Beer collaborations happen between breweries all the time, but beer collaborations between breweries and cultural institutions rarely occur. We wanted to change that. By coming together with beer makers and other non profit organizations, we delve deeper into the collaborative spirit that is the very foundation of the Beer Culture Center. The beer industry has been doing it for decades, so why shouldn’t museums? Plus, infusing historic tales into a beer that you can enjoy today allows us to share lesser known narratives and helps us make personal connections to the past which means we’re sharing the vast story of beer with every little sip you take.
We crafted our first cultural beer collab in 2018 and we’re still going strong.
THE STROLL
A collaboration with the Black owned breweries in the Chicagoloand area which included 18th St. Brewery, Black Horizon Brewing, Funktytown Brewery, Haymarket Brewing with Sam Ross and Jay Westbrook, and Moors Brewing. Bronze Ale with select adjuncts. 5-6% ABV. Released November 2022.
Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, often called the Black Belt, was a long stretch of city blocks that paralleled the Illinois Central railway tracks on Chicago's South Side. It’s most vibrant part, a strip of South State Street clubs and businesses that ran through the heart of Bronzeville, was called The Stroll. Bars, lounges, and ballrooms offered an array of neighborhood entertainment in the form of music, culture, and beverage. These 4 beers were inspired by 4 different stories along The Stroll.
Explore the stories and learn more on The Stroll webpage.
chicago’s very own
A collaboration with WGN Radio, Metropolitan Brewing, and Seipp Brewing Company. Golden lager. 5% ABV. Released May 2022 and May 2023.
They’ve been there with you for chats at the kitchen table, grilling with you out in the back yard, and keeping you company while you’re on the road. For 100 years, WGN Radio has been sharing stories - your stories - that are fiercely Chicago.
Crafted to commemorate WGN Radio’s 100th anniversary, this crispy and refreshing golden lager was the best way to celebrate a Chicago staple. Let’s raise a glass to Chicago’s Very Own.
VIVA LA FRIDA
A collaboration with the National Museum of Mexican Art and Casa Humilde Cerveceria. Hibiscus + lime lager. 4.6% ABV. Released April 2022. Now in the brewery’s permanent line-up, this beer is sill available throughout Chicagoland.
A Mexican icon of femininity, creativity, sexuality, authenticity, perseverance, and triumph, Frida Kahlo has empowered generations of people around the world. We all love and connect with Frida because there’s a little bit of the artist in all of us. Celebrating Frida is celebrating one another.
This special brew celebrates the life and legacy of an incredible woman who created community with everyone around her. This beverage was also crafted in honor of the newest exhibition at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Frida Kahlo: Her Photos was on display April - August 2022.
The three organizations that came together to collaborate on this craft beer were founded by and currently led by Mexican-Americans, making this beer extra special.
FORGOTTEN HALF
A collaboration with Goose Island Beer Company. Historic Ale. 5.0% ABV. Released November 2021.
At the helm of many city-wide breweries and taverns were women who were responsible for serving patrons, handling the books, and managing overall operations. The contribution of women to beer culture in late 19th century Chicago was essential to both the growth of the city and the beer industry. Yet, it is often forgotten, hidden behind the beer barons who always get the spotlight.
Forgotten Half, a collaboration with Goose Island Beer Company, aimed to honor these women. Staying true to history, this brew was crafted from period American pale ale recipes and was made with six row malted barley, Cluster hops (one of the earliest hop varieties in the country), and a strain of ale yeast from a historic brewery.
ANGEL OF FIRE
A collaboration with the Chicago History Museum and Alarmist Brewing. Dark lager. 5.2% ABV. Released October 2021.
Long before October 1871, Joseph and Anna Elizabeth Hudlin were already heroes. Joseph was born into slavery in Virginia but escaped. He later married Anna Elizabeth and the couple arrived in Chicago in 1855. When the Great Chicago Fire began on October 8th and ravaged the city for three days, the Hudlins sprang into action. Joseph ran to the Board of Trade, where he worked as a porter, to save important documents from being burned. With their home safely out of the inferno’s path, Anna opened it to anyone who needed a safe place to go, earning her the nickname Angel of Fire.
This beer remembered and honored the Hudlins, one of many lesser-known unsung heroes who emerged during the Fire and the many people of color who are often forgotten in history.
NOVA REPERTA
A collaboration with the Newberry Library and Sketchbook Brewing. Saison with grape must. 6% ABV. Released October 2020.
Nova Reperta was inspired by a viral 16th-century print series that celebrated the marvels of the Renaissance, including gunpowder, the stirrup, and the printing press. The images in the series spread across Europe, and they shaped how people perceived the innovations that—for better or worse—were changing the world and molding the future.
Made with old world ingredients and new world tech, Nova Reperta was more than a beer. It embodied the timeless cycle of invention and reinvention. It is part of a trend as old as time and as new as the latest innovation. Six distinct cans with six distinct prints!
STACKS OF WHEAT
A collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago and Half Acre Beer Company. Golden Wheat Ale. 5% ABV. Available April - September 2020 in various U.S. markets.
When Claude Monet’s paintings first appeared in a Chicago in 1888-90, they ignited the passions of the press, public, and local collectors alike. In 1903, the Art Institute of Chicago became the first American museum to purchase one of Monet’s paintings. And today, the museum is home to the largest collection of his works outside of Paris.
