a ton about beer and had a great variety of beers. Would definitely recommend.

We did the Bucktown/​Wicker park tour as a company intern event, so there were about 15 of us on a private tour. I could not have asked for a better time! I give Glenn (our fantastic tour guide) major props for putting up with the group and keeping us engaged. As the beer flowed, some of our group got a little loud, but Glenn was very patient, and if he was annoyed it never showed. He seemed genuinely happy to be there and excited to tell us everything, which is exactly what you want in a tour guide. It was a great bonding experience for the group, and even the skeptics and non-​beer drinkers had a great time.
The tour itself was an interesting mix of beer info and Chicago history. I learned a lot about the city that I never knew, even having lived here all my life. My friend had been to some of the bars on the tour and learned a lot she didn’t know about each one. Also learned a lot about beer and found some great ones that I will look for in the future! In general it was the perfect amount of tour/​info, it was never boring or too much. We would get some info on the place or beer, have a little break to talk and enjoy our beer, get a little more info. I would recommend this tour to anyone– groups of friends, tourists, locals– whoever. They really take their reputation seriously and make sure that your group (whatever the dynamic may be) has a good time. Will definitely be taking the Lincoln Park/​Lakeview tour at some point!

Bruce our tour guide made the whole experience a great one. A solid three hour tour with a great variety of beers. Also, the stop at the Bacon bar was awesome!

We did the tour as a client appreciation event and our out of town guests loved it! They were in town for a week and said it was the highlight of their trip. It was unique and not the typical downtown dinner. Our guide was fantastic, super friendly and very knowledgeable. And the tour was great!

This is the best time to be had in Chicago! Took the tour over the weekend with my son (who isn’t much of a beer drinker) but he enjoyed all of the historical info provided and gave me any beer he didn’t like! Glenn is the best! He was so friendly and knew the neighborhoods well. I strongly suggest taking the Wicker park/​Bucktown tour if for no other reason than to meet Glenn!

I’m personally not a beer drinker, can’t stand the stuff, but I purchased myself a non-​drinking ticket and a regular ticket for my dad as a father’s day gift for 2014. We didn’t get around to using the tickets until nearly father’s day 2015, but that’s besides the point. My dad, a true beer enthusiast LOVED the tour (we did the Lincoln Park/​Lakeview tour). We’re both Chicago born and raised, and it was fun to be a «tourist» for the day. Honestly, I was a bit shocked that we were the only two in the entire group who actually lived in the city. There was one couple from the suburbs, and one girl who did live in the city, but was only there because she was accompanying her cousins from out of town, so I’m not counting her. We did enjoy getting to meet all of the «out of towners» and hear about their experiences so far in the city. Although I am forgetting our guide’s name, we loved her. She was funny and personable, and she really loved being a guide. One thing that I really liked about the tour was that they were all about making everyone comfortable and happy with their experience. As I mentioned, I don’t drink beer. I do however drink alcohol — hard ciders, mixed drinks, etc. Although I hadn’t purchased the full-​priced drinking ticket, they were still more than happy to get me any drinks I wanted on the house (granted I definitely drank far less than everyone else on the tour, but I don’t actually drink much to begin with). I was pleasantly surprised by this act and it really made me feel like I got additional value from my ticket price. Another person on the tour wasn’t a bacon eater, so the tour guide made sure that she was ordered another appetizer instead of bacon at the stop where we enjoyed some bacon with our beer (or other drinks in my case)! The energy during the tour was great too. Its amazing how alcohol and three hours will turn a group of 20 strangers into a group of 20 hugging friends at the end.
Overall I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone visiting Chicago as a tourist OR any Chicago native who loves beer and wants to spend a few hours drinking a ton of different beers and meeting people from all over the place. I’m purchasing the tour again for myself and my boyfriend to do the Wicker Park/​Bucktown tour!

Gotta give them 5!!! I basically chose to include this tour during my Chicago vaca because of its excellent Unilocal reviews and I’m so happy I did it!
Glen and Neil did an excellent job showing us around the Wicker Park/​Bucktown area with nice tidbits of history, beer making info, and an all around fun time.
We got way more than I expected with each pour and was definitely feeling pretty good by the end of it. Nice variety of bar types and beer selections, and the bars themselves were great and accommodating to the large group. I definitely like how it ended at the arcade game bar because it just puts everyone in a fun mood. And the neighborhood surrounding the last bar had great food options after we left.
The bonus of the Chicago style hotdog is why I chose this over the Lincoln Park option, but I’m sure the bacon you get with that tour is tasty. If you want to see a neighborhood outside of downtown and experience some new beer options please do this tour; you won’t be disappointed.

