Our Story
Revolution is Illinois’ largest independently-owned brewery.
The change in the U.S. beer scene has undoubtedly been revolutionary. We are proud of what we have accomplished in our short time to become a leader and innovator in the industry. The evolving tastes of beer drinkers has demanded bigger flavors, more variety, and better beer. That’s exactly what we give you at Revolution Brewing. Between our brewery and our brewpub, we produce dozens of different beer styles every year. IPAs, porters, pilsners, Belgian-style ales, pale ales, barrel-aged beers—the list goes on.
Our brewery has been a labor of love. You can see it in everything we do, from the beautiful details of our mahogany bar at the brewpub, to the massive beauty of our eight 800 barrel fermenters at the brewery, to the commitment to quality in each beer that we put in a can or a keg. Revolution believes in the value of hard work. We work hard to provide great, accessible brews for everyday people. We have fun doing what we do and hope you have fun drinking our beers.
HISTORY
In the summer of 1995, Josh Deth landed a job at Golden Prairie Brewing. At this now-defunct brewery, Josh was just a novice, where he started learning the beer business by dutifully cleaning kegs and scrubbing tanks.
A few years later, Josh dreamt up the idea for Revolution while working at Goose Island as a cellarman and brewpub brewer. After the first few tries at opening a brewery didn’t work out, Josh opened Handlebar in 2003 with his wife Krista and a few friends. Always taking on more, he also held the role of Executive Director of Logan Square Chamber of Commerce, working to promote local businesses and simultaneously managing the Logan Square Farmers Market. In 2008, while working at the Chamber, he found a cool old building on Milwaukee Avenue with a nice tin ceiling. The brewery idea bubbled up again.
After a few years of raising funds, planning construction, and dealing with the zoning department, Revolution Brewing opened up in February 2010. We added our 2nd floor Brewers’ Lounge in July 2011. Our production brewery and tap room opened in spring 2012, since then our brewing capacity has been continuously growing. We purchased the production brewery on Kedzie in spring of 2022, cementing our future of brewing in Chicago.
Revolution currently distributes in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nashville, New Jersey, New York City, and Wisconsin.
In 2017, Revolution Brewing became the 40th largest craft brewery and 50th largest overall brewery in the country according to the Brewers Association Top 50 Brewing Companies by Sales Volume.