Chicago’s craft beer closures have brewers on guard

At least five Chicago breweries have closed or announced closures this year, and industry experts predict more are on the way.

Alarmist Brewing & Taproom in Sauganash permanently closed on Feb. 1, and not long after, Berwyn’s Flapjack Brewery and Forest Park’s Casa Humilde turned off their taps. Two more are shutting down: Whiner Beer Company in Back of the Yards will close March 29 and Illuminated Brew Works in Norwood Park will close June 28.

A steady decline in drinking is partially to blame. The U.S. drinking rate reached historic lows in 2025, according to data from Gallup. But the recent string of local closings was accelerated by rising operational and production costs, including aluminum tariffs, and what many feel is an oversaturated market, owners said.

The rash of announcements has surviving brewers on guard, and several said they are looking at everything from better-than-average food to live events to stay afloat in 2026 and beyond.

“The breweries that have survived are the ones that pride themselves on consistency and people knowing what they're going to get when they purchase that beer,” said Trevor Rose-Hamblin, a longtime brewer and co-founder of Old Irving Brewing.

Besides game and trivia nights, concerts and other concerted efforts to get people in the door, breweries are raising their prices to match inflation and trying to market to younger and more health-conscious consumers with alternative products, such as THC- and CBD-infused beverages.

Despite their efforts, brewery closures in Chicago mirror what’s happening in the rest of the country. According to annual reports from the Brewers Association, national brewery closings outpaced openings in 2024 and 2025 — the steepest decline since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

But that’s only about a 1% net decrease in breweries across the U.S., said Matt Gacoich, staff economist at the Brewers Association.

“There will certainly be more closings. There will also be more openings,” he said. “After a certain point, just like any industry, you reach the point of market saturation. There were indications that craft beer was getting to that point prior to the pandemic.”

The elusive N/A market

Chicago saw craft beer boom a little more than a decade ago. Since 2011, the number of breweries in Illinois climbed from 54 to nearly 300 in 2024, but the existing amount has mostly plateaued since the pandemic year, according to the Brewers Association’s report.

“There's just been a race to the bottom really since about 2020,” said Brian Buckman, founder and head brewer at Illuminated Brew Works, which is closing at the end of June.

Delayed by COVID-19, Illuminated opened its taproom in 2021. The founders signed the lease two years prior, he said.“[We] just kept seeing the industry constrict,” Buckman said.

One thing brewers tried to do is market to guests who don’t drink alcohol. But pivoting to meet that demand has not been as easy as it might seem. Vacuum distillation, one of the processes used to remove alcohol from beer, can require expensive equipment, ingredients, tests and time.

Whiner Beer Company opened in 2016 inside a food business incubator called The Plant (1400 W. 46th St.) in Back of the Yards. But two months shy of its 10th anniversary, the brewery will close.

Co-owner Brian Taylor said that Whiner has attempted to break into the non-alcoholic and low-ABV market with sparkling teas and yerba mate drinks.

“We definitely tried to pivot, while keeping obviously beer as our main source of income,” Taylor said. “We still do pretty well with [those]… but nothing that would keep the doors open.”

Whiner’s best-selling beer is the Le Tub, a refreshing barrel-aged saison or Belgian-style farmhouse ale. Their last spring edition variant is a watermelon-flavored kettle-soured brew known as Bubble Tub.

Some breweries took inspiration from the “California sober” movement and the flood of THC dispensaries after Illinois legalized marijuana for commercial consumption in 2020, opening the door for THC-infused drinks. But even as products with hemp-derived THC are becoming increasingly popular, the industry is still largely unregulated.

That has made it an unstable option. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has threatened a ban in Illinois, and the Chicago City Council nearly banned hemp-derived THC in January. (The city ultimately created a loophole by allowing exceptions for beverages and ointments).

For some brewers, the risk is just too great, said Alarmist’s owner and founder Gary Gulley.

“That’s a [legal] gray area,” he said. “Every brewery is going to try to make that same product. So, you're going to be right back where you started trying to differentiate yourself.

”COVID-19 also left some brewers with a financial hangover. Owners still had to pay for buildings, equipment and production. Gulley made the difficult decision to close to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

“We had to shut the taproom down, and if you don't have a taproom, you don't have a brewery,” Gulley said. “I assumed, as did a lot of people, that we'd come through it and people would start coming back. … But for a lot of us, we took on more debt just to get us through COVID.”

Grain, hops and other materials have also increased in price over the years: Illuminated’s Buckman cited a nearly 30% year-over-year increase since 2021. President Donald Trump’s added layer of tariffs on imported goods doubled the price of aluminum that many brewers purchase to can products.

In 2017, Whiner purchased cans from a Canadian company at nine cents per can, but the price is now approximately 16 cents per can.

“All this does is put more pressure on us to raise prices, and that just scares people away. It's like this double-edged sword,” Whiner’s Taylor said.

Suds have to stay nimble

Chicago is still, and likely always will be, a beer city. Some of the city’s surviving breweries say they are trying everything they can to stay afloat, including raising prices.

Raising prices has become inevitable, but cutting corners is not, said Paul Kreiner, Noon Whistle’s head brewer.

“We've bit the bullet with some of these things and we're just making smaller margins, unfortunately,” Kreiner said. “But we do have to stay competitive with the big guys, and also we have to stay true to ourselves and make sure that we are making the best quality beer possible.”

But in an inflationary era, is a price bump enough?

Noon Whistle stays, in Kreiner’s words, “nimble” and “ahead of the times,” paying close attention to trends, such as beers that incorporate guava and mango flavors, and by serving food at their Lombard brewpub.

The brewery has gone out of its way to lean into audience-grabbing measures, such as a Cicada-infused Malört. Silly and creative drinks get people in the door, or at the very least, talking about the brand.

But the secret sauce is definitely two-fold, Kreiner said: “We're trying to stay ahead of those curves,” he said, “but also what are people going back to and drinking and consistently buying?” For Noon Whistle, that’s the year-round best-selling citrusy hazy IPA known as Gummylicious.

“We all kind of know that the beer industry or liquor industry has kind of slowed down,” Old Irving’s Rose-Hamblin said. “Being able to have food and a place for people to dine and a more convenient location are all things that we have that really help.”

And a brewery’s ability to create meaningful spaces for people to connect, especially in a post-lockdown world, is what people are seeking more of in 2026, according to consumer research. Customers at Old Irving Brewing enjoy trivia nights and games.

And because there will always be a natural churn in the market, as one closes, another expands. In 2024, Whiner Beer Co. invited SomosMonos Cervercería to serve its product alongside their own in a shared taproom called The Jungle.

Now, as Whiner exits, SomosMonos will scale up operations at The Plant. Husband and wife duo Rocío and Victor Santoyo, along with their longtime friend Rene Lemus, will take over the lease and all the brewing equipment that comes with it.

The trio — who have been participating in beer festivals and beer pop-ups for years — have built music into their brewery plans. Because Victor and Lemus met as teenagers and eventually formed a band, they have a shared desire for a space where musical artists from the South Side can perform.

Now, they’re hosting events featuring local musical acts like Braided Janes and Fuego de Cumbia every weekend.Their taproom is currently open Thursday to Sunday, but the team is open to expanding hours in the future.“Now that we have this opportunity, we cannot just let it go,” Lemus said.