Chicago, IL

Let’s take a moment here to give it up for Chicago. We have this wonderful city to thank for Bill Murray, Malört, improv comedy and our nation’s finest giant reflective bean. Chicago is America’s third-most populous city and has played a massive role in our nation’s history—home to major labor reforms, modern architecture, Prohibition-era gangsters and prominent economists.

Luckily for us, the quality of Chicago’s beer scene stands among the best in America, too. Today, there are well over 100 craft breweries across the greater Chicago area, including some of the largest independent brewers and some local legends. The sheer amount of breweries in Chicago is rivaled by only a couple of other cities worldwide, and a report in 2015 found that Chicago craft brewers occupied more square feet of commercial real estate than those of any other U.S. city.