Nader Kardoush
Proprietor of The Beer Bazaar in north suburban Grayslake, IL

Favorite breweries: Running a bottle shop (Beer Bazaar) as long as I have, I’ve come to make a lot of lasting friendships and connections in the industry and have also continually developed my palate with styles that trend and changes in personal taste. I joke that picking a favorite brewery is like picking a favorite child. Beyond making great quality beer, the few mentioned below are near and dear to me for a variety of reasons.

Perhaps the closest brewery to me is Black Lung Brewing. Josh Grubbs and I go aways back to when he’d bring to bottle-share growlers of the homebrew version of Galaxie: 503. A few years back, I had the idea of brewing a baklava-inspired white stout and approached Josh to see if he’d want to brew it together. The beer ended up being closer to a strong dark ale, but it kept people coming back for more when we poured it at the Lake County Beer Fest. Fast forward to earlier this year, and we decided to collaborate on making this beer again as a yearly Valentine’s Day release.

Mikerphone Brewing in Elk Grove Village

Mikerphone Brewing is another brewery that we’ve had a long history with. It’s been amazing to see how much the brewery has grown over the years from brewing at Slapshot and Uné Année to continually expanding their own space in Elk Grove Village. They brew one of my favorite Illinois stouts, Imperial Smells Like Bean Spirit, that at one point I even waited in line for four hours to get two vanilla variant bottles of it. That is not something I’d do for most breweries. Mike Pallen is a super down-to-earth guy, which is why I feel Mikerphone continues to release more collaborations than any other Illinois brewery. While they excel at big, thick stouts, all styles in their wheelhouse are well done, and Mikerphone is one of the few breweries to have been at the forefront of the hazy/New England IPA craze.

No matter the style, Roaring Table in Lake Zurich brews it well. Their lagers and English ales especially come to mind, with Thatch Whistler being my all-time favorite.

Roaring Table Brewing Co. in Lake Zurich is another Lake County favorite of mine. Beth May and Lane Fearing have an exceptional brewery and utilize their space well. No matter the style, they brew it well. Their lagers and English ales especially come to mind, with Thatch Whistler being my all-time favorite. While they don’t brew it as much, they also make my favorite sour IPA in the Midwest (Whirlycaster) and one of the few that come close to Hudson Valley‘s sour IPAs.

Phase Three Brewing Company in Elmhurst

Last, but certainly not least, is Phase Three Brewing, also out of Lake Zurich. So many great people work at Phase Three, and they are some of my favorite people to work with. Their Arabesque comes to mind as one of my favorite barleywines of all time. Like Roaring Table, they excel in all styles from lagers to IPAs and anything coming out of their member-exclusive barrel program. They pay attention to quality control with their beers more than most breweries, and tend to be ahead of the competition when it comes to following trends in the industry like smoothies or heavily fruited seltzers with their side project Lulz. Their newish location in Elmhurst is incredible and boasts fantastic food.

In an attempt not to prolong this section any longer, I should say Art History Brewing, Saint Errant, Hop Butcher and Brothership Brewing receive honorable mentions as breweries I highly considered including.

Foreign Exchange Brewing’s Into The Wilderness is one of the best stouts I’ve had all year. It’s an amburana wood-aged imperial stout that’s brewed with coffee, maple syrup and Madagascar vanilla.

Drinking tendencies: One of my favorite styles of all time is the Belgian quadruple. For a night cap, nothing beats sipping on a heavy quad that overloads you with dark fruit notes. While I drink most styles, I am drawn to experimental hops, new yeasts, diverse brewing processes and uniqueness in general. Beers with interesting stories also catch my eye.

Recent beers that have caught your eye: Werk Force Brewing Co. gets huge recognition for their big stouts, which are fantastic, but they excel with all styles. One of my favorite beers from them right now is their lager called Really Decent. It’s just an everyday light lager with more flavor than any domestic light lager, while still coming close to price on draft.

Wandering Monsters Brewery out of Ohio released a hazy double IPA called Monster Chilli Cheese Coney in collaboration with Hop Butcher that I’d say is one of the best IPAs I’ve had all year. It’s loaded with Citra T90, Citra Dynaboost, Riwaka and Freestyle Kohia Nelson Subzero Hop Kief, which let it stand out from the ubiquitous nature of the hazy IPA.

