Wild Onion Brewery

We’re proud to be one of Chicagoland’s first craft breweries, firing up our first batch of Paddy Pale Ale back in 1996.

We chose the name Wild Onion in honor of the origins of Chicago’s name. “Che-cau-gua” was the phrase the original inhabitants of the region, the Potawatomi, used to describe the wild onions that grew throughout the area’s wetlands near the shores of Lake Michigan. We loved the imagery of the early French Canadian fur traders paddling their canoes down the Chicago River, surrounded by the distinctly aromatic wild onions as they approached the “big lake”. We believed it was the perfect name for a new brewery with old ties to the city.

For the past 17 years, Wild Onion Brewery has strived to brew the best damn beer you’ll ever drink. We have been in a perpetual state of expansion, it seems, and just finished the crown jewel of our production facility with a new 50 barrel brew house, housed in a 5,000 square foot addition. Our existing 17 barrel brewery will allow us to brew inspirational “one-offs” and other R&D for new styles, while the new brew house will help us keep up with the demand from our growing customer base.

Wild Onion beers are now distributed throughout Chicagoland, along with 5 other states in the Midwest.