Best Breweries in the Southwest Suburbs (and the Ones That Didn't Make It)

by Brian Wittman

Search for breweries near here and you will get a list of Chicago breweries. Half Acre, Goose Island, Revolution. All good, all thirty-five minutes and a toll away, and none of them the answer to what you asked.

So I went through all nineteen towns out here myself. What I found was not what I expected, and the number that matters is not the one you would guess.

What are the best breweries in the southwest suburbs?

Eight, plus one just outside worth the drive. Tinley Park has four of them, which quietly makes it the beer town of the region. Frankfort, Lemont, Lockport, and Mokena have one apiece.

That is the whole list, and the reason it is that short is the actual story here. Eleven breweries inside these nineteen towns have closed, folded, or never opened, three of them in 2026 alone. Nearly every one of them still shows up as open on the review sites and the beer apps.

So this is a shorter list than you were probably hoping for. It is also a list where every single entry was checked against the brewery's own hours page, not scraped off a directory.

Why is this list shorter than you expected?

Because the craft beer boom that filled these towns has been running in reverse for a couple of years, and nobody updates the internet when a taproom closes.

I am not going to tell you why it happened, because I do not actually know and neither does anyone writing confidently about it. What I can tell you is what I found: eleven gone. Some folded quietly. Some were satellite taprooms of breweries headquartered elsewhere that got pulled back. At least one is still listed as open, with full hours, on the parent company's own website right now.

That is the whole argument for a list somebody actually checked. There is a specific, ordinary kind of bad night where you drive twenty-five minutes with friends to a place that closed in March. This article exists to prevent that.

Tinley Park has four, and that makes it the beer town

Nowhere else out here is close.

Hailstorm Brewing Co., 8060 186th St. Founded 2014, brews on site, and the most decorated of the group with a Great American Beer Festival gold medal and a barrel-aging program. Big beer garden with firepits, pinball, and regular bluegrass and blues nights. Taproom and patio Monday 3 to 8, Tuesday 11 to 9, Wednesday through Saturday 11 to 10, Sunday 11 to 8. Their own scratch kitchen closes an hour or two before the taproom depending on the night, so if you are coming for food rather than beer, come earlier than you think.

Soundgrowler Brewing Co., 8201 183rd St, Suite P. Founded 2017. The Village's own tourism page describes it as a doom metal brewery with a taco window, which is the most honest one-line description of any business in this article. Monday through Thursday 12 to 10, Friday and Saturday 12 to 11, Sunday 12 to 7, kitchen closing an hour before the taproom every day.

Banging Gavel Brews at The Vogt House, 17400 Oak Park Ave. The brewhouse is in the basement of a restored historic house, and the restoration won a 2025 Landmarks Illinois Driehaus preservation award. It is the best story in the category and it is worth going just to see the building. Wednesday and Thursday 4 to 10, Friday 4 to 11, Saturday 12 to 11, Sunday 12 to 8. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Full gastropub kitchen, closing an hour before the taproom.

Flipside Brewing, 7144 183rd St. Opened in 2022 by Erik Pizer, who co-founded 350 Brewing and left in 2016, and it sits in 350's old room. Own kitchen doing smashburgers, wings, and curds. Monday through Thursday 11 to 10, Friday and Saturday 11 to 11, Sunday 11 to 7, which makes it the most forgiving schedule in town if you are trying to go on a whim.

Four breweries inside one village is not normal for a suburb this size. If you are settling into Tinley Park, IL, it is a real amenity and it is not one that shows up in a school rating or a listing sheet.

Frankfort, Lemont, Lockport, and Mokena

Trail's Edge Brewing Co., 20 Kansas St, Frankfort. Opened 2017. It sits at the downtown Frankfort trailhead of the Old Plank Road Trail, which means you can ride to it, and it has a full kitchen doing burgers, ribs, salmon, and pizza. Monday through Wednesday 11:30 to 9, Thursday through Saturday 11:30 to 10, Sunday 11 to 9.

The thing that sets it apart: there is a dog menu on the patio. Not a water bowl, an actual menu. If that is your deciding factor, it is also in the dog lover's guide to the southwest suburbs for the same reason.