Solemn Oath Brewery/Hidden Hand’s Quadranoir is fantastic, boasting dark fruit, chocolate and roasted notes. It’s the perfect barrel-aged blend of a quad and stout.

I’ve also been enjoying the emergence of West Coast pilsners. Regardless on the debate on whether to call them hoppy lagers, IPLs or cold IPAs, the combination of the crispy nature of the lager base and American or New Zealand hops hits perfect. Old Irving Brewing’s Doji, Roaring Table’s Melts Into Air or Phase Three’s Geo come to mind as great examples.

Solemn Oath Brewery/Hidden Hand’s Quadranoir is fantastic, boasting dark fruit, chocolate and roasted notes. It’s the perfect barrel-aged blend of a quad and stout.

What are you looking forward to enjoying on draft this fall: I’m hoping to enjoy a beer at Foreign Exchange Brewing Company’s long-awaited new location in Aurora. Ricky Cervantes has been putting out some stellar beers for a long time now, but took a little bit of a hiatus while the brewery got finished. They are due to be open real soon, and I am definitely looking forward to it. Foreign Exchange’s Into The Wilderness is one of the best stouts I’ve had all year. It’s an amburana wood-aged imperial stout that’s brewed with coffee, maple syrup and Madagascar vanilla. Ricky does a stellar job putting out dark, thick beers that aren’t too sweet to enjoy. Using amburana imparts a flavor identical to cinnamon that I’ve been fond of. I’m eager to see what Ricky has in store for us this fall.

Favorite beer bar in Illinois: Crafted 1979 out of Mokena is a stop I always try to make when I’m making beer runs to Brothership Brewing for Beer Bazaar. Denver Worker has an exceptional selection of drafts and packaged beer that rivals any bottle shop in Illinois. He also hosts an awesome beer festival called Small Batch that is a must for rare beer seekers.

While having a limited number of drafts, Oak Trail Taphouse in Mundelein does a great job of putting some great beers on tap. My brother, Omar, runs an excellent establishment, and equally as good as their tap list is their food menu. Try their smash burger or chicken escalope.

AleSmith has a hidden, cozy speakeasy room where they have a variety of barrel-aged strong ales, porters and stouts on tap. … Its entrance is hidden in a wooden wall.

AleSmith’s speakeasy

Best brewery you’ve hit on vacation: This is a very difficult question to answer merely due to how often I plan trips around the beer scenes in the cities I travel to. I would say that AleSmith Brewing Company is high on the list. Located in San Diego, AleSmith was the first stop in an ambitious plan to stop by 13 San Diego breweries in one day during the trip I ended up proposing to my wife, Sam. They have a hidden, cozy speakeasy room where they have a variety of barrel-aged strong ales, porters and stouts on tap. Historically, you’d check their social media and they’d release a password to the barrel room with its entrance hidden in a wooden wall. Suffice to say, we only ended up hitting four breweries because of how much time we spent at AleSmith.

There are plenty of other breweries worth noting, such as The Veil Brewing Company (Virginia) that not only serve exceptional beer but whose taproom was uniquely filled with taxidermy. Hill Farmstead (Vermont), New Glarus (Wisconsin) and Jester King (Texas) have some of the best outdoor spaces, making them more than noteworthy.

In a once-a-time bowling alley, Hop Station is my favorite beer bar that I try to hit every time we visit the wife’s family in Indiana. They have one of the best tap lists I’ve ever seen, and even more to offer in packaged beer and an awesome selection of rare bourbons.

Secret beer spot: Hop Station Craft Bar in Mishawaka, Indiana would be my secret beer spot. Secret more due to its location I’d say. In a once-a-time bowling alley, Hop Station is my favorite beer bar that I try to hit every time we visit the wife’s side of the family in Indiana. They have one of the best tap lists I’ve ever seen, and they have even more to offer in packaged beer and an awesome selection of rare bourbons. The taproom is sprinkled with Gen-X/Millennial memorabilia and all manner of arcade games. Their food and hospitality are top notch as well.

Hop Station Craft Bar