Dovetail Brewery - Raising a Glass to Traditional Craft

Dovetail Brewery – Raising a Glass to Traditional Craft

Photos by Jessica Lewandowski

On a beautiful Saturday morning, myself and my craft-beer-obsessed friend joined a tour and tasting at the newly opened Dovetail Brewery in Northcenter of Chicago. Dovetail Brewery is the collaboration of brew buddies Bill Wesselink and Hagen Dost, who met in Munich during their studies. They both favored traditional beers and open fermentation and realized Chicago would be the perfect city to reintroduced expertly-made European craft beer. In a big city completely overtaken by IPAs, I personally could not have been more pleased with the focus at Dovetail Brewery.

The tour began right away at the Dovetail bar, which currently sports taps for the three European beers Bill and Hagen have crafted thus far. We started off with Dovetail Lager, which was malty without being dark. We could immediately start to get a feel for the style of the brewery: distinct and recognizable flavors that don’t get too complicated. I certainly suggest newcomers taste their Lager first to get a solid idea of what’s to come from their other beers.

With beer in hand, our tour group was led to the first room of the gigantic warehouse space Dovetail Brewery resides in. The most impressive corner of the brewery was the 106-year-old copper fermenting vessel, which was salvaged from the world’s oldest brewery, Weihenstephaner, in Germany.

Glasses of Hefeweizen were poured next, which turned out to be my personal favorite. The beer had strong citrus and fruity flavors. I loved the choice of glass for this beer as well! The tall Pilsner glass had ridges spiraling up from the base, which kept our beers bubbling and crisp the entire time we were touring.

Bill and Hagen explained how their beers became unique to Dovetail, which is as early as stage one: the water! Dovetail Brewery has actually made their own water, and, yes, we had a water tasting with our beer! We could really taste the difference between regular tap water and the water crafted for their brews. This means you literally can’t have any other beer that would taste like the ones at Dovetail.

The third and final beer at Dovetail Brewery was the Rauchbier. The Rauchbier was very dark and very much reminded me of coffee. The surprising part of this beer was it didn’t sit heavy in our stomachs like many other dark beers do. I normally never choose a dark beer simply because of the heaviness, but I could easily enjoy one or two glasses of Rauchbier at Dovetail.

There’s a lot of cool stuff going on at Dovetail Brewery. The brew master duo is currently working on a Bock for colder seasons as well as a Lambic Style, which you can expect to see around 2018. Although you should definitely test out the beers at Dovetail, you can still find them at other popular locations in the Chicago area. Keep your eyes open next time you bar hop in the city!

I wouldn’t have expected tradition to feel so refreshing, but in a hot spot for craft beers in a hipster market, bringing back European style beer doesn’t feel overdone. The tour at Dovetail Brewery is really interactive compared to others we’ve taken; we tasted malt and touched and smelled the hops they use there. The groups were small and intimate because they only just opened in June, so this is totally the time to go and experience the brewery!

Dovetail Brewery is open Wednesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday from 11:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tours run every Saturday at 11 a.m. for $15, which is practically free since each .3L beer is $5. You can purchase .5 L pours for $7, as well.

Dovetail Brewery is BYOF, so don’t hesitate to order in a pizza while you’re sippin’ some expertly crafted European brewskies!