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Chicago has always been a brewing and beer-drinking city. Join us for a look at Chicago's brewery architecture: industrial breweries, palatial homes of beer barons and, of course, the ever-popular vernacular neighborhood pubs.

Price
$15 public
Free for CAC members
Meet
Zoom Virtual Event (details to come)

Immigrants brought beer-drinking culture to Chicago early in its history. German immigrants brought lager beer and helped develop a brewing industry that at one time constituted a quarter of the city’s revenues. This presentation follows the history of breweries, the men who headed them, and their effects on Chicago, from the building of large breweries of the post-fire era to the buildings of today’s craft beer culture.

Presenter: Ellen Shubart

Ellen Shubart has been a CAC docent since 2006. Prior to retiring, Shubart worked as an advocate in urban planning and for 20 years was a journalist. She earned an MA in history from Roosevelt University and a MS in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In her work at CAC, she gives the River Cruise tour as well as being certified for more than 15 walking tours. Two of those tours are CAC’s summer pub crawls, which spurred her interest in the beer story of Chicago.

Presenter: Ed McDevitt

A docent since 2010, Ed McDevitt has developed or co-developed numerous walking tours for the CAC, including the popular pub tours. McDevitt began writing about beer and beer culture decades ago, at the beginning of what was then known as the Microbrewing era. He also leads four other tours and is active in docent leadership. Among his many activities, McDevitt is on the board of the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation and arranges and leads bird walks in an around Oak Park during spring and fall bird migration seasons.