Avondale, the North Side neighborhood that's home to our production brewery and Taproom, has a long history as a welcoming haven to generations of Chicago's working folks.

Brick yards and clay pits along Belmont Ave. earned the area the nickname "Bricktown" after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. And after its 1889 annexation into the city proper, growth and industry in Avondale accelerated rapidly. The neighborhood's location, near both rail lines and the North Branch of the Chicago River, led to massive expansion in industry which in turn drew a large working-class population.

After the namesake bricks, Avondale played host to coal factories, lumber yards, shipbuilders (both luxury and naval vessels for the WWII effort). Chicagoland companies including Dad's Root Beer, Maurice Lenell Cookies, and Florsheim shoes operated out of the neighborhood at one time.

Over the years, new residents have come in numbers from both Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Latin America to shape the growth and evolution of the neighborhood. Industry has waxed and waned, but Avondale's essential identity as "the neighborhood that built Chicago" has stuck. In 2012, we made our production home here and we've been proud to continue the industrial legacy.

But, as we often explore with our beer themes and community partnerships, Chicago history isn't just something that happened a long time ago. Avondale continues to play home to working people and industrial production. And working people still make and deliver the products we rely on every day.

We've brewed several beers highlighting Chicago's labor history. But two of our favorites are some of the very first.

Working Man was one of the first four beers on tap the day we opened the Revolution Brewpub in February 2010. It was at the time, and remains, a completely unselfconscious throwback to the classic English brewing traditions. Low in alcohol, high in flavor – caramel and lightly floral on the nose, and a toasted hunk of hearty pub bread on the palate. It's the kind of beer that pairs well with a basket of fish and chips, a game on TV, or a particularly good friendly argument with a fellow patron. Suddenly you take stock and it's been two or three. Good beer does that, and the English Dark Mild is the perfect style for enjoying a few more, or staying a bit longer.

Working Woman is where you can start to track the differences in styles and recipes with basically the same ingredients. A bit higher in ABV, with an assertive but not overbearing hit of complementary hops, this American Brown Ale has all the toasty edges and easy drinkability of Working Man, just with every single slider notched slightly higher to the right. This is the kind of beer that reminds you that craft brew is not all hops all the time, and that dark beer need not necessarily barrel-age to achieve incredible depth of flavor.

We've loved both of these beers a long time, and our Small Batch program finally gave us the opportunity to put them out in cans in a mixed four-pack (two of each). And with the first-ever canning of these two longtime Pub favorites, we wanted to shine a light on the people giving their all to support the working people of our city.

The Greater West Town Community Development Project, located on Sacramento just south of Humboldt Park, works to build a community-based response to expanding educational and economic opportunities for the disadvantaged residents of the Greater West Town communities. In practice, that work takes the form of adult vocational training and job placement along with running West Town Academy, a career-focused alternative high school.

"We help individuals achieve their education and employment goals by working with them to address life's challenges and access quality jobs," Executive Director Keisha Davis-Johnson said. "We offer holistic programs that combine soft skill development, adult education, supportive services, and technical training that are critical to economic empowerment."

Vocational training runs through two programs – a 12-week shipping & receiving program focused on logistics, and a 15-week woodworkers training program. With the former, students under William Molina take donated product, then and run a simulated warehouse environment. They learn all the technical aspects of working in the industry, including software, safety, and terminology.

"What we really want is for a manager somewhere to say 'where did you get that new person? Greater West Town? Okay, well go get another one,'" Molina said. "They get the training and a professional credential, but we also follow up for a year after they leave to see how their careers are developing."

Likewise, the woodworking program places heavy emphasis on building the kinds of skills that are immediately in demand from employers, according to technical instructor Doug Rappe.

"We place students into work with architects, museums, musical instrument construction, and other places along a really wide employer base," Rappe said. "Woodworking and fabrication is always in demand in some sectors, even when others are down. Our projects are all focused on demonstrating skills."

Since 1998, Greater West Town has trained, supported, and placed over 9,200 low-income community residents into sustainable employment with over 450 employer partners to date.

We celebrate the work that Greater West Town is doing, and are proud to partner with them for the release of Working Man/Working Woman. All profits from Working Man and Working Woman mixed four-packs will go directly to our friends at the Greater West Town Community Development project. Both beers will be released in a mixed four-pack on Wednesday, October 6 at the Brewpub and the Taproom, and will see distribution in Chicagoland.