Sam Altaner
93 Octane Brewery
St. Charles and Elmhurst
93OctaneBrewery.com

Q. The last really good beer I drank was…

A. Dovetail Brewery’s helles lager is the simple answer. I’m a simple guy with simple pleasures, and in the heat of a Chicago summer, I want something supremely thirst quenching. The magic of Dovetail’s helles is how elevated it is in its simplicity. It’s perfectly balanced and just tastes like summertime in Chicago.

When technical execution is on that level, the beer speaks for itself. It works just as well when you’re mindlessly crushing a pint while complaining about Riot Fest scheduling conflicts as it does when you’re dissecting water profiles and yeast expression with the nerdiest beer nerds in the room.

Q. What fellow Illinois breweries and specific beers have impressed you lately?

A. I stopped by Bubblehouse Brewing in Lisle recently, as I am wont to do, and I was blown away. They frankly put out bangers across classic styles quite consistently, and their Bohemian pils and Vienna lager are insanely crushable. But what really knocked me back was their chardonnay barrel-aged Belgian golden strong. The interplay between the oaky wine barrel and the big, fruity Belgian esters creates this amazingly creamy, nuanced profile.

I know I’m late to the party since FoBAB already gave them their flowers for it, but as someone who doesn’t particularly choose chardonnay ever, I have immense respect when a brewer takes disparate ingredients and makes something far greater than the sum of its parts.

Bubblehouse puts out bangers across classic styles quite consistently, and their Bohemian pils and Vienna lager are insanely crushable. But what really knocked me back was their chardonnay barrel-aged Belgian golden strong.

Q. What are you most proud of at your brewery?

A. I’m admittedly the new guy in town at 93 Octane, having only joined the team this summer, but I was instantly proud of how deeply tied this brewery is to real community impact. We host an annual fundraiser for Eileen In, a non-profit dedicated to supporting families navigating special needs, and we regularly collaborate with Folds of Honor to raise funds for educational scholarships for fallen or disabled service members’ families.

Coming into a brewhouse where the crew genuinely cares deeply about not just what’s in the glass, but by how much good we can do for local families and veterans, that’s a foundation I’m genuinely honored to build on.

Coming into a brewhouse where the crew genuinely cares deeply about not just what’s in the glass, but by how much good we can do for local families and veterans, that’s a foundation I’m genuinely honored to build on.”

Q. What do you have coming up that people should know about?

A. From a brewing perspective, what we have on deck lives on total opposite ends of the spectrum. On one hand, I’m stoked for our fall and winter barrel-aged lineup. We’ve got a Belgian golden strong that went into the tanks in mid-August that is going to be something special.

On the other end, we’re dialing in on a hyper-clean, ultra-crisp light lager designed for the active crowd. The goal is a 12-ounce can format that hits 93 calories to match our brewery namesake, pairing technical execution and real malt character with an easy-drinking profile that won’t wreck your macros for tomorrow’s workout.