Today the husband and I ventured outside our comfort zone and made it down south-ish to the Lagunitas Brewery and Tap Room in Douglas Park for a day trip jaunt. Holy beer, Batman!

My friend and I had made it down to Grant Park for the Women’s March (which was very cool to see, BTW) and decided to meet up with our men at the brewery afterward. While the guys opted for Ubers, we took the pink line from the loop down to the California stop and arrived at our destination after a 25-ish minute ride and a 10 minute walk. Just in case you’re wondering if you have the right address, “Lagunitas Brewing Company, 2607 West 17th St, Chicago, IL USA, Earth, Sol. Milky Way, Local Group, Virgo Super Cluster, Space” is plastered in gigantic letters smack dab on the front. So you’ll know for sure.

Come With Me And You’ll Be In a World of Pure Imagination

After you walk in the door and get your ID checked, you will walk down a long hallway to get to the Taproom and Tour line. IT IS SO COOL. It’s decked out with psychedelic space scenes and lasers that takes you past the brewing floor. And the Willy Wonka soundtrack is playing the whole time.

After your trek into the alternate universe that is Lagunitas, you’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the line on the right-hand side (unless, I’m assuming, you get there right when they open at 11 AM - however we got there around 2 PM so I’m not sure what the status is usually like earlier than that or later in the evening).

The Wait Isn’t That Bad, Especially If You Have Beer

My recommendation is to designate one or two people to head to the tasting bar down the hall and around the corner to grab some beers for your wait. FYI: it’s cash only and all draft pours are $5. They do have an ATM on site but it’ll make your visit a lot smoother if you plan ahead. My personal favorite beer? Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’. It’s got the signature hoppy flavor but doesn’t finish as bitter as I find some usually do. Plus, it’s got an ABV of 7.5%, so you definitely don’t have to worry about getting too full on beer! We headed back into line after grabbing our bevvies and only had to wait about 10 more minutes. At 2 PM on a Saturday afternoon our wait ended up being about 30. Not bad!

We headed upstairs to the Taproom and made a beeline for a table because we were starving. No reservations, seat yourself - we were lucky to spot a 4 seater right away. I ate my food too quickly to take a picture but I highly recommend the pretzel as an appetizer and the flat top burger with caramelized onions. Finishing it off with a Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ doesn’t hurt either. They also had live blues music - music is a huge staple at Lagunitas! After we wrapped up “linner”, we had just enough time to make it over to the tour meet up before the 5 PM left (they run 15 minute tours every hour on the hour) with some extra beer to spare for the road.

The Lagunitas Brewery Is Like Breaking Bad… But for Beer.

After fueling up at the Taproom, we headed into the brewery (brew floor?) with our very funny tour guide. The tour is a great way to scientifically justify a day of imbibing - because who doesn’t love chemistry?! Bill Nying our way down the catwalks, we learned a ton of fun and extremely scientific facts about Lagunitas:

• Chicagonitas is one of 5 Lagunitas breweries in the country.
• The site used to be the home of a steel mill and then it was a filming location for CineSpace. Lagunitas took over and signed a lease for 100 years.
• They definitely filmed scenes from the Dark Knight in one of the back corners - specifically the money burning scene with Heath Ledger.
• Soldier Field can fit inside of the walls of the brewery.

I won’t spoil it all for you, but it’s definitely something you should check out - especially as a great cold-weather or rainy day option!