Bosacki's Brewery, Mundelein

Note: Bosacki's closed permanently in April 2025.

Welcome to stop #109 on the Brews and Choos project.

Brewery: Bosacki's Brewery, 610 E. Hawley St., Mundelein
Train line: North-Central Service, Mundelein
Time from Chicago: 68 minutes
Distance from station: 800 m

Don't let the façade dissuade you from visiting this place; it's an absolute gem. Greg Bosacki loves brewing beer, and he has made some unusual and surprising ones over the years. I spent so much time talking with him about beer and the other breweries in Lake County (including a few that have closed) that I forgot to take notes on the beer until after I left.

He let me try four of his beers (no charge) so I could decide which pint to get. I started with the Improper English Ale (4.6%, 19 IBU) that tasted just like a real ale in the Ancestral Homeland. (This prompted a discussion about the Real Ale movement and how you have to ask for a cask beer if you want the real thing in central London.) His English IPA (5.3%, 54 IBU) could have gone around the Horn on a packet ship, and yet it was eminently drinkable and not as bitter as the IBUs would suggest.

Then Greg got to the real passion projects: the Frumentum (Corn) Lager, from a mid-19th-Century recipe he developed to elicit how beer would have tasted on the western frontier (i.e., Chicago) in the 1850s. Last, he gave me a taste of the Uncommon Kentucky Ale, one of the more common styles of beer from before prohibition, traditionally made by moonshiners who wanted something more for sippin' than their 100-proof hooch.

Don't even get me started on the puzzles. I spent several minutes trying to figure out one of the metal ones at the bar, and didn't even attempt these Rubik's cubes. I did manage to get the two bent nails untangled, and get them back together again. Greg will give you clues if you ask him.

Who knew Mundelein had such a treasure? Next visit to Mundelein, I'll get dinner at Tonality, then a unique beer at Bosacki's.

Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Yes
Televisions? One, avoidable
Serves food? BYOF
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes