Spiteful Brewing
2024 W. Balmoral Ave.
Chicago, IL
SpitefulBrewing.com

Monday – Thursday: 3-9 p.m.
Friday: 2-11 p.m.
Saturday: Noon-11 p.m.
Sunday: Noon-8 p.m.

History in short: Spiteful was founded in January 2010 by Brad Shaffer and Jason Klein, who met as kids following a “spiteful” incident during a hockey game on a local pond. 

The friendship would grow stronger as teammates on the high school hockey team, but for college, Shaffer ended up in Boulder “discovering what good beer was all about,” and Klein “was still drinking Keystone Light 30 packs” at the University of Arizona. 

Before long, the passion for good beer grew in both of them, and they started aggressively home brewing back in Chicago — at first using a stove in the kitchen before upgrading their equipment — churning out three batches a week for about three years.

Initially working out of an elbow-bumping 400 square-foot basement, they self distributed using a canning line on wheels from 2012-2017, during which they “pieced together a few things to build up to about 1,600 square feet,” Klein says with a chuckle.

The brewhouse and taproom officially opened on the far north side of Chicago in 2017, just steps from Half Acre Brewing.

The space: As a former north sider, we’ve spent several evenings watching the snow fall on the city from inside this small, cozy taproom. The centerpiece, to us anyway, is the beautiful multi-layered bar, with a top built of dark hickory. Void of booths, the room carries more of a tavern vibe, and the wood accents add a lot, as do the giant garage doors in front.

Finishing off the barrel- and flower-lined front patio recently was the final piece to the puzzle for Spiteful, according to Klein. “Brad is a woodworker, so he’s added some touches to bring it all together and warm up the exterior to match what we had inside. It’s very attractive to walk up to now, and we have three big heat lamps out there if someone is brave enough.”

Interesting note: Shaffer and Klein have heard Spiteful’s name announced a total of four times at FoBAB (the prestigious annual Festival of Barrel Aged Beers), taking home two bronze medals for Barrel-aged Belligerent Bob in the barleywine category in 2016 and 2020 and a pair of golds with Malevolence Chocolate Caliente in the Specialty Strong/Porter Stout category and Spiteful Barleywine in the barleywine category. 

What we’re eating and drinking: There’s no denying Spiteful’s variety on draft (16 in all), and they’re pretty proud of their barrel-aged program these days. For good reason. Try the Mrs. O’Leary’s Chocolate Milk Stout with raspberries, which happened to spend a whopping four years in Buffalo Trace barrels. 

Another couple favorites of ours are the Working for the Weekend double IPA and the rich and roasty God Damn Pigeon porter (especially ideal during any snowstorm). Their consistent ESB is a popular taproom staple, and the silky smooth dark Czech lager — with hints of bittersweet dark chocolate and coffee — is one you won’t want to miss.

We want you to be able to bring someone who’s a beer fan and have them excited about what’s in their glass, but also strike a balance with our tap list and make sure its thoughtfully curated.” — Co-founder Jason Klein

“We try to make sure we’re covered with most styles like classic German, English, hoppy and sours, starting with our core stuff, but also offering things that are available only at the taproom,” Klein says. “We want you to be able to bring someone who’s a beer fan and have them excited about what’s in their glass, but also strike a balance with our tap list and make sure its thoughtfully curated.”

On the horizon: Spiteful is busy putting together some of their old events they used to host, like Cheeseburger and Pair of Dice (eat burgers, drink beer, play dice) and a charity bike pub crawl called Poker Ride, where you pick up poker cards at a handful of drinking establishments in the area and the best hand at the end of the day wins a prize. Keep an eye on social media for updates this spring. 

Spiteful has also launched a rotating series of their Working for the Weekend IPA with a hazy, tropical and a red IPA lined up for the warmer months. And a 200-case release of an Alley Time pale ale hop variety is coming up soon. 

We kept that original three-barrel system we started with, and it’s allowed us to play around and have fun and have the best of both worlds.”

From the brewery: “I’d say we’re very proud of the taproom we’ve created. That goes a long way… to continually see people come out and want to spend time with us. Chris Schroeder, our taproom manager, has a done a great job making it a fun vibe. I’m also proud of what’s being executed in the back in terms of our consistency and variety of styles of beer. That’s a lost art because so may breweries are specialists these days. We kept that original three-barrel system we started with, and it’s allowed us to play around and have fun and have the best of both worlds. Make our bigger core stuff, of course, but also experiment with fun new things without having the pressure to sell 100 barrels of it.”

— Co-founder Jason Klein