Explore Ravenswood’s Newest Brewery Where Saisons Rule

When Mike Schalau first launched Is/Was Brewing five years ago, a Redditor shared an image of the poster for the brewery’s release party with the note: “It’s a new project focusing on saison, so they’ll be making hazy IPAs in two weeks.”

The demand for hazies has since cooled, but the Redditor’s remark still resonates with Schallau.

“I’m not a petty person, but I saw that and I said to myself ‘hold my saison,’” he says.

Is/Was still hasn’t released anything but saisons, and drinkers can try six different versions of the French/Belgian style at their new taproom at 5121 N. Ravenwood Avenue., which opened in August. Schallau, who lives in Ravenswood and has been contract brewing from Begyle Brewing, says he’d been eyeing the Malt Row building since Urban Brew Labs closed in 2022.

The taproom is simply decorated with a colorful board on the exposed brick wall showing off the draft list. There are plenty of outlets in the curving booths to welcome locals who want to use the place for remote work along with a scattering of small tables and seats at the bar. A secondary space with room for 50 more is currently being used for overflow seating but Schallau is considering adding Skeeball or other fun activities.

Delicate, yeast-driven saisons were Schallau’s favorite style when he first started getting into beer while working at West Lakeview Liquors, a shop at Addison and Leavitt that specializes in imported brews. But when Schallau joined Pipeworks Brewing Company, he devoted himself to learning and drinking their preferred styles — hoppy IPAs with high ABV.

“As I went from an intern there to running all daily operations and overseeing recipe development, I’d kind of fallen out of love with making beer,” Schallau says. “I was kind of lost. Then I had a saison, La Vermontois, a collaboration between Belgian brewery Blaugies and Hill Farmstead in Vermont and I was like, ‘Ohh, I forgot. This is what I really fell in love with.’”

He began experimenting with what would become his flagship, Will Be, seeking to fill a void in the Chicago market while appealing to evolving tastes. Most of Is/Was’ beers are about 3.2 percent ABVs, topping out with a rare 6 or 6.5 percent.

“I think that a lot of craft beer drinkers are getting a little older and their palates are developing in a different way than when they wanted to drink super hoppy beers and really acidic kettle sours,” Schallau says. “Saison has these flavors that are really complex if you want to dive into what’s going on in the beer, or you can kind of crush a couple of them and they’ll be super satisfying and refreshing.”

The taproom shows off the style’s versatility by pouring Is/Was’ Will Be, Wisp smoked saison, and Saison Effyrayant — which is conditioned with fresh sage leaves — along with rotating pours developed in collaboration with other breweries including Revolution Brewing. Schalau plans to start making some other styles once his new production brewery is up and running in about a month. Until then, there’s a selection of six guest drafts including Goldfinger Brewing Company’s flagship lager and Hop Butcher For The World’s Snorkel Squad double IPA.

Barry Brecheisen/Eater Chicago

“Instead of making a mediocre version (of a style), we’d rather get the best version from our world-class brewery friends,” Schallau said. “We want people who don’t like saison to have a good time.”

To that end, the brewery also serves Shacksbury Cider, Dark Matter nitro coffee, and a blackberry shrub prepared with Mick Klug Farms berries and housemade malt vinegar. Schalau would like to see the brewery become a third space for the neighborhood and while he doesn’t have a kitchen, he’s already hosted a popup with Motorshucker and arranged a 15% percent discount for customers who want to pick up a Detroit-style pie from Fat Chris’s Pizza and Such around the corner. He’s also planning on hosting makers markets to show off works made by his employees and artists the brewery works with.

Schallau says he’s been overwhelmed with the response to the opening, which brought lines out the door for nearly five hours.

“I spent most of the last five years (brewing beer) in a 600-square-foot room without windows and most of that time I was alone, wondering if anyone was drinking it or if anyone even really cared about this thing that I cared very deeply about,” he said. “It was a nice way to kind of physically manifest the fact that people had been paying attention. It was pretty emotional.”

Is/Was Brewing, 5121 N. Ravenswood Ave., open noon to 9 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday; noon to midnight on Friday and Saturday