If you are new to the city or even a local, this tour is a must do to learn about the excellent Great Lake region beers and taste in the historic pubs of chicago. Tour guide was funny and very knowledgable. Don’t pass this one up!

This was a great way to experience Chicago and learn about its history, equally so for beer. My girlfriend and I recently moved to the area and we loved the Wicker Park tour, it even came with a Chicago Hot Dog. Although the price was a little high, it’s definitely worth it for all the tastings, food, and great tour guide (Neil is awesome).

Although we live in Chicago, we decided this would be a fun activity with my parents while they were in town this past weekend. AND it was! We did the Bucktown/​Wicker Park Experience. Neil was a great guide– he was easy going and extremely knowledgeable on all things beer and Chicago. Highly Recommended!

Fabulous time on the beer tour with Natalie! Just the right amount of walking, the right amount of beer and the right amount of history about Chicago. If this is your first trip to Chicago, I highly recommend this tour to see some areas of the city that you may not see if you’re staying at the magnificent mile.

My husband and I were visiting from SOCAL for our first anniversary and we LOVE beer, so this was the perfect tour for the both of us. Natalie was great– Upbeat, spunky, friendly, knowledgeable about beer and Chicago! We met some cool people, drank/​tried some new beers and got see a cool neighborhood in Chicago! Thanks for the great time!

We did their Lincoln Park beer tour 2 birthdays ago and loved it so when I saw they added a Wicker Park/​Bucktown tour it was a no-​brainer for my husband’s birthday gift this year.
Our tour guides — two fun, beer loving women — kicked things off by pouring our first tastes and having everyone introduce themselves and say what kind of beers they enjoy before giving us a brief intro on how to taste beer. We held it to the light, breathed it in and held it on our tongues in the most pretentious way possible. We were then assured we didn’t have to do that for each beer.
The tour stops at four neighborhood bars with 4 samples at each equating to roughly 4 beers total. Although we live in the neighborhood we had only been to one of the bars so this was a day of discovery. All the chosen bars are locally owned and the guides mix in neighborhood and bar fun facts along with deeper information about the beers we were tasting.
You definitely get your money’s worth and get a wide variety of beers to try. This tour gets a little more food in your belly which you will certainly need. Not sure if it’s the same for every tour but we enjoyed a Chicago style hot dog while at Lemming’s and some Chicken pot pie from Silver Cloud.
This is a great tour to bring out-​of-​town guests on to see a non-​touristy side of Chicago, but also a great way to spend a day with friends!

This is a must if you love beer and want to experience Chicago via the eyes of a beer-​lover! We took the Lakeview and Lincoln Park tour on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
It’s worth every penny and you’ll want the tour to go on for another 3 hours. I don’t know what else to add that my fellow Unilocalers haven’t covered — you’ll get to try a wide variety of beer, enjoy tasty treats with your libations (including BACON), learn about beer and Chicago, and have fun with your tourmates and guide.
The tour also helped me realize I actually like Guinness — it’s all in the proper pour!
Oh, and FYI yinzers, there is a Steelers bar in that neighborhood!

I don’t love beer. I don’t get all hopped up talking about hops. Or barley. Or yeast. Or fermentation. However, I was pretty interested in finding a unique beer experience for hubs’ bday, so off to Unilocal I went and Chicago Beer Experience Tours is where I landed!
We had an ale of a good time! Bruce, the owner and our tour guide for the 3ish hour escapade, was truly fantastic. You can tell this guy loves his beer, Chicago history and showcasing some very unique bars. During our Bucktown/​Wicker Park tour we checked out Lottie’s (originally opened by a 6′ transvestite named Lottie who had ties to the mob), Lemming’s (new local art on the wall every month), Silver Cloud (neighborhood staple) & Emporium.
I was able to sample (3 – 5 oz pours) 13 beers, 11 of which I’ve never tried before! Even my husband who is far more beer savvy had only tried 3 out of the 13 beers on the tour… so that’s saying a lot! Additionally, there were a few snacks along the way, including a Chicago dog from George’s and a tasting from Silver Cloud’s (amazing) chicken pot pie. Even if you’re like me and you haven’t the knowledge to distinguish a pilsner from an IPA, this beer tour is super fun.

Top to bottom an awesome tour. The guides (Luke and Bruce, I think?) were extremely knowledgeable, fun, personable, smart, and just awesome to talk to. The price for the tour was totally reasonable. The bacon/​beer pairings at Paddy’s were very cool.
My only complaints are:
— I wish there was more local beer to be had and featured.
— There were so many hoppy IPA type beers, my palate was blown instantly and it was hard to taste much else after so many powerful beers.
Overall, awesome way to spend an afternoon in Chicago!