Empirical Brewery

Very spacious with cool bartenders and inexpensive beers — I enjoyed the Ginger Wheat, very easy drinking with a subtle hint of ginger, and the Rye Porter, definitely tasted of rye with a smooth malty finish. The packaged sausage sticks were a hearty appetizer followed by a large pizza ordered from Jimmy’s from the binder of delivery joints. A few rousing rounds of Jenga were played, followed by some hands of Cards Against Humanity with new friends who were enjoying beer flights. Great hangout spot.

Beer is well rounded and every variety is worth checking out. Love it when they have food trucks come by. I also love the fact that they are pet friendly!

Empirical brewery is a wonderful taproom! The beer is delicious and priced so reasonably. You can order take-​out food and bring it in. One of the best parts is that it is dog-​friendly! Trivia on Tuesday nights is really fun, too.

This taproom is by far the coolest place in the neighborhood. Although a little echoey due to the concrete floors, it’s perfect for whatever kind of hanging out you want to do. Sit and read a book? Catch up with a group of friends? Unwind after work with colleagues? Enjoy an important [a sport] game? Stake the week’s chores on a game of Battleship with your mate? You can do it all here, and enjoy delicious Empirical brews at the same time. These guys are experimenters, and continually serve up interesting concoctions, as well as the solid group of core beers as well. So far my favorites are the Infinity IPA and Chromatic Imperial Red.
I’d been following the progress of the brewery for a few years and was thrilled when it finally opened. The beers are good and I hope to see them distribute far and wide. BUT, to me it is the tap room which sets them apart. It is just so perfect for the neighborhood.
They have a team of working cats (so awesome – check this out:
).
They are dog– and baby-​friendly.
They encourage you to bring in takeout food or order delivery, providing menus to the best local options.
They host fun but low-​key events such as Ugly Sweater Holiday party, Drama-​Free New Year’s Eve, and Trivia Tuesdays.
They offer a shelf full of board games AND a Galaga/​Ms Pac-​Man cabinet.
Since mid-​December, the tap handles are lightsaber hilts.
The brewery logo is the Sumerian cuneiform character for beer, for heaven’s sake!
Could the place be any sweeter? Check them out, or better yet, become a regular.

Pro’s: Fantastic neighborhood spot. Dog friendly with chill atmosphere and cozy vibe. Nice beer selection. Traditional brews and innovative blends as well.
Con: The music’s pretty bad. Maybe relinquish that control to Pandora.
All in all; great neighborhood joint. Address the music and add a foosball table and it’s a 5 star neighborhood establishment.

It is very nice to have a brewery like this in the neighborhood. Cozy, relaxing place to hang out and enjoy beer.
Ambience: Great — spacious and very cozy
Beer: Great — I like the IPA.
Service: Great — bartenders are friendly

Wednesday afternoon visit to the taproom to check this place out. Two options for flights: regular or experimental. You can also do a mix and match of beers from both groups, which we did. All the beers were good, but there was an experimental porter that was aged in bourbon barrels. Wow. My friend and I agreed it was like a beer Manhattan. We both are still talking about it a week later. Friendly service and great music. Can’t wait to go back.

There really is a tasting room at this address. You’ll need to pull into the parking lot and enter from the side. That little bit confused our Über driver when we showed up.
Once you walk inside, you’re greeted with a nice open warehouse style tasting room. Plenty of space for a large group. The décor is about what you’d expect from a functional brewery, nothing really on the walls. They do have some nice sized TVs for watching a game above the bar.
The beers were good. Their IPA was ok, lacking a little in the body and floral complexity of the hops. The real gem on the beer menu was a lot of the barrel aged beers they had. Combined with the some of their pilot series, there was a lot of unique beer to be sampled.
They don’t serve any food but do have menus from local restaurants on the bar. We ended up ordering some tacos from a Korean/​Mexican place just down the street (sorry, name escapes me) and the food was amazing.
One of the better breweries that I’ve discovered in the Chicago area.

Great addition to the neighborhood. All of the beers I sampled were very tasty, the staff was extremely welcoming and fun and the overall vibe of the place is great. Welcome to the neighborhood!

Welcome to the neighborhood, Empirical. We are thrilled to have you here! I like the logo–
Reminds me of Tesla or hood ornament. Oh yeah, your beer is delicious, too.

How fitting that I happen upon this exquisite brewery on the first snow of the season. Like the first snow, this brewery is fresh, invigorating and full of potential. The beers are delightful, bartenders friendly and knowledgable, and atmosphere charming. There are arcade and board games to keep you occupied, if the transcendent brews are not enough (which they will be). There are often food trucks waiting outside the brewery and if not, the charming bartenders are ready to offer menus from neighboring eateries. Don’t miss it!

Lowkey opening of a brewery alert! Very under the radar with not much hub bub, Empirical Brewery opened on Friday. I read about the opening and scurried myself over this weekend to try some of their brews. I had only tried their flagship IPA and as we all know, I’m beer obsessed so was all over trying some new brews!
I went on a Sunday when none of my guy friends with go with me because they can’t tear themselves away from pigskinballgame and my girlfriends? They simply do not like beer. Ain’t no shame in my game, I rolled in solo. I was the only when in just after they opened but it was cool because I got some face time with the fellas working the bar. Both guys working were very friendly in a genuine way and extremely knowledgeable about the brewery, their beers and beer in general.
Since I was alone, I couldn’t go too crazy with the liqs and went with their $ 10 Experimental Flight. You get 4 tasters for the $ 10 price or you can get their standard flight for $ 8 or just order a single taster for $ 2.50. Of course they also have pints, growlers plus slightly large glasses of suds for sale. My only suggestion for the flights is to have some better way of labeling what’s what — there is currently no labeling. I have the memory of a goldfish so like to have something to reference so I know what I’m drinking. Thankfully for me the four beers in my flight were very different types so I could tell them apart, but I can see how it would be very confusing for beer noobies.
In their experimental flight, I had the Singularity (Oatmeal stout, my fav of the flight), Doc Brown’s Nut Brown (brown ale, way nutty), Infinity IPA (their flagship beer and duh, an IPA) and First Law (Patersbier). I had never had a patersbier before… or at least to my knowledge. And with 1400 beers logged on Untappd, that’s insane. It’s a German type and I wasn’t that into it but it was nice to try. Apparently with these experimental beers, they are taking feedback, will make some ingredient adjustments to ones people like and toss ones from the lineup if people aren’t feeling them. Because I liked their stout best from the flight, the barkeep told me I had to try their barrel aged beer. I am so glad he did because it was hands down my favorite of the day. Sublimation: Bourbon Barrel-​aged Porter. Yeshhhhhhh. You must get this when you go to Empirical.
I have convinced a friend to go with me this week so I can try their remaining brews. They are BYOF and plan to sometimes have food trucks outside. The taproom is huge with a good amount of seating but they plan on adding more plus TVs. The city passed them on Thursday and opened the next day to please the masses so they still have a bit of work planned on the taproom’s appearance. Even with the current bare bones look, the guys make the place so welcoming that you don’t even notice no one is in the giant space with you!
I see good things in the future and plan on keeping tabs & up to date with their happenings!