A middle brow brewpub will come to Logan Square this fall.
middle brow., the roving band of iterant brewers known for beers like their Robyn farmhouse ale, Milk Eyed Mender milk stout and Sells Out series of hazy IPAs, recently announced they were finally setting down roots and plan to open a brewpub in Logan Square. “Modest” is the word middle brow likes to use to describe themselves and their efforts, and this announcement was done in truly modest manner.
Technically, Imbibe Magazine was the first to have the snipped of news about the middle brow brewpub — though it first hit our radar in last week’s email newsletter (which is excellent for many reasons and you should certainly subscribe). It was there that they posted a screengrab which revealed that they plan to open a location on Armitage Avenue “near the end of this year.”
Plans include the brewing of middle brow classics, Belgian styles, wild ales and the blending of presumably all of the above. The brewpub will also have pizza ovens, which as they put it, “we’ll likely use to make pizza. but… maybe not?” They also envision an onsite community garden where they’ll grow “herbs and hops and fruits and vegetables” for beers and food.
You can subscribe to the middle brow email through their homepage, which we encourage not just because they quietly announce their forthcoming brewpub there and nowhere else. They also regularly deliver in-depth updates on the charities they support via their beers, as well as some well-thought-out and reasoned takes on what’s going on in the beer world and beyond.
It’s far more than you would expect from a brewery email, which usually simply outline new beer releases, events and other basic updates — even the best don’t offer much more than this. But the middle brow release, for example, announced the new brewpub and also featured a 1600-word essay about sexism in beer and beer labels, discussed how speaking out about sexism in breweries helped define who middle brow was, took issue with Brewdog’s pink ipa (which I only just now realized was a play on their “Punk” IPA), referenced tech-bro culture crossover — and more. It’s required reading each week, and one of the few brewery emails you should actually sign up for.
Also, we cracked open a few of their “Sells Out” IPAs made with Denali hops and it was pretty damn good as hazy IPAs go — and we’ve been enjoying more and more recently after spending some time on the fence about the style. We’ve liked middle brow from day one for their dedication to delivering 50% of the profits to a different charity, and now they’ll have a home to make even more of those beers. Never a bad thing.