Pollyanna Brewing Company, 431 Talcott Ave, Lemont. Opened September 2014. This is the important part that most lists get wrong: Lemont is the headquarters and the main brewhouse, not a satellite. Roselle and St. Charles are the satellites. The taproom looks directly into the production floor, a steam-heated fifteen-barrel system running somewhere around six thousand barrels a year. No kitchen of their own, but food trucks park on the patio from spring through fall. Tuesday through Thursday 3 to 10, Friday 3 to 11, Saturday 12 to 11, Sunday 12 to 7, and Mondays only for events.

Downtown Lemont sits on a bluff over the canal and it is walkable in a way most towns out here are not, which is part of why a brewery this size works there at all. Pollyanna also throws the biggest Oktoberfest in the southwest suburbs, which is the one weekend a year this taproom is not the quiet option.

Nik & Ivy Brewing, 1026 S State St, Lockport. Opened 2020, a genuine nano operation with most of it brewed on site. Pizza plus a bring-your-own arrangement, gluten-free options, and they host a local artisans market. Monday through Wednesday 3 to 9, Thursday 3 to 10, Friday 3 to 11, Saturday 11 to 11, Sunday 11 to 8.

One thing to know before you go: the place directly across State Street closed this past July, and its parent brewery still lists it as open with full hours. Nik & Ivy is at 1026. Do not end up at 1025. If you are considering Lockport, IL, the downtown is doing more than it gets credit for.

Brothership Brewing, 18781 S 90th Ave, Unit E, Mokena. Brews on site, and their whole pitch is comfortable and unfussy. They opened on February 22, 2020, which is about four weeks before the state shut down, and they are still here. Food is jerky and pretzels, so eat first or plan on it being a beer stop rather than dinner. Sunday 12 to 6, Wednesday and Thursday 4 to 9, Friday 4 to 10, Saturday 12 to 10. Closed Monday and Tuesday, which is the tightest schedule on this page, so check the day before you drive. If you are looking at houses in Mokena, IL, it is the town's only brewery and it is tucked in an industrial unit you would never find by accident.

Worth the drive: Werk Force in Plainfield

This one is outside the nineteen towns and I am flagging that plainly rather than pretending Plainfield is around the corner. It is a bit further west, and it is the most decorated independent brewery in the immediate area.

Werk Force Brewing Co., 14903 S Center St, Plainfield. A nano electric brewery operating inside Chicago Brew Werks. Taproom Wednesday through Friday 12 to 10, Saturday 11 to 10, Sunday 11 to 7. Happy Belly Kitchen operates inside the taproom, Wednesday through Saturday 12 to 9 and Sunday 12 to 6, and because they have a food partner in the building there is no outside food or drink.

Two practical notes. They are card and contactless only, no cash. And the taproom runs Wednesday through Sunday, so a Monday or Tuesday trip is a wasted one.

Which ones have a kitchen?

This is the question that decides most trips, so here it is plainly.

Own kitchen: Hailstorm, Soundgrowler, Banging Gavel, Flipside, Trail's Edge, and Werk Force through Happy Belly. If you want to eat and drink in the same building without planning, those are your six.

No kitchen of their own: Pollyanna runs food trucks on the patio spring through fall, which is great in September and a different proposition in February. Nik & Ivy has pizza plus a bring-your-own arrangement and a saloon next door. Brothership has light snacks only, jerky and pretzels, so that one is a beer stop and not a meal.

And one detail that catches people at nearly every brewery on this list: the kitchen closes before the taproom does, usually by an hour. Showing up at nine expecting a nine-thirty burger is the most common way to get this wrong.

What about dogs and kids?

The only brewery here with a verified dog offering is Trail's Edge in Frankfort, and it is a real one, a dog menu on the patio rather than a bowl by the door.

For everywhere else I would call first. Dog policies at breweries change with the season, the patio setup, and sometimes the health inspector, and I am not going to tell you a place is dog friendly because it looked that way in a photo.

Same answer on kids, with one thing worth knowing: most Illinois breweries with a full kitchen are set up as restaurants and are generally fine with families earlier in the day, while a taproom without a kitchen often is not. That maps almost exactly onto the kitchen list above, which makes it a decent first filter. Confirm before you load everyone in the car.

Which ones closed, and what is there now?

