CUSP Magazine: Winter Issue 2014
CUSP Magazine is a Chicago based publication focused on helping up and coming creatives gain exposure for their brand and products. Our company is a collective of highly motivated individuals who work together to bring a new voice to the creative community.
CUSP Magazine is a Chicago based publication focused on helping up and coming creatives gain exposure for their brand and products. Our company is a collective of highly motivated individuals who work together to bring a new voice to the creative community.
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BREWEREY FEATURE//ALE SYNDICATE<br />
Walking west on Diversey Avenue toward the Green<br />
Exchange, it is difficult not to notice the sleek new building, standing<br />
out conspicuously among other industrial constructs on the corridor.<br />
Entering through the front door is forbidden. Access requires a<br />
detour to the side of the facility, which is marked with glossy insignia.<br />
Once inside, a rudimentary outfit contrasts starkly with the polished<br />
exterior. Well-circulated air reeks with the must of fermentation and<br />
white noise from engines powering five massive fermenters belays<br />
the ears—without even a fully functional bathroom, it’s incredibly<br />
minimal, but a more practiced eye could imagine the tasty fruits<br />
born of such industrial labor. This is the new home of Ale Syndicate.<br />
Opening a brewery in Illinois, a state renowned for its over 83<br />
craft breweries, is ambitious work, but brothers Jesse Edwin Evans<br />
and Samuel Evans are up to the challenge and making their mark<br />
in Chicago’s craft brewing community. The Evans brothers pride<br />
themselves on producing fresh, original takes on traditional beers,<br />
with a homespun Chicago feel.<br />
As their beer very much reflects, Jesse and Samuel are<br />
Chicagoans to the core, but they got their unlikely start in brewing in<br />
another of America’s beer meccas, California. Chasing his dreams<br />
out west, Jesse, then 23, landed in Sonoma where he got involved<br />
with the wine industry. Jesse readily admits he initially aspired to<br />
make wine, “Winemakers that I started befriending when I got out<br />
there really made me feel like I wanted to be a winemaker when I<br />
grew up, but they were the ones who introduced me to craft beer.” In<br />
a region that lives and bleeds wine, the locals need a little something<br />
extra to help them kick off their shoes at the end of the day. “When<br />
they get off work, they’re popping open west coast double IPAs.<br />
Craft beer is the thing that they relax with.” After their<br />
introduction to craft beer, it was love at first sip for the Evans brothers<br />
and their obsession took swift hold. They began volunteering at local<br />
breweries and seeking out mentorship in the creative, technical and<br />
business aspects of the beer industry. Their hard work paid off in<br />
2006 with the launch of Lucky Hand Brewing, a backyard brewing<br />
operation-turned contract company. Born out of a partnership with<br />
colleagues they met in the wine industry, Lucky Hand produced<br />
regionally and historically authentic beers, particularly lagers. “We<br />
were making an unfiltered, unpasteurized beer [in California] that<br />
was very much what would have been drunk in the saloons if you<br />
had been around there prospecting for gold,” Jesse said. The Cali<br />
Common lager to which Jesse referred, was a steam beer that went<br />
on to win the prestigious bronze medal in the 2012 American Beer<br />
Cup. Bolstered by success and fueled by proceeds from the buyout<br />
of Lucky Hand, Jesse and Sam then headed home to pursue their<br />
dream of opening a bigger, more successful brewery with a distinct<br />
Chicago feel.<br />
32<br />
<strong>CUSP</strong> MAGAZINE WINTER ’14 ISSUE