Pilot Project Brewing

Pilot Project Brewing opened in August 2019 at 2140 N Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, founded by Dan Abel and Jordan Radke on a model borrowed from the record industry: it bills itself as the country's first dedicated brewery incubator, giving startup and under-represented brewing brands production capacity, a taproom to sell through, and a route to market they could not afford alone. Brands sign on as residents and, if things go well, graduate out — Dutchbag Brew Co, Brother Chimp Brewing, Luna Bay Booch and Histrionic Brew Lab have all moved on, while Brewer's Kitchen, Standard Goods, Funkytown Brewery, Cervecería Paracaidista, Azadi and others are currently in residence. The taproom itself opens at 9am seven days a week and runs a full coffee counter alongside the beer, with drip coffee from $4.25, cold brew at $5.25, Rishi teas, a London Fog at $4.50, matcha and chai lattes at $6, a honey matcha lavender lemonade at $6 and Italian sodas at $5 — which makes it usable as a morning café long before the taps matter.

The reason it belongs in a non-alcoholic guide is one of those residents. Mash Gang, the British brewery that began as a lockdown homebrewing project in London in 2020 and built its name entirely on low- and no-alcohol beer, partnered with Pilot Project for United States production, and is listed as a current resident rather than a graduated one. Its beers are brewed on site: Journey Juice, described at launch as equal parts sweet, spicy, sour and fruity; Stoop Lite, crushable and lightly hopped with a hint of chili and Szechuan pepper; and Chug, a 0.5% hazy IPA the brewery describes as crisp, juicy and bold, with tropical fruit and citrus zest. That makes this one of very few Chicago taprooms where the non-alcoholic beer is made in the building rather than bought in. One honest caveat about the incubator model: the tap list rotates constantly by design, and the venue does not publish a live list in a readable form, so which Mash Gang beers are pouring on a given day is worth checking before a special trip.