Because you are going to search one of these eventually and find a listing that says it is open.

Hickory Creek Brewing near New Lenox closed in June 2026. Their own announcement said they had brewed their last batch. A pizza restaurant is taking the space.

350 Brewing in Tinley Park closed and never came back. Flipside is in that room now, opened by one of 350's co-founders, so if someone tells you 350 is still around, they are half right in the way that does not help.

Will County Brewing closed its Channahon location in 2024 and the company itself closed in April 2026. That same address had already gone through River Hawk Brewing before that.

Lock & Mule in Lockport closed in late July 2026. It was a satellite taproom of a brewery whose actual brewhouse is in Ottawa, and at the time I checked, that parent company's website still listed it as open with a full week of hours.

MyGrain Brewing in Joliet is gone, though its brewhouse is still in the building at Union Station. A restaurant holds the space now and there has been talk of brewing there again. If that happens, Joliet gets back on this list.

Steam Hollow in Manteno closed and there is a gym in the building.

The Bottom Line

Tinley Park is the beer town and it is not close. Four breweries in one village, each doing something different, and Hailstorm is the one with the hardware.

If you only make one trip, make it Banging Gavel for the building or Trail's Edge if you are bringing the dog. If you want to see beer actually being made while you drink it, Pollyanna in Lemont is the one with the fifteen-barrel system on the other side of the glass.

For coverage: I checked all nineteen towns and came up empty in Beecher, Channahon, Homer Glen, Manhattan, Manteno, Minooka, Monee, New Lenox, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, and Peotone. Joliet is a maybe rather than a no, for the reason above. That is not a knock on any of those towns, several of them had a brewery until recently. If you know one I missed, tell me and I will go look.

Everything here was verified in September 2026 against each brewery's own hours. This is the fastest-changing list on this site and I will be rechecking it more often than the others, but hours move, so check before you drive.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best breweries in the Chicago southwest suburbs?

Hailstorm, Soundgrowler, Banging Gavel, and Flipside in Tinley Park, Trail's Edge in Frankfort, Pollyanna in Lemont, Nik & Ivy in Lockport, and Brothership in Mokena. Werk Force in Plainfield is worth the drive if you are willing to go a little further west.

Which town has the most breweries in the southwest suburbs?

Tinley Park, with four. No other town in the nineteen I checked has more than one.

Which southwest suburb breweries have food?

Hailstorm, Soundgrowler, Banging Gavel, Flipside, and Trail's Edge all have their own kitchens, and Werk Force has Happy Belly Kitchen inside the taproom. Pollyanna runs food trucks in the warmer months and Nik & Ivy does pizza plus bring your own. Brothership has jerky and pretzels and that is it. At nearly all of the ones with kitchens, the kitchen closes about an hour before the taproom.

Are there dog friendly breweries in the southwest suburbs?

Trail's Edge in Frankfort has an actual dog menu on its patio, which is the only one I could verify. Policies elsewhere change with the season and the patio setup, so call ahead rather than trusting a photo.

Can you bring kids to a brewery in Illinois?

It depends on the place. Breweries operating with a full kitchen are generally set up as restaurants and tend to be fine with families earlier in the day, while a taproom without a kitchen often is not. Call first.

What happened to Hickory Creek Brewing?

It closed in June 2026. The owners announced it themselves, saying they had brewed their last batch, and a pizza restaurant is taking the space.

Is 350 Brewing still open?

No. It closed and did not reopen. Flipside Brewing occupies the same building at 7144 183rd St in Tinley Park, opened by one of 350's original co-founders.

Are any southwest suburb breweries open on Mondays?

Several, but fewer than you would think. Hailstorm, Flipside, Soundgrowler, Trail's Edge, and Nik & Ivy open Mondays. Banging Gavel and Brothership are closed Monday and Tuesday, Werk Force runs Wednesday through Sunday, and Pollyanna opens Mondays only for events.

Set up a time to talk if the town you want to live in and the town with the good beer are not the same town.

Brian Wittman is a licensed real estate broker (Real Broker LLC), mortgage loan originator (NMLS #2646598, NEXA Mortgage, LLC, Equal Housing Lender), and life insurance producer (Levinson & Associates). For full disclosures, visit https://bluejeanbroker.com/disclosures.