At the same time as Monet’s rise to fame, the American beer industry was booming. And Chicago was at the center of it all. Immigrant beer makers were innovators, supporters of the arts, and important contributors to the growth of the city. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago became a beacon to the world as Americans from all walks of life could stroll through vast halls exhibiting works by Monet and his contemporaries, plus the monumental pavilions by American immigrant beer icons Frederick Pabst and Adolphus Busch.
Monet and Chicago was the first exhibition to explore Chicago’s pioneering connection to the great Impressionist artist. In the spirit of firsts, three uniquely Chicago institutions came together to make a beer that celebrated the city's connection to Monet's legacy.
ALL THE WORLD IS HERE
A collaboration with the Field Museum and Temperance Beer Company. Cream Ale. 5% ABV. Released 2019. Now in the brewery’s permanent line-up, this beer is sill available throughout Chicagoland.
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 put a star on Chicago’s flag because it progressed and defined a city. New ideas mixed with old, prejudices mixed with hope, and the future came into focus.
All the World is Here (one of the Fair’s slogans) is a decadent cream ale brewed in honor of the the 1893 World’s Fair and as a celebration of the Chicago Brewseum’s very first award winning exhibition, Brewing Up Chicago: How Beer Transformed a City, on display and featured at the Field Museum from November 2018 - September 2020.
Dry-hopped to perfection, this cream ale includes 2-row Chevalier barley malt and American corn varieties featured at the Exposition. A blend of hop bite and malt flavor, this beer embodies the many meanings of Chicago’s greatest fair and the collaboration is a testament to the things that make Chicago great.
Named one of the Top 10 stand-out museum collaborations by MuseumNext.
ELLA
A collaboration with the Dr. Jennifer Jordan of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and ERIS Brewery + Cider House (Chicago) and 3 Sheeps Brewing (Sheboygan, WI). Harvest Ale with Cluster hops. 5.5% ABV. Released October 2019.
Ella Seymour and her family played an important role in Wisconsin’s hop boom during the 1860s. Seymour both picked hops and helped provide board to dozens of transient workers whom her family hosted during the fervent harvest season. This exhausting labor not only helped define their experiences as women but also integrated them into an American landscape that was itself shifting ecologically, economically, and culturally. Via the hop bine, women helped colonize the landscape, hinge the fates of urban and rural growth, and steer American taste buds toward an increasingly popular immigrant product—lager beer.
With this beer we honored, celebrated, and acknowledged the labor of 19th century Midwestern women like Ella Seymour and their impact on the American beer industry.
COLLABORADE
A collaboration with the Pilchuck Glass School (Seattle), Pike Brewing Company (Seattle) and Forbidden Root Brewing (Chicago). Hefeweizen. 4.5% ABV. Brewed and released in both Chicago and Seattle, Fall 2019.
In 2019, the Beer Culture Center (Chicago Brewseum) and Pilchuck Glass School - two very different cultural organizations - came together to create an innovative exhibition. Beer + Glass featured modern interpretations of iconic historic glassware. Glass blowing artists from around the country worked with Brewseum historians to create their pieces for exhibition at Pilchuck. The result was a beautiful installation and a demonstration in the meaning of collaboration and the power of community.
Collaborade, inspired by the hefeweizen beer style and glass, was brewed in honor of this partnership and exhibition.
CABIN & COTTAGE
A collaboration with President Lincoln’s Cottage (DC), Powers Farm & Brewery (Virginia) and Rolling Meadows Farm & Brewery (Springfield, IL). Berliner Weiss. 4.3% ABV. Brewed in Midland, VA and Springfield, IL. Released in Chicago, Washington, DC, Virginia, and Springfield, IL, Spring/Summer 2019.
Raise this beer high to help us celebrate Abraham Lincoln, a leader forged by the Civil War and untold national progress. The Illinois lawyer turned wartime president shepherded the nation through its greatest challenge, put a legal end to its most terrible scourge, and embarked on a path toward national unity.
Cabin & Cottage was a beer that was made in the collaborative spirit that Abraham Lincoln cherished. Abraham Lincoln’s legacy was, in a sense, defined by his kindred homes in Illinois (cabin) and Washington DC (cottage). This collaboration further highlights the tireless effort by President Lincoln’s Cottage to reveal Lincoln’s true private and public life during the Civil War years, as well as the Beer Culture Center’s conviction that beer’s cultural significance can invigorate societal conversations in a unique way. And, in a fundamental but nevertheless poignant sense, this beer and this union symbolizes how Americans of separate regions can benefit from working together.
TWO LEVEES
A collaboration with Southern Food & Beverage Museum (New Orleans), Urban South Brewing (New Orleans) and Illuminated Brew Works (Chicago). Raspberry Kettle Sour. 5% ABV. Brewed and released in Chicago and New Orleans, Summer 2018.
Brewed in honor of the Illinois Bicentennial and the Tricentennial of New Orleans, Two Levees is rooted in the shared history and culture of Chicago and New Orleans.
An ale crafted with oats, wheat and raspberries - ingredients native to both areas - the beverage was inspired by shared French history and the explorers who discovered the water routes that connected people, food, and culture. The name referred not only to water, but to the fact that both locales have a history tied to alcohol and are guilty of having a windy bon temps all around. The connections between the Windy City and the Big Easy made this brewing project a perfect modern day exploration of place.